: Re: What is in scope for criticizing technical writing I'm not well versed in technical writing. I'm probably not going to be in a position to give anyone feedback for some time, but I would like

@Holmes449

Vote Up Vote Down

I am a professor, I peer-review scientific articles; one or two per year, in fact I did one two weeks ago.
The first things I look for are correctness and understandability, particularly in any math or proofs included in the paper. I have on three different papers found fault in the math, including the one I just did. It may be correctable, but as written it used variables they never defined, I can't accept a paper that doesn't make SENSE.
Not all reviewers do, but I print out papers and review them ON paper, with a pencil, then type up a review document. I do that because it can take me literally hours to unravel some mathematical arguments, and I just can't do it without drawing, circling, underlining, writing notes to remind what a variable means, etc on the equations themselves. Sometimes I'll put post-its on them for extra room. That's how I roll!
But since I can put checks or X's or circles on words or in the margins, I also note and correct English errors, missing punctuation, typos, wrong word usage, etc, which they can change or not. I'm just obsessive compulsive in that way, I can't just read past them.
I won't reject a paper for those things (editors might), but I will reject a paper if the exposition does not make sense to me, if the formulas don't make sense, or the logic they use is flawed. I see bad reasoning quite often. I see bad math in perhaps 20% of papers. I also see graphs that I can't make any sense of, I will reject a paper for that.
(Actually as a reviewer, I only recommend rejection or acceptance or acceptance-with-caveats, the caveats being something that can be corrected and MUST be corrected for my approval. Journal Editors make all final decisions, and can reject my complaints, but never do if I find a flaw in the scientific argument.)
As a reviewer, what am I looking for?
Fact checking? Yes.
Brevity? No, but no wandering off topic, no telling me about the dream that inspired this work, no telling me how you felt upon making your discovery. Just the facts. In the "Conclusions" you can describe how your invention or discovery or technique works to improve something or is useful. In "Future Work" section you can describe implications or plans to use it (things not yet accomplished, obviously, or they would not be "Future Work").
Appropriateness? Yes. A paper is not a forum for personal crap. We don't want to know. It is not a place to include little fables, or stories, or personal footnotes, or apologies because you were sick, or inspirational quotes you like. Stick to the science, that's IT.
Accessibility of language? To an extent, if I can't understand it, I won't approve it. Authors come from everywhere and English is quite often something they had to learn as an adult, I don't expect papers to read fluently. I try to help with the worst transgressions, but papers with good ideas and good proofs should never be rejected over a poor grasp of English, unless the bad English prevents me from understanding there ARE good ideas and good proofs in there.
Directness of communication? Yes. A scientific paper is not a place to tease, or wander, or ask rhetorical questions to try and make the reader figure out a puzzle. It is not a novel. It is not a story of discovery.
Here is the problem we were trying to address. Here is the previous work on that problem. Here is what we did that worked. Here is our proof of why that worked. Here is why this is better than earlier work, or better in certain conditions, or whatever.
Like that.

(0)

Login to post a comment!