Scientific writing is a form of literacy which is quite different to what one usually encounters in everyday life, whether academic or otherwise. And while it is quite straightforward and aims for clarity and brevity while maintaining all the necessary details, in doing so it becomes almost alien to anyone entering the field.
But it wasn’t always like that. The formality and structure of scientific writing has developed over time and when reading older and older papers and articles it becomes increasingly clear that rather than the highly edited and reviewed process that goes into their publishing now, at one point they were written much more simply and were far less formal.
Tansley’s paper from 1917 is a perfect example of this. Comparing it to today we can see that there are few subheadings, and there’s no clear abstract. The methods are mixed in with the results, and while there are some tables, there are no figures and no clear statistical tests done to interpret the data (many statistical tests that we use now of course didn’t exist back then, and those that did would have looked quite different without the use of computers). The paper itself also just has an antiquated, yet oddly friendly and familiar one of voice to it. Tansley refers to E. M. Hume throughout the paper as “Miss Hume”, and there is even mention made of the fact that A.S. Marsh could not continue his research due to leaving for the army. Seeing both of these in a scientific article feels quite jarring from a modern perspective.
However, despite these changes the primary purpose of scientific writings hasn’t changed. Today, just as in the past, these papers are just a tool to convey ideas and theories about the world around us and the experiments that we’ve done to strengthen our argument. The delivery may have changed, but the core message remains the same. So while scientific writing looked different in the past than it does now (and undoubtedly it will look different in the future than what we’re used to reading), let’s not forget that in every change and convention in our writing style we’re merely developing better ways to deliver the same type of message.
You can access Tansley (1917) through the following link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2255655?origin=crossref&seq=1 (Paywall to download, however an online version of the article is available for free)
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 