The Craft of Scientific Writing

by Michael Alley

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0387947663
• ISBN13: 9780387947662
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Really I love it!!! This book have a lot of examples. Very useful for both not English speakers or the native ones.

The Craft of Scientific Writing

Arrived in excellent condition. Works well as a resources for the College course that I teach.

Helpful Book.

I had to buy this book for my Mechanical Engineering Lab, and it came in handy for both the class and other technical writing in my other classes.

Who would have thought there was a craft to writing?

The goal of writing in science is to communicate information. Unfortunately too many people in science, including myself, write in a manner that is little more than unintelligible. Having read this book, I now feel sorry for the people who had to read my work. Too much scientific literature is poorly crafted and it is only natural that newcomers try to science emulate this poor style. As a reader of scientific literature, I always though there was something wrong with me because I could not read the articles. I would get stuck on a passage and, no matter how hard I tried, I would not be able to get past it. Now I know that this is because the writing is poorly crafted. The Craft of Scientific Writing gives an appreciation of the flaws that we all make in our writing. There are plentiful examples of poor writing, which are contrasted with good writing styles. Also, the explanations are clear and easy to understand. Despite appearances, there is no rule, man-made or natural, that says that scientific writing cannot be clear, crisp and fluid. If you write any kind of scientific literature do yourself a favour and read this book. It will help you to become a better writer.

points out technical writing ruts & shows a better way

I've had this book for many years, and I still pull it out to use it. It is a light read, and not the style guide of other technical writing manuals. What is unique is that it points out the usual ruts we all get into, like redundant or overly complicated sentence construction. By giving 'before' and 'after' writing samples, it is easy to see how much better a few changes make. I have gotten more out of this book, in terms of being a better technical writer (I'm a systems engineer), than I have out of any other book. I also like the reference section in the back about proper word usage (ex: affect vs effect). The book also covers illustration do's and don'ts. If you want style guide info, you will have to look elsewhere. But to improve the clarity of your writing, this is the book to get.