Abstract
The purpose of scientific writing is to inform. Therefore, the attitude of the writer should be forthright; it should be sincere and straightforward. To be forthright in your writing, you have to control your tone. Tone is whatever in your language indicates the attitude that you, the writer, have towards your subject. Also, to be forthright you should select strong nouns and verbs. Nouns and verbs are the most important words in sentences. When your nouns and verbs are weak, your writing becomes lethargic.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Short words are best, and old words, when short, are best of all.
—Winston Churchill
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alley, M. (1996). Language: Being Forthright. In: The Craft of Scientific Writing. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2482-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2482-0_6
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-94766-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2482-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive