Not everybody reading or writing scientific papers is doing it in his or her native language, and anyone who writes in a second language impresses the heck out of me.
But regardless of whether English is or isn't your first language, let’s remember Mr. Spock. He uses English with the precision of a scientific instrument, and it’s not his first language either.
Be Your Own Editor is the title of an essay from THORNE’S BETTER MEDICAL WRITING. It was the only one aimed specifically at non-native English writers. And yet, about 98% of the advice he gives applies to all writers regardless of topic or language. I’m gonna quote the bits that gave me the strongest urge to just jump up and shout Hell yeah!
First, though, I’ll briefly answer a question that was asked at every lecture. No, you should not write your paper in your native language. Write in English. Think in English. Adhering too closely to a document in another language will contort your thinking and your wording. Unless, of course, the only way you can write is to do it in your native language and then translate. I don’t advise it, but if the other choice is not to write at all, well, go ahead, and good luck.
Here’s what I swiped from the essay called Be Your Own Editor:
I now believe that much of what I do can be done by the author, either by himself or in collaboration with an interested colleague. If the colleague will ask the author to explain exactly in his own words what he means by each sentence, and even each word, the article will become steadily shorter and clearer as unnecessary words are crossed out and simple words and constructions replace complicated ones.
Articles that have had this time-consuming treatment, sometimes more than once, are much easier for an editor to accept and for a language supervisor to make sound English without changing the meaning.
I try to make it clear that my changes are only suggestions, not Holy Writ, and I make them in pencil so that they can be rubbed out if the author disagrees with them. At the same time I do not hesitate to comment on the length, the layout, or the logic. I am also convinced that articles by English and American authors would invariably benefit from scrutiny by colleagues. Not only articles but many expensive medical books are far too long and turgid to read because they get no such treatment from their authors or publishers.
I appreciate that many articles submitted in English have been written in another language and then translated. The “colleague treatment” can be applied to the draft in the original language and, if possible, to the English translation also.
The pencil. I love that. I still write with pen and paper, but I’m old. I bet you start on the computer. And regardless of how you start, you send your paper to an editor over the Internet or on a USB drive. He fires up Word with its bad-ass Tracking feature and marks the changes so that you can Accept/Reject/Ignore and ask him why. See, it ain’t Holy Writ.
The colleague treatment. That sounds suspiciously similar to something I wrote earlier. Cool.
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