BASIC RULES FOR WRITING
RULES for all scientific writing:
1) NEVER start a sentence with an abbreviation. WRITE OUT the genus in a scientific name if you are
using it as the first word in a sentence, but generally this is to be avoided.
Wrong: “I like slugs. A. willowi is my favorite.”
Right: “I like slugs. My favorite is A. willowi.”
2) Define each abbreviation the FIRST TIME you use it, and then do NOT define it again subsequently.
3) Put a SPACE between a number and its units when those units are letters (English or otherwise).
No one would write “I eat 2cupcakes each day,”
but all y’all like to write “I added 1.5ul of water to the tube.”
Do not put a space when the units are a non-letter symbol like “5%” or “100°C”
5) Do not make up symbols, find the right one under the “symbol” font, or google how to make it appear in
Times – i.e., holding down “Alt” and pressing 956, then releasing Alt makes the μ symbol in Times rather
than in Symbol font, which can affect the spacing between sentences on the page.
Wrong (made up)
+ (underlining the plus)
Right (symbol)
±
ul (for microliters)
μl
200C (superscripted “o” or “0”)
20°C
10 x 10 cm (letter “x” for times)
10 × 10 cm
6) Check your references before you give anyone something to read or submit a draft to your committee:
- make sure ALL cited works in the text are in the references, and all references
are cited in the text.
- make sure ALL references follow the same FORMAT. Do not include issue
numbers in the reference even though EndNote may download and include this info.
- don’t put references in an abstract!
- references cited in the text should be in EITHER alphabetical (by author) OR chronological
order; follow the format for the preferred journal in your field.
- if chronological order is used, within a year you cite in alphabetical order
- for multiple papers by the same first author, you list first papers with one author, then two, then
three or more.
Evolution happens (Darwin, 1857; Krug, 1999; Krug and Manzi, 1999; Krug et al., 1999; Abel
and King, 2002; Krug, 2002).
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7) Put TWO SPACES after every period if you are writing to please anyone over 40, like me, because this
is how we are used to seeing sentences spaced out. I recommend this spacing in general, which is a carryover from the days of typewriters; however, some younger folks are happier with one space after a period.
You can always ask your advisor what she prefers.
8) Tense
- Any reference to already published work (Introduction, Discussion) should be written in
the present tense. If it is published, we assume it is a “universal truth” and can be stated in the
present: “Cars cause pollution (Smith, 2009).”
- Your Methods, Results and portions of the Discussion that pertain to your work should be
written in the past tense, describing exactly what you did or found: “Cars running on my new
happiness-powered engine caused no pollution, compared to control cars (Fig. 1).”
9) When two nouns modify a third noun, they get hyphenated. For example, “life-history trait” -you don’t hyphenate “life history” on its own, but you DO if it modifies another noun.
Right: “I study the life history of marine invertebrates, focusing on life-history traits such as
dispersal and reproduction.”
10) Write out all numbers less than 10 using words
Wrong: “I removed 4 cookies from the 12 in the bag, leaving 8.”
Right: “I removed four cookies from the 12 in the bag, leaving eight.”
11) Include X- and Y-axis labels on every graph.
12) Above all: EVERY STATEMENT in a scientific paper should be backed up by either a reference to the
peer-reviewed literature, or by your own data. Never simply assert things without including a reference to
substantiate that there is evidence for what you are saying.
- In the Results, you point the reader to your figures and tables to support statements
- In the Intro and Methods, you refer to literature citations.
- In the Discussion, you use literature citations to put your own work in the context of what others
have reported or what the state of knowledge was before you did your work. When discussing the broader
implications of your data, it is not necessary to refer to specific figures and tables again; you can assume
the reader has just gone through all your results, and discuss generally your findings.
Exception: Abstracts (of papers, theses, for conferences, etc) do not include references, because they
are just summaries of a full presentation or publication.
13) Do not refer to data tables or figures in the Methods section; wait for the Results.
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14) Phrases like “is known to” and “has been shown to” are unnecessary; eliminate them, and put a
reference at the end of the sentence that proves your contention.
Wrong: “Sea slugs are known to eat algae.”
Right: “Sea slugs eat algae (Trowbridge, 1999).”
15) Avoid vague generalizations that tell your reader nothing.
Wrong: “Sea slugs live in diverse environments and consume a variety of prey.”
Right: “Sea slugs are found in polar waters but are maximally diverse in the
tropics. Two major clades are herbivorous and the rest are predatory.”
16) Never start a sentence with “This...” followed by a verb, because it’s always vague. Restate what you
are taking about, even if it was just mentioned in the preceding sentence, for maximal clarity.
“Darwin wrote about his idea for natural selection in his book, On the Origin of Species, which set off a
huge controversy. This was very important.” What was important -- Darwin’s idea? His book? The
controversy? It’s not clear what “this” actually refers to.
17) Avoid pronouns when you write (or speak), as they introduce uncertainty into communication:
“I went to the mall to go to the store to see what was inside the big box, but it was closed.”
What was closed -- the mall? the store? the big box? Unless there is ONLY ONE NOUN that your
pronoun can possibly refer to, based on the prior sentence, re-state whatever you are talking about. In
scientific communication, redundancy is less offensive than vague, un-interpretable writing.
18) Try to eliminate needless words in your sentences. To save space, especially try to avoid hang-overs,
by which I mean letting the end of the last sentence of a paragraph carry over onto the next line. This will
save you lots of blank space that could be used for helpful text. You will find it is much harder to express
yourself within strict page limits than it is to fill up space, believe me. By choosing words carefully to
minimize hang-overs, you will save lots of room:
“I am the type of person who likes cheese, so it was interesting to me to learn that cheese is made from
milk.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF THAT WERE THE END OF THE PARAGRAPH, ALL THIS WOULD BE WASTED SPACE,
JUST BECAUSE OF THE WORD “MILK”
How can we shorten the sentence, yet convey the same information?
“I like cheese, so it was interesting to learn that cheese is made from milk.”
The second sentence is shorter and better. Is there really a “type” of person who likes cheese? People say
this all the time; needless words. “That’s interesting to me” – well, who else would I be qualified to say
found it interesting? So I cut out the needless words, and my paragraph ends perfectly at the end of the line.
19) Paragraph structure: Begin every paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces the broad theme to be
discussed, and narrow the focus with each sentence like a funnel until you reach the final “thought” under
the heading of that topic sentence.
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20) Don’t make a possessive out of the name of a species – say “the genome of Drosophila” and not
“Drosophila’s genome”. Remember to italicize scientific genus or species names.
21) Capitals are not for emphasis. A shocking number of people arbitrarily capitalize words to place
emphasis on them. Only proper nouns (names) get capitalized.
22) Be careful with noun strings, or using nouns to modify other nouns. This practice can get confusing
when the noun strings reach four or five consecutive nouns – i.e., “invertebrate zoology textbook cover
picture”; all these are nouns, each one modifying (describing) the one that follows it. That is the
convention in English grammar with noun strings; each one is expected to modify the one that follows it,
acting as an adjective.
Some journal editors hate this practice, claiming it can lead to confusion – for instance, “forest animal
radio collar data”; do the data pertain to animals listening to a radio in the forest, or data on a collar worn
by a forest animal that can be heard on the radio, or...? As this practice can yield dense, hard-to-read
sentences, try not to string too many nouns together unless you are desperately pressed for space.
23) The word “DATA” is a always a plural noun. Never, ever say “the data shows...” or “the data is
available” – you must say, “The data show” or “the data are available”. This mistake will make your
advisor’s head EXPLODE, automatically.
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