This succinct, 9,000-word handbook provides a complete (and essential) "Elements of Style" for busy academics, scientists and students - in fact for all professionals concerned with the concise and eloquent description of scientific experiments and results. Leading independent tech editor Nancy Fox delivers precise guidelines, style tips, and details of accepted practices to cover every and any type of laboratory work. CONTENTS: Some Brief Words of Wisdom Foreword 1. What Constitutes Valid Publication? 2. The Ritual of the Scientific Paper: IMRAD 3. Your Shout-Out: The Importance of Title 4. Ego Tyrannous: The Movie Credits 5. Listing Institutions and Addresses 6. In Short: The All-Important Abstract 7. How to Begin 8. Materials, Methods and Other Things That Go Bump in the Night 9. Presenting Results 10. How to Write Your Discussion 11. How to Write Your Acknowledgments 12. Literature Cited 13. Using Tables 14. To Graph or Not to Graph 15. The Art of the Review Paper 16. The Art of the Conference Report 17. The Art of the Scientific Book Review 18. Plagiarism 19. How to Submit Your Work 20. A Few Fundamental Rules to Improve Your Writing 21. Common Grammar Traps 22. The Peer Review Bibliography