Writing scientific articles like a native English speaker: concise writing for Portuguese speakers

As post-doctoral fellow in 2013, I published an editorial based on my experience as a translator, called ‘‘Writing scientific articles like a native English speaker: top ten tips for Portuguese speakers’’ (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.6061/ clinics/2014(03)(01) (1). It focused on the repeated ‘‘simple’’ mistakes I observed while revising manuscripts of Brazilian friends and colleagues. I did not predict the editorial would receive as much attention as it did on social media. It speaks to Brazilian researchers’ quest for representation on the international scientific platform and the evergrowing number of Brazilian publications in international journals. When I finished my post-doctoral fellowship, I left academia for government, starting a position as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over the course of the two-year program, EIS officers learn applied public health by investigating outbreaks, making public health recommendations, and communicating public health issues to the public. The latter experience greatly changed my writing style. In the first month, I took a training called ‘‘Plain Language’’ developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After applying the training to my communications as a public health official, I recognized my academic training prepared me to communicate my scientific findings to a scientific audience. Now my audience is the scientific community and the public. I was suddenly back on level one at a game I thought I had tirelessly conquered. Nevertheless, as with any skill, becoming a good writer is a matter of practice and persistence. Here, I pass on the lessons I learned about plain language and concise writing. In a world of countless 24-hour news outlets, clearly communicating our findings so they are understood by the public is the first step to prevent the rapid spread of misinformation. I am not saying your Nature paper needs to read at a primary school level. You cannot avoid scientific terms and complex mechanisms, but you can make it easier for a reader to immediately identify your main point and follow your rationale. I selected the lessons below for their relevance to native Portuguese speakers from two sources. These are just a subset and I encourage you to read both sources in their entirety. First is the NIH Plain Language Training, which is publicly available at https://plainlanguage. nih.gov/CBTs/PlainLanguage/login.asp (2). The next is the book titled ‘‘On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction’’ written by William Zinsser, a renowned journalist, editor, and professor (3). In his own words, ‘‘[s]cience, demystified, is just another nonfiction subject. Writing, demystified, is just another way for scientists to transmit what they know.’’ You are a nonfiction writer. Also, broadening your writing skills from manuscript writing to other forms of scientific communication will make you a better scientist and advocate.