Customer Reviews

The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading a review in New Scientist magazine I got excited about this book as I am currently writing Ph.D. thesis. I did not get exactly what I expected.
The book gives a good overview of the different types of writing a scientist is expected to do and gives high level advice on each area. But that's pretty much all the books seems to do. It's as if you were to sit down with someone with a lot of writing experience and they gave you some high level advice.
What the book lacks is specific advice and tips on what works. At many points it feels too vague. While it has examples where the author improves a piece of writing, the examples often fail to give you ideas on how to improve your own writing.
That said, I did get a couple of ideas from the book for my writing, but I felt it took some work to extract them from the book which at times just felt like a rambling commentary.
My recommendation is that it's not a book worth having in a personal bookcase, but it may be worth borrowing it from a library.

Montgomery's guide deals primarily with higher level issues in science writing, at least in the first sections. However, he does follow his own advice in going from the general to the specific when he discusses particular forms of science writing, the use of graphics, and oral presentations. Montgomery has useful things to say at every turn, but I found the core strength of the book to be how he solidly and clearly gets across the idea that "true elegance in science resides in simplicity and restraint." Much of the higher level discussion deals with writing well (proficient functional communication) versus writing very well (creatively, within the constraint of restraint). Montgomery stresses the importance of reading well to writing well, and gives suggestions on how to become a better critical reader. Be forewarned: this guide does not deal with grammar, syntax or style.

I read this book because I am an applied mathematician who needs to communicate results to biologists. While writing mathematics is not explicitly covered in this book, and there are major difference between scientific writing and mathematics writing, I do believe the major tenets of this guide will be useful to applied mathematicians of most any stripe.

In the realm of scientific research, technical writing skills are necessary for effective communication of ideas and results. This book is not the typical "how-to" guide to technical writing and grammar for the novice. Instead, it is a practical book packed with useful insights from an experienced scientific writer. The numerous examples of writing styles and graphics are clear and well-illustrated. Each chapter addresses important concepts in fundamental areas, such as proposal preparation, manuscript revision, and oral presentation. This is the sort of book to buy and keep as a reference as the need arises.

This is a book for experienced scientist/writers interested in becoming excellent scientist/writers. For this, the author prescribes a rigorous course of critical reading, selection of writing models, and imitation. It offers little in the way of practical suggestions for the beginner, almost nothing on basic style and syntax, and nothing on how to stay motivated through the long slog of the Ph.D. thesis. (For these purposes, let me suggest "10 Lessons in Style, Clarity and Grace" by Williams, "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, or "How to Write A Lot" by Silva)

However, Montgomery discusses intelligently the distinct "scientific voice." He has insightful things to say about each of the various forms of scientific writing. I particularly appreciated his discussion of review articles; he pointed out that reviews can be organized around experimental results, theoretical concepts, the history of a field or method, among other things. This discussion helped me refine my thinking enough to write a solid outline for a current review project of mine.

Although his official prescription for becoming an excellent writer may require more commitment than many are willing to make, there is still much insight here for scientists seeking to improve upon their functional, but basic, writing skills.

The book is good to get an overall idea of the scientific writing. However, it lacks more specific and usable strategies, advices and tips for the scientific writing process.
For general writing strategies I would reccomend "Writing FAST" by Jeff Bollow. It helped me a lot in writing my PhD thesis in EE.

This book is less about the mechanics of writing and more about how to best approach writing. This book has helped me to develop good strategies for developing my writing skills.

This book has fulfilled the requirements I needed it for, predominantly in my English class. The writer is witty although the subject is very dry. I would recommend it if your writing skills need to be brushed up on.