[Originally published November 30, 2009, updated March 29, 2020]
One of the fundamental challenges of writing about science is choosing the right words. Science is full of jargon, which works well enough for specialists talking with one another. But if you want to share science with everyone else, jargon is toxic, alienating potential readers. Using jargon also becomes a crutch; a writer comes to depend on magical words rather than trying to explain deep concepts. Beyond jargon, writers should also avoid unnecessarily formal language, choosing visceral, potent language instead.
As a teacher, I flag words in my students’ work and encourage them to try again, to strive to do better. (So should all writers.) Over the years, I’ve collected them here. Putting a word on this list doesn’t imply that no one should ever use it. I am not teaching people how to write scientific papers. What I mean is that anyone who wants to learn how to write about science–and to be read by people who aren’t being paid to read–should work hard to learn how to explain science in plain yet elegant English–not by relying on scientific jargon, code-words, deadening euphemisms, or meaningless cliches.
Access (verb)
And/or (Logic gates do not belong in prose)
Anomalous
Anthropogenic
Breakthrough (unless you are covering Principia Mathematica)
Captive observation
Clinical setting
Community ecology (this ban does not extend to the subject of community ecology)
Component
Context
Cracked the code (especially when it comes to sequencing DNA. DNA is not the same thing as the genetic code)
Demographic leveling
Elicit
Elucidate
et al
Facilitate
Food source (when just “food” will do)
Forcings
“Further research is needed” (This phrase may be mandatory at the end of science papers, but it’s meaningless. Has any scientist ever declared further research unnecessary?)
Holy Grail
Immunocompromised
Impact (as a verb. Impacted is fine you’re talking about teeth or bowels.)
Implement (especially as a verb. Launch? Put into practice?)
In (when used in phrases like “experiments in mouse“)
In vitro (Don’t assume a Latin phrase for “in glass” means anything to a non-scientist.)
In vivo
Incredibly
Informed (people can be informed. As for “The discussion was informed…”? Ack.)
Infrastructure (Whenever possible, make readers see what you’re writing about. “Infrastructure” makes me think of a dull white paper, when I could be seeing bridges, highways, dams, and the other biggest creations of our species.)
Insult (referring to an injury)
Interaction
Interdisciplinary (The fact that a project can be characterized as “interdisciplinary” is only interesting in a grant application. But that project itself may be extremely cool. Convey to readers that coolness; don’t deploy funding labels.)
Interface (especially as a verb)
Intermediate host
Interested in (as in, “Dr. Frankenstein is interested in tissue regeneration.” Transforms passion and excitement into a boring parlor game)
It has been shown (Who showed it? How? The kinds of questions that the passive voice can never answer.)
Linked to X (where X=Alzheimer’s, autism, cancer, or any heavily funded area of research. “Linked” tells the reader nearly nothing.]
Literally (even if it’s used accurately, the word is generally useless)
Marine environment
Material properties
Mechanism
Methodology
Miracle (or miracle cure)
Missing link (don’t get me started…)
Mitigation
Modulate
Molecular systematists
Morphology
Multiple (as in many? Then just use many)
Musty (when referring to museum collections, unless those collections are in fact in an attic with holes in the roof through which rain steadily falls)
Non-marine environment
Novel (the adjective is banned. The noun, as in War and Peace, is fine.)
Optimum
Orthogonal
Paradigm shift (Thomas Kuhn only had a few things in mind when he coined this phrase: http://bit.ly/1oKwigs Don’t use it for just any slight shift in scientific understanding.)
Parameter (also, parameterize)
Pathogenicity
Phylogenetics
Predation
Predator-Prey Relationship
Processes
Proxies
Reagent
Recently (when you actually mean “ten years ago”)
Recruit, recruitment (unless you’re writing about the Army)
Regime (unless you’re referring to Mobutu in Zaire)
Robust (as in, robust data. But robust wine? Yes, please.)
Scientists have learned in recent years that… (A dodge to escape explaining what actually happened)
Seminal
Small molecule [To anyone other than a biochemist, all molecules are small]
Sociopolitical
Substrate [try things like dirt, mud, rock, etc.]
Sustainability (This word can mean many things, and those meanings can be profoundly important to the people using the word. But left on its own, it is an empty buzzword. Does it refer to the survive of wildlife? To the prosperity of future generations of humans?)
System (as in, “He chose mouse as a system to study”)
This (if there is no antecedent in sight)
Transmissibility
Trivial (in the way scientists like to use it: “This problem is trivial.” Non-trivial is even worse.)
Utilize (If you were telling a story to a friend and used this word instead of use, your friend might raise an eyebrow.)
Via
Virulence
We (as in “We now know the fatality ratio of the current H1N1 influenza epidemic.” We includes your readers, most of whom don’t know–yet.)
“What we need first to understand is…” Rather than tell readers what they are obligated to understand before reaching enlightenment, just enlighten us. Avoid addressing readers like students trapped in a lecture.
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