Authors:
Offers well-tested advice, having been used by research engineers and scientists at many national labs and universities for over twenty years
Uses scores of interesting examples to teach the principles of scientific writing
Fun to read and conversational, focusing on the stylistic traits that distinguish the best scientific writing
Has a popular accompanying website which contains many supporting materials for readers of the book and teachers using as a course text
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
The Craft of Scientific Writing is designed to help scientists and engineers - both professionals already active in the disciplines as well as students preparing to enter the professions - write about their work clearly and effectively. Written for use as a text in courses on scientific writing, the book includes many useful suggestions about approaching a wide variety of writing tasks from journal papers to grant proposals and from emails to formal reports, as well as a concise guide to style and usage appropriate for scientific writing. Also useful for self-study, the book will be an important reference for all scientists and engineers who need to write about their work.
With this new and updated fourth edition, while most technical writing texts have gotten larger over the years, this one has streamlined, to provide busy readers with the essence of what distinguishes the style of the best scientific documents. With this new edition, readers will learn not just how to organize information, but how to emphasize the key details of that information. Also, readers will not just learn how to cast their ideas into precise and clear sentences, but how to connect these sentences in an energetic fashion. In the section on language, the new edition goes into much depth about how to make connections between ideas: an important issue that few technical writing texts address. Moreover, the new edition integrates the discussion of illustrations with language because those two aspects of style are so intertwined. Finally, the new edition does a better job of explaining how to make the process of writing more efficient.
From a review of the first edition:
"A refreshing addition to a genre dominated by English teacher-style textbooks. Instead of listing rules that constrain writers, the book uses examples to lay out the path to successful communication … Especially helpful (and entertaining) is the chapter on the writing process. Anyone who has spent more time avoiding a writing task than actually doing it will appreciate Alley's tips."
–Dr. Ellen Ochoa, Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations, Johnson Space Center
Reviews
“The author discusses the many challenges and distinctions in scientific writing, and the effects that good or bad writing can have on one’s career. … Using real-world writing examples and a host of graphics and figures, the author effectively demonstrates what works, what doesn’t, and why. … This easy-to-digest guide will be useful for engineers, scientists, and anyone interested in writing for a science-minded audience, or about science-related topics.” (S. Markgren, Choice, Vol. 56 (03), November, 2018)
Authors and Affiliations
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College of Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, USA
Michael Alley
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Craft of Scientific Writing
Authors: Michael Alley
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8288-9
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4419-8287-2Published: 06 April 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4419-8288-9Published: 21 March 2018
Edition Number: 4
Number of Pages: XX, 298
Number of Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations, 13 illustrations in colour
Topics: Popular Science, general, Physics, general