A Scientific Approach to Writing for Engineers and Scientists

A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO WRITING

Technical ideas may be solid or even groundbreaking, but ifthese ideas cannot be clearly communicated, reviewers of technicaldocuments--e.g., proposals for research funding, articlessubmitted to scientific journals, and business plans tocommercialize technology--are likely to reject the argumentfor advancing these ideas.

The problem is that many engineers and scientists, entirelycomfortable with the logic and principles of mathematics andscience, treat writing as if it possesses none of these attributes.The absence of a systematic framework for writing often results insentences that are difficult to follow or arguments that leavereviewers scratching their heads.

This book fixes that problem by presenting a"scientific" approach to writing that mirrors thesensibilities of scientists and engineers, an approach based on aneasily-discernable set of principles. Rather than merely statingrules for English grammar and composition, this book explains thereasons behind these rules and shows that good reasons can guideevery writing decision.

This resource is also well suited for the growing number ofscientists and engineers in the U.S. and elsewhere who speakEnglish as a second language, as well as for anyone else who justwants to be understood.