1;Preface;6 2;About the Author ;8 3;Acknowledgments;10 4;Contents;12 5;1: Introduction;16 6;2: Good Versus Poor Scientific Writing: An Orientation;18 6.1;2.1 What Is "Good" Scientific Writing?;18 6.2;2.2 The Plain Language Movement;19 6.3;2.3 The Baso Pyramid of Scientific Writing;20 6.3.1;2.3.1 Baseline;21 6.3.2;2.3.2 Style;21 6.3.3;2.3.3 Opinion;21 6.4;2.4 Common Myths and Misconceptions;22 6.4.1;2.4.1 What Are Myths and Misconceptions?;22 6.4.2;2.4.2 Long and Complicated Sentences;23 6.4.3;2.4.3 Misusing or Wasting Specific and Generic Terms;23 6.4.4;2.4.4 Reluctance to Use First-Person Pronouns Leading to Overuse of Passive Voice;24 6.4.5;2.4.5 Tendency to Turn Sharp and Powerful Verbs into Weighty Nouns;24 7;3: Words and Units: Orthography and Punctuation;25 7.1;3.1 Correct Spelling;25 7.1.1;3.1.1 Getting Words Right;25 7.1.2;3.1.2 Using Spell Checkers;26 7.2;3.2 Consistent Spelling: American English Versus British English;26 7.3;3.3 Punctuation;27 7.3.1;3.3.1 Proper Use of Punctuation Marks;27 7.3.2;3.3.2 Hyphens and Word Division;27 7.3.3;3.3.3 Punctuation Marks Indicating Emotion;29 7.3.4;3.3.4 Parentheses and Brackets;29 7.3.5;3.3.5 Periods in Titles and Academic Degrees;30 7.3.6;3.3.6 Apostrophes in Contractions;31 7.3.7;3.3.7 Nonbreaking Spaces and Hyphens;31 7.4;3.4 Shortened Word Forms in Scientific Writing;32 7.4.1;3.4.1 Types of Abbreviations;32 7.4.2;3.4.2 True Abbreviations;33 7.4.2.1;3.4.2.1 Latin Abbreviations;33 7.4.3;3.4.3 Units of Measurement;33 7.4.4;3.4.4 Acronyms and Initialisms;35 7.4.5;3.4.5 Contractions;35 7.4.6;3.4.6 Suspensions;36 7.5;3.5 Numbers;36 7.5.1;3.5.1 Expressing Numbers in Scientific Texts;36 7.5.2;3.5.2 Formats of Numbers;37 7.5.3;3.5.3 Ranges of Numbers;38 7.5.4;3.5.4 Percentages;38 7.6;3.6 Capitalization;39 7.6.1;3.6.1 Use of Capitals in Scientific English;39 7.6.2;3.6.2 Capitals in Proper Nouns (Names);39 7.6.3;3.6.3 Capitals in Titles;40 7.6.3.1;3.6.3.1 Capitalizing Hyphenated Compound Words in Titles;40 7.6.4;3.6.4 Capitals in Designations;41 7.6.5;3.6.5 Capitals in New-Age Words;41 8;4: Forming Sentences: Grammar;42 8.1;4.1 Why Battle with Grammar?;42 8.2;4.2 The Tenses in Scientific Reporting;43 8.3;4.3 Joining Statements;45 8.3.1;4.3.1 How Can the Joining of Words or Statements Cause Confusion?;45 8.3.2;4.3.2 Nonparallel Verbs;46 8.3.3;4.3.3 Nonparallel Modifiers;47 8.3.4;4.3.4 Nonparallel Prepositional Phrases;48 8.4;4.4 Subject-Verb Agreement;48 8.4.1;4.4.1 Using the Correct Verb Forms;48 8.4.2;4.4.2 Special Nouns;50 8.4.3;4.4.3 Collective Nouns;50 8.4.4;4.4.4 The Rule of Meaning;51 8.4.5;4.4.5 Verb Matching with "None" and the "Neither-Nor" Linkage;52 8.5;4.5 Syntax (Order of Words);53 8.5.1;4.5.1 Modifying Phrases;53 8.5.2;4.5.2 Position of Adverbs in Sentences;54 8.5.3;4.5.3 Position of Prepositions in Sentences;55 8.6;4.6 Dangling Participles (and Other Danglers);56 8.6.1;4.6.1 What Are Danglers?;56 8.6.2;4.6.2 Dangling Participles;56 8.6.3;4.6.3 Dangling Gerunds;58 8.7;4.7 The Relative Pronouns "Which" and "That";58 8.8;4.8 Use of "Respectively";59 8.9;4.9 Plurals of Abstractions and Attributes;60 9;5: Putting It Nicely: Style;61 9.1;5.1 What Is "Style" in the Context of Scientific Writing?;61 9.2;5.2 Active Versus Passive Voice;62 9.2.1;5.2.1 Why Argue About Active/Passive Voice?;62 9.2.2;5.2.2 Shifting Emphasis by Choosing the Voice;62 9.2.3;5.2.3 The Verb "To Be" in Copula Formulations;63 9.3;5.3 Overuse of Prepositions;63 9.4;5.4 Limiting Modifiers and Other Decorative Words;65 9.4.1;5.4.1 Excessive Adjectives, Adverbs, and Nouns;65 9.4.2;5.4.2 Modifier Strings;66 9.5;5.5 The "House Style" of Journals;67 9.6;5.6 Company-Internal Conventions of Style and Format;68 10;6: Redundancy and Jargon: Focusing on the Essentials;70 10.1;6.1 Redundancies in Scientific Reporting;70 10.2;6.2 Double Negatives;71 10.3;6.3 Tautology (Repeated and Redundant Words);71 10.4;6.4 Doubling Prepositions;72 10.5;6.5 Jargonized Writing;73 10.6;6.6 Oxymorons;74 11;7: Quoting Published Material: