how to write right (technically speaking)

 Table of Contents  As this is a work in progress (and I writing sections at random), check back for new content! Staying Between the Outlines   Keep things where things belong Introducing the Introduction Write an introduction with context and purpose.     Keep It Simple Use short words and simple writing. AAaaC (Avoid Acronyms at all Costs [pronounced “Aaack!”]) Do not use acronyms or abbreviations in your writing. Be Active, Not Passive Write in the active voice. If You Write Something, Cite Something If you write it, cite it.  Use the Oxford Comma Use the Oxford (Serial) Comma. List with Logic Items in a list need a reason for their ordering. Don’t Orphan Headers Each header should have at least one paragraph after it. Keep Tables, Figures, and Text Separate (but Together) Text, tables, and figures should exist independently.  Steering the Authorship Include rather than exclude. Breaking Bad Watch how headings, tables, and paragraphs brea...

Dashing Through the Prose   We live on the dash between our birth date and our death date. ― Jesse Jackson   Use hyphens and dashes correctly.   The great unwashed (including many scientists and engineers) use hyphens and dashes indiscriminately; however, each one has a purpose. There’s the hyphen, which is used to hyphenate words: “Get me another one of those git-dang Icelandic hotdogs!” There’s the en dash, which is longer than the hyphen and is used between numbers to mean “to” or “through”: “I’m so hungry I could eat 4–5 Icelandic hot dogs!” And then there’s the em dash, even longer, that is used to set apart clauses: “We went to Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur to eat hot dogs—they were dang good!” Let’s see them all together:                         hyphen:            -     ...

   Use the Oxford Comma   You can have my Oxford comma once you pry it from my cold, dead, and lifeless hands. ― Unknown, anonymous, and correct   Use the Oxford (Serial) Comma. Thanks to internet memes and the general dissolution of societal civility, the Oxford Comma—and the arguments for and against using it—has found a greater audience. There has been quite a bit of debate on the use (or non-use) of the Oxford, or serial, comma, but I feel strongly that we, as scientists, should always use it to minimize confusion in our oftentimes complicated writing. What is the Oxford comma? Consider the following: The flag of the United States is red, white, and blue. The Oxford comma is the last comma used right after “white” and before the conjunction “and”. Many style guides, especially for journalists, do not require—and in fact disallow—the use of the Oxford comma: The flag of the United States is red, white and blue. In this particular case,...

   List with Logic   Lists are anti-democratic, discriminatory, elitist, and sometimes the print is too small. ― David Ives Items in a list need a reason for their ordering.   When you list things, list them logically and consistently. What I mean by listing logically is that you have a reason for the order in your list. You should never list randomly because readers will be looking for a reason for the order in your list and will assume you are listing in the order of importance. For example, with no reason to order differently, you might order your list alphabetically: Texas has nine major aquifers: (1) Carrizo-Wilcox, (2) Edwards (Balcones Fault Zone), (3) Edwards-Trinity (Plateau), (4) Gulf Coast, (5) Hueco-Mesilla Bolsons, (6) Ogallala, (7) Pecos Valley Alluvium, (8) Seymour, and (9) Trinity. A reader wondering about the order can quickly (one hopes) see that the items are alphabetical is the question arise in their mind. Alternatively, you...

  Keep It Simple   Short words are best, and the old words when short are best of all. ― Winston Churchill   Use short words and simple writing.   For some reason, scientists prefer to use the word “utilize” instead of “use.” When I ask folks why, the response is “it sounds more scientific.” That is not a good reason to write poorly, and it’s pretentious. What is wrong with the word “use”?   “Use” is a beautiful word: it’s three letters long and contains one syllable. Utilize has seven letters and three syllables. According to Merriam-Webster, the primary definition of “use” is “to put into action or service: avail oneself of” while the definition of “utilize” is “to make use of: turn to practical use or account.” In other words, they mean the same dang thing. Consider the following:             Utilize diminutive words in order to improve comprehensibility. ...

  AAaaC (Avoid Acronyms at all Costs [pronounced “Aaack!”])   There are only 17,000 three-letter acronyms. ― Paul Boutin   Do not use acronyms or abbreviations in your writing. Scientists, engineers, academics, bureaucrats, and despots love to use acronyms, and for good reason. When you are communicating with your tribe, you don’t want to say “groundwater availability model” over and over, you say “GAM." I get it (and I do it myself)—it’s more efficient. However, setting aside just plain bad writing (and speaking), acronyms are the biggest obstacles to understanding technical topics, especially if the writing is intended for people outside of your tribe. For example, take the following sentence out of an actual report I reviewed back in my state bureaucracy days: The TL defined a process through which the TWDB, after calculating the MAG, assesses the DFC with input from the GCDs in the GMA, the PWLDIG, and the RWPGs. Got that? The...

  Don’t Orphan Headers   Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. ― John F. Kennedy   Each header should have at least one paragraph after it.   There’s nothing sadder than an orphaned header. So alone and naked, clearly abandoned by its writing parent and left to fend for itself. For example: I.                Different Types of Hot Dogs A.        The Icelandic Hot Dog Is there a better dog than the Icelandic hot dog? Made with lamb; striped with ketchup, pylsusinnep (a sweet brown mustard), and a remoulade of mayo, mustard, capers, and herbs; and liberally doused with fried and fresh onions—they are hard to beat.     The header Different Types of Hot Dogs is immediately followed by the sub header The Icelandic Hot Dog leaving Different Types of Hot Dogs orphaned. That leaves the text sloppily...

  Keep Tables, Figures, and Text Separate (but Together)   Separation is not the end of love; it creates love. ― Nancy Friday   Text, tables, and figures should exist independently.   A good paper has legible text, tables, and figures; however, for them to work together, they have to work apart. What I mean is that the text, tables, and figures each ideally stand on their own independent of each other. You need to describe your full story in your text using the tables and figures as support/evidence/exhibits, and each of your tables and figures should be understandable without the text or other figures and tables. Let’s say your advisor drops the tables and figures of your draft thesis at the airport as she heads out on vacation. She should still be able to read your text on the plane and understand your work. Furthermore, when the chair of the Nobel committee happens across one of your figures blowing through the airport, he can ...

  Introducing the Introduction   I assume I don’t need an introduction. ― Anne Rice   Write an introduction with context and purpose.   Write an introduction that places your work into the broader context, establishes why your work is important, identifies the research gap, states the purpose, and provides the hypotheses or research questions. The Introduction is where “The Poetry” is. I call this The Poetry because the Introduction is where you creatively (some of us more creatively than others…) place your work into the greater context of the world, first painting with broad strokes and then carefully funneling down to the details. In the Introduction, you want your reader to understand the importance of your topic (the Why), the need for the research (the What), what you researched (more What), and, briefly, how you investigated it (the How). Accordingly, I follow a simple recipe when writing the introduction. The ingredients ar...

  Copywronged    Only one thing is impossible for God: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet. ― Mark Twain   Do not use copyrighted content without permission.   Don’t use copyrighted materials in your work unless you (1) own the copyright, (2) the material is in the public domain, or (3) you have explicit permission or a license from the copyright holder. In the eyes of the laws of many countries, any creative work is copyrighted by the creator at the moment of conception. In other words, the creative work does not have to be formally registered with the government or adorned with the © symbol to make it official. The act of creation is also the act of creating a copyright. If you took a photograph or made a graph, then you own the copyright. If you asked your friend to use your camera (or, more likely these days, your phone) to take a photo of you next to a geologic formation or large concrete pecan, your frie...