Thoughts on Scientific and Technological Writing

Wyatt Gouldthorpe

Who exactly should science and technology be written for? Should it be written for everyone to understand, or should it be written only for experts in a particular field? This question obviously does not have one correct answer. If I asked three different people about this I am sure I would get three different responses. With this being said, I believe that science and technology should be written for both the experts and common people. This means that there should be writing meant for experts, that only experts can understand, but there should also be “dumbed down” writing for the common people. I believe that articles in peer review journals and for use in high level classes should be written for experts to understand, because in this case the material needs to be complicated to show all the complexities of the topic. However, writing for the general public should be for everyone to understand. The reason for this is that writing for everyone to understand will increase the knowledge of the general public, which will have a positive effect on society.

I think it is important to strike a balance between scientific writings being detailed enough to facilitate expert knowledge and general enough for public consumption. The main reason for this is that there should be resources both for many people to have basic knowledge on the subject, and for a select group of people to have expert knowledge on the subject. However, for each individual writing, the style is determined by the intent of the author. If the author intends for his writing to be reviewed by other scientists, or for it to be read by people in college campuses that are interested in studying the topic in question, then the writing should be the typical paper with complicated concepts and vocabulary that is hard for the average person to understand. On the other hand, if the author intends to teach people that have no idea about this topic, the writing should probably omit the complicated concepts and vocabulary, and replace them with concepts most people can understand. Therefore, when looking at a writing on science and technology, it is important to keep both the purpose of the writing and the intended audience in mind in order to determine if the writing is effective.