In fact, if you ever want any of your work to be accepted in conferences or
journals or by managers higher up the chain, your need to write well.
University education (in my experience) doesn't focus on this at all,
everyone's just expected to pick it up or naturally be good at it.
Most students (graduate level ones too) don't understand the importance of
writing clearly. Those who realize writing is an important skill early on in
their career have more time to practise writing before going into the real
world. Those who learn later the hard way will realize that poor writing
skills will limit their potential and advancement in their careers. We're
trying to point this out to you early on in your career.
Structure.
Get to the point. Understand what the argument is at hand, what evidence is
crucial for the argument, and get to it. Don't go off tangent. Stay focused,
and tell the reader why each piece of evidence is important.
Vocabulary.
Sometimes it may "look and feel" better, but using long words can create a lot
of confusion. This is especially true with new vocab -- we're excited to use
cool-sounding words we just learned, but we often use them in the wrong
context.
Illustrative examples.
Choose good examples. If you want to make a point and you think that an
example will be helpful, use an example. If you are worried that the reader
still won't get it after that, stop and ask why not?
was it a bad example? would having another example really add value to the
point? will another example illustrate something else that wasn't mentioned
already?
In general, please do not go off on tangents. Remember what your argument is,
and stay focused. A good rule-of-thumb is to check how much "space" you have
allocated to each section or each point. That ratio will give you some
indication of how much relevance you have placed on each point you made.
Why bother?
Most researchers won't admit to this, but the truth is, scientific papers are
hard to read. (Remember those Math textbooks?!)
So instead, researchers "shift" the burden onto the writers to make the
material clear and easy/ier to understand.
Telling the story
It may seem strange, but the introduction and conclusion/sumary sections are
really there just for readability reasons. For short papers, they are somewhat
repetitive, but it helps the reader identify the main points. In this way, it
also gives writers a chance to figure out what the main points are and the
strengths of the paper are. A common and effective approach to writing the
paper is this:
Less is more
You've all heard this before, and it's being emphasized again because it is
important: "less is more". Don't overwhelm your reader. In particular, some
common places where this rule of thumb applies are:
Be definitive!
This is arguably one of the most important aspects of scientific writing.
Don't be vague or uncertain. Define the terminology used. Define the theories
cited. Define the framework discussed. Be consistent with the terminology
used throughout the paper. Be decisive when arguing for a particular point. Be
critical of the work, even if it is the state-of-the-art. Be critical of the
material presented in other papers, even if the results appear to be ground
breaking.