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Improve your scientific, medical, and engineering writing skills with these books.
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Sure, we all learn to write growing up, but the writing training we receive through our studies is not tailored to science, medicine, engineering, or other complex technical fields. Most people studying in those areas don’t get dedicated writing training tailored to their field(s). Instead, they learn how to write by doing it as part of their studies and research (side note: we can also help here! We provide science communication tutoring as well as editing services).
Writing is a skill, so the more you work on it and practice it, the better you will get. Keep reading for our list of nine books that can help you improve your writing skills in technical fields such as science, medicine, and engineering.
If you need a tried-and-true, classic writing guide
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White
Often known simply as “Strunk and White” in technical circles, The Elements of Style is a classic for scientists and engineers who need to learn how to write. Since it’s just under 100 pages in paperback form, you can probably read it cover to cover in one sitting, but it’s meant also to be a reference on writing basics. That includes stuff like word usage, sentence and paragraph construction, grammar, mechanics, form, and spelling.
Strunk and White was written in 1918, so it’s over 100 years old! Another cool fact: the White who co-authored this book is, in fact, E.B. White, of Charlotte’s Web fame. So, if you thought it was cool that the little spider, Charlotte, liked to weave little messages into her spiderweb, this book might be for you.
If you prefer an exciting, science-themed writing textbook to help familiarize you with writing basics
Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter by Jamie Zvirzdin
If you want to learn about how to write about science while getting a deep dive into subatomic particles like quarks, leptons, and bosons, Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter is for you. Author Jamie Zvirzdin is an instructor of science writing at Johns Hopkins University, and she moonlights as a physics researcher. We previously reviewed the book on our blog, as well as interviewed Zvirzdin – read both the book review and interview here.
A Fancy Comma favorite, Subatomic Writing explores written language on all levels, from single sounds to sentences, paragraphs and whole documents. She uses a quantum physics metaphor throughout the book, which is replete with quantum physics anecdotes. She likens the interactions of subatomic particles to those of individual sounds, letters, words, and more. “Human communication, like particle physics, is complex, chaotic, confusing,” she writes. It’s a bit of a longer book at 272 pages – so, for people who don’t read a lot, it’s more of a reference guide than something you might read cover-to-cover. If you are a quantum physics fan, though, and you enjoy language metaphors, you may find it to be a great long read.
If you’re a science or engineering mind who writes a lot, but don’t consider yourself a writer
The Craft of Scientific Writing by Michael Alley
The Craft of Scientific Writing deals with the questions that scientists and engineers have when they sit down to write something technical. “When you as an engineer or scientist sit down to write, you make hundreds of decisions,” Alley starts the book in the introduction. He says that all of the decisions writers make relate to either content (what you write about), style (how you write), or form (writing rules you are expected to follow). He talks about all three of these and discusses decisions that range from minor stylistic ones (such as how to use a comma properly) to more high-level issues (such as how to use emphasis in writing).
Communicating complex technical topics comes with its own set of challenges, which Alley has covered. He talks about knowing your audience, balancing the need to be precise with the need to be clear, organizing your writing, using writing time efficiently, even things like writing emails. He also has several appendices which deal with grammar, punctuation, usage, and format. At 225 pages as a hardcover book, The Craft of Scientific Writing is pretty substantial, but could be a good reference for your science and engineering writing endeavors.
If you’re writing about science in English and it’s not your first language
Science Research Writing: A Guide for Non-Native Speakers of English by Hilary Glasman-Deal
Writing about science in English but still working on improving your knowledge of the language? Science Research Writing by Hilary Glasman-Deal is for you. The book is the perfect combination of didactic grammar lessons for English language learners alongside advice for effective scientific writing. Heads up, though, US-based writers: the book is written in British English. Still, if you are looking for a book that caters specifically to people who speak English as a second language, Glasman-Deal’s book might be for you. Glasman-Deal has 30+ years of experience in teaching English to students, with 15 of those years at Imperial College London, and she has also helped her students write papers and theses.
Each unit of the book has a “writing task” section for you to practice writing. Every unit corresponds to one section of a scientific paper: introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and abstract, in that order. Yes, the abstract is last – I’ve often heard professors recommend writing the abstract last, even though it comes first in the academic science paper. At the end of the book, there are a few helpful appendix sections for reference about abbreviations used in science writing, helpful verbs to use, and more.
If you just want to learn how to communicate science better
We love Effective Science Communication because it actually talks about science writing in the greater context of science communication. We’ve previously read and reviewed the book. We have also interviewed one of the authors, Sam Illingworth, who is a professor and science communication trainer. He’s also written a book on using poetry to communicate science, and rumor has it that, as of this writing, he is working on yet another book. An atmospheric scientist by training, Illingworth enjoys poetry as a science expression medium to tackle climate challenges. The book’s other author, Grant Allen, is a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Manchester.
Effective Science Communication doesn’t just talk about publishing in academic journals and obtaining research funding. It also features a section on improving presentation skills for a scientific audience, as well as a chapter about communicating science to the general public. It’s a great book to have around if you’re an undergraduate or graduate student seeking to sharpen your scientific writing skills and become a practitioner of science communication (often shortened as SciComm).
If you’re working on a paper, presentation, or a poster
The authors of Communicate Science Papers, Presentations, and Posters Effectively do not mince words when critiquing the scientific writing out there: “Books, articles, and courses teach us how to write better, but we are not reading them. Many articles drown in passive voice, rely on crutch/zero verbs (use, perform, make, do, carry out, conduct) and introduce sentences with phrases like “It is seen that.”
“Writing conventions incite visceral reactions (arguments),” write the authors in the intro; by the time you get to the end of this 284-page book, your writing-related conflict resolution skills will be exceptional. The book starts out with an explainer on scientific publishing, next discusses best practices in writing, then talks about reporting data and creating graphs and tables. By the end of Chapter 6, “Paper Essentials,” you have all the information you need to write a scientific paper. Ensuing chapters cover presentations, posters, and avoiding plagiarism.
If you like telling stories
Presenting Science Concisely by Bruce Kirchoff
Presenting Science Concisely is another book we read, liked, and can therefore recommend highly. Read our review of the book here.
The book talks about communicating science, providing advice for people working on papers, presentations, or posters, using a storytelling model. Kirchoff argues that scientific research has the same structure as a story, such as a hero’s journey.
If you are in the biomedical sciences
The Biomedical Writer is a joint venture by an ophthalmology professor and a science writing professor. It covers the standard stuff you’d expect to read about in a science writing book, like how to make your writing more readable and communicate more effectively overall. It also handles the stuff unique to the sciences, such as working with negative results or submitting your writing to journals.
One unique thing about The Biomedical Writer, perhaps rooted in the fact that it was written by people with a life sciences background, is that it takes a human-first and “user experience” approach to biomedical writing. The book considers the writer’s audience of readers as the consumer and “user” of the words written. Readers are taught how to write in a way that is optimized for their readers’ brains, and even get a little primer in how reading works in the brain. There is also a section on collaborative writing, which is great if you are working on research with a large team of scientists. At 214 pages, The Biomedical Writer is a great read for those interested in the neuroscience and psychology of reading.
If you are writing an NIH R01 grant
How to Write a Competitive R01 Grant by Sudhansu Dey and Katie Gerhardt
If you’re a scientist trying to make your mark on the world, you know that grant funding makes science possible. Grant funding comes from a successful written grant application that communicates your research clearly. In the life sciences, the National Institutes of Health’s R01 grant is one of the standard grants that you can apply to for funding a multi-year project as an independent scientist with your own lab. The R01 is also the oldest grant mechanism at the NIH! If you’re one of those people who is working on becoming an independent scientist and have never written a grant before, this book can help you. If you’re an undergraduate, graduate student or postdoctoral fellow helping your advisor with a grant, the book might be a useful resource.
As an honorable mention, we also recommend checking out Grant Writing for Dummies by Beverly Browning, by the way. Perhaps it’s just us, but sometimes, the most simplistic explanations make the most sense. Maybe we should work on writing an “Explain it to me like I am 5” guide to grant writing…
Fancy Comma, LLC can help you with science writing
If you’re looking for FREE resources to improve your science writing skills, check out Fancy Comma, LLC’s resources page! We can also help you improve your science writing skills through science writing tutoring or edit something you’ve already written – whether you’re working on a scientific or medical research paper, grant, poster, thesis, or something else. Get in touch!
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