There are many dialects of English, and emotions can run high in the pursuit of protecting them. People can also get very worked up about differences in spelling between UK and US English. But for science, what matters is accurate and consistent use of words, and I’m afraid that very few people – even scientists – seem to care enough about that. This isn’t a pedantic point, because natural language suffers from enough intrinsic inaccuracy and inconsistency as it is without adding a touch of sloppiness; it is, therefore, not the best potential way of expressing science. However, it is the only way of communicating complicated scientific concepts between humans. When English is used in science, a much higher threshold for accuracy and precision needs to be set in order that concepts are communicated as accurately and precisely as possible. Because that is one of the most important aims for editors too, I started a series of editorials in BioEssays under the title “On the state of scientific English and how to improve it”. Read this, if, for example, you ever wondered why it’s important to distinguish between “which” and “that”. In a previous editorial I discussed the importance of defining “function” and “functional” in evolutionary genomics. “Complex” and “complexity” are also tricky words to use correctly; and a theme that I recognize is that most of the time it’s words that are frequently used in common parlance that cause the problem. Why even define them, if they’re used so often in normal conversation anyway? But that’s precisely the point: meanings, usage and connotations can differ greatly between conversational, literary and scientific English. Scientific English is yet another derivative of the language, and one that needs to be learnt with particular attention to definitions and unambiguity of expression. /by Andrew Moore
Andrew Moore is Editor-in-Chief of BioEssays
On the state of scientific English and how to improve it – Part 1 – English: What a ‘slovenly’ language it has become…
On the state of scientific English and how to improve it – Part 2 – Define what you mean
On the state of Scientific English and how to improve it – Part 3
Related content: Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps, 2nd Edition by Margaret Cargill and Patrick O’Connor
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