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OPINION

A systematic approach to improving writing skills

Yateendra Joshi

A recent note by Jacobs et al. 1 (based on ble gains in muscles after about three and Science Writing (selections from
quantitative data) in Current Science months of regular exercise; I suppose it magazines) or anthologies such as From
mentions that ‘many authors of the rejec- is reasonable to expect a detectable im- Creation to Chaos: Classic Writings in
ted papers have fundamental difficulties provement in writing after reading, say, Science2 and Best Science Writing: Read-
in their writing and presentation skills’. about twenty books. ings and Insights 9. Just as regular
Nobody is expected to learn a psycho- Massive exposure to correct patterns is weight-training makes it possible to han-
motor skill, such as riding a bicycle, in fact the most natural way of acquiring dle heavier weights, the earlier reading
swimming or driving without practice. a language. Empirical evidence supports prepares students for more serious stuff.
The same goes for learning to play a mu- this: ‘Pattern associator memories are Richard Dawkins’s average sentence
sical instrument or achieving a level of highly sensitive to changes in the statis- runs a little over 20 words, Rachel Car-
competence in any sport. Yet, even the tics of their input. When given a small son’s Silent Spring takes it to 23 words,
scientific community appears to equate number of oddball items, they memorize while the majestic Discovery of India is
competency in writing with college edu- their patterns individually; when given a close to 23.5 words per sentence. [Note:
cation, if not literacy, in bemoaning the torrent of items sharing a pattern, they go Amazon.com offers such information for
poor writing skills of postgraduate students with the numbers, extract the pattern, and many books; on the webpage of a book,
and young researchers. Guided practice, run roughshod over the individual items, after ‘Product Details’, look for ‘Inside
controlled progression from basic skills gradually reacquiring them over many the Book’ and then under Text Stats.]
to advanced skills, regular evaluation and subsequent bouts of training’ 4. I suggest Recommendations for non-science books
watching master performers are routine a diet of light reading to absorb the basic are purely subjective: I favour Bill Bry-
to any systematic, long-term effort to patterns of English and to imbibe correct son (winner of the Aventis prize for his A
acquire a skill. Writing is no exception. grammar. Books for the young (Enid Short History of Nearly Everything), Conan
Based on my experience as a researcher, Blyton, Capt. W. E. Jones and Richmal Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books, Alistair
scientific copy-editor and teacher, I Crompton are some authors that come to Cooke, Gerald Durrell, George Mikes,
should like to prescribe, in the manner of mind) and pulp fiction suit the purpose Somerset Maugham and Mark Twain. I
an old-fashioned general practitioner, a very well and so does the recently am sure other readers will include Isaac
‘mixture’ to all those who aspire to be launched Quick Reads series from Brit- Asimov, Jared Diamond, George Gamow,
better writers. The mixture comprises (a) ain. The guidelines for authors of Quick and Robert M. Sapolsky. However, the
extensive reading, (b) a modest amount Reads are instructive: short words of no staple reading for most researchers is re-
of progressively difficult writing assign- more than two syllables, short sentences search papers in their disciplines, and if
ments, (c) revising one’s writing, and (d) that average 15 words, short paragraphs that reading is to contribute to better
developing a concern for readers. no longer than 10 lines, chapters no more writing, a good starting point is a paper
The single most effective way to be a than 7 pages and short books (about 130 titled ‘How to read a scientific article’10.
better writer is to be a diligent reader. As pages or 20,000 words) to ‘encourage The pattern of examinations in India
Bernard Dixon puts it, ‘... read great millions of adults to read their first book’5. increasingly favours the so-called objec-
prose ... the lessons of style, clarity, From this, the aspirants move on to light tive questions, which make no demands on
rhythm, balance and syntax will sink in fiction of their choice, from the much- expository writing; poor writing skills,
by subconscious osmosis’ 2. It is possible, vilified Mills & Boon to current favour- therefore, pass unnoticed. Any prescrip-
simply through massive exposure, to ab- ites such as John Grisham (average sen- tion for better writing, therefore, must
sorb typical patterns of English sentences tence length 10.5 words), including a include writing assignments. I suggest
and to string words together in those pat- sprinkling of older favourites such as Arthur that such assignments begin with writing
terns without any formal study of grammar. Hailey, James Hadley Chase, Alistair at least ten sentences (each at least 8
However, that volume can come only MacLean and even Harold Robbins. The words long) at random, progressing to
from books and not newspapers or news- handy ‘Very Short Introduction to’ series ten sentences on any one topic, and then
magazines. First, only books can offer from Oxford University Press, including on to rendering in the learner’s own words,
large tracts of text. Second, and more such titles as Particle Physics, Molecules a page or so from any of the books men-
important, such text is better crafted be- and Global Warming is also promising tioned above, followed by repeating the
cause its authors and editors have more and probably will go down better with exercise with any research paper from any
time than their newspaper counterparts to the authorities 6. The idea is to read racy appropriate journal. Writers of research
polish it. ‘The average adult reading speed stuff in large quantities (Hailey’s Airport papers do not have to search for suitable
for English prose text in the United States is about 160,000 words) merely as a topics and have enough material to write
seems to be around 250 to 300 words per stepping stone to the prose of masters. about them – definite advantages that are
minute’ 3. Assuming the average book to Who are the masters, then? Winners of denied to aspiring writers from other
be of 100,000 words, the average Indian the Aventis prize7, the Pulitzer prize (in walks of life – but they also lack freedom:
student is likely to take at least 8 h to the category ‘Explanatory reporting’) 8, research writing is rooted in the concrete
complete a book. More than anything authors whose work is featured in such world and not one of imagination. What
else, it is time that emerges as the major series as The Best American Science is more, scientists writing about their re-
constraint – fitness trainers promise visi- Writing and The Best American Nature search are expected to describe their

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 92, NO. 10, 25 MAY 2007 1343


OPINION
methods explicitly enough for other re- how sentences can be recast for clarity, 3. Bailey, B., 2000; http://www.keller.com/
searchers to replicate them in their own demonstrating in the process ‘a number articles/readingspeed.html
laboratories. Research writing is also of rhetorical principles that can produce 4. Pinker, S., Words and Rules: The Ingre-
constrained by two other requirements, clarity in communication without over- dients of Language, Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, London, 1999, p. 204.
namely the traditional IMRaD structure simplifying scientific issues’ and establish-
5. http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.
(introduction, materials and methods, re- ing that ‘complexity of thought need not
jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/09/nlit09.xml
sults and discussion) and the even more lead to impenetrability of expression’. 6. http://www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/
rigid formatting requirements spelt out in The last point is that effective writers 7. http://www.sciencebookprizes.com/home
such style guides as Scientific Style and are considerate to their readers, a point _welcome.htm
Format 11 and the ACS Style Guide12. particularly important in this context be- 8. http://www.pulitzer.org/
As readers, we seldom realize that the cause a great deal of scientific writing is 9. Gannon, R., Best Science Writing: Read-
good writing we see in print is the result motivated by considerations other than ings and Insights, Universities Press,
of re-writing and revising, not merely to communication. As a Current Science Hyderabad, 1991.
eliminate misprints but to make the writ- editorial once put it, ‘Writing for a lay 10. http://cbcs.med.unc.edu/howto.htm
ing easier and clearer. Students should be audience has very little social prestige 11. Scientific Style and Format, Council of
Science Editors, Reston, Virginia, 2006,
encouraged to edit one another’s writings among scientists. Students who some-
7th edn.
to see why revising is necessary and how times indulge in this enterprise are told
12. Coghill, A. M. and Garson, L. R., The
it contributes to better writing. Having that they are wasting their time and pro- ACS Style Guide: Effective Communica-
one’s writing professionally copy-edited fessors who do so are told that they have tion of Scientific Information, American
or using style checkers such as the Boeing run of out ideas for doing science’ 15. Chemical Society, Washington DC, 2006,
Simplified English Checker 13, which can As Somerset Maugham concludes his 3rd edn.
check for such common errors as missing thoughts on writing prose, he observes: 13. http://www.boeing.com/phantom/sechecker/
articles (based on count and mass distinc- ‘If you could write lucidly, simply, 14. Gopen, G. D. and Swan, J. A., Am. Sci.,
tions) and unapproved verbal auxiliaries euphoniously and yet with liveliness you 1990, 78, 550.
(passive, progressive, perfect, modals) would write perfectly: you would write 15. Gadagkar, R., Curr. Sci., 2006, 90,
serves to highlight recurring faults. Re- like Voltaire’16. It is not given to everyone 474.
16. Maugham, W. S., The Summing Up, Wil-
searchers writing about their work seldom to write like Voltaire but, given time and
liam Heinemann, London, 1938.
realize the need to organize their writing – inclination, we all can produce workman-
not only in terms of the overall structure like prose.
but also at the level of sentences – for 1. Jacobs, D., Pichappan, P. and Sarasvady,
readers who are not as familiar with the S., Curr. Sci., 2006, 91, 1605–1607.
Yateendra Joshi lives at A-1/702 Landmark
subject as the writers: The science of scien- 2. Dixon, B., From Creation to Chaos: Garden, Kalyani Nagar, Pune 411 006,
tific writing14, with examples taken from Classic Writings in Science, Basil Black- India
molecular biology and geology, shows well, Oxford, 1989. e-mail: yateendra.joshi@gmail.com

Biodiversity hotspots: Defining the indefinable?

N. Krishnankutty and S. Chandrasekaran

Nature distributes its valuable biodiver- number of species at a minimum cost is for conservation of biodiversity was first
sity unevenly across the earth’s surface. the primary goal of global organizations proposed by Myers et al. 2 in 1988. They
This variety of life on earth is in rapid concerned with conservation of biodiver- used species endemism and degree of
decline. In recent past, the field of con- sity. It is clearly an unreachable goal at threat as two basic criteria for defining
servation biology has been dominated by present due to the above-mentioned major BHSs. According to them, BHSs are
the goal of protecting the biodiversity for barriers. Another remarkable fact is that areas featuring exceptional loss of habitat.
future. Conservationists are meticulously the economic strength of the nations, espe- More precisely, to earn hotspot status, a
attempting to conserve the biodiversity cially developing countries in the tropics region must harbour 1500 or more en-
from anthropogenic erosion and ‘pre- with rich biodiversity is also weak. It has demic plant species, which are found in
natural’ extinction. However, conserva- been budgeted that the cost of conserva- that particular area but nowhere else, and
tion of biodiversity for sustainable life in tion action varies by several orders of it must have lost at least 70% of its
future is a difficult task due to the fol- magnitude from area to area; an essential original habitat, primary vegetation. By
lowing major barriers: (i) Inadequate factor that also needs greater attention1. matching these two criteria with global
data on diversity and distribution of flora In brief, lack of precise taxonomic data biodiversity distribution databases, they
and fauna across the earth, (ii) Inade- on global biodiversity and its distribu- identified 25 hotspots comprising only
quate funding for conservation efforts tion, lack of proper methodology for 1.4% of the land surface of the earth but
and research, and (iii) Confusion and con- selecting areas for conservation and in- confining as many as 44% of all species
troversies in selection of areas for conser- adequate funding are the major problems of vascular plants and 35% of all species
vation. The last barrier is a critical one today in conservation planning. of the four groups of vertebrates except
that is troubling conservationists to a great The idea of biodiversity hotspots fishes. By considering additional criteria,
extent today. Conservation of maximum (BHSs) as a solution for preferring areas viz. endemic species/area ratios for vas-

1344 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 92, NO. 10, 25 MAY 2007

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