DataDan
Mama says he's bona fide
That may seem like a bit of a non-sequitur, but he has some excellent advice. I expect there are a few BARF tech writers who will appreciate it.
Excerpt from Nature article:
Here's the full article as a PDF from Nature.
Excerpt from Nature article:
Novelist Cormac McCarthy's tips on how to write a great science paper
For the past two decades, Cormac McCarthy--whose ten novels include The Road, No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian--has provided extensive editing to numerous faculty members and postdocs at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) in New Mexico...
Van Savage, a theoretical biologist and ecologist... had lively weekly lunches with McCarthy. They worked to condense McCarthy's advice to its most essential points so that it could be shared with everyone. The following are more of McCarthy's words of wisdom...
It continues with another dozen nuggets. Notably for Seinfeld fans, there's this:For the past two decades, Cormac McCarthy--whose ten novels include The Road, No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian--has provided extensive editing to numerous faculty members and postdocs at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) in New Mexico...
Van Savage, a theoretical biologist and ecologist... had lively weekly lunches with McCarthy. They worked to condense McCarthy's advice to its most essential points so that it could be shared with everyone. The following are more of McCarthy's words of wisdom...
- Use minimalism to achieve clarity. While you are writing, ask yourself: is it possible to preserve my original message without that punctuation mark, that word, that sentence, that paragraph or that section? Remove extra words or commas whenever you can.
- Decide on your paper's theme and two or three points you want every reader to remember. This theme and these points form the single thread that runs through your piece. The words, sentences, paragraphs and sections are the needlework that holds it together. If something isn't needed to help the reader to understand the main theme, omit it.
- Limit each paragraph to a single message. A single sentence can be a paragraph. Each paragraph should explore that message by first asking a question and then progressing to an idea, and sometimes to an answer. It's also perfectly fine to raise questions in a paragraph and leave them unanswered.
- And don’t use exclamation marks to call attention to the significance of a point. You could say 'surprisingly' or 'intriguingly' instead, but don’t overdo it.
Here's the full article as a PDF from Nature.
