Writing in the Life Sciences ─ A Critical Thinking Approach

Practicing scientists know that the quality of their livelihood is strongly connected to the quality of their writing, and critical thinking is the most necessary and valuable tool for effectively generating and communicating scientific information. Writing in the Life Sciences is an innovative, process-based text that gives beginning writers the tools to write about science skillfully by taking a critical thinking approach. Laurence Greene emphasizes "writing as thinking" as he takes beginning writers through the important stages of planning, drafting, and revising their work. Throughout, he uses focused and systematic critical reading and thinking activities to help scientific writers develop the skills to effectively communicate. Each chapter addresses a particular writing task rather than a specific type of document. The book makes clear which tasks are important for all writing projects (i.e., audience analysis, attending to instructions) and which are unique to a specific writing project (rhetorical goals for each type of document). Ideal for Scientific Writing courses and writing-intensive courses in various science departments (e.g., Biology, Environmental Studies, etc.), this innovative, process-based text goes beyond explaining what scientific writing is and gives students the tools to do it skillfully.

Laurence Greene, PhD, taught scientific writing and integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1993 to 2009. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the CU-Boulder Faculty Teaching Excellence Program, Dr. Greene developed discipline-specific scientific writing courses for undergraduate and graduate students. In 2009, Dr. Greene left academia to practice what he had preached as a writing instructor. He is currently a scientific and medical writer in South Florida.