H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 1 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
On Scientific Writing
“The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
Oscar Wilde)
1. Adopt the Right Attitude
Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
have the duty to publish what we have done. “If you don’t publish, you
didn’t do it,” my PhD advisor used to tell me. But bear in mind that the
development of any discipline would not have been possible if people didn’t
know what one another was doing. Consider the current stage of a research
field as a mansion, and your publication as a brick that may appear anywhere
from the basement to the roof. Insufficient details make it difficult for
others to replicate your work; ambiguous phrasings can cause
misunderstandings. A single badly crafted brick may deteriorate into a leaky
passage. Too many substandard materials can cause the mansion to collapse.
Let’s not treat essay writing as a burden. Maybe you are lucky to have
worked in a modern lab with cutting-edge equipment, or not that lucky like
me who sits surrounded by antiques and cockroaches. No matter what, after
conducting your experiments for months or years, now it is the time for you
to reach out to other smart people, to show your findings and gain their
respect. Your writing doesn’t have to impress people---although, if you can
, by all means do it! At least it should provide them with a fair chance to
judge your work. You deserve it.
The good part about writing a paper is that, unless you give up, it usually
ends up being published somewhere. Another form of scientific writing is to
prepare research proposals for funding applications. Given the fact that
both governmental and private budgets for non-clinical projects are
shrinking almost universally, it can be quite frustrating to spend months
collecting data and writing a proposal just to have it rejected. But don’t
be so pessimistic. There are several benefits of writing grant proposals.
First, it helps you clear your mind and nail down what you really plan to do
. “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at,
what I see and what it means.” (Joan Didion) You may have a vague idea
about a brilliant project. By writing it down you are forced to work through
your logic and examine its feasibility.
Second, it garners valuable opinions from your peers. A pair of fresh eyes
can help catch flaws in your design; somebody might have done similar work
that you are not aware of; you might have overestimated your ability to step
into a field without having acquired relevant expertise … It can be
painful to face criticisms, but you always learn something. Even if all the
reviewers misunderstood you, you know you need to tell a better story (to
the lesser men, if that makes you feel better).
Third, it makes things happen, not just being dreamed of. To collect
preliminary results, you can’t wait for the best time to come. You gotta
start it right now! Nothing inspires us more than an approaching deadline.
And remember, in the worst case that your application is dismissed, you may
have a manuscript ready to be submitted.
In short, attitude is important. "Love the writing, love the writing ... the
rest will follow." (Jane Yolen)
2. Hone your craft
Here I urge everybody to learn the basic techniques of creative writing. It
’s true that we need to write professionally, but a boring article may
discourage the readers from digging out the treasure buried in your
monotones and sloppy grammar. Right off the top of my head I could think of
several tips.
First, use active voice. I know, scientific writing is one place where
passive voice is indulged, if not encouraged. There have been constant
debates about whether active or passive voice better serves scientific
writing (like this one: https://cgi.duke.edu/web/sciwriting/index.php?action
=passive_voice). I don’t want to go in depth to discuss their pros and cons
. Here is an example from one of my old papers: “Activity evoked by low-
level background noise is reported to be more suppressed by inhibitory
inputs than is tone-evoked activity”. If I were to rewrite this sentence
now, it would be: “Inhibitory inputs generate stronger suppression on
activity evoked by low-level background noise than by tones.” The original
sentence has 19 words, whereas the revised has only 15 words. In addition,
it is clearer which is compared with which in the revised sentence. In my
experience, changing a passive voice into active usually introduces a strong
verb (e.g., generate), which is better than “is found, is observed, or is
reported to be”.
Second, expand your vocabulary. In scientific writing, we tend to use the
same words again and again. Next time when you want to write the verb “show
”, consider its synonyms such as “demonstrate”, “display”, “exhibit”,
“indicate”, or “suggest”. I’m not saying you should randomly choose a
synonym just to avoid repetitions. These words differ from one another and
depending on the context, one of them will be the most accurate. For example
, “display” and “exhibit” give a more passive feeling, whereas “
demonstrate” implies some kind of proof. “Suggest” sounds more active
than “indicate”. By doing so, your writing will slow down. But, here is
one of my favorite quotes: “Write quickly and you will never write well;
write well, and you will soon write quickly.” (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus)
Third, pay attention to the melody and vary the sentence length. It’s very
tedious to read an article that has one long sentence followed by another.
Short sentences are punchier, but too many in a row gives the impression of
lacking sophistication. The best is to have long sentences interleaved with
short ones, but by all means, avoid complex structures with layers of
meanings. It’s hard enough for others to understand your basic science. Don
’t play word games here. In fact, for more skilled writers they would even
vary the structures of adjacent sentences. Another commonly overlooked
aspect is what the word sound like. Many novelists believe that the sound of
a word is, at least, as important as its meaning. This might be a high
standard for scientific writers. I would say, the least you can do is to
stay away from mouthful phrases.
Fourth, avoid repetitions. Here is a perfect example. At the end of the last
paragraph, I initially wrote “the least you can do is to avoid mouthful
phrases.” Then I realize I have another “avoid” just below it. So I
changed one of them. Another idea I want to get across here is that you don
’t have to repeat in the text what is already there in the figure captions.
In the captions, we tend to write, “The x-axis is … The y-axis is … The
closed symbols are …” I have seen many authors who constantly repeat those
phrases in the Results. Not necessary. Another bad habit is to repeat the
entire results in the Discussion. The Discussion should really discuss. It
should expand. If readers forget about a result, they can go back to look up
for it.
Fifth, refrain from using adverbs or modifiers. Replacing a weak verb
followed by an adverb with a strong and accurate verb is the number one
golden rule of creative writing. For example, “He was walking leisurely in
the garden,” should be rewritten as “He was rambling in the garden.” We
also tend to say, “The change is very large.” Some people believe that, in
scientific writing, any change should be either statistically significant
or not. This rule is kind of hard to follow (note: delete “kind of” for
better writing), but comply with it whenever you can.
Last, use informative subtitles, especially in the Discussion. Like what I’
m doing here: “1, Adopt the Right Attitude”, rather than “1, The Attitude
”. Instead of saying “The Negative Level Effect”, make it clear that “
The Negative Level Effect Is Only Found for Localization in Elevation.”
Under each subsection, instead of plunging into the results, first use a few
sentences to tell the readers what to expect, such as in what order will
the data be presented. Some people even suggest adding a summary sentence to
the beginning or the end of every paragraph in the Results. Your choice. I
would always have a summary sentence at the beginning of each figure caption.
In short, never underestimate the power of language. If you aren’t careful
with what you say, people would wonder if you have been careful with what
you do. Unless you are in a hurry, treat every email as an opportunity to
improve your skills.
3. Tell a story
For research articles, different people write in different orders. I always
start with the straightforward part, the Methods, which merely needs to be
organized and presented in the clearest way. Then I describe the results.
Although I tend to think I understand the results by the time the experiment
is finished, there are always surprises waiting for me in the finalized
figures. Then based on the results, I select what I want to include in the
Introduction. Here is a tip: like writing a novel, instead of revealing all
the findings, adding a little bit of suspense to the Intro usually keeps the
readers more engaged, although they do know what to expect in general,
assuming they have read the Abstract.
Now it comes to the critical part, the Discussion. Many people tend to
organize the Discussion based on how they present the Results. I can’t say
this never works, but why not give it another thought? Ask yourself several
questions before you start. For example, “Why did we do this?” In fact, a
better question would be, “Why did we have to do this?” Using my PhD
advisor’s word, every study we do is a must-do; if it’s optional, we
should’ve found a better way to spend the taxpayers’ money. You can argue
that your study helps discover something new, or fill a gap between things
we’ve already known. A common mistake people often make here is the
assumption that anything unknown is worth studying, e.g., “We are the first
to …” Well, it’s true only if you are paying for the experiment out of
pocket. Otherwise, it needs to be a critical piece of information that
solves a long-lived myth, settles ongoing arguments, or links segregated
knowledge into a whole picture. Some prestigious journals may even want you
to elaborate how your field will change once people get to know your work.
Don’t be intimidated by this request. Changes rarely happen overnight. Know
your strength, and talk about it with confidence.
Truth is impartial. It shouldn’t depend on the person who pursues it. But
science is more than absolute truth. How individual researchers approach the
same topic from different angles, how they test their hypotheses and
interpret the results, make science colored with all kinds of human factors.
We try to write as impartially as we can, but meanwhile, don’t be afraid
of expressing your opinions---they might be wrong, but you’ll never know
without them being articulated. “Let who you are … what you believe, shine
through every sentence you write.” (John Jakes)
Now a bit off topic here. When addressing reviewers’ comments, there are
two typical tendencies. One is to be overly flattering in hopes that the
reviewers or editor will simply let it go. The other is to answer with
strong emotions, almost getting personal. Neither is the appropriate
approach, especially the second one. I know you might be indignant for being
misunderstood or mistreated; you might be shocked at the reviewers’
hostility or stupidity, but it does you no good to start a heated debate due
to the nature of peer reviews. When you can’t exchange arguments with the
other party in a freely and timely manner, things are frequently
misinterpreted. Remember, don’t get personal. Just answer the questions, as
calmly and concisely as you can. They may have acted unprofessionally, but
you wouldn’t. And no need to be flattering either. Acknowledge their
expertise, and say that the manuscript has been greatly improved due to
their help. Note the last sentence is the key. It makes you and the
reviewers collaborators, not enemies.
All right! That’s all I wanted to say. In short, you have to love what you
do. And why not? Science is not only about inventing fancy machines or
conquering diseases. Through scientific activity we learn to free our mind,
we try to find out where we are from, and survive as better human beings. | s*********l
发帖数: 204 | | c*******t
发帖数: 644 | | s********t
发帖数: 4150 | | M****o
发帖数: 4860 | 5 m
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| i****0
发帖数: 124 | 6 thanks very much for sharing. | s**p
发帖数: 73 | 7 赞。
看了mm几个贴，觉得mm心态真好，好多正能量！
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 8 （脸红）给说得不好意思了。就是觉得刚来这里的学生都挺艰难的，经常因为说话不流
利，给人以为自己脑子转不过来。要学好英语，不指望impress谁，至少给自己一个公
平的机会。
【在 s**p 的大作中提到】
: 赞。
: 看了mm几个贴，觉得mm心态真好，好多正能量！
:
: the
: (
: obligation,
| y******n
发帖数: 421 | 9 Very nice writing.
In the book "Economical Writing" by Deirdre McCloskey, she (previously he)
talks about one part of the training at Oxford and Cambridge is to read
papers loudly, related to what you write "Another commonly overlooked aspect
is what the word sound like. Many novelists believe that the sound of a
word is, at least, as important as its meaning."
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| b******h
发帖数: 2732 | | | | H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 11 Thank you for the tip! I think "read it aloud" will help any kind of writing.
aspect
【在 y******n 的大作中提到】
: Very nice writing.
: In the book "Economical Writing" by Deirdre McCloskey, she (previously he)
: talks about one part of the training at Oxford and Cambridge is to read
: papers loudly, related to what you write "Another commonly overlooked aspect
: is what the word sound like. Many novelists believe that the sound of a
: word is, at least, as important as its meaning."
:
: the
: (
: obligation,
| p*l
发帖数: 1359 | 12 好文章。最难得的是总结的这么清楚，很多事情我们都能下意识的做，但是
要写出来不容易。
我想补充一点：关于文章和proposal里使用bullet points和subtitle。
有些人大量用bullet points和subtitle来引导文章的主线。我觉
得这样实际是肢解了文章，是不太会设计文章的思路以及起承转合的表现。
bullet points 和subtitle要用在关键处，而且要十分注意并列的bullet
points意思重要性上是并列的。如果每个bullet point是单句的话，单句的
结构要统一。如果每个point是一小段的话，段落结构和长短要统一。这就好
比仕女带钗，如果头上带了几层七八个金钗，或者左右一对钗却不一样大式样
不搭，肯定是暴发户。 | y******n
发帖数: 421 | 13 The following may be useful:
The Introduction Formula
by Keith Head
When I arrived at UBC, my colleague John Ries, who had been hired the year
before, explained to me that Jim Brander had given him a formula for writing
introductions. I'm afraid I didn't pay much attention at the time because I
thought it would stifle my creative juices (is that a mixed metaphor?).
Finally, I think I ended up internalizing the rules and now I thought I
should make them explicit because they have served us well and I wish I
could referee more papers that follow them.
1. Hook: Attract the reader's interest by telling them that this paper
relates to something interesting. What makes a topic interesting? Some
combination of the following attributes makes Y something worth looking at.
◦Y matters: When Y rises or falls, people are hurt or helped.
◦ Y is puzzling: it defies easy explanation.
◦ Y is controversial: some argue one thing while other say another.
◦ Y is big (like the service sector) or common (like traffic jams).
Things to avoid: ◦ The bait and switch : promising an interesting
topic but delivering something else, in particular, something boring.
◦ "all my friends are doing it" : presenting no other motivation for a
topic than that other people have written papers on it.
2. Question: Tell the reader what this paper actually does. Think of this
as the point in a trial where having detailed the crime, you now identify a
perpetrator and promise to provide a persuasive case. The reader should have
an idea of a clean research question that will have a more or less
satisfactory answer by the end of the paper. Examples follow below. The
question may take two paragraphs. At the end of the first (2nd paragraph of
the paper) or possibly beginning of the second (3rd paragraph overall) you
should have the "This paper addresses the question" sentence.
3. Antecedents: Identify the prior work that is critical for understanding
the contribution this paper will make. The key mistake to avoid here are
discussing papers that are not essential parts of the intellectual narrative
leading up to your own paper. Give credit where due but establish, in a non
-insulting way, that the prior work is incomplete or otherwise deficient in
some important way.
4. Value-Added: Describe approximately 3 contributions this paper will
make relative to the antecedents. This paragraph might be the most important
one for convincing referees not to reject your paper. A big difference
between it and the earlier "question" paragraph is that the contributions
should make sense only in light of prior work whereas the basic research
question of the paper should be understandable simply in terms of knowing
the topic (from the hook paragraph). John suggests that "Antecedents" and "
Value-added" may be intertwined. They may also take up to 3 paragraphs.
5. Road-map: Outline the organization of the paper. Avoid writing an
outline so generic that it could apply to any paper ("the next section is
the middle of the paper and then we have the end"). Instead customize the
road map to the project and possibly mention pivotal "landmarks" (problems,
solutions, results...) that will be seen along the way. But keep this short
because many readers will now be eager to get to the heart of the paper.
Brander suggests that you write the intro first but then read and edit it
every time you compose other parts of the paper. Thus by the end, the intro
will have received more attention, more times, than any other part of the
paper. The introduction is not just important because of the "first
impressions" idea that it will tilt the referee for or against you (though
it probably will). It is also vital to making sure you know yourself what
you are doing in the paper and why. If you can't write a good introduction,
then you may be writing the wrong paper.
Keith Head also has a website:
http://strategy.sauder.ubc.ca/head/advice.html
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| l***s
发帖数: 841 | | A*******y
发帖数: 754 | | s******y
发帖数: 28562 | 16 我可以拷贝下来给我的学生们看么？
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 17 多谢yesnoman和娃娃鱼的补充！关于bullet points，我想说一点文学写作中的潜规则
，就是Avoid anything that distracts the readers or pulls the reader out of
the story. 如果bullet points太多，感觉像是在读提纲，就像娃娃鱼说的，打乱了
故事的连贯性。
关于Intro，我是最不知道该怎么写的了，多谢建议！深有同感的就是“promising an
interesting topic but delivering something else”。 刚刚读了一篇叫Neuro
Dance的文章，Intro里就说，凡是自己有过芭蕾经验的舞蹈家，在看别人进行高难度动
作表演时，比自己没有经历的普通人，获得的快感和满足感要高很多。结果一看
Methods，subjects全是没有跳舞经验的人。很失落！ | H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 18 胖老师要拷贝，受宠若惊！不过这里格式不太好，你可以去我博客
http://fionarawsontile.blogspot.com/2014/05/on-scientific-writi
格式更漂亮一些。
【在 s******y 的大作中提到】
: 我可以拷贝下来给我的学生们看么？
:
: the
: (
: obligation,
| s******y
发帖数: 28562 | 19 谢谢！
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 胖老师要拷贝，受宠若惊！不过这里格式不太好，你可以去我博客
: http://fionarawsontile.blogspot.com/2014/05/on-scientific-writi
: 格式更漂亮一些。
| b*****r
发帖数: 203 | 20 写得真好，读起来象native speaker 写的。 | | | M*P
发帖数: 6456 | 21 Two small things:
1. "he is rambling in the garden" is not a very good example. rambling also
means keep talking and sometimes incoherently. It sounds like he is
talking in the garden to someone.
2. "suggest" and "indicate". suggest is weaker than indicate. suggest means
"it could be", indicate means "I am sure this is it."
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| p*l
发帖数: 1359 | 22 又想起来几点补充。
关于用长句还是短句。如果想表达的东西很新或者比较难懂，应该多用短句，
读起来不吃力，比较容易领会。如果想说的东西是业内共识，可以用长句总
结，以彰显自己思维全面，说话一针见血。
长句用的恰当能让文章看起来深邃典雅，可是要掂量一下自己的能力。如果对
长句的掌控力不够，很容易写出前言不搭后语的句子来。发现自己容易犯
此类毛病，就应该严格控制长句的使用。宁愿写人家看得懂的小学生作文，不
要稀里糊涂满嘴话掉书包。特别写proposal赶deadline的话，没有足够的
时间去审查稿子，不见得能把病句都抓出来，这时候良好的习惯比写完后审查
更保险。
关于主动和被动语态。我做学生的第一篇文章，用了很多"we ..."，被老板
都改成了被动。原因可能大家都明白，太多we在科研论文里，显得客观性少
了点。从那以后我就爱上了被动语态。等我到了博后老板那，第一篇文章又被
改了个全国江山一片红，我才发现，避免用we并不等于需要用被动态。打个比
方说，你可以说“实验前我们给老鼠喂了食”。我博士老板会把这句改成“实验
前老鼠被喂了食”，可是我的博后老板会说“实验前老鼠吃了食”。最后一个版
本最短，比被动态符合自然的表达习惯的多。大多数被动态的句子，仔细斟酌
的话，都能用主动态表达。被动态应该用在特殊的场合，比如说想把句子的后
半提到更醒目的前面来，或者用主动态写的话句子会头重轻，等等。
英语差词汇少等等，并不等于你不能写出一篇别人看得懂看得下去的文章。文
章的结构，行文的逻辑，以及对句式的把握，比具体是用“suggest",
"indicate", "exhibit"重要百倍。写文章应该追求用最少的话，最符合
口语习惯的句式，表达一个意思。其实通常最符合口语习惯的句式往往也是用
词量最少的，因为我们说话都要喘气。如果大声读自己写的文章，读到中间喘
不上来气，那么句式一定有问题，以致于读者无法断句，没时间喘气。
努力写一个简洁明了的proposal，省出来的地方可能其实不多。省出这点地方，
不是为了加更多的内容，而是为了段落部分之间能留点空白，图能稍微大点，审
稿人看起来不那么糟心。 | H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 23 多谢娃娃鱼和马后炮的补充（这个马后炮真够劲儿）! 如果脱离上下文，单看独立的句
子，ramble是容易产生误解。suggest确实比较主观，indicate我查字典是既可以当客
观指出也可以当主观建议。同意关于长短句的补充。 | H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 24 昨天傍晚发给一个native speaker看，她说hone your craft怎么写成horn your craft
？汗！赶紧改了。
【在 b*****r 的大作中提到】
: 写得真好，读起来象native speaker 写的。
| t**********d
发帖数: 257 | 25 Bravo!
the
(
obligation,
【在 H****y 的大作中提到】
: 多谢大家鼓励！终于写完了。希望共同探讨。
: On Scientific Writing
: “The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the
: modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.” (
: Oscar Wilde)
: 1. Adopt the Right Attitude
: Just like everything else, before we start, we have to believe what we do
: matters. If we can’t persuade ourselves, how are we going to persuade
: others? Writing scientific essays should not be considered as an obligation,
: or a pain we go through to create a nice-looking CV. It is true that we
| i***n
发帖数: 65 | 26 写的真好，尤其是tell a story那段比较受启发。大家要多多讨论这么有建设性的题目
啊！
还有，斯坦福网络课程有一个 writing in sciences，很有帮助，大家可以去查查 | i***n
发帖数: 65 | 27 同意这个！简洁明要，直击重点，把所有noise都去掉
【在 p*l 的大作中提到】
: 又想起来几点补充。
: 关于用长句还是短句。如果想表达的东西很新或者比较难懂，应该多用短句，
: 读起来不吃力，比较容易领会。如果想说的东西是业内共识，可以用长句总
: 结，以彰显自己思维全面，说话一针见血。
: 长句用的恰当能让文章看起来深邃典雅，可是要掂量一下自己的能力。如果对
: 长句的掌控力不够，很容易写出前言不搭后语的句子来。发现自己容易犯
: 此类毛病，就应该严格控制长句的使用。宁愿写人家看得懂的小学生作文，不
: 要稀里糊涂满嘴话掉书包。特别写proposal赶deadline的话，没有足够的
: 时间去审查稿子，不见得能把病句都抓出来，这时候良好的习惯比写完后审查
: 更保险。
| H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 28 对，每页留足够的空白是很重要的。你提醒我了，忘了这点，要尽量避免长段落，就是
为了制造足够的空白。不要说本来就没什么意思的scientific essays了，现在读者都
没有耐性，连通俗小说，凡是长段落，很多都是一跳而过。有时候我想，那些high
profile journals, 被引用那么高，是不是也因为文章短，大家才有可能读完有关呢？
原先当学生时每次journal club，一遇到这种短paper，大家可高兴了，尤其是那些平
时没什么motivation的学生，可到了他们的机会表现他们也是读完了paper的。这个问
题值得深思！
另：娃娃鱼这贴写得真好！
努力写一个简洁明了的proposal，省出来的地方可能其实不多。省出这点地方，
不是为了加更多的内容，而是为了段落部分之间能留点空白，图能稍微大点，审
稿人看起来不那么糟心。
【在 p*l 的大作中提到】
: 又想起来几点补充。
: 关于用长句还是短句。如果想表达的东西很新或者比较难懂，应该多用短句，
: 读起来不吃力，比较容易领会。如果想说的东西是业内共识，可以用长句总
: 结，以彰显自己思维全面，说话一针见血。
: 长句用的恰当能让文章看起来深邃典雅，可是要掂量一下自己的能力。如果对
: 长句的掌控力不够，很容易写出前言不搭后语的句子来。发现自己容易犯
: 此类毛病，就应该严格控制长句的使用。宁愿写人家看得懂的小学生作文，不
: 要稀里糊涂满嘴话掉书包。特别写proposal赶deadline的话，没有足够的
: 时间去审查稿子，不见得能把病句都抓出来，这时候良好的习惯比写完后审查
: 更保险。
| q****k
发帖数: 1023 | 29 交流能力强的，口语中短句用的多。ppt也是短句为主，效果较好。
【在 p*l 的大作中提到】
: 又想起来几点补充。
: 关于用长句还是短句。如果想表达的东西很新或者比较难懂，应该多用短句，
: 读起来不吃力，比较容易领会。如果想说的东西是业内共识，可以用长句总
: 结，以彰显自己思维全面，说话一针见血。
: 长句用的恰当能让文章看起来深邃典雅，可是要掂量一下自己的能力。如果对
: 长句的掌控力不够，很容易写出前言不搭后语的句子来。发现自己容易犯
: 此类毛病，就应该严格控制长句的使用。宁愿写人家看得懂的小学生作文，不
: 要稀里糊涂满嘴话掉书包。特别写proposal赶deadline的话，没有足够的
: 时间去审查稿子，不见得能把病句都抓出来，这时候良好的习惯比写完后审查
: 更保险。
| H****y
发帖数: 2992 | 30 有道理. 或者可以这样看，"If you can't explain it simply, you don't
understand it well enough." ~ Albert Einstein
很多作家在写完小说之后，会强迫自己写一个one sentence pitch，又叫elevator
pitch。就是说假如你在电梯里碰见一个可能买你书的出版商，你必须在半分钟之内勾
起他的兴趣，你说些什么？这是很难的一件事。我现在回想起做学生时写的几篇paper
，数据和图满满当当的，你要让我一句话说出精髓，我说不出来。当时没有好好想过。
现在就不会这样了。
【在 q****k 的大作中提到】
: 交流能力强的，口语中短句用的多。ppt也是短句为主，效果较好。
| | | j******l
发帖数: 1068 | | A*********3
发帖数: 24 | 32 太赞了！回头再好好细读一下这边文章，也打算和自己未来学生分享一下。。。 | t****o
发帖数: 521 | 33 Nice paper. You can sharp and publish it |
|
