My thanks to the many students and colleagues who make teaching and writing so interesting and enjoyable. I would also like to thank all the fne writers whose essays, reports, dissertations, patents, articles, books and blogs I have drawn on to help others learn how you do what you do so well. That includes the students, skilled writers all, who very generously allowed me to use their work in progress in this book: Sarmed A. Salih; Astone Nanja; Parikshit Deshmukh; Jing Yan; Amani Jaafer. I am also grateful to Victoria Konstantinidi for her keen interest, and helpful ideas on the learner’s perspective.
Particular thanks are owed to the following: Michael Burton, cousin and chemist, for his invaluable support and sound advice; John Morley and Vanesa Rodriguez Juiz for their feed- back on manuscripts at various stages; and John Speller, at the University of Lodz, for his helpful comments on the frst edition and for helping me to feel part of a wider community of scientifc writing professionals.