Scientific Writing Style: Ten Tips
Center for the Study
and Teaching of Writing
Tip One: Reduce passive voice to
increase clarity and conciseness.
● “It was found that” vs. “I/We found”
● “Lactate was produced by S. Aureus” vs. “S.
Aureus produced lactate”
Note: Examples adapted from Robert A. Day. How to Write and Publish a
Scientific Paper. Fifth Edition.
Tip Two: Watch out for tenses.

Present tense if you are quoting published
research results: “Streptomycin inhibits the
growth of M. Tuberculosis.”

Past tense if you are citing your (as yet)
unpublished research results: “Streptomycin
inhibited the growth of M. Tuberculosis.”
Tip Three: Avoid nominaphilia
(unnatural love of nouns).

Turn abstract nouns into verbs: (“separation
of the compounds was accomplished” vs.
“the compounds were separated.”)

Rewrite adjective noun strings into active
sentences: “Infected tissue culture response”
vs. “the culture of infected tissue responded
to X.” or “the tissue culture responded to X by
becoming infected.”
Tip Four: Transitions are your friends.






To show cause (thus, consequently, therefore, as a
result)
To show contrast (conversely, on the other hand, in
contrast, on the contrary, but, however)
To show chronology (then, next, after, before, while)
To show addition (in addition, likewise, similarly)
To introduce the last or most important item (finally,
moreover, furthermore).
To introduce an example (for example, specifically,
namely, for instance)
Tip Five: Embedded transitions are
your best buddies.
Smith found X:
1) “Extending Smith’s work, our study
suggests that…”
2) “Building on Smith’s work, we can
extrapolate that…”
3) “We can extrapolate from Smith’s findings
that…”
4) “In contrast to Smith, we found…”
Tip Six: Unnecessary words are your
enemies.





“has been engaged in a study of” vs. “has
studied”
“are of the same opinion” vs. “agree”
“at some future time” vs. “later”
“because of the fact that” vs. “because”
“it was observed in the course of
experiments that” vs. “we observed that”
Tip Seven: Use subheadings and topic
sentences to clarify your organization.
Ask yourself:
Can my readers get the point of my article by
reading the subheadings and the first
sentences of every paragraph?
Tip Eight: Vary your sentences.
1) “Too many short sentences can decrease
readability. Short sentences often begin with a
subject and verb. You can increase readability
by varying how you start your sentences. You
can also increase readability by combining
sentences.”
2) “To increase readability, a writer should reduce the
number of monotonous sentences by combining
sentences and by varying sentence beginnings.”
Tip Nine: Read your work aloud.
If it’s hard to say, it’s hard to read!
Tip Ten: Make your copy editor happy!
Always follow a journal’s particular
style and documentation rules.