This is the topic of today's post.
Much of being in academia is writing and scientific writing can be particularly intimidating. It is commonly jargon rich, feels non-creative and highly formulaic. This is because for a paper to be successful precision and thoroughness are key while creativity or prose tends to be an afterthought.
In any case, I find that writing is a key aspect of my work-life I most wish to improve upon or at least enjoy more. Thus, I'm always excited to learn about books or other resources about writing, presenting motivation or even better advice on how to be a more efficient writer. For example Stanford has a series of videos that present interviews with different faculty members - each discussing why writing matters to them. Below is the video from Deborah Gordon a well-known biologist who studies ant behavior and has written several books on this topic.
My favorite part of the video is when she says:
"when someone really understands what then mean to say-
they don't need jargon anymore."
I very much agree with this idea. Even in scientific papers where researchers explain complex methodologies, results and concepts I believe they should be able to at the very least write a jargon free abstract AND discussion. I often describe this as the 'explain it to your grandmother requisite'. Namely, one should be able to explain the ideas and general methods of what they are doing research-wise to anyone- particularly grandmothers. (I choose to think of explaining it to a grandmother because in my experience they are so often: interested, patient and encouraging- in my mind - the perfect audience)!
Perhaps in science we want others to think we are smart so less weight is put on this skill: communicating clearly without jargon- whereas obtuse writing is rewarded because if it is difficult to understand 'you must be smarter than I am'. This is just a guess. In any case, it seems to me to be a rather unfortunate state of affairs. Particularly sad and surprising is that early biologists did not always write in this way. Pick up early papers by Darwin for example, and I think you'd agree that things are presented in a much more story-telling manner.
So while it is most certainly not a book aimed at non-fiction writers I ordered a copy of the book Bird by Bird. It arrived today and I am so excited I may spend the rest of the night reading it! Bird by Bird is written by Anne Lammot and seems to be funny and inspirational. I learned about this book from another blog: Orangette- where the blog's author: Molly spoke very highly of it and I get the impression drew a good deal of inspiration when writing her 2nd (no I haven't bought it yet- but I will....) book.
In any case Molly is a great writer and makes me smile a lot with her blog posts so I tend to take her word not only on recipes (hasn't let me down yet) but on writing as well.
"I had the strangest feeling. It took me a long time to figure out what it was, because I’d never felt it before. Turns out, I missed writing. ... I know that probably seems like a perfectly normal thing to feel, given that writing is what I do. But the truth is, most of the time, I will do anything to avoid it.
...
I understand that some people wake up itching to write. They feel as though they somehow aren’t complete unless they’re writing. I have never been one of those people. I have wondered what it’s like to be one of those people. Sometimes I have wondered what it would be like to punch those people."
She also recommends this lovely Ted talk by Elizabeth Gilbert which I will echo here- it really is great!
Bird by bird's book description is pasted here from Amazon: (Book Description)
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old
at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had
three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our
family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears,
surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds,
immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down
beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird
by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"
Anyway- hopefully I've given you some useful links here and inspired you to think about how scientists do and should write. I am not going to launch into the whole 'Publish or Perish' dogma in academia. Perhaps another day. Plus- really the fact of the matter is that I think there are much more positive ways to view the publishing process. So as I work my way through this book and try to find my own muse- I'll share more about that here! Meanwhile it is bat by bat for me!
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