Avoid hyperbole in scientific writing.
Hyperbole can take many different forms. Nearly all should be avoided in scientific writing. Avoid calling previous work “pioneering”, “novel”, or “foundational”, unless it truly is. Don’t call a study “comprehensive.” They rarely are. Don’t say that you’ve conducted “detailed work.” You’re a scientist. You’re supposed to do detailed work. Avoid absolutes like “never”, “always”, […]
Oh, snap! A dig at a badly written introduction
An unfortunate order of words
A quote from Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, from this article. “The British themselves are pretty stoic; there is a long tradition of watching sport in rain macs or listening to Cliff Richard or whatever.” Come on. Cliff Richard isn’t that bad.
Deep thoughts about editing
Not sure where I found this, but it’s classic!
An abstract that says nothing
This abstract comes from a recently published in an atmospheric science journal: Previous studies have shown that numerical diffusion plays a crucial role in the ability of mesoscale models to reproduce features similar to sub-meso motions found in observations, particularly in terms of spectral energy distribution. In this study, the impacts of surface heterogeneity and […]
