基于“讲故事”的科技论文写作
Highlights from Chapter 2 in <<Writing Science>> by Joshua Schimel
1.
A paper doesn’t only present our data — it also interprets them.
A paper tells a story about nature and how it works; it builds the story from the data but the data are not the story.
The papers that get cited the most and the proposals that get funded are those that tell the most compelling stories.
2.
To tell a good story in science, you must assess your data and evaluate the possible explanations — which are most consistent with existing knowledge and theory?
3.
Science is often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented in the public arena and in policy decisions, a phenomenon many of us bemoan.
4.
If you believe that writing a paper is about presenting results, then it would seem reasonable to outline everything you did and then say something about it.
But somewhere in that mass of data is a story trying to come out.
Find it, and give it to us.
5.
The role of scientists is to collect data and transform them into understanding.
Their role as authors is to present that understanding.
6.
The further along the path from data to understanding you can take your work and your papers, the more people will be able to assimilate your contributions and use them to motivate their own work and ideas — and that should be your goal.
7.
Develop your story from the bottom up, then tell it from the top down.
8.
Only by exploring the boundaries and limits of your data can you find the important story.
9.
Listen to your characters carefully — take the time to hear what they have to say and figure out what they mean.
Fight the pressure to publish prematurely.
10.
When we recognize that writing a paper is writing a story, it raises the obvious point that we can become better storytellers, better writers, and better scientists by studying what makes a good story, how other writers do it, and how to apply those ideas to science.
We can communicate more effectively while remaining rigorously professional.
11.
There are three aspects to effective storytelling. The first is content — what makes a story engage and stay with us? The second is structure — how do you put together that content to make it easy for us to get? The third is language — how do you write the story in the most compelling way possible?