Notes from the course: Writing in Sciences (Coursera). Summarised below is the course content in chronological order.

Motivation

An example passage

dysregulation of physiologic microRNA, miR, activity has been shown to play an important role in tumor initiation and progression, including gliomagenesis. Therefore, molecular species that can regulate miR activity on their target RNAs without affecting the expression of relevant mature miRs may play equally relevant roles in cancer.

<aside> 💡 I find this passage hard to read. I have to struggle to figure out exactly what it is the authors were intending to say. I'm going to point out some specific features that make this example difficult to read. First of all, as in some earlier examples we saw, there's the use of nouns rather than verbs. The authors use dysregulation, initiation, progression, and expression. Those are all nouns that could've been verbs. Dysregulate, initiate, progress, and express. Verbs move sentences along, whereas nouns slow the reader down.

physiologic, molecular species are vague and can be removed

Use of acronym does not save anything (few chars), massively slows down the reader.

First sentence in passive voice, passive voice is generally awkward. Second sentence active but massive gap between main verb: may play and subject: molecular species

</aside>

Rewrite:

changes in microRNA expression play a role in cancer, including glioma. Therefore, events that disrupt microRNAs from binding to their target RNAs may also promote cancer.

Tips:

• cut unnecessary words and phrases, get rid of the clutter.
• Use the active voice
• Write with verbs, use strong verbs, avoid turning verbs in to nouns, don't bury the main verbs.

Cut the Clutter

Be vigilant and ruthless in cutting down every word that is redundant, boring, vague, does not info.

1. dead weight words and phrases.
   1. As it is well known,
   2. as it is has been shown,
   3. it can be regarded that
   4. it should be emphasized that.

These are just the authors clearing their throats. They can be deleted altogether. Just provide citations to show that it's well known.

1. Empty words and phrases
   1. basic tenets of
   2. methodological
   3. important
2. Long words that could be short.
   1. a number of → many
   2. are of the same opinion → agree
   3. less frequently occurring → rare
   4. all three of the → three
   5. Give rise to → cause
   6. Due to the fact of → cause
   7. have an effect → affect
   8. based on the assumption that → if
3. Unnecessary jargon and acronyms
   1. muscular and cardiorespiratory perf.
   2. Gilomagenesis
   3. miR (unless well-known)
4. Repetitive words/phrases
   1. studies/examples
   2. illustrate/demonstrate
   3. challenges/difficulties
   4. successful solution