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

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

Preface

The reading toolkit

Writer vs. reader, a matter of attitude

Why am i writing this paper?

The illusion of clarity

The Do-unto-others-as-others-do-unto-you Inversion

The right(er) attitude

Strategic writing

The scientific paper: an intellectual product

Journal choice: subscription or open?

Predatory open access journals

The publishing process

The halo effect and confirmation bias

The assumption of expertise trap

The editor

Learn from principles, not examples

The scientific writing style

Characteristics of the scientific writing style

Understanding sentence length

The scientific style virus

Deactivated verbs

Curing the scientific style virus

Require less from memory

The forgotten or undefined acronym

The detached pronoun

The diverting synonym

The distant background

The broken couple

The word overflow

Sustain attention to ensure continuous reading

Keep the story moving forward

Twist and shout

Pause to illustrate and clarify

Recreate local suspense

Reduce reading time

Keep the reader motivated

Bridge the knowledge gap

Bridge to ground zero

Bridge to title words

Just-in-Time bridge by way of local background

Set the reader’s expectations

Expectations from grammar

Expectations from science

Set progression tracks for fluid reading

Topic and stress

Inverted topic

Topic sentences

Three topic-based progression schemes to make reading fluid

Topic to sub-topic progression

Non topic-based progression schemes

Pause in progression

Troubleshooting progression problems

Solution

Detect sentence fluidity problems

Reasons for no expectations

Reasons for betrayed expectations

Control reading energy consumption

The energy bill

Punctuation: an energy refueling station

Paper structure and purpose

Title: the face of your paper

Six titles to learn about titles

Six techniques for improving titles

Purpose and qualities of titles

Title Q&A

Title metrics

Abstract: the heart of your paper

The four parts

Coherence between abstract and title

Tense of verbs and precision

Purpose and qualities of abstracts

Abstract Q&A

Abstract metrics

Headings-subheadings: the skeleton of your paper

Structures for readers and structures for writers

Four principles for a good structure

Syntactic rules for headings

Purpose and qualities of structures

Structure Q&A

Structure metrics

Introduction: the hands of your paper

The introduction starts fast and finishes strong

The introduction answers key reader questions

The introduction frames through scope and definitions

The introduction is a personal active story

Introduction Part II: Popular traps

Trap 1 — The trap of the story plot

Trap 2 — The trap of plagiarism

Trap 3 — The trap of references

Trap 4 — The trap of imprecision

Hedge words

Trap 5 — The trap of judgmental words

The deadly outcome of the sum of all traps: disbelief

Purpose and qualities of introductions

Introduction Q&A

Introduction metrics

Visuals: the voice of your paper

Seven principles for good visuals

Purpose and qualities of visuals

Qualities of a visual

Visuals Q&A

Visuals metrics (calculate your score for each visual)

Conclusions: the smile of your paper

Abstract versus conclusions

Examples and counterexamples

Purpose and qualities of conclusions

Conclusions Q&A

Conclusion metrics (if you have a conclusion)

Additional resources for the avid learner

Epilogue: Your future work