I discuss the advantages of writing technical documents in plain text. And I give you resources to learn how to do it.

Blair Fix

As a scientist, I spend much of my time writing. Over the years I’ve experimented with a panoply of writing tools. This week I thought I’d share what I’ve learned. While you can ultimately write on any device that records your words, a good tool makes writing less painful. For a lot of people,
<em>
 the
</em>
writing tool is Microsoft Word (or some similar word processor). If it works for you, great.

Why and How I Write Scientific Documents in Plain Text

I have a confession: I’m a recovering academic writer. Here I share resources that have helped my recovery.

Hello, my name is Blair Fix. I'm a recovering academic writer.

Let me explain. I'm convinced that a major part of grad school is
learning to decipher academic prose. Let's face it --- academic writing
is usually bad. It's dense. It's jargon filled. It's often monotonous.
In short, academic writing begs the reader not to read it.

So a big part of grad school is learning how to read prose that was
designed not to be read. This takes great effort and a healthy dose of
masochism. If you've learned how to read academese, I commend you.

Having learned how to read academic prose, the next step in grad school
is to learn how to *write* this way yourself. Writing like fellow
academics signals that you're ready to join the guild. Your lofty ideas
belong in the academic pantheon.

I'll use myself as an example. During my master's degree, I did lots of
academic signalling. Check out my [master's
thesis](https://thesiscommons.org/e74ng){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. It's a dense fog of verbiage that's almost unreadable.

So you finish grad school. Congratulations! You've learned to read and
write like an academic. What's next?

*Recovery.*

Take a hard look at your writing. Is it designed to be *read*? Or is it
designed to be *cited*? If it's the latter, then you need recovery. You
need to unlearn the bad habits you acquired in grad school. Rather than
write for the guild, you must learn how to write prose that is
intelligible to the non-expert.

As a recovering academic writer, I've spent the last few years
(re)learning how to write well. Below is a list of resources that have
helped me. I hope they aid your recovery as well.

### Writing guides for recovering academic writers

**1. *[The Elements of
Style](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33514.The_Elements_of_Style){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}* by Strunk and White**

This is the classic manual for clear writing. First published in 1920,
most of its advice is still sound. The advice that sticks with me most:
"*Omit needless words*".

Take a close look at any article that you find hard to read. You'll
probably find that many of the words are unnecessary. To recover from
academic writing, your first step should be to jettison the filler words
that clog your text. Here's Strunk and White:

> Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary
> words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that
> a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no
> unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his
> sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects
> only in outline, but that every word tell.

**2. *[Politics and the English
Language](http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}* by George Orwell**

This is George Orwell's famous rant against the prose used by those in
power. The quote that sticks with me: "In our time, political speech and
writing are largely the defence of the indefensible".

While Orwell's rant was directed at politicians (and their apologists),
it contains good advice for recovering academic writers. One tip is to
ditch pretentious vocabulary. I'm reminded of Orwell's rant whenever I
talk to people in management. Managers don't *use* things --- they
*utilize* them. And managers don't *speed up* a process --- they
*expedite* it.

I'm convinced that the purpose of this pretentious language is to signal
that you're part of a club. Managers talk differently than their
subordinates as a way to signal superiority.

I think academics writers do the same thing. I used to quickly write
down ideas in plain English. Then I would translate them into academese.
You see, the plain-written idea didn't sound important. I needed to
signal my academic pedigree by using pretentious language. Thanks in
part to Orwell, I'm recovering from this habit.

**3. *[On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing
Nonfiction](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53343.On_Writing_Well){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}* by William Zinsser**

What I like about good writing-advice books is that they *demonstrate*
good writing. Here is Zinsser making his point with clarity and force:

> Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society
> strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous
> frills and meaningless jargon.

Zinsser also does something that many writing-advice books don't. He
shows us how he's *edited* a first draft. We get to see the first copy
of a paragraph from his book, marked up with all the needless words that
Zinsser has removed. Then we get to read the clean final copy.

I also like that Zinsser stresses how difficult good writing is. In
fact, Zinsser admits that he doesn't like writing. He likes *rewriting*.
I feel the same way.

I dread writing the first draft of a new paper. It's tedious, difficult,
and filled with dead ends. But once I've finished the rough draft, I
enjoy rewriting. When you rewrite, you're clarifying your *thinking*.

**4. *[Style: Lessons in Clarity and
Grace](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39323425-style){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}* by Joseph M. Williams**

This is one of the most detailed writing-advice books that I've read.
It's full of examples and practice questions.

Williams touches on many areas of bad writing. If I had to choose one
point, it would be to avoid *nominalizations*. A 'nominalization' is
when you convert a verb to a noun. Take the clear sentence: "We
investigated the matter". To make the sentence less clear, just
nominalize the verb 'investigate'. You get: "The agency conducted an
investigation into the matter". Academic prose is littered with
nominalizations. Recovering academic writers need to ditch this habit.

Another great part of Williams' book is that he shows how to structure
sentences. No, I don't mean how to write with correct grammar. I mean
how to structure sentences so they are cohesive and accent your point.
William's advice is to begin sentences with information familiar to your
readers. You should end sentences with information that readers cannot
anticipate.

**5. *How to Write a Great Research Paper* by Simon Peyton Jones**

This writing guide is different that the ones above. It's not a book.
It's a youtube talk:

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There are so many things that I like about this talk. Jones stresses
that the job of a writer is to pass on ideas. Good writers *infect*
other hosts minds with their idea.

I also like Jones's formatting advice. First off, ditch the meta summary
at the end of your introduction. This is the sentence that says: "The
rest of this paper is structure as follows. In Section 1 we ... ".

Jones points out a dirty secret: no on ever reads this meta description.
So don't bother writing it. Instead, use *forward references*. Tell
people about your findings, and reference the sections as you go. For
instance: "We find that the first step of recovery is to admit that you
are a bad academic writer (Section 2)".

Another great point: put your literature review near the *end* of the
paper. Think about this. Before we write about our research, academic
writers bombard readers with what *other* people have said. This is
masochistic. The point of a literature review is to compare your
research with others. So why not do this *after* you've told people
about you findings? It will make your paper far more readable.

### Final Thoughts

They say that addicts don't recover until they've hit rock bottom. The
problem with academic writing is that there is no rock bottom. You can
spend your whole academic career as a bad writer with no bad
consequences. As long as you communicate successfully to your guild,
you'll do fine.

But this is a narrow-sighted way to do science. I think scientists have
a mission to spread knowledge. Yes, this means talking to other guild
members. But it also means talking to non-experts.

[John
Hawks](http://www.johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/meta/tenure-blog-prosper-2008.html){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} makes this point poignantly. If you're an academic
writer who is skeptical that you need recovery, think about Hawks'
words:

> Your education cost a lot of time for yourself and a lot of money,
> either for yourself or somebody else. Your work may have been funded
> by governments, universities, or private foundations. Your education
> may have been funded by your parents. They have asked you for nothing
> but good work. But you can repay them with more than this: you can
> explain why your work is valuable, making it clear to everyone why
> their money and your time have been well spent.

As a recovering academic writer, my goal is to write so that my parents
can understand my research. Since they read this blog, they can let me
know when I'm successful.

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Hello, my name is Blair Fix. I’m a recovering academic writer. Let me explain. I’m convinced that a major part of grad school is learning to decipher academic prose. Let’s face it — academic writing is usually bad. It’s dense. It’s jargon filled. It’s often monotonous. In short, academic writing begs the reader not to read it.  So a big part of grad school is learning how to read prose that was designed not to be read.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Why and How I Write Scientific Documents in Plain Text

Resources for Recovering Academic Writers