Scientific Writing

It is not uncommon for people to comment when they learn that I write a blog to say you must have been an English major in college. People assume that studying English language arts is the sole road to writing. And when I say no—I was a science major—people are baffled. They do not understand how science and writing mesh.

But it makes perfect sense.  Good scientific papers always use the same formula—a thesis –an if…then… statement called a hypothesis. It is followed with data to back up the supposition. Then clear discussion is given explaining the documentation; and a succinct conclusion which reflects back on the thesis finishes it off. There are lots of givens and only one variable.

And the quest for topic matter is comparable. Scientists are all about looking at seemingly unrelated things and seeing a connection. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by noticing mold growing on one side of a petri dish, bacteria happily growing on the other and the absence of bacterial growth in between. He wondered if there was some antagonistic relationship between the mold and the bacteria.

Previously unobserved connections in journalism and science lead to discovery.

In graduate school I took a course dedicated to ripping apart other’s scientific papers--because there is nothing scientists like to do better (other than making their own discoveries) than disproving the work of colleagues. Scientists enjoy using another scientist’s published data and conclusions to crucify the said publisher. This is otherwise known in formal writing as editorial review. Understanding how to dissect another’s writing gives one guile on how to fool-proof your own writing.

And here I am using my scientific skills again. I have challenged the idea that if you are a writer, then you must have studied English language arts in college. I used Alexander Fleming as an example of the creative process.  I demonstrated the connection between scientific critique and editorial review. And I will therefore conclude that science and writing do mesh. Science produces writers with a clear concise style—350 words (in this case) to be precise.