Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals

Abstract

Good Style: Writing for Science and Technology, by John Kirkman, 221 pp, paper $15.95, ISBN 0-419-17190-8, London, England, E & FN Spon, 1992. Writing Successfully in Science, by Maeve O'Connor, 229 pp, with illus, $49.95, ISBN 0-04-445805-3, paper $14.95, ISBN 0-04-445806-1, New York, NY, Routledge Chapman & Hall, 1991. More than a century ago, Dr John Shaw Billings, the polymathic founder of the National Library of Medicine and Index Medicus, laid down four rules for the aspiring author of a scientific article: Have something to say. Say it. Stop as soon as you have said it. Give the paper a proper title.1 It would be hard to improve on these four precepts, but the publishing industry, perhaps reflecting its own "publish or perish" maxim, seems determined to do so. Today's aspiring author has a wealth of literature to choose from (or should that be from which to choose?). Three books

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