The Science of Writing by George Gopen and Judith Swan
This article was published in the Nov-Dec 1990 issue of Scientific American.
From the introduction:
Science is often hard to read. Most people assume that its difficulties are born out of necessity, out of extreme complexity of scientific concepts, data and analysis. We argue here that complexity of thought need not lead to impenetrability of expression; we demonstrate a number of rhetorical principles that can produce clarity in communication without oversimplifying scientific issues. The results are substantive, not merely cosmetic: Improving the quality of writing actually improves the quality of thought.
Gopen and Swan propose offer these 7 writing-style rules:
- Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb.
- Place in the stress position (i.e. the end of the sentence) the “new information” you want the reader to emphasize.
- Place the person or thing whose “story” a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
- Place appropriate “old information” (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward.
- Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb.
- In general, provide context for your reader before asking that reader to consider anything new.
- In general, try to ensure that the relative emphases of the substance coincide with the relative expectations for emphasis raised by the structure.
OK – – the authors weren’t the clearest of writers. The rules are sound, but writers will need to do practice exercises to master them. So has someone produced any useful practice exercises?
