Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded

If you're an experienced writer, a lot of what Schimel says in this book is going to already be quite familiar to you. But the trouble is, a lot of scientists are not particularly well trained as writers, and so this guide might be quite useful to both practicing scientists and graduate (or even undergraduate) students interested in improving their writing.The author's approach is to unpack the idea of good writing in a highly analytical way. Drawing both from examples of good science writing and from quality fiction, the author describes a method of presenting science narratively that I think will serve almost any writer well.There is a danger in this approach, however. Because Schimel has distilled what is fundamentally an art (or at least a craft) into a series of formulae and abstractions, there is a danger of following the advice TOO closely and ending up with a finished piece that has no soul. While a soulless formulaic work might be superior to some of the writing I've read in the sciences, it shouldn't be the goal. Nor does Schimel suggest formulaic writing IS the goal; it's just that his method could produce that if the practitioner isn't careful.Be aware also that this book is intended for scientists to learn about writing, not for writers to learn about how to write science. These are related topics, and the book covers some ground that would be applicable to both groups, but they are not the same things. If you're already a great writer and you're just trying to learn how to apply those skills to science, you'll find this book full of advice with which you already agree, but not much that will serve your particular purpose. This is a book for scientists.But if you are a practicing scientist and you want your papers to have a little more life and actually attract readers' attention rather than cluttering up the journals without ever getting cited, you could do a lot worse than to read this book.

Like it too much

I read this book while writing my thesis and my third paper. I cannot recommend it enough for both students and faculty in academia.Before I mention a few particularly enlightening specific examples, it's worth mentioning that early on Schimel changed my mind about a major scientific philosophy, perhaps even beyond writing itself. Prior to reading this, I held steadfast to the view that science ought to be about the data, not the spin. I love old biochemistry and genetics papers from the 80s and 90s, because they focus on the facts. Their motivation is straightforward ("we don't know how this protein works"), and their analysis rarely extends beyond the immediate findings from their experiments ("the C-terminal domain appears to be involved in activation").Schimel argues, convincingly, that the interpretation (and therefore the narrative) is the core of any paper. At first, this turned me off; but I realized, he's not arguing for data over-interpretation. He's pointing out that in almost any area of science, the particular details of a specific organism, ecology, or reaction are almost immaterial; it's how what you learned broadly reshapes prevailing ideas in your field. You might think this philosophy only applies to [potentially] "high impact" papers or proposals, but I think the idea is more general.Schimel unveiled, for me, the anatomy of a scientific paper. Have you ever read what you've written and realized it doesn't quite form a cohesive story, but not know exactly why? A particular a-ha! chapter for me was on the differences between a question, a challenge, and an objective. I found in my own writing that I would often have 2/3 of these ingredients, yet all three are necessary for setting up a convincing, exciting narrative.

This is book is "a must have" writing book for research scientists. If you ever wish about how you should develop your attitude to be a true writer, than this book is definitely for you. The success rate of researchers comes from citations of their papers, not merely the amount of published papers. Professor Schimel tells us that reading a research paper should be engaging. Thus, it is the task of the writer to make reader's jobs easier. As a scientist, we should keep in our mind that we are a professional writer, not only engineer, mathematician, or programmer. The role of scientists is to collect data and transform them into understanding. Their role as authors is to present that understanding.Story is an important point. Professor Schimel presents some tips and tricks to build a sticky story: a story that will be remembered because of its simplicity, novelty, and engagement. To make a sticky story is not an easy task. Some stories are interesting because they explore unpredicted behavior of their "characters". Data is the character of a scientific story. There are five factors of a sticky story : Simple (S), Unexpected (U), Concrete (C), Credible (C), Emotional (E), and Stories (S).Personally, I suggest you to read this book as supplementary material for other scientific writing books.Some other books that readers will find useful are :1. From Research to Manuscript: A Guide to Scientific Writing by Michael Jay Katz2. Writing for Computer Science by Justin Zobel3. How to Write a Better Thesis by David Evans, Paul Gruba and Justin Zobel4. Eloquent Science: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Better Writer, Speaker and Scientist by David Schultz

ótimo produto!! Chegou no tempo estimado. Recomendo 100% Se gostas de uma boa leitura, este livro é uma boa escolha. Ele não só vai te mostrar de uma for clara como podes concatenar tuas ideias, mas vai te ajudar a entender que a escrita cientifica não é uma receita de cozinha. Em termos gerais, é dos livros que mais recomendarei!Abç

it was wrote by Joshua Schimel a really great scientist. This book is an excellent guide to write nice papers, it was really helpful.

This book has everything you need from the structure of words and sentences to the overall structure of a story. Everything here can be applied to journalism or even fiction writing. Mainly this book is about writing scientific papers and non fictitious subjects like chemistry and genetics. But the writing rules are flexible for what ever your doing.

Simply amazing. Outstanding eye opening read. Must read for all scientists and PhD students.

Um dos melhores livros que já li sobre o assunto. O autor é sincero e direto, não promete milagres e nem receita de bolo. A leitura é fluida e ele traz vários exemplos, tanto do ideal quanto do ruim. Mesmo sendo um autor da área de biologia/geologia eu recomendo o livro para todos, engenheiros, médicos, etc.