Writing for the Reader

Writing is the most widely used medium for the conveyance of information. Unlike speech, writing does not allow the author the use of gesture, expression or eye contact. All a writer has is their words, and how they structure these words is of paramount importance to the message they send. There are numerous styles of writing --- from fiction novels to technical manuscripts --- each with a different intended audience. Writers of each style possess a unique set of tools that are appropriate for the respective audiences, with most of these tools not being interchangeable between styles. For example, the allusion is one of the most widely used devices in modernist novels but has little place in other styles, such as scientific writing.

 In high school, I believe that these distinctions between styles of writing is not sufficiently taught (though one may argue that it is not necessary at that level). High school teachers place a lot of emphasis on sentence structure, grammar and syntax: the basic foundations of writing. There is very little talk on “audience” and most students do not have the general reader in mind when writing. This has resulted in myself, and I assume many other students, struggling with scientific writing when it was first truly introduced to us in our second year. Scientific writing was pushed as impersonal, direct and free of emotion. I initially took this advice straight to heart, with little consideration to the overall readability of my work. My first few write-ups were criticized for being too pedestrian and “almost bullet-point like”. I made the mistake of not considering my audience when writing.

Scientific writing needs to be clear, unambiguous and free of emotion as its purpose is to impart information in a way that can be most easily understood by the readers (which are fellow scientists). This does not only apply to the word usage, but also the overall structure of the report. Readers of scientific articles need to know what a particular sentence means and how the content fits into the context of the paper. This can be achieved through the creation of a narrative, with clear links between each of the paper’s sections. This narrative can be created by evaluating what information is important… and what isn’t. The objectives, argument and conclusion of the work needs to be established, with this becoming the backbone of the piece of writing.

During my third year I started to realise the importance of a clear narrative. Re-reading my papers, I noted that the overarching objectives of my work was unclear, that the context of what I am saying was not immediately understood. My solution for this was to list the objectives of my paper, establish my conclusion to know to what point my writing should end and to structure each paragraph to ensure that the readers knows how it ties in to the rest of the paper. This resulted in my work having a clearer flow and was subsequently much easier to read. More importantly, the message that I tried to convey was able to be grasped without ambiguity. I learned to tailor my writing to suit the audience.