Scientists are writers. Papers, reports, projects, and so on. It is important to write clearly to be understood. If you write in manuscript, you need to use a good calligraphy. There are also rules for typing a text in the computer. Here are these basic rules.

• 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 (().
• 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.
• 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 this article on “how to write scientific names” and the CDC Scientific Nomenclature guideline.
  • 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.