Table Of ContentA Short Guide to Writing
about Chemistry
HOLLY B. DAVIS
Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching, and Learning
Department of English
Smith College
Department of Chemistry
University of Massachusetts Amherst
JULIAN F. TYSON
Department of Chemistry
University of MassachusettsAmherst
JAN A. PECHENIK
Biology Department
Tufts University
Longman
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holly Davis
A short guide to writing about chemistry / Holly Davis, Julian Tyson. Jan A.
Pechenik,—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-55060-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-205-55060-6 (alk. paper)
1. Chemistry—Authorship. 2. Communication in chemistry. 3. Technical writing. I.
Davis, Holly, 1951– II. Tyson, Julian, 1949– III. Title.
QD8.5.P43 2009
808’.06654—dc22
2009040894
Copyright © 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher. Printed in the United States.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10—CRW—12 11 10 09
ISBN 13: 978-0-205-55060-9
ISBN 10: 0-205-55060-6
Contents
PREFACE xiii
PART I
General Advice about Writing and Reading
about Chemistry 1
1—WRITING: A THRESHOLD SKILL 2
What Do Chemists Write about and Why? 2
The Keys to Success 4
Ten Strategies for Preparing Your First Draft 5
Strategy 1. Work to understand your sources 5
Strategy 2. Think about why you are writing before you
begin and as you write 5
Strategy 3. Write in anticipation of discovery 5
Strategy 4. Write to illuminate, not to impress 6
Strategy 5. Use sources responsibly 6
Strategy 6. Use your own words; do not quote
from sources 6
Strategy 7. Show rather tell. Support all statements of
fact or opinion with evidence 6
Strategy 8. Always distinguish fact from possibility 7
Strategy 9. Write to show that you can “think like
a chemist” 7
Strategy 10. Allow time for revision 7
iii
iv CONTENTS
Ten Strategies for Revising and Editing:
Getting to Your Final Draft 8
Strategy 1. Make sure you say what you mean to say 8
Strategy 2. Use transitional words and phrases to keep the
reader moving forward 8
Strategy 3. Avoid using pronouns likeit, this, and they
without clear antecedents, that is, without clarifying what
such pronouns refer to 8
Strategy 4. Don’t make readers work harder than they have
to; do the work for the readers 9
Strategy 5. Eliminate throat clearing 9
Strategy 6. Avoid a too heavy reliance on weak verbs, such as
to beandto use 10
Strategy 7. Excise unnecessary prepositions 11
Strategy 8. Use passive and active voice effectively 11
Strategy 9. Ensure that your writing is gender neutral 12
Strategy 10. Handle electronic files carefully and
responsibly 12
Rules and Conventions: The Easy Stuff 13
1. Follow rules from the American Chemical Society about
abbreviation 13
2. Observe the conventions of the American Chemical
Society about capitalization 13
3. Pay attention to the discipline-specific conventions of
chemistry regarding hyphens and suffixes 14
4. Pay attention to form and format 14
The Essential Last Pass: Proofreading 14
Do Not Depend on Your Computer to Do Your Work
forYou 15
Checklist for Writing about Chemistry 16
CONTENTS v
2—GENERAL ADVICE ON READING AND TAKING
NOTES 18
Why Read and What to Read 18
Effective Reading 19
Effective Note-Taking and Note-Organizing 21
Reading Data: Plumbing the Depths of Figures
and Tables 22
Reading Text: Summarize as You Go 25
Take Notes in Your Own Words 27
Split-Page Note-Taking: A Can’t-Fail System 30
Final Thoughts on Note-Taking: Document Your
Sources 31
Checklist for Reading and Taking Notes 33
3—CITING SOURCES AND LISTING REFERENCES 34
Citing Sources 34
Some Guidelines for Citing Sources in Chemistry 36
Preparing the References Section 42
Listing the References—General Rules 42
Format for Journal Articles 43
Format for Books 44
Format for Internet Sources 45
Format for a Laboratory Manual or Handout 46
Format for Information Received from Your Instructor 47
A Sample References Section 47
References 48
A Word or Two about Italicsand Bold Type 48
Reference-Management Software 49
Checklist for Citing Sources 49
Checklist for Preparing the References Section 50
vi CONTENTS
4—REVISING 51
Why Revise? 51
Revising for Content 52
Make Sure Every Sentence Says Something Worth
Saying 52
Show Rather Than Tell 54
Be Cautious in Drawing Conclusions but Not
OverlySo 55
Ensure That Your Writing Is Self-Sufficient 56
Revising for Clarity 57
Tip #1 Anticipate the Needs of Your Reader 57
Tip #2 Avoid Overusing Acronyms and Abbreviations 58
Tip #3 Keep the Reader Moving Forward 58
Tip #4 Beware of Modifiers and Their Perils 60
Tip #5 Avoid Ambiguity: the Dangers of It, This, They,
Them,and Other Pronouns 63
Tip #6 Revise for Parallelism 65
Revising for Completeness 66
Do Not Assume the Reader Knows What You Mean 66
Do the Work for the Reader: Avoid Using Etc 67
Checklist for Revising 68
5—EDITING FOR CONCISION AND ACS STYLE 70
Editing 70
Editing for Gender-Neutral Language 70
Avoid Using Masculine Nouns to Refer to Males and
Females 71
Avoid Using the Masculine Pronouns (He, His, and Him) to
Refer to Both Males and Females 71
CONTENTS vii
Editing for Concision 73
First Commandment: Eliminate Throat Clearing 73
Second Commandment: Eliminate Unnecessary
Prepositions 76
Third Commandment: Avoid Weak Verbs 77
Fourth Commandment: Use Passive and Active Voice
Effectively 79
When to Use Active Voice 81
When to Use Passive Voice 82
Editing for American Chemical Society Style: Some
Guidelines 84
Abbreviations and Acronyms 84
Capitalization for Chemists 86
Hyphens 87
Spacing 89
Spelling 90
Chemistry-Specific Conventions 92
Chemical Elements and Formulas 92
Special Symbols 94
Quotation Marks 94
Conclusion 95
Correctness: The Conventions of Standard
Written English 95
Checklist for Editing 95
PART II
Guidelines for Specific Tasks 97
6—KEEPING LABORATORY NOTEBOOKS 98
The Role of Laboratory Instruction 98
viii CONTENTS
The Teaching Laboratory Notebook 99
What to Record 100
Pre-lab Assignments and Preparation 102
Examples of Notebook Entries 102
Making Drawings 107
Computers in Labs 107
The Research Laboratory Notebook 107
Checklist for the Laboratory Notebook 110
7—WRITING LABORATORY REPORTS 111
The Role of Laboratory Instruction 111
Writing Reports of Teaching-Laboratory
Experiments 112
Composition of the Report 113
Title and Authors 114
Experimental Section 114
Ten Guidelines for Writing the Experimental
Section 114
Results Section 117
Tables 119
Figures 120
Dealing with Spreadsheet Software Output 120
Discussion and Conclusions Section 123
Errors in Chemistry Experiments 124
Introduction 127
Abstract 129
Acknowledgments and References 130
Checklist for a Laboratory Report 131
