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5.1 What's the buzz

1) Look at the three quotations below. How do they relate to writing a research paper?
Read over your compositions , and wherever you meet with a passage which
you think is particularly fi ne , strike it out .

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), English writer

A good scientifi c theory should be explicit to a barmaid .

Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), British / New Zealand chemist and physicist

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the neces-
sary can speak .
Hans Hoffman (1880–1966), German-born American abstract expressionist
painter

I don ’ t want to bother readers unless I think it is important .

Barbara Kingsolver (b. 1955), American novelist

Human beings are not logical mechanisms into which information can be fed .

Bruce Cooper, author of Writing Technical Reports

2) How much of what you write in a paper, email, letter etc do you think is redun-

dant or could at least be expressed more concisely?
3) Think of at least three advantages of writing clearly and with the fewest words

possible.
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The underlying message of this chapter is:

• Don’t think that using complex terms will make you sound more intelligent.

• Write using the simplest most direct terminology.
• Cut everything that is not essential – this will let your key ideas stand out

(be seen) more easily.