Scientific writing 3.0: A reader and writer's guide - Jean-Luc Lebrun, Justin Lebrun 2021

Pause to illustrate and clarify
Sustain attention to ensure continuous reading
The reading toolkit

After a particularly long or arduous section of any scientific paper, the reader’s ability to absorb more knowledge is low. A sign that this is happening is the inability to recall much of what has been read (if it had been clear, memory recall would have been much easier). Another sign is the inability to distinguish the important from the less important (dependencies, causalities, and relationships are not yet fully identified). These low points in knowledge acquisition happen time and time again while reading the paper. At these times, reader attention is easily lost when it ought to be sustained. Maybe it is caused by too much specialized vocabulary or dense theoretical considerations like formulas. The writer should identify such places in the paper, and plan for a pause to clarify and consolidate. To clarify, the writer uses illustrations, examples and visuals. To consolidate, the writer uses brief summaries. Clarifications and consolidations are highly appreciated by the reader, and temporarily boost the reader’s attention level.

Summarize (be it in text form or visual form) to clarify what is important.

A summary rephrases succinctly and differently the main points. It gives readers a second chance to understand, and it gives writers the assurance that readers will be able to keep in step with them. The following words perk up the attention of readers because, in them, they see the promise of knowledge consolidation.

To summarize, in summary, in other words, see Fig. X, in conclusion, in short, briefly put, …

Reading is hard, but writing is harder. Distilling years of research in less than 10 pages is a perilous exercise. Like compressed audio files, compressed knowledge loses clarity. Even if the structure of your paper is clear, you need to reintroduce detail into your text to make things clear, easier to grasp, less theoretical, more practical, and more visual.

Use examples to illustrate.

The need for examples is not just a by-product of the distillation process. Illustrative details are needed because, more often than not, your readers are not familiar with what is happening in your field of research. They may be scientists in the same domain, but the distance between you and them in terms of knowledge is great, regardless of their academic level. What is tangible and real to you, may just be an idea, or a theory to them.

Your concern for making things clear to the reader is shown through words and punctuation. The words for example, namely, such as, in particular, specifically, and the colon, all keep the attention of the reader elevated because they promise easier understanding, less generalities, and more clarifying details. They bring relief to struggling readers, and wipe out deep concentration furrows in their brow.

These words also reveal your expertise. Non-experts cannot give examples or specific details. Their comfort zone is in the general and the imprecise. Experts, on the other hand, are at ease in the specific, the precise, and the detailed. That is what makes them convincing, believable, and interesting!