Clear as Mud

 

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Clear Cl assing mthat udsom e acade m ic papers seem to sw im before o ur It’ t’s s ear not surprisi surpri ng eye s — the scienti scientifi fic c literature has bec b ec om e ste adil adily y less less ac c essi essible ble ove r the p ast half-ce half-ce ntury ntury.. Can w e sto p thi this s trend, asks Jonathan Knight. Knight. here is no form of pros here prose e more difficult to understand and more tedious to read than the average scie cienti nti fi c pape paper, r,”” wrot wrote e Francis Cri Crick ck in hi s 1994 book The Astonishing Hypothesis1. Th The e observation is a caution to lay readers tempted to delve into the papers referenced

“T

readable aga readable gaii n if i f res rese earche archerrs we went nt bac back k to to school and took t ook wri wr i ti ng less lessons ons? ? Reada dabil bilii t y its it self i s not eas easy to quant quantifify y. Microsoft’s Word pr progr ogram am feat featur ures esthe Fl Fl esch Readi ading ng Ease Easesc scale, ale, whi ch measur ures esthe average ag el engt ngth h of wor words dsand sentence sentences sto cal calcul culate ate the number number of ye yea ars of educa ducatiti on neede ded d to

cal di cal diff ffii cult culty,and y,and hasde deve veloped loped a numer numer i ca call sca call e, known asLEX, LEX,to to quanti fy it i t . The sca cale le  Ame eri can He Heri ri ta tage geWo Word rd Fre Fre-is based on the Am quency Book 2, whi which ch ranks 87,00 87,000 0 words by by their fr fre eque quency ncy of us use e in te t extbooks xtbooks,, nove novels, ls, magazines and encyclopaedias from US grammar schools school si n 1969.

in t he boo the book. But the twa hesca o-disc o-dis ove ov ere rerrledgin of ing the str tructure ucture ofk.DNA was lso acknow accknowledg g what ever ever yone in science kn knows ows:: res rese earch papers can be a nightmare to read. I t wasn’t wasn’t always so. Cri ck and and othe ot hers rs of  his ge gene nerati ration, on, who bega began writ wr itii ng scie scienti nti fific c paper s in t he 1940 1940s s, ha have ve wi witn tne essed the t he tra tr ans nsformation formation of scie cienti ntifific c pros prose e. A form that was as readable readable as the the aver verage agenewspaper has, i n somefi el ds ds,, be become comea jungle of j argon that even those familiar with the territory str ugg uggle le to unders understt and. The ba balk lka ani niza zatiti on of scienc cience e i nto subsubdis di scipl ciplii ne nes s, each wi with th its i ts own voca vocabular bulary y, i s large largely ly to bla bl ame me.. Many journals jour nals are t r yin ying g to ta t ackle this thi s, produci producing ng ea easy-t y-to-r o-re ead sumsummarie mari esof pa pape pers,and rs,and li nki nking ng online onli nepa pape pers rs to web-based glos glossari es. But thes t hese appr approache oaches s tend to have have a limi ted impact, impact, whe wherea reas addressing other factors — notably writing st yle — coul could d tra tr ans nsfor form m many pa pape pers. rs.Wri Writti ng take takes spracti practice ce, ye yett i t i snot part of standard scienti cientififi c tra tr ai ni ning. ng. So could sci sci ence be become come

comprehe comprehend a document. song uch tools tool sence faill fai on se seve verralnd counts. For one, oneBut , a lsuch sent nte that walks the reader down a path to its conclusion ca can n be easi er to foll f oll ow than th an amuddl ed shor hortt sent nte ence nce.. And common words can be relatively long — technological or professor, for example — whe wh erea reas s many many te t echni chnica call term terms s are shor hortt, such asmes meson, on,ge genom nome eor glycan.

the over 30 years old,Although it rema remain ins s theranking prim ar yiswordprima wo rd-fr fre eque quency ncy referenc refe rence e. ‘T ‘The he’’ i s the most co common mmon word, wor d, with wit h ‘whooping’ ‘whooping’ in 10 10,0 ,000 00th th pla place ce. Among the scientific terms common enough to be i nclud nclude ed are are ‘ ba bacte cterr i a’ at 3,546, 3,546, near ‘pump’ ‘pum p’ and ‘fool’ ‘f ool’;; and ‘neuron’, which ra r anks 23,5 23,595 95 — about ascommon as‘di ddl ddle e’. When Whe n calcul calcula ati ng LEX LEX scores scores, Hay Haye es ignores the first 75 most common words as thes the se conta ontain in lit l ittltle e us use eful i nformati nformation. on. He then plots the‘cumulati ‘cumulative vepropor proportiti on’ on’of of each word aga agai ns nstt the t he log of itits s r ank. The cumulatitive ve propor proportiti on of, say, the 100 100th th most most common word — ‘know’ ‘k now’ — i s the perce percent nta age of  the th etext ma madeup of thewords that li l i ebe betwee tween n 75 and 100 i n the t he fr fre eque quency ncy ranking. The graph (ri (r i ght) showsth tha at the t he 1,00 1,000 0 most most common words ma make ke up about about 70% of all the wordsusedbymoth m othe erswhenspeakin speaking gto the heii r chil hildre dren n (orang ( orange e line). In contr ontra ast, the sa same words make make up only onl y 20% 20% of thos hose eused in i n the t he average aver ageNatureresearcharticl art icle e(blue (bl ueline li ne). ).

37 6

The common touch

Language experts generally agree that a better measur ure e of ac acce cessi bi bill i t y is whe wheth the er a piece piec e of wri ti ng contains contains words in co common mmon usa us age — those those that that are at at the front fr ont of the reade rea der’ r’s s mi mind, nd, r ath the er than t han t ucke ucked d awa away y in the recesses of memor memory. y.As As a general pri pr i nci nci-ple pl e, th the e gre grea ater the t he pe perce rcent nta age of common words an ar ar ti cle contains, t he easi er i t i s to comprehend. Donald Hayes, an emer emer i tu tus s prof profe essor of  sociology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New Ne w York, ha has s used this t his pri ncipl nciple e for more mor e than 20 ye years ars to analyse analysetext texts s. Heca call l s i t l exi xi-NaturePublishingGroup  ©   2003 Nature PublishingGroup

NATURE| VOL 423 | 22 MAY M AY 2003| www.nature.com/nature

 

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LEX values are generated by comparing th etext’s cur the curve vewi witt h the t he be benchmark curve cur vefor newspape news paperrs, whi which ch havea LEX LEX scor score e of ze zero. ro. The area under the text’s curve is subtracted from the area under the newspaper curve to give the LEX LEX value. Text xts s t hat use common words more frequently than newspapers have ha ve curves th tha at r i se r api pidl dly, y, givi giving ng them a l argeareaand a nega negatti vevalue; value;tthosethat are skewed towards rare words end up with a posii t ive value. pos 3

Inonafor analysis , Ha Haye ye s about tha fi cti ction f or1992 nine ni ne-ye -yea arr-olds olds scored sco red afound bout that 32t, and a tr ans nscri cript pt of farm workers workers talki talking ng to dair da ir y cows cows — “Le “ Let’s t’s go. go. Ove Overr here. here. You dummy, ove overr he here. re.” — had a va valu lue e of  59.  Scie ienc nce Scientific papers in Nature and  Sc score cored d about 30. 30.Whe When n Nature asked Hayes to repeat repeat his hi sana anall ys ysii sl ast year, year, pape paperr si n both bot h maga mag azines had r i sen to the t he mi midd-30 30s s. Thi This s t rend is i snot new: new:ii n the t he earl y 1900 1900s s, papers in  Scie  Sc ienc nceand Naturehad acce acces ssi bi bill i t y scor score es of  closeto zero zero (s ( seegraph, graph,a abover i ght) ght),, si mi mill ar to those those of news newspape paperrs such as The Daily  Telegraphand T heN ew Yor k Ti T i mes.  Alp ha be t s ou p

ien nce’s editor-in-chief  What happe happened, ned, says Scie Donald Kenne Kennedy dy,, i s that some ometiti me aft fte er the Second World World War, the number of pe people ople active in science increased dramatically, creati ng new subdi ubdis scipl ciplii nes. As th the ey ent ente ered eve verr mor more e spe peciali ciali zed fi f i el ds ds,, new voca vocabul bularari es arose. The subdisc ubdiscii pli ne nes s of biol biology ogy are among the wors worstt for f or ja j argon. I n the th e pa pas st 20 yea ye ars, i mmu mmunol nologists ogists have have uncovered a new world worl d of prot prote ei ns and proce processes, eac ach h requirrequir i ng a ne new w name name or acronym. acronym. Ce Cellll-signa -signallllii ng research is also packed with unfamiliar terms term s. The ave averrage pape paperr i n Cell, for exa example pl e, hasa LEX LEX score score of about 40 40.. The physi physi ca call science ciences sdo a bit be bettter. r.Ea Ear t h scientists often use relatively common words to de des scri be what they t hey st study, udy,s such as‘i ce sheet’ or ‘volca cano’ no’ .S peciali zedaccordin voca abular bulary exi xis but‘vol there is les spe of cialize i t. t.And And acvoc cording g toya rece rec ests, nt unpubl unp ublii shed st study by Ha H aye yes s, ave verr ag age e papers papers Physica call Re Revi vie ew D and the astronomy in Physi    S    E    Y    A    H  .    D

100 80

   n    o    i    t    r    o    p60    o    r    p    e   v    i    t 40    a    l   u    m   u    C20

0 10

10 0

1, 000

1 0, 0 00

World ra nk (log) (log)

Typical LEX LEX curve curves. s.The The redline linerepresents a newspaper, r,orange orangeisamothertalki talking ngtoher baby,bl blue ueisanaverageresearch paper inNature. NATURE| VOL 423 | 22 MAY M AY 2003 2003 | www.nature.com/nature

35 30 25    e    r20    o    c    s15    X    E    L10

5 0 -5

1900

 

1950

 

2000

Signof thetimes: s:the theLEXscoresfor Nature (red (r ed) and Sc  Scien ienc ce haverisensteeplysince since1900.

 journal Icarushav  journal have e LEX LEX value valu es of about 22. The eff ffe ects of an increa i ncreas si ngly opaque li te terature rature are easy to imagine, imagine, if diff difficult icult to quanti qua nti fy. fy.II f ope openi ning ng parag paragraphs raphsor abs bstr tr acts are dif diffifi cult to t o understa understand, nd, researche rchers rs may miss opportunities for collaboration betwe be twee en dis di scipli cipline nes s. If whole pa pape pers rs are are unclear, unclea r, stu tude dent nts s get dive di verr ted to other interin terests and and the t he publ publii c’sfea fearr and mis mi st ru rus st of science, which in i n par par t aris ari ses fr from om diffi dif fi culti es in unde und erstandi anding ng new re r esearch, arch,may may incr i ncre ease. Some journals are taking small steps to  Scienc nce tackle th the e probl proble em. Earl i er thi t his s ye year, ar, Scie beg be gan adding one-l one-l in ine e explana xplanatiti ons of it s evelopme lopment  paper s to its i ts table of contents contents.. D eve  Jo ourn urna al of Ce Cell ll Sc Scie ienc nce, tog and the J toge ethe therr wi th othe oth er j our ournals nals publ publii she hed d by the Company Company of  Biologists in Cambridg Cambri dge e, UK, ha have ve adde dded da section to highlight half-a-dozen papers in each issue in language that is accessible to all  Scie ienc nce have similar biologists. Nature and Sc sec ectt i ons, ons,whi which ch are are compl compl ement mente ed by l onge ongerr pie pi ece ces swr wrii tten by other other acade academi mics csdi dis scus cuss si ng the newly publ pub l i shed papers. papers. The I nt nte er ne nett i sals also o playing an an impor i mportant tant  Scipart pa rt i n the solut solutii on. Each we week, one of  Science’s ‘Pe ‘Perspe rspecti ctive ves s’ — a commentary commentary on a published paper — in its online edition appears with links from technical terms in

tre tr eme mendous ndously ly diff di ffii cult to solve solveth the eprobl proble em. m.”” I t i sal so easy to for forge get why jargon i sth the ere i n the t he fi r st pl ace. Techni chnica call te t erm rms s are problematt i c for outs lema out si de ders, rs,but but the t hey y are are indi spe pensnsable for spe pecia cialili sts. The They y allow acc ccurate urate shorthand for substances and processes that would ta t ake pa parr ag agrr aphs to define.Apart defi ne.Apart fr from om adding bri brie ef note notes s of expla xplana natition on whe where re spa pac ce pe permi rmi ts ts,, the editor ditors s of top journa jour nals ls contacted contac ted for th thii sar ti cle al l agree agreed tha th at the t here re is little that can be done about jargon in rese res earch papers — it i t i s here here to t o stay. stay. J argon busters

But there are other ways to improve readabil bilii ty. “ Jargon is i s less pe pern rnici icious ous if you ca can understa unde rstand nd what is i s going on,” on,” says wri ti ng instructor Judit udith h Swa Swan n of Pri nceton Unive Univerrsi t y in i n Ne N ew Je Jerse rsey, y,a a forme form er bioche biochemi mis st who now runs workshops to help scientists to i mpr mprove ove t heir pape paperrs. Swan’s cour cours ses stem from fr om a coll colla aborati boration on with wi th Ge George orge Gopen, a lecturer in English at Duke University in Durham, North Caroli Carolina na,, in which the pa pair ir deve de velope loped d princi pr inciples plesof cle clea ar scie cienti nti fific c wri ting by analysing published papers4. Researchers who attend the workshops expect to t o betol old d never never to t o usethe pas passive voice or split an infi i nfi nit nitive ive,, but Swa Swan n ta t ake kes s a diffe diff erent approac pproach. h.““ The one one r ul ule e I subs ubscri cribe be to is is that there t here ar are no rul r ule es,” she sa says ys..“ One doesn’t fol l ow rul r ule es, one exe exerci rcis sesj udge udgement.” ment.” Take Ta ke passi ve voice. Acti ve sent ntence ences do pack more mor e punch, says Swan, wan,but but passi ve ones ones are someti sometimes mes clea clearer. rer. For example, th the ere is is no ne n eed to t o begi begi n ever ever y se sent nte ence with wit h “We “ We”. Scientific papers tell stories about experiments and and data,not data,not scienti sts. Ra Rath the er th tha an use ‘Wefou found nd the t he valu lue eto be x ’, it is fine fi ne to sa say‘ The value was found to be x ’,s ’, suggests Swan. wan.““ Th The e passive is a marvellous way to hide agency whenage agencyis i snot i mpor mporttant,” ant,”s shesa says ys.. I n general, general, Swan and Gopen Gopen rec r ecomm omme end

th the etext ttioon, to webagloss web glos satirce i esaor teswi wit t hdfur f urth er infor in forma mati practi prac lsosifollowe foll owe bythe the revie re view w journa j ournals ls of the Nature Nature Publish Publishing ing Group. Grou p. Art Article icles s in the t he fort forthc hcoming oming onli online ne  journals  journa ls of the Public Libra Library ry of Scie ienc nce e, a San Francisco-based organization that promote mot es fr fre ee acc cce ess to sci sci ent ntii fi c literatur li terature e, wi will l be pai pai red with wi th lay-l lay-la angua nguage gesumm umma ar i es. And Cell Press journals now include generalintere in teres st summari ummarie es of of ar ti cle cles s in ta t able bles s of  of  contents sent out by e-m e-ma ai l. But thes t heseare not pe perr fect sol solut utii ons. ons.S Scienti stsca can n besuspici uspicious ousof l ay summ summa ar i es, fea fearri ng that the t hey y are are oversimpl i fi ed or i nac naccurate curate.. And the t he I nt nte er net could exac exace er bate bate,, i nste nstead ad of  less les sen, the balk balka ani niza zati on with wi thii n sci sci ence nce.. Scientists reading online are less likely to scan eye-catching figures or cogent abstracts that mightt entice migh entice the them m out of the their ir fie field. ld. And altlthough hough summari summari es and web links li nks lower lower th the e barrier to understanding caused by jargon Broughttobook:Donal book: Donald dHayeshasdeviseda and acronyms acronyms,, th the ey ca can’t elimi eli minate nate i t. “ These scale for measuri uring ngtheaccessibi sibili lity ty ofan of an art rtiicle. are Ba Band-Ai nd-Aids ds,,” says Ke Kenne nnedy dy.. “ It wil l be NaturePublishingGroup  ©   2003 Nature PublishingGroup

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news feature focusin g att atte enti on on the t he expe xpecta ctatiti onsof the focusing reade rea ders. rs. Lin Ling gui uis sts know that that infor i nforma matiti on is easi er to t o interpr in terpre et i f i t i spl pla aced where where reade derr s expe xpec ct i t to t o be. So, for exa example mple,, whe when n a subj ubje ect i s i nt ntrodu roduce ced d in i n a se sent nte ence nce,, rea reade derr s expe xpect ct to t o fi nd a ver b soon soon aft afte er it . Eve verr ythi ng that comes between the t he subj ubje ect and the ver b gets littl lit tl eatt tte enti on.  A pla pl a c e fo r e ve veryt rythi hi ng

Take this sentence from a paper in a recent

diff di ffe erenti rentia ati on into in to the t hematur mature etendons tendons..” The authors unintentionally trip the reader by st start artii ng the the second sent nte encewi witth a  Scle lera raxis xis gene. brand new term — the  Sc Alth Al though ough reade readerr s ca can n manage manage t hi his s ju jump, mp, i t forces force s them to dive di verr t some of their att tte enti on from fr om thescie cience nceto the t hewri ti ng,parti cula cularl rl y if  the th e pattern rec recur urs s. To avoid avoid thi t his s, Swa wan n sugsuggests sli din ding g one one of the fami familili ar itite ems fr from om later in the sentence to the front to prepare the re rea ade ders rs the ne new w informa infor matiti on. “ This

 Sc  Scie ienc nc e: “par issue of  The eme merge nceof virulent vir ulent Plasmod Plasm odi i um falci falcipa r um inrgence Africa within the pastt 6,000 year s as a resul pas resultt of a casc scade ade of  changes in human behaviour and mosquito transmission has recently been hypothesi zed. d.”” Aft Afte er the t he subj ubje ect — “emerge “emergence nce”” — the reader must wade through 25 words before befor e reachi reaching ng the t he ver ver b — “ has been hypothe hypoth esi zed”. Reade derr s will wil l focus too much m uch attention on the anticipated verb to notice the importanc impor tance e of the inte int er ve vening ning materi materi al. Swan suggests the following rewrite: “Acco “Ac cordi rdi ng to a rece recent hypothe hypothes si s, vir ulent Plasmodi dium um falci falci pa parr um emerged in Africa witt hi wi hin n the t he pas past 6,00 6,000 0 yea year s as a res resul ultt of a cas ca sca cade de of chang change es i n human hu man behavi behaviour our and mosquit mos quito o tra tr ans nsmi mis ssi on. on.”” Not only onl y are are the subject and verb snugly together — “ Plasmodi dium um falci falci pa parr um eme merge rged” d” — but now the important information occupies a key posii t i on in pos i n the t he sent nte ence nce:: t heend. The last pa parr t of a sent nte encei swha whatt li nguists callll th ca the e st ress pos posii ti on. Reade ders rs natu naturr all y empha mphas size the informati inf ormation on at the t he end of a uni t of di dis scourse course,, such asa sent nte ence or parap aragraph, gra ph, ma maki king ng it the logica logicall spot spot for f or new informa inf ormatition. on. Old informa i nformatition on does be better tter nea ne ar the t he be beginni ginni ng of of a sent nte ence nce,, whe where re it grounds the reader in preparation for the ment me nta al lea leap p to t o come.An come.And d the t he more close closel y the t he structure matches the reader’s expectations, the more likely the reader is to comprehend whatt th wha the eaut uthor hor i st r yi ying ng to say.

somitic progenitor is  Scle lera raxis xis marked at atendon t i ts ince i ncept pti i on by the t hepopulation gene Sc ge  Scx ), ( Scx  ), a bHL bHLH H tra trans nsc cription fac factor tor..” Alth Al though ough pas passi ve ve,, t he revise revised d se sent nte ence smoot moothes hes the prose, so readers readers can can focus more inte int entl y on the scie scienti nti fi c content. content. Swan’s advice is distributed in a variety of  ways. Some ins institituti tuti ons, suc uch h as as JILA, a physi cs labora laborator tory y at at the t he Uni Unive versit rsity y of Colorado or ado,, Boulder, Boulder,ha have ve offi ces that are dedi dedica catted to editing papers and helping scientists with their the ir wri titing, ng, and which draw draw on materials materials devel oped by Swan and Gopen. Swan also gives about eight scientific-writing workshops a ye yea ar i n the t he United Uni ted St States tes.. The Ea Ear th sciences di divi vis si on of th the e La Lawr wre ence Berkele keley y National Laborator Laboratory y in Califor Cali forni nia a hos hosted ted one workshop las lastt yea year. Di Divi vis si ona onall direc di rector tor Bo Bodvarsson says such training is essential to a succ ucce essful scie cient ntififii c ca career, pa parr ti cularly for f or students whose first language is not English, becaus bec ause eclear communi commu nica catti on opensdoor doors s.

Anothe herr mi m i stakeeoft ofte occ‘t‘topic occur urs s r i ght the. startAnot of the sentenc ntence , inenthe opic posat itition’ ion’. Reade derr s expe xpect ct to t o fi nd some some sor ortt of bri dge bettwe be wee en sent nte ence nces s here here.. I f a compl comple etely ne n ew word or phr phra ase occ occupi upie es thi s spot, Swa wan n says ys,, the rea reader der is i smom mome ent ntari arill y conf confuse used. d.For For exa xampl mple e, a rece recent pa pape perr i n Cell be begins gins:: “ We demonstrate that the tendons associated with wi th the axi axia al skeleton skeleton derive deri vefr from om a heretofore unappreciated, fourth compartment of  the somi omites tes.. Scleraxi cleraxis s (Scx), (Scx), a bHLH transcription factor, fac tor, ma marks rks this thi s somitic tendon progenitor populatiti on at its popula i ts incepinception, and is continuously expressed through

s et ofonly writi wri ti ng rul rule wri tes s instinctive instinctively and when heesis, but in awrite “writing mood”. ly This instinct isn’t something that Miller feell s he can fee can convey convey to t o hi s st udent udents s, so he take t akes s a di diff ffe erent approach. approach. Anyone i n his hi s l ab has has two chance chances to wri wr i te a pape paper. r. “ You give gi ve me a draft dra ft and it wil willl sti sti nk, nk,II will wi ll wr itite ea fe few w things on it i t and you get get another anot her chance,” hesays ys.. I f  that advice advi cedoesn’t resul ultt i n an acc acce ept pt-able pa pape per, r, Mi ll er wri wr i tesit him hims selflf.. Some students and postdocs aren’t are n’t i nt nte eres rested, ted,but but th thos ose ewho are often produce good second dra dr aft fts s near ly re r eady for submis ubmiss sion, he sa says. “ It has turned out to be producti prod uctive veand fun.” fu n.” For those who do not have access to advisers such as Miller or Swa wan, n, professional manuscript editing services can help. he lp. Bri Bria an Leonard Leonard

Wordup:Polly up: Polly Matzinger wants to seepri rizes awarded for thebest-writtenscientific scientific papers. 37 8

Pens down: own:Chr Chriistopher Mil Miller belie believesthat the instinct for for good wri riti ting ngcannot betaught.

r uns Exac xactt Scienc Science e Communi ca catt i ons ons,, an edi dititi ng ser vi vice ce ba bas sed in i n Sur Surpr prii se, Ar Arii zona zona.. He says th tha at mos m ostt of hi his s cli clie ent nts s are nonnative nati ve spe pea ake kers rs of Engli sh — oth othe er s wa want nt to polish their manuscript to improve the chances of of publi publica catiti on. I n some some ca cases the suggestion to seek professional help comes from fr om j our ournal nal editors edit ors or refere referee es, he says ys.. Thoseedi ditor tors s could also do a lot mor more e to draw be bett tte er writ wr it in ing g fr from om contr contrii butor butors s, says Poll olly y Matzinger, Matzinger, an immunol i mmunolog ogii st at the US Natiti ona Na onall Instit Institute ute of of Allergy and Infe I nfectious ctious Do the write thing Di seasesi n Bethesda, Bethesda,M Maryl aryland, and,and and a scienDespi pite te such ent nthusias husiasm, most scienti scientis sts tific adviser to the Council for the Advancerece rec eive no such such tra tr ain inin ing. g. Par t of the reas reason me ment nt of Scie cienc nce e Writ Writing, ing, which aims to may be that a significant minority of  im improve prove the qua qualili t y of scie cience nce jour journa nalili sm. researchers believe that good writing can- Many editors already spend a great deal of  not be taug taught. ht. Among them them i s Chri Chri stophe topherr ti me whippi ng manus manuscri cripts pts into int o sha shape pe,, wit h Mi ll er, a bioche biochemi mis st at Brandeis Brandeis Universit University y pa parr ti cular emphas emphasi s on the t he abs bstr tr ac actt and fir fi r st i n Wa Waltlt ham, Mas Mass sachus chuse ett tts s, known among among pa parag ragraph. raph. But Matzinger Matzinger thin t hinks ks that jourjour edit ditors ors for submitting submitt ing clea clearl rly y wri tt tte en papers nals should push harder and expect good and reviews. reviews. He sa says that he does doesn’t fol l ow a wri ti ng in all all submissi ons ons,, pos poss sibl y eve even n

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rejec rejecti ti ngabout pa perrit, t hat that bas i s” aslhe one. one “ Pla Play y it it up, talk apape bout its,on insist insis t on i t,” it, sa. ys . One idea would be for journals to announce an annual award for the best-written paper of  the year. year. With Wi th a lack lack of bi big g i de dea as for addres ddress si ng the jargon problem, bit bit-part -part solut solutii ons ons,, such as pr prii zes and the t he r ange of oth othe er ‘Ba ‘ Bandnd-Ai Aid’ d’ measur ure es, are curr curre ent ntll y the t he best hope for promotin promot ing g acc cce essi bil bilitit y. Tog oge ether with wi th the t he techni tec hnique ques s promote promot ed by Swan, Swan, t he hey y shoul should d help to attract scientists to new kinds of  abs bstt r acts, and ke kee ep them hooked hooked unti unt i l the t he end of the art rticle icle.. Tha Thanks nks for sticking with thi his s one. I t has h asa LEX score score of 4.1, so you don’t have to be smart enough to read The N ew Yor Yor k Ti T i mes to unders understand tand it — but i t’s    probably too t oo complex for co cows ws.. Jonathan Knight writes for Nature  from San Francisco. thesis is (Sc 1. Crick Crick F. F. The Astonishing H ypothes (Scri ri bner, New York, 1994). 2. Carroll, J. B. B.,, Da Davie vies s, P. & Richman, B. Ame  America rican n HeritageWord  Freq Fr equency Book (Houghton-Mi ffli n, Boston, 19 1971). 71). 3. Ha Haye yes, D.P D.P.. Nature 356, 739–740 (1992).  Am.. Sc Sci.i. 78, 550–558 (1990). 4. Gop Gope en, G.D. & Swan, J.A. Am

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