Scientific style

Traditional scientific writing was usually written for a fairly narrow range of readers with similar personal and academic backgrounds. The style of writing was typically dense and complicated, and it often had an overly formal register ( Pinker, 2014 ). 

However, today’s scientific communities are increasingly characterised by their social and linguistic diversity, their collaborative culture, and their need to be accessible and accountable to the public. Readers tend to want clarity, transparency, and objectivity. Modern scientific writing is therefore most effective when it is concise, precise, and reader-friendly. The presentation of methods and results should be objective, and the writing more generally should be inclusive with a neutral-to-formal register. These features are presented in these sections:

• Concise writing
• Precise writing
• Reader-friendly writing
• Inclusive writing
• Objective writing
• A note on the passive voice and the use of 'we'
• A note on English varieties
• Neutral-to-formal register
  • Avoid the pronouns 'you' and 'one'
  • Avoid contractions such as 'doesn't'
  • Avoid 'lots', 'a lot', 'plenty' and 'loads'
  • Avoid over-use of 'and' and 'but'
  • Avoid informal use of 'besides' and 'as well'
  • Avoid direct questions (questions ending with a question mark)
  • Choose 'no', 'few' and 'little' instead of 'none', 'not many' and 'not much'
  • Choose Latinate words instead of 'do', 'make' and 'get', where possible