Rules for separators

• Start every sentence with uppercase, and end it with period (.).
• Write a space ( ) after each comma (,), period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), question mark (?), exclamation point (!) and closing parenthesis ()).
• Never write a space ( ) before a comma (,), period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), question mark (?), exclamation point (!) and closing parenthesis ()).
• Never write a space ( ) after an opening parenthesis (().

Spell and Grammar checkers

Use the spell-and-grammar checker and correct each underlined text.

• Red underlines are spelling error. That word does not exist. Fix it.

• Blue underlines are grammar errors. That word exists, but it is not valid in that context. Rephrase it.

Google docs (and modern AI tools) have good grammar correction

I like them more than Grammarly

Structural elements

Most of the times, bold and italic text should be replaced by structural elements, such as sections.

Check all your document and find the places where bold and italic letters are misused instead of a section marker, and correct it.

There are some exceptions

The most important one is that scientific names of species must always be written in italics

For example: Homo sapiens, Escherichia Coli.

• see “how to write scientific names”

• and CDC Scientific Nomenclature guideline.

Italics and Bold

Italics is also used for gene names, like copA

The corresponding protein name is in normal text, starting with a capital letter, like CopA

Sometimes italics or bold are used to emphasize part of the text, like when a new concept is being defined. Use it sparingly.

Scientific narrative style

The biologist Randy Olsen found that most paper had a boring structure

• This, and this, and this, and this

He proposes instead a more compelling style

• This, and this, but this, therefore this

This is called the ABT framework

Use it as a roadmap

Let the figures speak

Another strategy recommended by my professors is

• Every experiment should produce a figure

• Every figure has an explaining caption

• Write the main text connecting the figures, expanding the captions

First quantity, later quality

Ernest Hemingway (Literature Nobel prize winner in 1954) was famous for his prose and for is love of alcohol

He may have said “Write drunk, edit sober”

He did say “The only kind of writing is rewriting.”

The point is: don’t let rules block you from writing

Other people said the same

When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone.
Stephen King

Rewriting is the essence of writing well – where the game is won or lost. William Zinsser

I have rewritten–often several times–every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers. Vladimir Nabokov

No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft. H.G. Wells

Resistance

Some activities that often trigger Resistance:

• The pursuit of any calling in writing, painting, music, film, dance, or any creative art, however marginal or unconventional.

• The launching of any entrepreneurial venture or enterprise, for profit or otherwise.

• Any diet or health regimen.

• Any course or program designed to overcome an unwholesome habit or addiction.

In other words…

• Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity

• Any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower

Any of these will elicit Resistance