226 THE MANUSCRIPT 



vention is not necessary. The avoidance of the first person pronouns 

 was once thought to add objectivity, but just how "It was discovered 

 that . . . ." is less subject to personal bias than "I found . ..." is a 

 mystery. By whom "it was discovered" may even be a mystery to the 

 reader. If the sentence can be written with active verbs, in the ordinary 

 "subject, verb, object" order, by all means do so. No one can justify an 

 awkward sentence by pointing out that the literature is full of such 

 awkward sentences. Cast an occasional sentence backward when neces- 

 sary or just for variety if you like. 



Many scientists use what is sometimes called the "German construc- 

 tion," a compounding of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. As a simple ex- 

 ample, examine "water regulating valve." Translated into German, there 

 is no doubt about the meaning. In English, however, one is not sure if 

 the water regulates the valve or vice versa. The confusion becomes worse 

 if the object is a "solid brass solenoid controlled water influx and efflux 

 regulating valve." Usually such constructions can be avoided by rearrang- 

 ing the sentence, without necessarily making the sentence longer. 



Wordiness is probably one of the worst off^enses in these days of 

 crowded journals. The use of unnecessary repetition or of phrases that 

 contribute nothing to the communication of ideas may even make the 

 paper more difficult to read. One may say, "Concerning the cell mem- 

 brane it must be kept in mind that it is of the utmost importance due 

 to the fact that it serves the function of being responsible for the control 

 of the movement of materials into the cell," but it would be better to 

 say, "The cell membrane is important because it controls the movement 

 of materials into the cell," or to state the probable intended idea more 

 simply, "The cell membrane controls the movement of materials into the 

 cell." 



The jargon used in daily conversations in the laboratory has no place 

 in the scientific paper. Biologists and biochemists deal with long and 

 complex terms, and it is only natural to contract them into a slang. Your 

 laboratory colleague knows perfectly well that the "Beckman" is the 

 Beckman Model DU Spectrophotometer, but your reader might think 

 of a Beckman pH meter. It is easy to invent words by adding -ate to 

 indicate the result of a process, as in filtrate, or even "washate." Verbs 

 can be concocted from adjectives by adding -ize (solubilize or counter- 

 currentize). One of the most ridiculous jargon expressions I have read 

 recently was a reference to the capacity of a technique as the "through- 

 put. 



Biochemists habitually use initials, but some of these have become 



