The craft of scientific writing
The Craft of Scientific Writing is designed to help scientists and engineers - both professionals already active in the disciplines as well as students preparing to enter the professions - write about their work clearly and effectively. The author, who is both a writer and an applied physicist, approaches the subject in a fresh way. Using scores of examples from a wide variety of authors and disciplines (including such well-known figures as Einstein, Bohr, and Freud), the book demonstrates the difference between strong scientific writing and weak scientific writing. In essence, this book shows you how to bring your ideas across to your intended audience. In addition, it contains advice on how to start writing and how to revise your drafts. Written for use as a text in courses on scientific writing, the book includes many useful suggestions about approaching a wide variety of writing tasks - from laboratory reports to grant proposals, from internal communications to press releases - as well as a concise guide to style and usage appropriate for scientific writing. The book will also be useful for self-study and it will be an important reference for all scientists and engineers who need to write about their work.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
6mentions
5people
2021–2024years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I second those recommendations and add one: The Craft of Scientific Writing by M. Alley.
- Two things:
1. Read about writing. The very tactical stuff like "On Writing Well" and "Writing Tools" and "The Craft of Scientific Writing"
2. Imitate writers you like. Try reading someone else's work, then reproducing it in their style.
- David Beer & David McMurrey, A Guide to Writing as an Engineer http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1103219505
Philip Kiely, Writing for Software Developers https://philipkiely.com/wfsd/
Michael Alley The Craft of Scientific Writing http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1032304610
Also see Online Technical Writing https://mcmassociates.io/textbook/ David McMurrey
- It's not strictly from the technical writing corner, but I've learned a lot from the book "The Craft of Scientific Writing" by Micheal Allay. It's more geared towards scientific papers, but I've found the style papers are structured to be a very useful starting point for design documents and runbooks. I tend to start with something like that, and adjust it according to the audience.
- "The craft of scientific writing" is a great book btw.
- Not the parent poster but I can recommend some books
- The Craft of Scientific Writing, Michael Alley
- The Craft of Editing, Michael Alley
- A Guide to Writing as an Engineer, David Beer and David McMurrey
- On Writing Well, William Zinsser
There's also a plethora of stuff on the web, as you might imagine, too much to go into it all, but McMurrey has a website https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/acctoc.html
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