Formality in Scientific Writing

I think there is room for a broad range of writing styles focusing on science and technology. On the one hand, professional writers or journalists produce some of the most pleasant reading about science. For example, Bill Bryson’s conversational tone and informal language make reading his work easy and enjoyable, while still conveying accurate information. For anyone without extensive background knowledge or intense interest in the subject, I would argue that this is the best form of writing. Writers, while making sure their facts are correct, should not fear the scorn of professional scientists when providing easily digestible scientific knowledge. It may only give a shallow explanation of things, but for most people, that is all they care to learn, and if the piece is well written, they will actually learn it.

At the same time, there is need for technical writing about science, by scientists for other scientists. In order to fully understand a lot of science (to the point where you could design new experiments and spot links between occurrences without any direction), a technical vocabulary is necessary. For the sake of clarity, the simple analogies and even the colloquial discussions may need to be abandoned. The result should be a clean and clear (to the scientific community) piece of writing, which would be the most effective in giving the target audience what it needs for full comprehension. This type of writing may seem excruciatingly dense to non-scientists, but for those actually working with the technologies involved, the first type of writing I discussed would be hopelessly inadequate. I don’t think that there is a ‘right’ way of writing about science and technology, or a ‘right’ audience to be writing to. However, it is absolutely essential that the author of any specific work knows his or her audience, and writes accordingly. Similarly, readers should understand the limitations of whatever it is they are reading, and acknowledge that there is much they will not learn from it.