Concept

Scientific writing

Overview

Scientific writing is about science, with the implication that the writing is done by scientists and for an audience that primarily includes peers—those with sufficient expertise to follow in detail. (The similar term "science writing" instead refers to writing about a scientific topic for a general audience; this could be by scientists and/or journalists, for example.) Scientific writing is a specialized form of technical writing, and a prominent genre of it involves reporting about scientific studies such as in articles for a scientific journal. Other scientific writing genres include writing literature-review articles (also typically for scientific journals), which summarize the existing state of a given aspect of a scientific field, and writing grant proposals, which are a common means of obtaining funding to support scientific research. Scientific writing is more likely to focus on the pure sciences compared to other aspects of technical communication that are more applied, although there is overlap. There is not one specific style for citations and references in scientific writing. Whether one is submitting a grant proposal, literature review articles, or submitting an article into a paper, the citation system that must be used will depend on the publication they plan to submit to.

English-language scientific writing originated in the 14th century, with the language later becoming the dominant medium for the field. Style conventions for scientific writing vary, with different focuses by different style guides on the use of passive versus active voice, personal pronoun use, and article sectioning. Much scientific writing is focused on scientific reports, traditionally structured as an abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusions, and acknowledgments. However, one of the founders of the Royal Academy, Thomas Sprat, also saw connections between scientific writing and writing in the humanities.

One recent advancement in the study of scientific writing is the development of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing (henceforth CC), which is an electronic corpus focusing on four major areas: Astronomy, History, Philosophy, and Life Sciences.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

Mineralogy also, especially where it becomes geology, inclines towards etiology, though it principally belongs to morphology. Etiology proper comprehends all those branches of natural science in which the chief concern is the knowledge of cause and effect. The sciences teach how, according to an invariable rule, one condition of matter is necessarily followed by a certain other condition; how one change necessarily…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Scientific writing is.
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_I answer that,_ The author of Holy Writ is God, in whose power it is to signify His meaning, not by words only (as man also can do), but also by things themselves. So, whereas in every other science things are signified by words, this science has the property, that the things signified by the words have themselves also a signification. Therefore that first signification whereby words signify things belongs to the…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Scientific writing is.
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A book without content is, as every one knows, not a book with empty leaves, but one of which the content is as good as none. We shall find as the last result on closer analysis, that by what is called content an educated mind means nothing but the presence and power of thought. But this is to admit that thoughts are not empty forms without affinity to their content, and that in other spheres as well as in art the…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
States what Scientific writing is.
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Philosophers who discussed Scientific writing

Anaximenes of Miletus

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Anaximenes of Miletus.

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