The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science by Scott L. Montgomery, University of Chicago Press, 拢10.50/$15, ISBN 0226534855 Reviewed by James Kingsland
鈥淲E WISH to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). The structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest鈥︹��
Thus began James Watson and Francis Crick鈥檚 shocking paper in 1953: 鈥渟hocking鈥� not because it revealed to the world the double-helix structure of DNA, but because it broke nearly every rule of cold, dispassionate scientific discourse. It didn鈥檛 follow the IMRAD format of Introduction, Methods, Results, Analysis, Discussion; it was cheeky, almost cocky; and it was littered with grammatical errors and 鈥渞edundant鈥� phrases. But as Scott Montgomery points out in Communicating Science, the paper is compelling and effective. It has brevity, clarity and a logical structure. It鈥檚 a triumph of communication.
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Montgomery wants scientists to cast off the straitjacket of convention when they write for other scientists, or at least to ask a friend to loosen the ties. He covers a huge amount of ground, from papers and review articles to book reviews, technical reports, presentations and online publishing. He has some excellent practical advice for nervous publishing virgins with writer鈥檚 block, as well as encouragement for more experienced writers flirting coyly with metaphor and the occasional rhetorical flourish.
He even finds space for some level-headed tips for fellow researchers who have to deal with those naughty people who report science in newspapers and magazines. Don鈥檛 get too hot under the collar about relatively trivial inaccuracies in their stories, he cautions. We need them, he says, just as much as they need us.