When I decided to become a scientist, I envisioned myself in a white labcoat standing at a laboratory
bench or,
sometimes, on a research expedition in a faraway land filled with fascinating animals and plants.
In all my youthful imaginings about becoming a scientist, however, I never saw myself spending
several hours a day doing this.
Writing.
The reality, of course, is that science professionals will spend a great deal of their time writing.
Here are some of the writing tasks that scientists do day-to-day.
They prepare
Field or laboratory notes
Journal articles
Books or book chapters
Grant proposals
Progress and final reports to funding agencies
Peer reviews
Conference talks, lectures, and seminars
Recommendation letters
Outreach materials such as fact sheets and research briefs
Website content and
Curriculum vitae
That's a lot of writing pressure.
To avoid being overwhelmed, you need to develop your writing skills to the point that you
can efficiently and easily produce the required documents necessary to your success.
In this video, I'm going to explain the number one method for becoming a better writer.
It's this.
To become a good writer, you must write.
A lot.
Yes, you must master the basics of punctuation, grammar, and spelling.
And, you must learn what components are required in different types of scientific documents
such as a grant proposal.
You also must study good scientific writing and bad and know the difference.
But unless you actually write and put that information into practice, you'll never become
a good writer.
And, you must write on a daily basis.
Here I'm not talking about emails or Tweets, but scientific writing.
If you have never produced any formal type of writing such as a scientific article, it's
particularly important for you to practice writing every day.
If you are a student just starting your thesis or dissertation research, don't wait until
all your data are in hand to begin writing.
As soon as you know your research topic, you can begin by writing a literature review.
As you progress in your research, you can write your methods and then the results as
they come in.
You will also spend time each day revising what you've already written.
Your first draft will need to be revised not once but most likely many times.
If you put off writing until after you've conducted your research, you'll have two problems.
One is that, not having written a single word, you'll have a huge job ahead of you.
The other is that, not having practiced, you won't have the necessary writing skills to
help you write efficiently.
When you have only one semester to write your thesis, you don't have time to waste wondering
about whether to use a comma or a semicolon or how to structure a scientific abstract.
If you've been practicing scientific writing all along, you'll already know this.
If you are a post-doc or an early career researcher with a few publications and proposals under
your belt, you still need to practice writing.
You will be competing with highly gifted writers for space in journals and for funding.
As I explained in a previous video, the quality of your writing is an important factor influencing
a reviewer's response to your paper or proposal.
After you master the basics, you'll want to engage in something called deliberate practice.
Most people prefer to practice what they already do well and avoid the difficult parts.
The problem with this type of practice is that you won't improve.
It's like a musician who plays the same piece over and over and never tries anything more
difficult.
In deliberate practice, however, you focus on those parts you find most challenging and
practice until you master them.
For example, your writing might be hard to follow because you write long, convoluted
sentences.
To improve requires you to first recognize your weakness and then practice writing more
concisely and clearly.
The best way to identify your writing weaknesses is to listen to the feedback you get from
professors, peer reviewers, and journal editors.
Pay attention to their comments and suggestions.
They are doing you a favor.
Well, there's no getting around it.
Writing is hard.
There's no magic dust that will turn you into a great writer.
But like any skill, it's possible to improve with practice, deliberate practice.
Each thesis chapter, journal article, or grant proposal that you write will add to your skills
and confidence.
I'll end with a tip that helped me improve my writing.
When preparing each manuscript, I always tried to learn and implement something new writing-wise.
For example, I might focus on how to write a better abstract or a better paper title.
I would research the topic and then apply what I learned.
That took a bit of effort and time, but in the end, it was worth it because my paper
was almost always improved,
And, I added to my writing toolbox.
Well, that's it.
The secret to becoming a better scientific writer.
Thanks for watching and please like my video if you found this information helpful.