As you write, think of the shortest, most direct way of expressing your meanings. When you have finished your first draft, review it and condense it by cutting out unnecessary words. Your two objectives in a scientific work are clarity and conciseness (English literature and journalism have other objectives). This means: present your work in as few words as you can while being totally clear about the meaning. Use short words, not long ones, when the short words do the job. Don't use complicated scientific expressions (jargon) when simple words explain just as well. Most examples below come from students' writing. Look for occurrence of any of the following words/expressions in your writing and change them as needed: they are over-used in bad scientific writing:
1.01 "at this point in time"
- this is hot air from 1970s politicians -- it means "now",
so write "now" and save space.
1.02 "a number ... were"
- don't write "a number [of something] were" -- this
is bad grammar [a number (the subject) must take a verb
in the singular - was not were] and also suggests
precision when none is specified -- write instead "some ...
were" or "several ... were" or, better, specify
the number.
1.03 "a total of ... were"
- again, this is bad grammar. Write instead simply "xxx were"
or, to avoid beginning a sentence with numerals "In total,
xxx were", where xxx is a number.
1.04 "a variety of ... were"
- this is even worse than "a number ... were" not only
because it is bad grammar [SEE 1.02 and 1.03], but because the
word "variety" has special meaning in biology (an infra-subspecific
category) whereas it is used by journalists in an altogether other
sense. If you mean "various [something] were" then write
various [something] were.
1.05 "both"
- the word "both" is redundant in the expression "Both
adults and larvae are predatory", and in many other expressions,
so omit it and save space.
1.06 "comprise"
- the verb comprise means "to consist of", as in "the
genus comprises 10 species." It is wrong to write
"the genus is comprised of 10 species." In most sentences
you may write "has" instead of "comprises",
and you should do this.
1.07 "different"
- far too many people write such things as "five different
species occurred in the habitat" - the word "different"
serves no useful purpose here and should be omitted.
1.08 "impact"
- this is early 1990s jargon, meaning "effect" - so
write "effect" and reserve the word "impact"
for the striking of one body against another (SEE CBE Style Manual).
1.09 "irregardless" (no such word)
- perhaps you mean regardless, or irrespective.
1.10 "on a .... basis"
- expressions "on a daily basis", "on a monthly
basis", "on a annual basis", "on a weekly
basis" are hot air and should be written instead as daily,
monthly, annually or yearly, and weekly (e.g.,
the routine was used daily). Instead of "on a biweekly
basis" write fortnightly if you mean once every 2
weeks, and if you mean "twice a week" then write twice
a week. Instead of "on an ongoing basis" write continually.
1.11 predate
- this word has nothing to do with predation - it means antedate,
not prey on.
1.12 "presently"
- look at the sentence you wrote -- if you mean "now"
you can probably omit the word "presently" with no loss
of meaning, although in a very small percentage of uses
you will have to write "now" (not presently); if, however,
you mean "soon" (which was the meaning of the word "presently"
in Darwin's time and still is correct), you would do better
to write "soon" (SEE CBE Style Manual).
1.13 "the majority"
- don't write "the majority were...", write instead
"most were..." Why? Because the latter expression
is shorter.
1.14 "underway"
- this is a silly error from the 1980s - it should be written
"under way" (two words, meaning "in progress")
-- "underway" must mean some kind of subterranean tunnel.
1.15 "utilize"/"utilized"/"utilization"
- would you write "Joe utilized a bottle opener to open his
beer"? - of course not, so don't use those words in scientific
writing - write instead use/ used/ use.
1.16 "feel like"
- "I feel cold" is a straightforward expression in which
the writer or speaker announces that he has the sense of being
cold (and most probably his skin would feel cold to the touch).
There is no justification for writing "I feel like I'm cold"
instead. The word "like" is redundant and overused in
this and many other expressions.
1.17 "off of"
- in country-and-western songs and in real life you may have heard
expressions such as "he got off of his horse." There
is no need here or anywhere else to write "off of" ---
write "off" alone because adding "of" in these
expressions is redundant.
1.18 "outside of", "inside of"
- these expressions are redundant. Write simply "inside"
or "outside".
1.19 words ending in -ogy
- the word biology is defined in dictionaries as, for example,
"the scientific study of the life and structure of living
things." Thus, titles of works such as "A study of the
biology of fruit flies" are saying "A study of the study
of fruit flies" which is nonsense unless the objective of
the work is a history of the science. What the author probably
meant was "A biology of fruit flies", meaning that he
or she studied the life and/or structure of fruit flies. Other
words ending in -ogy (- "the study of...") are similarly
often misused. Ecology means "the study of living things
in relation to one another and to the environment", but it
has been wrongly used by the popular press to mean "the environment."
Technology is "the study of techniques in applied engineering",
but it is commonly used by bureaucrats, the press, and others
to mean "techniques" or "devices" -- computer
science is a technology but a computer is not a technology --
genetic engineering is a technology but genetically-engineered
corn is not a technology!
1.20 "rate of speed"
- how often have you read in a newspaper a statement from the
police charging that a person was "driving at a high rate
of speed"? It seems almost to be standard police jargon,
but is unnecessary because speed is implicitly a rate. The simplest
way of saying it is that the person was "driving at high
speed."
1.21 rate
- in physics, the word "rate" is implicitly a speed
(something per unit of time), such as reactions per nanosecond,
drops per second, revolutions per minute (RPM), miles per hour
(MPH), or distance travelled per light-year. Unfortunately, in
common English, the word "rate" has come to mean almost
any sort of ratio such as exchange rate (number of yen per dollar),
or mortgage rate (annual interest paid as a percentage of loans
for the purchase of "real estate").
1.22 "significant"
- to the general public, this word is a synonym of important,
remarkable, and "notable." However, it has a special
meaning in statistics. Therefore it is better, in any manuscript
that includes results of statistical tests, not to use the word
significant in the general sense - use one of the synonyms instead.
1.23 "there are"
- take care when you use this expression. Avoid writing such sentences
as "There are numerous books that already do this."
Why? It uses too many words, and could be rewritten as "Many
books already do this."
It is noteworthy that application of chemicals to humans or other organisms, expressed as a unit per kg of body mass of the recipient (e.g., mg per kg) should be called a "dose" instead of a "rate." In scientific terms (physics) such an action is not a "rate", and "dose" is an appropriate expression. This concept of "dose" logically could be extended to the application of chemicals to agricultural crops to control pests (pounds per acre, or kg per ha). Unfortunately, farmers (and entomologists) have adopted the common English expression "rate" to express use of agricultural chemicals. They write about pounds per acre as being a "rate" whereas it would be more appropriate to call such applications (pounds per acre) a dose.
If there still are ways to reduce the number of words or shorten your text, do it.
Reference:
Council of Biological Editors. 1994. Scientific Style and Format.
The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. Cambridge
Univ. Press; Cambridge, UK. 6th edition.