Editorial
The Importance of Clear Writing
H
ave you recently carried out some experiments in your laboratory and needed to write a description of them? Maybe the experiments comprised a research project that you wanted to publish in Analytical Chemistry. Maybe the experiments produced results that were highly meaningful for your company's future products and had to be communicated to company officials. Or maybe the experiments were to go into a regular monthly report of your work or study. Whatever the nature of your writing task, stop and consider that while your experiments and their results be important writing badly about them C3n greatly lessen their value and even render them unimportant! As an editor and a teacher, I've seen lots of examples of bad writing. I even admit to producing some myself. What is "bad writing"? It includes incorrect grammar, misspelled words, too many words when a few would do (diarrhea of the word processor), and a disorganized presentation of experimental results. Bad writing can also include diluting and confusing significant results by adding—just because you have them results that add little significance. Making biased or misleading acknowledgments and references to previous work by others is also bad writing, as is omitting such references. I could go on but I will conclude with the worst kind of bad writing of ajj not clearly expressing why you carried out the experiments what could be concluded or not concluded from them a.rid why the conclusions a.re significant My motive is obviously to encourage you who write about progress in analytical chemistry to always try to improve your writing. Clear, accurate exposition of experimental or theoretical results and their
meaning is for most of us not easy, but I assert that writing well is as important as doing the experiment well. How can one improve? A key step is to understand—I say, again, understand—what you want to say before writing it down. Another one is to recognize what bad writing is so you can erase it when you create some. If English is not your first language, then seek a competent colleague who is willing to be critical of your writing. My own practices include putting the paper aside and forgetting it for a few days; re-reading it later with a fresh mind often reveals turgid prose and clouded conclusions. There are many tales of scientific discoveries that were not noticed until the discovery was repeated after years or decades had passed. Many such discoveries probably suffered more from bad writing by the author than by a "mentally slow" readership. Those who write about new analytical chemistry have a responsibility to their laboratories and to themselves to continually strive toward better writing to preserve the importance of their discoveries. Most authors of Analytical Chemistry write with superb clarity. Some, however, do not. I want to encourage efforts toward better writing on the part of all authors, and on the part of would-be authors who may have described significant results with insufficient clarity to convince the reviewers and the editor of their significance. Analytical Chemistry aims to be the continuing leader in important advances in measurement science and in their clear expression.
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, August 1, 1998 4 9 1 A
