114 SCIENTIST 



of describing the nature of things in ways that other people 

 can verify. In a very practical sense, a scientific statement 

 is simply not important unless other scientists can under- 

 stand what it says and what the evidence for it may be. 

 The operations for obtaining such evidence must be de- 

 scribed sufficiently clearly to enable others to repeat the 

 original observations as quickly and easily as possible. In 

 practice such descriptions are published in the form of 

 scientific papers in the numerous journals established for 

 this purpose. The average scientist may prepare some five 

 to ten papers each year. Ordinarily he gives a number of 

 formal and informal talks to groups of his colleagues 

 as well. 



Experience shows that the great majority of beginning 

 scientists have a great deal of difficulty expressing them- 

 selves clearly and gracefully either in writing or orally. 

 Much time must be taken from laboratory work to learn 

 the art of communication under the guidance of the senior 

 scientists he is working with. It is not uncommon for a 

 graduate student's early papers to go through as many as 

 ten drafts before being sent off to the press. Even then the 

 task is often not completed. Far too many papers must 

 be sent back by the editors for further condensation and 

 poHshing. All this is extremely time-consuming and frus- 

 trating. All too often the painful process results in an 

 emotional block against writing papers at all. Far too 

 many otherwise productive workers keep postponing the 

 unhappy task while they continue to pile up masses of 

 poorly organized data. This is bad for their personal 

 careers and equally bad for the progress of science. Much 

 of this waste could be avoided if more future scientists 

 would prepare themselves with verbal skills during their 

 school and college years. 



What shall we say about foreign languages? The tradi- 



