How to Write for the Natural Sciences

     Though the natural sciences differ in the topics of their research and the machinery used to conduct it, the kinds of writing scientists do tend to follow very similar conventions of format, intention, and content.  This is intentional.  Science developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an international effort to help human beings understand the world based on logic, objectively observed evidence, and a shared set of conventions governing how to conduct experiments and how to report the results.  The goal was knowledge of the universe based on results that could be reproduced by anyone, anywhere, as long as s/he followed the conventions of science.

    Because scientists want to be able to share large quantities of information reliably and objectively, they agree to limits on their freedom of style in all sorts of ways, from sentence construction to the layout of scientific articles and their names for things.  If you don't believe in the fundamental enterprise of science, you will find it hard to accept these limitations and may find them difficult to understand.  However, if you are committed to your discipline, give yourself time and practice.  Eventually these conventions will seem as natural to you as breathing.

     Click here to read a description of the "Types of Natural Sciences Writing."

    Click here to read a cookbook-style set of instructions for writing a complete scientific article.

    If you are assigned to write only portions of a full lab report or scientific article, skim these pages until you find the relevant section.  They're short and easy to follow.

     For an excellent, more advanced consideration of scientific rhetoric, see "Presenting Qualitative Data," by Ronald J. Chenail (The Qualitative Report 2:3 (December 1955) available online at http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR2-3/presenting.html.  1/8/05.   Chenail combines a deft set of illustrations with sensible advice about how to coherently present big complex data sets without getting in your readers' way.  His section for this short essay will give you an idea of his focus: "Openness," "Data as Start," "Juxtaposition, Juxtaposition, Juxtaposition," "Data Presentation Strategies," and "Conclusion."