Cummins R O
J Med Educ. 1981 Feb;56(2):128-32.
A distinguished group of writers, editors, and teachers have published at least seven books on scientific writing in the past three years. These authors lament the poor quality of writing in scientific manuscripts and argue that many papers are unclear, verbose, confusing, and abusive to the reader. Several of these works are practical, how-to manuals, while others emphasize the art more than the craft of writing. Authors in academic centers often ignore elementary devices such as how-to books because of misplaced pride plus an assumption of natural writing ability. This article reviews these recent books and suggests that medical authors who have something to say may at least learn to say it clearly.
在过去三年里，一群杰出的作家、编辑和教师至少出版了七本关于科学写作的书籍。这些作者对科学手稿的写作质量不佳表示遗憾，并认为许多论文表述不清、冗长、令人困惑，还让读者感到厌烦。其中几本著作是实用的操作手册，而其他一些则更强调写作的艺术而非技巧。学术中心的作者常常因过度自负以及认为自己有天生的写作能力而忽略诸如操作指南之类的基础书籍。本文对这些近期出版的书籍进行了综述，并建议那些有话要说的医学作者至少要学会清晰地表达。
