Writing science in plain English /

Greene, a biologist and educator, offers readers an integral guide to writing clear and concise scientific documents. She presents 12 principles for authors to improve their writing, ranging from understanding one's audience (chapter 2) to paragraph design and arrangement (chapters 10 and 11). The various chapter titles reflect the book's useful content: "Tell a Story" (chapter 3); "Favor the Active Voice" (chapter 4); "Choose Your Words with Care" (chapter 5); "Omit Needless Words" (chapter 6); "Old Information and New Information" (chapter 7); and "Make Lists Parallel" (chapter 8). By offering in-text examples of both good and bad (in some cases, nearly incomprehensible) scientific writing, the author illustrates her writing principles and how to work through them to improve one's own writing. She follows her own advice, presenting these principles in the same clear, concise manner that her book suggests scientific writers should use. Overall, this is a great resource for anyone preparing to embark on scientific writing--whether a paper for class or a research article submitted for publication. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty. J. K. Oleen Kansas State University