Harbor Writing and Grammar Suggestions (for science…not prose)
or …How to keep him focused on what you’re trying to convey, not how you’ve written it (:
- Write linearly. Something that is necessary to understand something else should not come after (e.g., “see below”). And don’t repeat what you’ve already written (e.g., “as I said above…”) either. Start your descriptions and interpretations with the most elemental and build to the complicated so that your reader has all she needs to understand what is being described or inferred as you go along.
- “I” and “We” tend to emphasize the scientist and not the scientific findings. Go ahead, use first person pronouns in the “methods” section of a paper; where passive voice is hard to read. However, in the intro, results, and discussion sections, save that pronoun for the speculations and concluding remarks when you’re really out on a limb.
– On a side note to the “we” and “you” bit, write about what you observe or measure, not about the process of the measuring or observing. For example, “..as you go from here to here….,” is awkward because “I” (the reader) don’t have to go there to understand it. Write what you mean. It is the materials that change from place to place, not that “I” go there to see it. - Numbers
- Use metric units unless clarity will be sacrificed. For example, if your auger is 1 inch (2.54 cm) in diameter, use inches but provide the metric in parentheses.
- Sentences can’t start with a numeral; write it out. Most journals want authors to write numbers as words up to nine, but use numerals starting with 10.
- Put a space between values and the units; not “12km” but “12 km.”
- Use a leading zero for numbers between 0 and 1 (0.1 km vs .1 km)
- “Really” big and “very” hot don’t tell a scientist anything about the setting. Use your best estimate of a actual measure, such as “greater than one meter,” or “more than 1000°C.” (note that degree and “C” each have no space before, which is an exception to the rule above.)
- Below are some of my grammar pet peeves to avoid just to keep me calm while reading your work:
- Do you really need “There is” or “there was” (or others like “there might have been” etc, etc) at the start of a sentence, or even in the middle? Use the object of that construction as the subject and choose a more colorful, or at least descriptive verb than “to be.” That something exists can be a given, because you’re writing about it, unless it is the discovery that remarkable (“There is water on Mars!”).
“There was vertically layered limestone in the quarry.”
versus
“Limestone layers in the quarry jut vertically from the outcrop.” or “Limestone in the quarry crops out in vertical layers.” (“is” vs “jut” or “crop out” and note the noun “outcrop” vs the verb “crop out.”)
or
“There are 4 marbles on the table, which vary in size” vs “The four marbles vary in size from 2-10 cm” (“are” vs “vary”) - Don’t start a sentence with “This is ….” It leads to ambiguity almost every time. Readers won’t know what “this” you’re referencing. Use “This [thing/action/idea] is….” or write a better sentence that doesn’t start with “this.”
- These make my stomach queasy.
- “Since” does not mean “Because,” because it refers to the passage of time, not causation. I know, I know, language changes, but I don’t like this change one bit.
- “As” doesn’t mean “because” either.
- “Based off” and its ugly cousin “based off of” should never, ever, ever appear in your writing – nor in your speech if you want to sound even partly educated (nice rant here).
- The sexist term “man-made” should not appear in your writing or speech either. Try “artificial” or “human” instead (or “anthropogenic” if you really want to get nerdy).
- “Basically” is meaningless and suggests your source for science knowledge is People magazine.
- “Additionally” is cumbersome. If you absolutely need an enumeration, do that. If you simply want to “pile on” the foregoing thought, use “moreover” or “in addition.”
- Tense. Description of natural phenomena or relationships that still exist out there in nature or in the lab should be in present tense.
“The rocks are shale and limestone” Actions or events should be past tense . “So we tested them with acid.” - I believe “that” and “which” mean different things, which isn’t everyone’s belief. “That” modifies a preceding object whereas “which” modifies preceding subject or action, or isn’t restrictive of the preceding word, and “which” is always preceded by a comma. Examples?
- “We got in the car that didn’t work.” (It was the one with a bad fuel pump.)
- “We got in the car, which didn’t work.” (The bees followed us in and stung us anyway.)
- “While” vs “whereas” – use the latter unless you’re talking about the passage of time.
“The river rose while it continued raining.” “Red was the winner, whereas blue is my favorite.” - Velocity/velocities – lithology/lithologies Characteristics of matter and state (flow velocity, landslide density, lithology) should always be singular. “Velocity varies from 0.1 to 1” rather than “The different velocities are…” Velocity is just one thing, distance/time and doesn’t vary even though the values do. Soils don’t have different bulk densities, the value of their density varies. I read this in my own NASA proposal “…the lithologies of the Makran are expected to be relatively uniform.” It should have said “the lithology of the Makran is expected to be relatively uniform.”
- Using “is comprised of” is incorrect. Use one of these sentences; “Sandstone comprises individual grains of sand.” or “Sandstone is composed of individual grains of sand.”
- “of” vs “in” – Their meanings differ. “Look for the variability of butter temperature (before you put butter in the batter). “Differences of soil carbon values increase for cropland.” (I would say the same about “for” versus “in.” Save “in” for describing a location or relative placement.)
- Use “try to” not “try and” when describing an attempt.
- The “data” are plural, when you refer to them in your report. The “datum” for a map, like NAD83, is singular.
- “Insure” is what Geico does, “ensure” is to make it happen and “assure” is to remove doubt. Although some would say the last two are synonymous.
- “The” can be removed most of the time. Try it out.
- Most inanimate subjects/objects don’t require a possessive apostrophe. You can usually make them work like an adjective; ” …depending on the river’s velocity” could be written “...depending on river velocity.“
- Watch out for informal usage/slang
- “Around” doesn’t mean “approximately,” it means to circumnavigate or encircle; “about” is somewhat better, but not really.
- Rivers don’t “run” they “flow.” Computer code doesn’t “run” either, it “executes.”
- Do we really “find” the results for a scientific investigation? “Wilkinson et al. (2018) found that…” Sure, the word “findings” is commonly used, but I think we “learn,” “conclude,” “infer” or “deduce” instead
- and so many more….
- Do you really need “There is” or “there was” (or others like “there might have been” etc, etc) at the start of a sentence, or even in the middle? Use the object of that construction as the subject and choose a more colorful, or at least descriptive verb than “to be.” That something exists can be a given, because you’re writing about it, unless it is the discovery that remarkable (“There is water on Mars!”).
Other details
- The filename of any file you turn in online needs to start with your last name! Everyone is turning in a “lab six.docx,” so how do I keep them apart?
- Figures/tables
- Do not write about the figures or tables themselves. Instead, write about the phenomena or relationships that are made apparent in the table or figure and simply refer to the figure.
“Table 1 shows the data about anthill size” or “Figure one shows the profile of the river.”
The above sentences waste words because they add no information about the subject. The following do and then reference the figure/table parenthetically.
“Anthill size decreases after grain size rises above 11 mm (Table 1).” “The river profile is concave upward except near km 22 (Fig. 2). - Figures should be numbered and have a caption, but not a “title” above a plot (excel does that automatically), which duplicates the caption. If the figure comprises different subplots or maps, label them in the figure with capital letters (A, B, etc) and refer to them that way in the caption and text (Fig. 3A).
- Tables should be numbered, and have either a caption or title, but not both (varies by journal, for me, use a title).
- Use the abbreviation (Fig. 1) for the text and whole word in the caption under figures; “Figure 1. Caption sentence or two or three,” but the whole word “Table” for both the title at the top “Table 1. Anthill morphology data” and references in the text (Table 1).
- If you have a good photo or illustration, use it instead to save a lot of words and improve understanding.
- If you’re using Excel to make plots for figures, use “paste special” to paste a picture in the word document. If you just use “paste,” you include a link to the entire Excel sheet, which often leads to errors down the line. Better yet, flex your nerd muscle and use Matlab, python or R to plot your data.
- Table formatting
- Wrap the text in the column headers so that you don’t have hugely wide table.
- Make sure the number of significant digits is at least close to reality. ASK if you don’t know about significant digits.
- Line up the columns with the header (left, right or center).
- Keep the table together on a single page.
- Do not write about the figures or tables themselves. Instead, write about the phenomena or relationships that are made apparent in the table or figure and simply refer to the figure.
Updated January 2021