Writing science in plain English / Anne E. Greene.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Why write science in plain English? -- Before you write -- Audience -- Register -- Tone -- Tell a story -- Make characters subjects and their actions verbs -- Use strong verbs -- Place subjects and verbs close together -- Favor the active voice -- Benefits of active voice -- Proper uses of passive voice -- Choose your words with care -- Use short words instead of long ones -- Keep terms the same -- Break up noun strings -- Rethink technical terms -- Omit needless words -- Redundancy -- Metadiscourse and transition words -- Affirmatives and negatives -- Old information and new information -- Put old information at beginnings of sentences -- Put new information at ends of sentences -- Make lists parallel -- Vary the length of your sentences -- Design your paragraphs -- Issue -- Development -- Conclusion -- Point -- Arrange your paragraphs -- Chronological order -- General to specific -- Least important to most important -- Problem to solution -- Compare and contrast -- Transition words revisited -- Appendix 1: basic writing concepts -- Appendix 2: exercise key.

"This short, focused guide presents twelve principles based on what readers need in order to understand complex information, including concrete subjects, strong verbs, consistent terms, and organized paragraphs. The author, an experienced teacher of scientific writing, illustrates each principle with real-life examples of both good and bad writing and shows how to revise bad writing to make it better. She ends each chapter with practice exercises so that readers can come away with new writing skills after just one sitting."--