20. Brevity

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface vii
4. Part I. What Writing Is
5. 1. On Bacon, Hobbes, and Newton, and the Selfishness of Writing Well 1
6. 2. Genius, Craft, and What This Book Is About 11
7. Part II. Behavior
8. 3. Reading 15
9. 4. Managing Your Writing Behavior 22
10. 5. Getting Started 30
11. 6. Momentum 42
12. Part III. Content and Structure
13. 7. Finding and Telling Your Story 55
14. 8. The Canonical Structure of the Scientific Paper 74
15. 9. Front Matter and Abstract 79
16. 10. The Introduction Section 84
17. 11. The Methods Section 89
18. 12. The Results Section 99
19. 13. The Discussion Section 120
20. 14. Back Matter 126
21. 15. Citations 132
22. 16. Deviations from the IMRaD Canon 138
23. Part IV. Style
24. 17. Paragraphs 147
25. 18. Sentences 159
26. 19. Words 174
27. 20. Brevity 182
28. Part V. Revision
29. 21. Self- Revision 191
30. 22. Friendly Review 204
31. 23. Formal Review 211
32. 24. Revision and the “Response to Reviews” 222
33. Part VI. Some Loose Threads
34. 25. The Diversity of Writing Forms 231
35. 26. Managing Coauthorships 247
36. 27. Writing in English for Non- Native Speakers 260
37. Part VII. Final Thoughts
38. 28. On Whimsy, Jokes, and Beauty: Can Scientific Writing Be Enjoyed? 271
39. Acknowledgements 287
40. References 289
41. Permanent URLs 299
42. Index 303