This guest post is contributed by Nancy Simmons, who also writes on the topic of online science degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email address:  nancy.simmons09@gmail.com

Writing on scientific subjects and topics is a little different from creative writing. You don’t really need to be adept at weaving words with skill. In fact, if you can pay attention to detail, if you are knowledgeable enough about the subject, and if you have the dedication for the job, you could easily learn to become a good science writer. Teaching someone to write for science involves training them in the three Cs – good science write-ups must be:

• Concise: You’re not writing 1000 word essays on any random topic; rather, you have the responsibility of stating the facts in a way that is clear and concise. Your writing has to be to the point and not include ramblings about your personal thoughts and opinions. Science is all about facts and there’s no room for romanticism or the abstract in science writing. If you’re asked to write about a rainbow, given a free hand, you would wax eloquent on its many colors and how it signified all that was good and beautiful about life. But a science writer has to strip off the rose-tinted glasses and reduce the colors of the rainbow to what they really are – the dispersal of the light spectrum under certain environmental and atmospheric conditions.
• Comprehensible: Any science writing course worth its salt will tell you that your writing must be easily understood, even by someone who knows just how to read. For science to reach the masses, it must be put in words and sentences that are simple, straightforward and not complicated. Restrict the use of bombastic words and expressions and stick to when is comprehensive and easily understandable.
• Correct: And most important of all, science writing must be factually correct. Although all forms of writing must be grammatically correct to be aesthetically pleasing to the senses, when it comes to science writing, the biggest mistake you could make is to get your facts wrong. When you mix up your facts and make errors, your writing is worthless, because science is all about accuracy and preciseness.

Teaching a science writing course involves instilling these characteristics in your students’ writing. If they can crack the three Cs, they’re well on their way to becoming good science writers.