Duke Graduate School Scientific Writing Resource
  • Introduction
    • Science Writing vs. Scientific Writing
  • Lesson 1: Subjects and Actions
  • Lesson 2: Cohesion, Coherence, and Emphasis
  • Lesson 3: Concision and Simplicity
  • The Next Level
    • Passive Voice in Scientific Writing
    • Metadiscourse
    • Dangling Modifiers in Scientific Writing
    • Overused Words
      • Respectively
    • Beg the Question
    • Dash v. Hyphen
  • Quick Tips
    • William’s Ten Principles for Writing Clearly
    • Orwell’s 6 Rules
    • Revising your Manuscript in 7 Steps
  • Smart Revising
  • Fun Examples
    • More Examples
  • Resources
  • Disclaimer

Quick Tips

If you’re just looking for some quick advice, or some revision techniques to help get your manuscript out soon, here are a few summary resources.

  • Williams’ Ten Principles for Writing Clearly
  • Orwell’s Six Rules
  • Revising your manuscript in 7 steps

  • About This Guide

    This guide to scientific writing was originally created in 2010-2011 by Nathan Sheffield for the Duke University Graduate School and funded by a Duke University Graduate School Teaching mini-grant. This current site is maintained by the Duke Graduate School. If you have questions about this site, please contact gradschool@duke.edu.

    The content in this guide carries an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. You may share or adapt the material according to the terms of the license, including providing attribution to “Duke University Graduate School” and providing a link to this site (sites.duke.edu/scientificwriting/).

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