This book is intended to help students and scientists maximize the effectiveness of the writing that they must do during their education and professional life. One archetypal image of a scientist at work is that of an engrossed observer who carefully records experimental findings in a laboratory notebook. Although meticulous notekeeping is at the core of scientific research, such an image does not fully represent the role in science of writing. Collectively, the chapters in this book demonstrate how scientists’ writing ranges widely in form and purpose. Moreover, whatever the form, purpose, or audience of scientific writing, the one common denominator is the demand that researchers use language in the highly formalized manner that accords with empirical senses of knowledge, truth, and precision.