How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Special cases
Avoiding jargon
Scientific style

Perhaps the worst offender is the word case. There is no problem with talking about a case of canned goods or even a case of the flu. However, 99 percent of the uses of case are jargon. In case you think that 99 percent is too high, make your own study. Even if this percentage is too high, a good case could be made for the fact that case is used in too many cases. Better and shorter usage should be substituted: in this case means here; in most cases means usually; in all cases means always; in no case means never. (We also have issues with issues. And we wish to highlight highlight. In formal writing, limit use of these words to their specific meanings.)

Appendix 2 contains some “Words and Expressions to Avoid.” A similar list well worth consulting was published by O’Connor and Woodford (1975). It is not necessarily improper to use any of these words or expressions occasionally; if you use them repeatedly, however, you are writing in jargon and your readers are suffering.

Perhaps the most common way of creating a new word is the jargonist’s habit of turning nouns into verbs. One example is use of the word “interface” to mean “communicate”; the only time people can interface is when they kiss. And a classic example appeared in a manuscript that read: “One risks exposure when swimming in ponds or streams near which cattle have been pasturized.” The copy editor, knowing that there is no such word as “pasturized,” changed it to “pasteurized.” (There may be nothing wrong with that. If you can pasteurize milk, presumably you can pasteurize the original container.)

In their own pastures, scientists are, of course, very expert, but they often succumb to pedantic, jargonistic, and useless expressions, telling the reader more than the reader wants or needs to know. As the English novelist George Eliot said: “Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of this fact.”

If you must show off your marvelous vocabulary, make sure to use the right words. Consider the story that Lederer (1987) told about NASA scientist Wernher von Braun. “After one of his talks, von Braun found himself clinking cocktail glasses with [an admirer] from the audience.

“’Dr. von Braun,’ [the admirer] gushed, ’I just loved your speech, and I found it of absolutely infinitesimal value!’

“’Well then,’ von Braun gulped, ’I guess I’ll have it published posthumously.’

“’Oh yes!’ [the admirer] came right back. ’And the sooner the better.’”