The scientist's guide to writing: how to write more easily and effectively throughout your scientific career

What writing is

Behavior

Content and structure

Style

Revision

Some loose threads

Final thoughts.

What's New in the Second Edition?

Preface

A Note on the Exercises

Part I. What Writing Is. 1. On Bacon, Hobbes, and Newton, and the Selfishness of Writing Well ; 2. Genius, Craft, and What This Book Is About

Part II. Writing Behavior. 3. Writing and Reading ; 4. Managing Your Writing Behavior ; 5. Getting Started ; 6. Momentum

Part III. Content and Structure. 7. Finding and Telling Your Story ; 8. The Canonical Structure of the Scientific Paper ; 9. Front Matter and Abstract ; 10. The Introduction Section ; 11. The Methods Section ; 12. The Results Section ; 13. The Discussion Section ; 14. Back Matter ; 15. Citations ; 16. Beyond the IMRaD Canon

Part IV. Style. 17. Paragraphs ; 18. Sentences ; 19. Words ; 20. Brevity

Part V. Revision. 21. Self-Revision ; 22. "Friendly" Review ; 23. Formal Review ; 24. Revision and the "Response to Reviews"

Part VI. Some Loose Threads. 25. Journals and Preprints ; 26. The Diversity of Writing Forms ; 27. Managing Coauthorships ; 28. Three Kinds of Reading: Reference, Survey, and Deep ; 29. Writing for Speakers of English as an Additional Language

Part VII. Final Thoughts. 30. On Whimsy, Jokes, and Beauty : Can Scientific Writing Be Enjoyed?