How not to write well

A tongue-in-cheek story about clarity, conciseness and context.

Pep Pàmies
Chief Editor, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Research

Being in front of a blank page can be both exciting and daunting; often, this is followed by procrastination. One thing is certain though: there will be revisions. It is then best to get on with it and rush the first draft; it can always be improved later.

Writing a scientific paper doesn’t require storytelling abilities. Conveying hard-won scientific facts should instead be done in a form that appeals to the expert; if it puts off the beginner, then so be it. In truth, there is no need to sugar-coat a great deal of facts with a story. How facts are linked to each other and interpreted as a whole is for the reader to work out.

All reports start with a title — the first chance to impress. There are three easy ways to come up with a suitable heading: make it long, fill it with jargon and empty words, and overstate the claims or purpose. Here is an example: ‘On an overarching framework utilizing solely specialized standards that expedites unprecedented and unparalleled applicability opportunities’. The recipe is clear: vagueness, low information density and exaggeration of significance. You will get noted.

There are of course more opportunities to win due attention. The next is the abstract. Again, it is easier to write a lofty synopsis: the passive voice should be overused; the importance of the work ought to be emphasized by using grandiose terms such as ‘paradigm shift’, ‘striking finding’ and ‘general platform’; as many details as possible ought to be included; and everything that is new must be noted as such (by using ‘new’, ‘novel’ and ‘for the first time’).

Avoiding reader dullness should be a priority. For this, take a lesson from the demands of brain games: deciphering real meaning, connecting the dots, guessing causality and prompting dictionary use. For example, do not be shy about using multiple acronyms; they are easy to remember, in particu
如何写得不好

一个关于清晰度，简洁性和背景的开玩笑的故事。

佩普·帕米斯
《自然研究》自然生物医学工程主编

在空白页面前既令人兴奋又令人生畏;通常，这之后是拖延。但有一件事是肯定的：会有修订。然后，最好继续工作并匆忙起草初稿;它总是可以在以后改进。

写一篇科学论文不需要讲故事的能力。相反，传达来之不易的科学事实应以吸引专家的形式进行;如果它让初学者失望，那就这样吧。事实上，没有必要用一个故事来粉饰大量的事实。事实如何相互联系并作为一个整体进行解释，是读者要弄清楚的。

所有报告都以标题开头 - 这是给人留下深刻印象的第一次机会。有三种简单的方法可以想出一个合适的标题：让它变长，用行话和空话填充它，并夸大声明或目的。这里有一个例子：“在一个总体框架上，仅利用专门的标准，加速了前所未有的和无与伦比的适用性机会”。秘诀很明确：含糊不清，信息密度低，重要性夸大。你会被注意到的。

当然，还有更多机会赢得应有的关注。接下来是摘要。同样，写一个崇高的概要更容易：被动语态应该被过度使用;应该通过使用诸如“范式转变”，“引人注目的发现”和“一般平台”等宏大的术语来强调工作的重要性;应包括尽可能多的细节;所有新事物都必须这样注明（通过使用“新”，“新颖”和“第一次”）。

避免读者沉闷应该是首要任务。为此，从大脑游戏的需求中吸取教训：破译真实含义，连接点，猜测因果关系并提示字典使用。例如，不要羞于使用多个首字母缩略词;它们很容易记住，在部分