Customer Reviews

Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers. Second Edition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an exceptional book. It walks the reader through all stages of writing a biomedical paper, and exemplifies the saying that "clear writing means clear thinking". Even after having written or co-written perhaps 40 biomedical papers and grants, I found this book an eye-opener. I've worked with some excellent writers and re-writers on biomed papers, but Zeiger's book lays out for all of us what some top writers may do by instinct. She starts with word choice, sentence structure, then alternative paragraph structures. She practically shows you the nature of language and thought. She goes through the right way to produce biomed papers - if you ever thought the great, efficient writers had a rule book -you- never got, THIS is the rule book. If you ever had an introduction that sounded like the abstract, or a results sections that was unwieldy, or a discussion section that seemed to repeat the introduction - Zeiger lays out the hidden rules that most people would want to follow. Following her rules, from sentence to paragraph to section, creates a paper that invokes an instinctive sense of clarity in the reader. Many times I had the "Aha!" feeling. The book should be very useful for all kinds of clear writing, including research grants. I never took one of those "scientific writing" classes because I felt smart and fluent and the classes seemed pedestrian. If those classes had used this book, I would have been way ahead to have discovered this information twenty years ago.

Mimi Zeiger has written a truly useful book about medical writing. Many specialized writing books are just collections of general writing rules in disguise.

This books focuses on mechanics and methods of writing specifically for the medical sciences. Full of hands-on techniques, methods, and exercises geared to analyzing and improving your writing.

I'm an experienced technical writer yet still found this book quite useful.
Five stars!

Very good book for beginners and experienced researchers! I haven't come across any other book that actually describes how you should write a biomedical paper. The only critique is that the examples used are too technical for non-biomedical researchers, this makes it hard to understand the examples. But even if you do not have a biomedical background you will learn a lot from this book.

Authoritative guide on how to write. I have never seen a more comprehensive book on how to write clearly and write well. I would give it 6 stars if I could. Even non-scientists should read this. (Having said that, though, scientists IN PARTICULAR should read this - hint, hint.)

we used this book as part of a class i was taking. i am so glad that the professor picked this one out!
the beginning of the book gives you the building blocks, and the later chapters help you put it all together. i realized that a lot of people who help you with proofreading don't really look for some of the organizational items that the author stresses.
i reccommend this book for any graduate student, as well as anyone else who is looking to improve their writing. it might also be a good tool for mentors to use to work with their students.

This is an outstanding book on how to improve the writing of biomedical research papers. It is well organized, well presented and extremely helpful.

I bought several writing books at the same time and this one stands out because not only is it a "how-to" book, but it is a workbook and mostly consists of exercises. There is plenty of space in the book to do the exercises right in the book. This is extremely important, because you can read about the rules for improving your writing, but you really don't learn how to use them until you practice rewriting actual sentences.

Significantly, this book has dramatically improved my ability to edit my own papers, which has been one of my nagging writing weaknesses.

I am a graduate student and had a difficult time writing my first paper. I bought this book and it clarified all the hidden rules that you are "supposed to just know." Buy this book, then set aside time to actually read it!

I had been really struggling to write my thesis, and my Supervisor recommended this helpful guide. Although directed toward research paper writing, the principles are transferable to thesis writing. It's very example based, and you get to practice new concepts as you go. It's good to have Mimi on my team!

Excellent book. It will improve your scientific writing. Very useful guide. Clear and concise. Helpful exercises. Much better than other books on scientific writing that I've seen.

I was able to check out this book and "From research to manuscript: ..." by Michael Jay Katz. This book is more detailed and provides the answers to what really goes into producing a good manuscript. If your job is "publish or perish," and you want to be more efficient at publishing, this is an essential manual for you to have.