Tag Archives: science writing

The downward/laterward style in science writing

Posted on December 5, 2015 by

As a science writer, I don’t like the inverted pyramid but prefer the pyramid: starting with a slowly building trickle of information at the top with the best stuff coming at the bottom. Continue reading →

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Caution: This piece contains a lot of mentions of the word ‘jargon’.

Posted on January 25, 2015 by

When writing one of my first pieces for The Hindu, I remember being called out for using a lot of jargon. While the accusation itself may have been justified, the word my supervisor chose as an example of the problem … Continue reading →

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Solving mysteries, by William & Adso

Posted on December 6, 2013 by

The following is an excerpt from The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco’s debut novel from 1980. The story is set in an Italian monastery in 1327, and is an intellectually heady murder mystery doused in symbolism and linguistic ambivalence. Two … Continue reading →

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Is anything meant to remain complex?

Posted on September 30, 2012 by

The first answer is “No”. I mean, whatever you’re writing about, the onus is on the writer to break his subject down to its simplest components, and then put them back together in front of the reader’s eyes. If the … Continue reading →

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SciAm’s new blog on the block!

Posted on June 12, 2012 by

Scientific American has announced the introduction of a new blog, Critical Opalescence, edited by senior editor George Musser. It will focus on the quirky and the fascinating, attempting to revive interest in forgotten papers, explain usually complex phenomena, and generally potter … Continue reading →

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