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SCIENTIFIC
WRITING
Meta Riley Emberger and
Marian Ross Hall
University of Louisville
General Editor:
W. Earl Britton
University of Michigan
Harcourt, Brace and Company
New YorK
The quotation on page 355 is from Institution Publication No.
411, Leonardo da Vinci the Anatomist (1452-1519), J. Play-
fair McMurrich, 1930, Carnegie Institution of Washington.
COPYRIGHT, 1955, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by mime-
ograph or any other means without permission in writing from the publisher,
3.2.58
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Preface xi
CHAPTER 1 Scientific Method 1
I Meaning of scientific method
II The characteristic features of scientific method
in Problems of method in the social sciences
IV The problem in modern scientific investigation
The Problem Concept 19
I Significance of the problem
ii Definition of the problem concept
in Types of problems
iv Setting up a problem
Definition and Terminology 37
I Scientific terminology and definition
ii The contribution of semantics
in The process of definition
IV Derivation as an aid in mastering terminology
v The misuse of technical terminology
Collecting Data 65
I Locating source material
ii Evaluating sources of data
in Recording data
iv A list of reference works
Analysis: Methods and Applications 87
I Analysis defined
ii Methods of analysis
in Presentation of analysis
iv Function of analysis in planning the paper
V Applications of analysis
CONTENTS
6 Interpretation: Applying the Principles of
Logic 108
I Logic and the scientific writer
II Interpretation
in Inductive reasoning
iv Deductive reasoning
v Interpretation of statistics
VI A reasoned attitude
7 Directing the Paper to the Reader 128
I Communication as a concern of the scientist
II Reaching a variety of readers
in The process of popularization
8 Scientific Style 154
I Qualities of scientific style
ii Elements of style
in Problems in scientific style
iv Analysis of the style of a scientific paper
9 Techniques of Exposition 188
I The place of exposition in writing
ii The expository paragraph
in The plan of the short expository paper
iv Analyses of examples
10 The Research Paper 213
i Types of long scientific papers
II Preparation of a research paper
in Process of evaluating a research paper
iv Analysis of a paper from a scientific journal
11 The Report 250
I The report as a means of modern
communication
ii Reports according to function
in Short reports
12 The Report, Continued 278
iv The long-form report
v Major considerations in report writing
CONTENTS Vll
13 Special Types of Papers 300
I The abstract
ii Description of device and explanation of
process
in The case history
IV The book review
14 The Format of the Scientific Paper 337
I Preparing the manuscript for publication
ii Conventional standards of format
in The use of documentation
iv Practices and variations in documentation
15 Graphic and Pictorial Illustration 355
I Nonverbal illustration
ii Types of illustrations
in Handling of illustrations
APPENDIX A Readings and Word Lists 375
APPENDIX B Business Letters 441
Index 462
FOREWORD
The vast development of modern science has imposed heavy demands
and grave responsibilities upon scientists and technologists alike. Ex-
plorations now under way in the natural, social, and applied sciences
must be recorded and transmitted. But the scientist is no longer at liberty
to direct his attention exclusively to his fellow-specialists; he must also
reach administrators, statesmen, policy-makers, boards, and other scien-
tists in other fields. Increasingly he must interpret for the general public
the discoveries that emerge from the laboratory to transform our daily
lives.
Even in practical affairs the written word grows in volume and sig-
nificance. Efficient operation of commerce, agriculture, industry, and
government requires skillful scientific and technical reporting. No longer
can the report be taught as mere adherence to a rigidly prescribed pat-
tern; it must be viewed as the product of profound investigation and
analysis, of discernment and discrimination.
Scientific Writing is concerned with the problems faced by the scien-
tists, technologists, and industrialists in communicating their findings.
It is applicable to the general field of articles and reviews as well as the
specialized area of technical reporting. The text proper divides logically
into three parts.
Chapters 1 through 6 are unique in their emphasis upon the intellec-
tual activity that must precede composition. Scientific writing being as
much a way of thought as a mode of expression, the opening chapter
defines and elaborates the method underlying all scientific investigations
and conclusions. Chapters 2 through 6 examine elements of scientific
procedure such as recognition or formulation of a problem, accurate defi-
nition, precise terminology, and the fundamentals of collecting, analyzing,
evaluating, and logically interpreting data.
Chapters 7 through 9 concern the problems of communication. Writing
for the expert requires care and precision, but writing for the nonspecial-
ist presents vocabulary obstacles that can be surmounted only by con-
siderable effort and ingenuity. Chapter 7 is devoted to this matter. It is
followed by a description of scientific style as it has developed over the
years, and by suggestions for departures from tradition that are per-
mitted and sometimes required when the work is addressed to the non-
X FOREWORD
technical or semitechnical reader. Chapter 9 analyzes the fundamental
techniques of exposition.
Chapters 10 through 15 treat the elements and structure of various
types of papers, including the report, the review, the thesis, the research
paper, the abstract, the case history, and the book review. The long-
form report is dealt with at length, as well as the short report so exten-
sively employed today in business and industry. Aware that in practice
the report assumes diverse forms, the authors have wisely focused their
attention upon the function of the report, and emphasized the basic ele-
ments of reporting such as the writer's alertness to the nature and needs
of the reader, his understanding of the use that will be made of the re-
port, and the means of achieving pattern, clarity, and effectiveness. Al-
though the reader is introduced to the practices that are common in the
formulation of reports, he is constantly reminded of the need to remain
flexible in order to adapt his reporting to the demands of special condi-
tions that will arise in his professional career. The validity and effective-
ness of a report depend not upon a rigid form but upon the proper focus-
ing of the problem, the sharpness of the terminology, the efficiency of
the arrangement, and the soundness of the evidence and logic.
This broad and philosophical approach is supplemented by instruction
including the organization, outlining, documentation, and the preparation
and use of graphic and pictorial illustration in each type of paper.
Other features that contribute to the usefulness of this book are the
Study Suggestions provided for each chapter, and the wealth of illustra-
tive material throughout the text and in Appendix A. Appendix B is
devoted to letters of application and to business and technical corre-
spondence.
W. EARL BRITTON
PREFACE
Scientific Writing has been prepared for use as both a text and a
reference book. The increasing significance of scientific writing in tech-
nology, science, business, and the professions has created a growing
need for skilled writers. Scientific Writing, then, is designed to help pre-
pare the reader for a career in industry, science, or the professions.
And it is intended to serve the individuals already at work in these fields
who must cope with the urgent demands of writing.
Although the term scientific writing is defined in the text, it is perhaps
appropriate to explain briefly here the sense in which we have used it.
Traditionally and historically, scientific writing is the literature of science
as distinct from belles-lettres. Since the scientist frequently directs his
writing to scientists outside his specialty, as well as to the general public,
scientific writing is a broader term than technical writing, which includes
only the writing the scientist does in addressing fellow specialists or in
connection with technological applications of scientific principles. Fac-
tual writing in the areas outside the natural sciences may in a broad
sense be termed scientific when it submits to the disciplines of method,
objectivity, accuracy, clarity, and precision. Scientific writing in the high-
est sense taxes the resources of language, since, to translate freely an
aphorism from the French, "Truth lies in distinguishing between the
sliades of gray."
In preparing this book we have given constant thought to achieving a
logical, serviceable chapter sequence. The introductory chapters, 1 and
2, present concepts fundamental in scientific method and research and
hence in scientific writing. The problem concept is discussed separately
in Chapter 2 because of its importance in all kinds of investigative work.
The next four chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 follow the sequence of an
investigative project: the definition of terminology and the collection,
analysis, and interpretation of data. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 deal with prob-
lems of composition. Chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13 treat various types of
papers: the research paper, which is considered as an introduction to
the different types of long scientific papers; short and long reports, ab-
stracts, papers of device and process, case histories, and book reviews.
The last two chapters take up matters of format and of graphic and
pictorial illustration. Thus the preparation of the long scientific paper
xi
Xii PREFACE
is carried from the inception of the problem to the completion of the
manuscript for submission to the person who made the assignment or to
the press.
The numerous examples in the text and in the Appendixes have been
selected not only for their own merit but for the principles and practices
they illustrate and for the variety of fields they represent. While they are
for the most part current writing, older selections are included to show
the timelessness of good scientific exposition. Study suggestions are
offered to help the reader apply what he is learning to his own writing.
In concluding this project we take pleasure in expressing our appre-
ciation to those who have assisted us with it. Professor W. Earl Britton
of the University of Michigan, our General Editor, has evinced a con-
stant sympathy with our aims and has offered numerous suggestions
which we have found most helpful. Our thanks are due to Professor
Ernest C. Hassold, the head of our department, for his encouragement
and interest, to Warren Bezanson, formerly of the University of Mary-
land, and Arthur Thompson of the Bell Telephone Laboratories for their
sound editorial advice.
We should like also to thank the staff members of the University of
Louisville Library, including the Natural Science Library, and of the
libraries of the University of Louisville School of Medicine, School of
Law, School of Dentistry, and Speed Scientific School for their help in
locating and verifying references. Miss Katharine Lewis, reference li-
brarian, Miss Virginia Winstandley, assistant librarian, and Miss Laura
Kersey, librarian of the Speed Scientific School, have in addition given
generously of their personal assistance with special problems.
We are indeed grateful to the individuals and organizations who have
permitted us to quote from their writings, correspondence, or publica-
tions. Most of these sources are acknowledged in the text and in the Ap-
pendixes. We are also indebted to Professor Frank E. Ryerson of the
Department of English of the Speed Scientific School for permission to
include in Appendix B three letters from his files. Finally we wish to
acknowledge the kind and always efficient help of Mr. Ralph C. Wooton
in the tasks incident to the preparation of the manuscript.
META RILEY EMBERGER
MARIAN ROSS HALL
Department of English
University of Louisville, 1955
CHAPTER 1
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
I. Meaning of scientific method
A. The cumulative nature of scientific method
B. The complexity of scientific investigation
II. The characteristic features of scientific method
A. Reliance on observation
B. The inductive approach
C. The experimental process
D. The principle of the control
E. Objectivity
III. Problems of method in the social sciences
A. The social scientist and his material
B. Scientific method and social science
IV. The problem in modern scientific investigation
The unity of all science consists alone in its method,
not in its material. KARL PEARSON, The Grammar of
Science.
I. MEANING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD
It has been said that there is no science, only sciences. The
word science is, however, used and understood by both scientists
and the public to denote more than the sum total of the sciences.
Science may be defined as the inquiry into the nature of the material
universe through observation and experiment, an inquiry which has
resulted in a systematized and continually growing body of knowl-
edge. In any consideration of scientific m&hod the four elements of
this definition of science are significant: Tne^spirit of free inquiry,
the reliance on observation and experiment^rieysystematization of
knowledge through generalization or laws, anome continuity of
inquiry.
Many writers have sought to describe and define scientific method,
and ideas concerning its meaning are still undergoing modification.
1
2 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
In the 1890's Karl Pearson could write, "The scientific method is
one and the same in all branches, and that method is the method
of all logically trained minds." * Some sixty years later a present-day
writer in discussing changing ideas of scientific method could ob-
serve, "The statement that there is no single scientific method has
become a truism only rather recently." 2 These contrasting statements
emphasize the fact that in our time the methods of scientific investi-
gation have themselves become the object of active inquiry, and
that relatively simple concepts have given way to more complex ones.
Scientific method is not now to be regarded as a formula or infallible
rule of procedure but rather as an approach, an attitude, a combina-
tion of procedures, a set of values, which have in the past proved
favorable to scientific investigation and are recognized as charac-
teristic of it.
Implicit in the definition of science is the need for reports of
inquiry. Indeed, "Reporting is an integral and inescapable factor in
any research, and no research is complete without the record." 3
Scientific writing, then, is what the scientist writes in his capacity
as scientist, the necessary minimum of which consumes a consider-
able amount of his time and effort. Such writing, then, is most
successful when the writer is conscious of the functional harmony
between scientific method and the form of scientific papers.
A. The Cumulative Nature of Scientific Method
Many analogies have been used to express the cumulative nature
of science. One such analogy, which though often ascribed to Sir
Isaac Newton dates from medieval times, compares the individual
to a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant representing the
knowledge of the past. Another analogy, suggested by the historian
of science, George Sarton, compares its progress to a long climb
up a lofty mountain with each worker taking up the trail where the
one before him left it.
It has often been noted that the desire to know is as much a part
1 Karl Pearson, The Grammar of Science, London, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.,
1937, p. 15.
2 Gerald Holton, "On the Duality and Growth of Physical Science," American
Scientist, 41 :89, January 1953.
3 Robert S. Gill, "The Scientific Author as I Have Known Him," Science,
119 :3A, April 23, 1954.
MEANING 3
of man as the desire to create. Thomas Henry Huxley has dramatized
the beginnings of man's search for knowledge by describing a savage
in prehistoric times already applying the principles of observation
and inference.
I cannot but think that the foundations of all natural knowledge
were laid when the reason of man first came face to face with the
facts of Nature; when the savage first learned that the fingers of one
hand are fewer than those of both; that it is shorter to cross a stream
than to head it; that a stone stops where it is unless it be moved, and
that it drops from the hand which lets it go; that light and heat come
and go with the sun; that sticks burn away in a fire; that plants and
animals grow and die; that if he struck his fellow savage a blow
he would make him angry, and perhaps get a blow in return, while
if he offered him a fruit he would please him, and perhaps receive
a fish in exchange. When men had acquired this much knowledge,
the outlines, rude though they were, of mathematics, of physics, of
chemistry, of biology, of moral, economical, and political science, were
sketched. 4
Yet admiration for the achievements of Huxley's savage cannot
obscure the fact that his conclusions are far removed from the rigidly
controlled observations of the modern laboratory. This change repre-
sents not only the acquisition of knowledge but improvement in the
methods of investigation through which knowledge is acquired. In
part these methods are technical and mechanical: every branch of
science has its tables and reagents, its petri dishes and cultures, its
stethoscopes and cardiographs, its microscopes and slides, or its cyclo*
trons, betatrons, and synchrotrons.
When we speak of scientific method, however, we do not refer
primarily to this accumulation of technique, important as it is, but
to the attitudes and procedures which further scientific inquiry. This
concept of scientific method is consonant with Paul Valery's charac-
terization of method as able "better than the mind left to its own
devices" to "do the work of the mind." 5
4 Thomas H. Huxley, "On Improving Natural Knowledge," Method and
Results, New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1893, p. 32.
5 Paul Valery, Introduction to The Living Thoughts of Descartes, Philadel-
phia, David McKay Company, 1947, p. 14.
4 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
B. The Complexity of Scientific Investigation
Some devotees of science have done scientific method a disservice
by claiming too much for it. Aldous Huxley has satirized this undue
reliance on the methodology of research in the character of the elder
Quarles of Point Counter Point. Mr. Quarles had collected files, card
indexes, a calculating machine, and a typewriter which would write
in Greek, Arabic, or Russian. He also had an elaborately conceived
plan for a learned book which he never quite got around to writing.
This pseudo scientist's inability to distinguish between the mechanics
and the spirit of research reminds us that scientific method is a means,
not an end. It is not a routine procedure but one which must be
guided by human intelligence and even by what some scientists have
not hesitated to call human intuition.
The part chance plays in scientific discovery has been recognized
by many commentators on the history of science. W. I. B. Beveridge 6
mentions, among other examples, accidental occurrences which led
to the discovery of the Gram stain for distinguishing different bac-
teria, to Richet's discovery of anaphylaxis, and to the development
of the Ringer solution. Here, chance is not to be confused with luck,
for only the trained and perceptive person is in a position to see
the possible significances of the singular occurrences and tojjunch
an inquiry into their meaning. A biographer of Pasteur has pointed
out that what often seemed to be luck in the career of Pasteur was
actually the ability to select promising lines of research.
... so often was Pasteur helped by apparent "luck" in the subsequent
course of his scientific career that the reason for his success must be
found elsewhere. Throughout his life, he displayed an uncanny gift in
selecting the type of experimental material best adapted to the solution
of the problem under investigation. This gift, which is common to all
great experimenters, certainly consists in part of an intuitive wisdom
based upon a large background of knowledge. Good fortune is offered
to many, but few are they who can recognize it when it is offered in
a not too obvious manner^
Pasteur could have been thinking of many vital experiences of his
own when he reiterated, time and time again, "In the field of experi-
"^mentation/ chance favors only the prepared mind." 7
6 W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation, London, William
Reinemann, Ltd., 1951, pp. 27-29.
7 Rene J. Dubos, Louis Pasteur, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1950,
pp. 100-01.
MEANING 5
Research into the history of science has shown further that pro-
cedures vary with the temperament of the individual scientist and
that imagination may figure more prominently than logic in the
formulation of new scientific theories. Such contradictions to the
popular conception of the cold logic of science have been summed
up by Holton.
. . . the essential incongruities in science, which include the element
of irrationality and contradiction in scientific discovery, the discrepancy
between the precision of physical concepts and the flexibility of lan-
guage, the conflict between the motivating drive and the rules of objec-
tivity in short, the whole complexity in the relations between the
individual creative scientist on one hand and science as an institution
on the other. 8
Having elaborated this paradox, Holton offers a resolution of it.
This dilemma is resolved and here is the second central point
by distinguishing two very different activities, both denoted by the same
word, "science": the first level of meaning refers to private science
(let us term it Si), the science-in-the-making, with its own vocabulary
and modes of progress as suggested by the conditions of discovery.
And the second level of meaning refers to public science (5 2 ), science-
as-an-institution, textbook science, our inherited world of clear concepts
and disciplined formulations. Si refers to the speculative, creative ele-
ment, the continual flow of contributions by separate individuals, each
working on his own task by his own, usually unexamined methods,
motivated in his own way, and uninterested in attending to the long-
range philosophical problems of science. S 2 , in contrast, is science as
the evolving compromise, as the growing network synthesized from
these individual contributions by the general acceptance of those ideas
which do indeed prove meaningful and useful to generations of scien-
tists. The cold tables of physical and chemical constants, the bare
equations in textbooks, form the hard core, the residue distilled from
individual triumphs of insight, checked and cross-checked by the mul-
tiple testimony of general experience. 9
Science^ as an institution, it would seem, through the discipline
of scientific method, has provided an environment in which the indi-
vidually gifted scientist can effectively apply his creative imagination
to scientific problems. Such a situation is perhaps not as paradoxical
as it would appear since it has an analogue in the literary artist who
8 Holton, loc. cit.
9 Ibid., p. 93.
6 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
achieves his finest expression through such a severely disciplined
form as the sonnet.
II. THE CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The historical development of scientific method has taken place
in three interrelated stages : ( 1 ) observation, more or less systematic,
under the guidance of theory and authority, a process practiced and
sanctioned by Aristotle; (2) the rejection of authority and the turn-
ing toward inductive reasoning which marked the beginning of the
modern era; (3) the development of the experimental process. The
experimental process which dominates present-day science has in
turn three parts : the problem, which focuses observation on a specific
question or difficulty, the projection of a hypothetical solution, and
the testing of the solution by experiment.
Although in general the rejection of authority and the rise of
inductive reasoning became articulate with the Renaissance, and
experimental method has come to be the focal point of scientific
thinking only during the past three hundred years, the various
branches of knowledge have arrived at different times at the suc-
cessive plateaus of method. Copernicus, for example, in the sixteenth
century rejected authority and maintained that the earth revolves
around the sun. Vesalius and other pioneer anatomists turned at
about the same time from the authority of Galen and rejected ana-
tomical doctrine which, was not verifiable from the dissection of the
human body. Yet it was not until the nineteenth century that Grimm
and other early philologists began a systematic and objective study
of the phenomena of language and undertook a formulation of the
laws that describe its changes.
William M. Smallwood 10 has shown how slowly scientific attitudes
were adopted in this country. The natural historian as Smallwood
has described him frequented rural areas and the unpretentious halls
of our early colleges. He collected and classified, not too particular
whether it was rocks, flowers, or shellfish. And always his philosophy
was governed by the belief that everything in nature had its pre-
ordained purpose. These students of natural history, unmindful of
controlled observation or experimental method, were nevertheless the
10 William Martin Smallwood, Natural History and the American Mind, New
York, Columbia University Press, 1941, p. 239 ff.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 7
forerunners of the American geologists, botanists, and zoologists of
today.
A. Reliance on Observation
What then are the principal characteristics of the scientific method
as we know it today? Although authorities differ in their emphasis,
they are in substantial agreement on the essential features. A common
^characteristic of all sciences is that they draw their basic principles
from man's observations of himself and his environment. The modern
erain science began when the medieval practice of referring ques-
tions to authority and speculation gave way to the modern practice
of referring them to investigation and observation. The story of
Galileo's famous experiment, the time and place of which have been
questioned by modern scholars, 11 is a classic instance of this distinc-
tion. While the scholastic philosophers showed by theory that a
heavy body must fall proportionately more rapidly than a lighter
body, Galileo is reported to have dropped simultaneously two unequal
weights from the tower of Pisa, thus demonstrating the contrary.
To leave the question of authority at this point, however, would
be to ignore recent revolutions of thought which have obliged sci-
entists to alter their ideas of proof and even of truth. The physics
of Newton is true within the limits it covers; it does not hold true
within the larger limits of Einstein's theory of relativity. Hence the
word proof is used today with greater caution than ever before.
Perhaps an acceptable statement of the matter is to say that the
scientist is always prepared to revise his beliefs in the light of new
evidence. "The oldest of the great scientific societies, the Royal
Society of London," as C. Leonard Huskins reminds us, "placed
rejection of authority at the masthead with its motto NuUius in verba,
usually translated freely as 'not bound by the words of any man.' " 12
B. The Inductive Approach
An understanding of the relationship between inductive and de-
ductive reasoning is essential to an understanding of scientific method.
By definition, inductive reasoning proceeds from the particular to
**- " ~
11 1. Bernard Cohen, "Galileo," Scientific American, 181(2) :40-47, August
1949.
12 C. Leonard Huskins, "Science, Cytology, and Society," American Scientist,
39:691, October 1951.
8 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
thejjeneral, deductive reasoning from the general to the particular.
The point at issue is not, as it is sometimes stated, which of the two
is used in science. Both are essential in science, but for different
purposes. If the general laws and concepts of science are not accepted
a priori frojn_authoritv, they must be established inHn^tTvfjj^frnm
a largenumber of specific examples. Onc_e a general principle_Jias
been established it may be used as a major premise from which
lesser principles^ and applications may be deduced.
One of the best-known statements of the inductive approach occurs
in Francis Bacon's Novum Organum, first published in 1620.
There are and can exist but two ways of investigating and discover -
ing truth. The one hurries on rapidly from the senses and particulars
to the most general axioms, and from them, as principles and their
supposed indisputable truth, derives and discovers the intermediate
axioms. This is the way now in use. The other constructs its axioms
from the senses and particulars, by ascending continually and gradu-
ally, till it finally arrives at the most general axioms, which is the true
but unattempted way. 13
How far Bacon can be credited with furthering the inductive
approach has been questioned. Certainly he did not originate it, and
the picture his work suggests of the scientist accumulating great
masses of fact in broad, general groups is hardly a realistic one.
However, the current emphasis on experiment has probably led to
some underestimation of the importance of induction itself. Even
during the past century two revolutions in thought have grown out
of conclusions inductively arrived at. Darwin based his theories of
evolution on the masses of biological materials he had accumulated,
and Freud's theories of psychoanalysis grew out of the study of
numerous case histories.
The basic weakness of Bacon's view was that he did not perceive
the necessity for a guiding problem. "To follow Bacon's prescrip-
tion," notes F. S. C. Northrop, "is to gather facts before one knows
what facts, among the infinite number in the universe, to gather." 14
Pursuing a similar line of reasoning, Morris R. Cohen and Ernest
Nagel have observed:
13 Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum, New York,
P. F. Collier & Son, 1900, pp. 316-17.
14 F. S. C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities, New
York, The Macmillan Company, 1947, p. 17.
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 9
It is an utterly superficial view, therefore, that the truth is to be,
found by "studying the facts." It is superficial because no inquiry
can even get under way until and unless some difficulty is felt in a
practical or theoretical situation. It is the difficulty, or problem, which
guides our search for some order among the facts, in terms of which
the difficulty is to be removed. 15
Finally, induction is incomplete until the accumulated data have
been analyzed and classified. The spectacle of a research worker who
has accumulated a mass of data and then has little idea what to do
with it is not unfamiliar.
C. The Experimental Process
Experiment, which has been defined as observation under con-
trolled conditions, is in modern practice likewise channeled by the
problem under investigation. The sequence of operations which con-
stitutes ideally the experimental process begins with an observation
which reveals a difficulty or problem. The experimenter formulates
a hypothesis to explain the difficulty; then he tests the hypothesis
by experiment and draws his conclusions as to its validity.
An example of the experimental process which will repay careful
study by anyone interested in scientific writing is William Harvey's
rgngwned work on the heart and the circulation of the blood T D& Motu
Qgrdis. This work, first published inJL62ff f has so kindled the admira-
tfon of successive generations of physicians that it has been trans-
lated from the original Latin into the English idiom of three different
centuries once in Harvey's own time, twice in the nineteenth cen-
tury, and in the twentieth by Chauncey D. Leake. 16
One of the observations which led to Harvey's great discovery
concerned the amount of blood pumped by the heart and the fre-
quency of the pulse. Harvey observed that the blood in the arteries
flowed away from the heart only, and at a rapid rate. This observa-
tion was incompatible with the traditional anatomy of the time,
according to which the blood passed outward from the heart in both
the arteries and veins with a flowing and ebbing motion. If the blood
flowed rapidly outward through the arteries, as he had observed
15 Morris R. Cohen and Ernest Nagel, An Introduction to Logic and Scientific
Method, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934, p. 199.
16 William Harvey, De Motu Cordis, translated by Chauncey D. Leake, 3rd
ed., Springfield, 111., and Baltimore, Md., Charles C. Thomas, 1941, p. xii.
10 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
it to, Harvey reasoned, far more blood would be required than
could possibly be formed from all the nourishment the body received
unless the blood returned through another channel to the heart. Thus
Harvey's observations raised a problem or theoretical difficulty. To
obviate the difficulty he formulated the hypothesis that the blood
did not flow in one direction only but "in a circle." Further experi-
ment convinced him of the truth of this hypothesis, which was fully
demonstrated about thirty years later when Malpighi discovered the
capillaries through which the blood passes from the arteries to the
veins and so back to the heart.
Harvey himself, although he appreciated the importance of his
results, did not comprehend fully the significance of his method.
Philosophically, like earlier followers of Aristotle, Harvey accepted
Aristotle's emphasis on nature and design, and throughout his work
Harvey quoted deferentially the very medical authorities his dis-
covery was confuting.
The process of formulating principles which describe such phe-
nomena of the universe as can be reduced to order advances through
successive stages of acceptance from speculation through hypothesis
and theory to law. A hypothesis must be extensively tested and much
evidence for it adduced before it becomes a law. One of the con-
spicuous differences between the scientifically trained and the un-
trained is the readiness of the untrained person to accept a plausible
speculation as an established principle.
D. The Principle of the Control
If observations are to be instructive, the factor immediately under
consideration must be separated from others which may confuse
the issue. In the word malaria, which means literally "bad air," our
language has recorded an error which arose from uncontrolled
observation. Those who first observed that malaria was associated
with unwholesome air failed to distinguish between the air and the
mosquitoes which infested it and consequently did not recognize the
true cause of the disease. The modern practice is to avoid such errors
by setting up wherever possible control groups which correspond
to the experimental groups at every point except the point at issue.
The procedure is familiar in experiments with nutritional values in
which two like groups are fed the same diets except that the item
CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 11
whose effect is to be tested (ascorbic acid, for example) is added
to the diet of the experimental group but not to the diet of the
control group.
Successful use of the control principle depends on a complete
analysis of the factors concerned in a problem and the devising of
experiments which will test only one factor at a time. The difficulties
of achieving this result may be illustrated by an experiment of
W. C. Allee and his co-workers, 17 who have done so much to extend
our knowledge of social relations among animals. The purpose of
the investigation was to test the comparative development of sunfish
isolated and in groups. In one experiment two groups of sunfish were
placed in aquaria. Both groups had the same total amount of water,
but the individual fish of one group were separated from one another
by partitions while those of the other group were not. The fish which
remained together developed more rapidly than the others, but it
was not possible to say that this result was due entirely to their group
association because, although the volume of water for each fish was
the same for both groups, the isolated fish were not able to swim as
far in one direction. Thus the results might have been due either
to association with the group or to what the investigators called
"Raumfaktor"
Claude Bernard expressed the view that the principle of control
or exact comparison is fundamental in the experimental approach.
In all experimental knowledge, indeed, there are three phases: an
observation made, a comparison established and a judgment ren-
dered. . . .
Now experimental reasoning is absolutely the same, whether in
sciences of observation or in experimental sciences. We find the same
judgment by comparison based on two facts, one used as starting
point, the other as conclusion, of our reasoning. Only in the sciences
of observation, the two facts are always observations; while in the
experimental sciences, the two facts may be taken exclusively from
experimentation, or at the same time from experimentation and from
observation, according to the special case and according to how deeply
we go into experimental analysis. 18
" W. C. Allee, Bernard Greenberg, G. M. Rosenthal, and Peter Frank, "Some
Effects of Social Organization on Growth in the Green Sunfish, Lepomis
cyanellus," Journal of Experimental Zoology, 108:1-19, June 1948.
18 Claude Bernard, An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine,
translated by Henry Copley Greene, New York, Henry Schuman, Inc., 1949,
pp. 12, 16.
12 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
E. Objectivity
The distinction between the objective and the subjective is ex-
pressed in the basic words "object" and "subject." The objective has
its source in phenomena external to the individual; the subjective
lies within the mind of the individual and is colored by his tempera-
ment. Such a distinction is relative rather than absolute, for we can
know the external world only as the senses perceive it and the mind
interprets it. However, though relative, the distinction is fundamental
to the distinction between art and science. In art the individual is
the supreme authority. In science the individual bases his conclusions
on observations of natural phenomena and must be prepared to sub-
mit them to others for corroboration.
This obligation of the scientist to submit his results to the critical
examination of others lays upon him two corollary obligations: first,
he must observe accurately and measure exactly; second, he must
record his results in language so precise that any qualified person
can follow his reasoning and if necessary repeat his experiments.
Contrasting objective and subjective statements, Clean th Brooks and
Robert Penn Warren observe:
We may write, "The water was 31 per cent saturated with filterable
solids," or we may write, "The water was stained a muddy brown."
We may write, "The man was 5 ft. 3% in. tall," or we may write,
"He was a runty little fellow." We may write, "The animal caught
was a mature male of the species Rattus norvegicus weighing 1 Ib.
3% oz.," or we may write, "We caught a fat brown rat." 19
To this description of the characteristic features of scientific
method two cautionary observations must be added. All the features
of scientific method, though they may be considered separately, are
closely interrelated. Moreover, the history of scientific method has
been one of organic development which is presumably still continuing.
Consequently, any statement of it can be only as of now.
III. PROBLEMS OF METHOD IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Social scientists disagree both as to the propriety of considering
the social sciences true sciences and as to the usefulness of scientific
19 Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Modern Rhetoric, New York,
Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949, p. 34.
PROBLEMS OF METHOD 13
method in their pursuit. A view which has long been influential de-
rives largely from the position of the nineteenth century philosopher
Auguste Comte, who held that the sciences have become positive ac-
cording to the degree of their remoteness from man. The social sci-
ences would thus be considered comparable to the natural sciences
but in an earlier stage of development. Social scientists have, how-
ever, pointed out numerous differences between natural science and
social science: that a systematic science deals chiefly with universals,
human history with particulars; that prediction on the basis of the
past is far more hazardous when concerned with human than with
natural phenomena; that where man himself is involved as a social
being he can hardly avoid concerning himself with "ends" as well as
with the truth. The question, as Carl L. Becker has pointed out, is
essentially one of definition.
The one thing that all scientists have in common is not a special tech-
nique, but a special attitude of mind towards their several enterprises.
This attitude is simply the desire to know, in respect to the particular
matter in hand, what is true about it, irrespective of any practical or
esthetic or moral implications that may be involved in the truth that
turns up. This does not mean that the scientist in any branch of
learning is indifferent to these implications, but only that for the
purpose of his inquiry he must disregard them. If one asks how he
can afford to disregard them, the answer is that his enterprise pro-
ceeds upon the fundamental assumption that knowing what is true
is itself a primary value upon which all other values must in the long
run depend. In this sense history and the social studies are branches
of science that is to say, the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. 20
Yet, as Becker further notes:
This is the fundamental difference between the natural sciences and
the social studies; whereas the behavior of material things remains
the same whatever men learn about it, the behavior of men is always
conditioned by what they know about themselves and the world in
which they live. 21
A. The Social Scientist and His Material
From the quoted material above one point emerges clearly: how-
ever much social science may be influenced by the methods of the
20 Carl L. Becker, "The Function of the Social Sciences," Science and Man,
New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1942, p. 243.
21 Ibid., p. 244.
14 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
natural sciences, the worker in the social sciences has a special rela-
tionship intellectual and emotional to his own studies. As the em-
bryologist George W. Corner once facetiously put it, if man "is an
ape he is the only ape that is debating what kind of ape he is." 22
This special relationship of the social scientist to his material oper-
ates in two ways. One effect brings the observer closer to his ma-
terial.
In human behavior we have a kind of direct knowledge of motives,
whereas we only infer the existence of physical forces from observa-
tion of the changes specific to each. Hence, the irresistible urge to
treat motives as real. 23
The other effect is that the objective and impersonal attitude of
the scientist is more difficult to maintain where human factors are
directly involved.
Since controls in human relations are difficult to set up, it is more
difficult to test hypotheses in the social than in the natural sciences.
Consequently a tendency may develop to evolve theory without sub-
jecting it to rigorous testing. Notwithstanding the difficulties encoun-
tered, however, present-day social science is characterized by the
strength of the movement toward setting up more effective controls
and devising more accurate means of measurement. In the opinion
of one social scientist, "the movement to make the social studies scien-
tific began to take form in the middle of the eighteenth century,
gained decided vigor with Comte, and continues as the most signifi-
cant influence in social science today." 24
B. Scientific Method and Social Science
The difficulties of formulating method in social sciences are ad-
mirably summarized by Stuart A. Rice in his introduction to Methods
in Social Science, a collection of case studies in method compiled
under the direction of the Committee on Scientific Method in the
Social Sciences of the Social Science Research Council. After consid-
22 George W. Corner, Ourselves Unborn, New Haven, Yale University Press,
1944, p. 131.
23 Frank Knight in Methods in Social Science, edited by Stuart A. Rice,
Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1931, p. 67.
24 Wilson Gee, Social Science Research Methods, New York, Appleton-
Century-Crofts, Inc., 1950, p. 162.
PROBLEMS OF METHOD 15
ering various interpretations of method, Rice arrives at a working
definition.
. . . method must be jregarded as a term of variable meanings. In
the present work it seemed desirable to employ whatever versions of
the term would have utility for the interpretation and the further
development of social science.
One version which will be stressed from this point onward has not
been scrutinized in the foregoing discussion: namely, that view of
method which identifies it with the concepts and assumptions under-
lying scientific inquiry, and in terms of which the major aspects of
a problem are formulated. Method in this sense precedes, either ex-
plicitly or implicitly, the employment of methods in any more limited
sense. The concepts and assumptions underlying scientific investigation
are frequently undiscerned, in spite of their all-pervading and far-
reaching consequences upon it. Differences in the formulations of in-
vestigators are more likely to proceed from differences in their ways
of conceiving problems and data than from any other methodological
cause. Hence it would seem that what may be called the "conceptual"
version of method refers precisely to those aspects of social inquiry
whose clarification would be most beneficial. Moreover, since this in-
terpretation of the term can be made to include the more limited
interpretations, it seems to be the most general and the most funda-
mental that can be employed.
The hard-headed, factual-minded type of investigator, most akin
among his fellows to the "practical man" among laymen, will remain
skeptical of the value of this interpretation. He will ask his science
for "facts," and be willing to "let the concepts go." He would like
to build a social science out of such tangible units as bushels of wheat,
votes of electors, birth-rates, and reaction times. By binding such units
together in mathematical formulas, he thinks, social science may ap-
proach the solidity of the so-called "natural" sciences. But before
quantitative methods can be employed it is necessary to identify and
define the objects to be counted. Even prior to this it is necessary to
formulate the problem with respect to which and delimit the field
within which enumeration is to occur. In social science these steps
offer peculiar difficulties. They are inseparable from the investigator's
concepts and assumptions. 25
The studies in Methods in Social Science are grouped in relation
to "three broad objectives in social science": definition, ascertain-
ment of sequence and change, and discovery of relations. The last
26 Stuart A. Rice, Methods in Social Science, Chicago, The University of
Chicago Press, 1931, pp. 7-8.
16 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
is subdivided into interpretations of relationship among unmeasured
factors, attempts to determine relations among measured but experi-
mentally uncontrolled factors, and attempts to determine quantitative
relations among measured and experimentally controlled factors. In
a more recent study of methodology in social science the author 26
offers the following analysis: the case method, the statistical method,
the historical method, the survey method, and the experimental
method.
It is evident that many of the concepts with which the social scien-
tist deals must be expressed in verbal terms. Qualitative differences,
unlike quantitative differences, must be expressed in words. The in-
ference is justified that the exactness of the social sciences will be
closely limited by the degree to which language can be made exact
and precise.
IV. THE PROBLEM IN MODERN SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION
The function of the problem in scientific research is perhaps less
well understood than are some of the concepts of scientific method
which received emphasis at an earlier time. Nevertheless, an under-
standing of the problem concept is essential to an understanding of
modern scientific research. This concept has two elements. One, con-
centrating on a small division of the subject, was postulated by Des-
cartes in one of the famous rules in his Discourse on Method: "to
divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts
jisjossible, and_as jmght_be necessary for its adequate solution." 2T
The other element of the problem concept is the formulation of
the problem as a question. The popularity of "fact-finding" agencies
attests to the wide use of the question-asking approach as a means
of focusing the problem. The problem concept has had such a wide
influence that it would be scarcely possible to find a field of research
which has not been affected by it. For this reason an understanding
and application of the concept are frequently of the highest usefulness
in clarifying the ideas of the scientific writer, and this aspect of the
subject is further developed in Chapter 2.
Many philosophers and scientists have described various features
26 Gee, op. cit.
27 The Living Thoughts of Descartes, presented by Paul Valery, Philadelphia,
David McKay Company, 1947, p. 57.
THE "PROBLEM" 17
of scientific method. Naturally the points of emphasis in these ac-
counts have differed. To some the dominant feature of scientific
method is accurate quantitative measurement; to others, hypothesis
and experiment form the crucial point. Within recent years many
observers of our social order have contended that our whole society
would gain if the use of scientific method, particularly the application
of the problem concept, were extended. In these broader relationships,
scientific method is not so much a method as a way of thought or,
as John Dewey termed it, "the scientific habit of mind."
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Compare the definitions or descriptions of science which follow. What
does each contribute? To what do you attribute the differences among
them?
a. "Almost by definition, I would say, science moves ahead." James B.
Conant, On Understanding Science.
b. "The educated layman of the eighteenth century . . . knew that
the pursuit of science would yield many useful or practical inno-
vations. But he also knew and perhaps even better than we do
that primarily science is a way of looking at the external world and
uncovering its fundamental truths." I. Bernard Cohen, Science,
Servant of Man.
c. " 'Science' is a label for our attempts to find out how the universe
works by means of careful observation rather than armchair specu-
lation." Stuart Chase, Power of Words.
d. "Science is not the mere collection of facts, which are infinitely
numerous and mostly uninteresting, but the attempt by the human
mind to order these facts into satisfying patterns." C. N. Hinshel-
wood, The Structure of Physical Chemistry.
e. "True science is distinctively the study of useless things. For the
useful things will get studied without the aid of scientific men. To
employ these rare minds on such work is like running a steam en-
gine by burning diamonds." Charles S. Peirce, "The Scientific
Attitude."
2. In his Preface to the first number of The American Journal of Human
Genetics, September 1949, H. J. Muller urges scientists engaged in the
study of genetics to dissociate themselves from passion and prejudice
and "to hold fast to the hard-won results of painstaking experiments,
observations and calculations, to maintain objectivity of method, inde-
pendence of thought, searchingness of analysis and freedom of criti-
cism, no matter what 'authority' may thereby be challenged." Com-
18 SCIENTIFIC METHOD
pare the points mentioned by Muller with those discussed in the fore-
going chapter.
3. What aspect of scientific method is stressed by Bernard in the follow-
ing sentence from An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medi-
cine? "One must be brought up in laboratories and live in them, to
appreciate the full importance of all the details of procedure in
investigation, which are so often neglected or despised by the false
men of science calling themselves generalizes."
4. Discuss the implications in the change in attitude toward scientific
method which has become evident since the beginning of the present
century.
5. Find out all that you can about the methods of work of one of the
following scientists: Sir Isaac Newton, F. A. Kekule, Robert Boyle,
W. Beaumont, Ramon y Cajal. Comment on your findings in connec-
tion with the discussion in the foregoing chapter.
6. With what hypotheses are the following individuals identified? Coper-
nicus, Priestley, Lamarck, Pavlov. Which of these hypotheses have been
substantiated by later investigations?
7. Draw up a list of subordinate topics which would be involved in this
question: How far will it be possible for man to go in developing a
science of human behavior? Would this, with provision for library
reading, be a suitable subject for a panel discussion?
8. In what ways are scientific method and scientific writing related?
CHAPTER 2
THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
I. Significance of the problem
II. Definition of the problem concept
A. The problem as the starting point of inquiry
B. The problem, the hypothesis, and the thesis
III. Types of problems
A. Problems of fact
B. Problems of value
C. Technical problems (problems of means)
IV. Setting up a problem
A. Perception and formulation of the problem
1. Observation
2. Intersecting interests
3. Problem patterns
4. Time and place
B. Limitation of the problem
C. Evaluation of the problem
A problem is really a springboard for a leap into the
unknown. R. E. GIBSON, The Arts and the Sciences,
American Scientist, July 1953.
I. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM
Modern inquiry into scientific method has revealed increasingly
that the ability to perceive a problem in what others would accept
as commonplace or trivial is a distinguishing mark of the true scien-
tist. History tells of Galileo watching the lamps of the cathedral of
Pisa as they swayed back and forth on their long chains. Lamps had
swayed back and forth before the eyes of countless watchers, but of
them all, Galileo is remembered because only he observed that the
long and the short strokes occupied the same time; and his observa-
tion led to the discovery of the principle of the isochronism of the
pendulum. In recent times Sir Alexander Fleming has been acclaimed
19
20 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
for his discovery of penicillin. Actually the mold which led to the
discovery of penicillin had been known to other scientists before
Fleming. Fleming alone saw a problem : might not this mold capable
of destroying bacteria be useful to man?
Henri Becquerel likewise had a gift for seeing the significance in
chance observations. The work of his father had led Becquerel to
experiment with the salts of uranium. One day while Becquerel was
exposing to sunlight a photographic plate covered by a black paper
on which he placed a salt of uranium, the sunlight disappeared just
after the exposure had been started. When the plate was developed,
the impression was as strong as if the plate had had a full exposure
to sunlight. This led Becquerel to repeat the experiment without sun-
light; the results were the same. Thus a chance shadow was one of
the circumstances which led to the discovery of radioactivity.
However, such selections from the headlines of history present to
a degree a false, or at least a partial, picture. Science advances not
only through chance observations but through the painstaking work
of countless investigators, each working on his own problem, and
all pooling their knowledge. Such, for example, is the current attack
on the problem of cancer. Cancer is a complex of many problems
some chemical, some morphological, some pathological, some clinical,
and some physiological. The individual investigators, each taking
his own small part of the problem, are co-operating in the attack on
the greater problem, confident that in the end it will be solved.
The problem concept is of major importance to the scientific
writer since a clear perception of the problem is a first step toward
a lucid and effective paper. For the student it is the presence of a
problem which distinguishes a research paper from mere reference
work. This distinction applies even in fields outside science. The stu-
dent who goes to the library to "look up" William Dean Howells is
merely doing reference work. The student who analyzes the American
business man of different eras as portrayed in Howells' The Rise of
Silas Lapham, Theodore Dreiser's The Titan, and Sinclair Lewis'
Babbitt is undertaking a problem in socioliterary critJcigixu
II. DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
The problem concept as used in science may be defined briefly as
the focusing of inquiry on a single question of more or less limited
DEFINED 21
scope. (See Chapter 1.) But this definition in itself is insufficient; it
needs elaboration. Exactly what constitutes a problem? Just what
is the nature of scientific inquiry? The American philosopher John
Dewey has made a valuable contribution to the clarification of the
problem concept. He defines inquiry as "the directed or controlled
transformation of an indeterminate situation into a determinately
unified one." 1 The "indeterminate situation" with which inquiry
begins is characterized as "not only 'open' to inquiry" but "open in
the sense that its constituents do not hang together." Indeterminate
situations are further described as "disturbed, ambiguous, confused,
full of conflicting tendencies, obscure." Inquiry does not actually
get under way, however, until the situation is recognized as indeter-
minate, or problematic. The task of the scientist is to recognize the
situation as problematic and to define the problem.
A. The Problem as the Starting Point of Inquiry
It is a familiar and significant saying that a problem well put is half-
solved. To find out what the problem and problems are which a
problematic situation presents to be inquired into, is to be well along
in inquiry. To mistake the problem involved is to cause subsequent
inquiry to be irrelevant or to go astray. Without a problem, there
is blind groping in the dark. The way in which the problem is con-
ceived decides what specific suggestions are entertained and which
are dismissed; what data are selected and which rejected; it is the
criterion for relevancy and irrelevancy of hypotheses and conceptual
structures. 2
By contrast with the indeterminate situation with which inquiry
begins, the determinate situation with which it ends the "outcome
of inquiry" is described as "a closed and, as it were, finished situa-
tion or 'universe of experience.' " The chemist who seeks to synthe-
size an organic compound, the public health worker who inquires
why tooth decay is more prevalent in one section of the country than
in another, the paleontologist who studies fossils in an effort to de-
termine more accurately the age of man all are engaged in trans-
forming an indeterminate into a more nearly determinate situation.
ijohn Dewey, Logic: The Theory of Inquiry, New York, Henry Holt and
Company, 1938, p. 117.
2 Ibid., p. 108.
22 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
A particularly valuable feature of Dewey's definition is that it
does not promise too much. The investigator may on occasion be
satisfied if his inquiry has served to advance even slightly our state
of knowledge, to leave an indeterminate situation somewhat less in-
determinate. The sole purpose of some preliminary inquiries may be
to define the area to be investigated and to chart the difficulties in-
volved. Nor is the usefulness of Dewey's definition confined to natural
science. Indeed it may be extended to illuminate all areas of research
and to provide a technique for a rational attack on social and eco-
nomic problems.
B. The Problem, the Hypothesis, and the Thesis
An understanding of the term problem involves a recognition of
its relationship to two other terms hypothesis and thesis. Hypothesis
is best understood by going back to its derivation. It is from a Greek
verb meaning "to place under." A hypothesis, then, is a theory or
explanation "placed under" the known facts of the problem to ac-
count for and explain them. The hypothesis may then be tested by
experiment. If it does not meet the test, it is re-examined. If estab-
lished by sufficient testing, it becomes one of the accepted generaliza-
tions of science. The scientist's use of the hypothesis in solving a
problem is admirably illustrated by Claude Bernard's work on carbon
monoxide poisoning. (See Appendix A, p. 376.)
The term thesis has come down to us from the medieval university
in which the candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy was
expected to defend his thesis or conclusion against all comers. The
defense was purely verbal and consisted of references to established
authority; it had little in common with the reference to fact and
experiment of modern science. Yet we still use the term thesis to
represent the solution to a problem, or partial solution, which is
reached at the close of an investigation. In modern times, however,
the emphasis has shifted from the defense of the thesis to the satis-
factory working out of the problem. The inexperienced student often
adds to his difficulties in writing a research paper by promising "to
prove" something. Rather he should begin by perceiving a problem
and undertaking to investigate it.
TYPES 23
III. TYPES OF PROBLEMS
The only limit to the application of the problem concept as Dewey
has defined it is the number of indeterminate situations which can
be made more determinate by inquiry. It must be understood, how-
ever, that the problems in different disciplines are inherently differ-
ent, as are the methods of analyzing and investigating them. Problems
in chemistry, biology, physics, psychology, sociology all have their
special characteristics, and it would be folly to treat them as if they
were alike. Regardless of the subject matter, however, a distinction
should be drawn between problems of fact, problems of value, and
problems of means.
A. Problems of Fact
The term problem of fact is used here to cover both individual
facts verifiable observations and the relationships between facts
without which the individual facts would have little significance. The
concern of pure science, which seeks new knowledge for its own
sake regardless of its potential usefulness, 3 is with problems of fact.
Whether the earth is flat or round, whether a heavier body falls more
rapidly than a lighter one, whether the center of the emotions is in
the heart or elsewhere in the body, whether bacteria generate spon-
taneously or by reproducing themselves all these are problems of
fact which have been solved.
The almost fanatical persistence with which individuals will pursue
the solution of a baffling problem of fact is apparent in the history
of the attempts to express mathematically the value of TT, the ratio of
a circle's circumference to its diameter. The problem in one form has
been traced to a papyrus of about 1700 B.C. By the second century
A.D., Ptolemy, an Alexandrian mathematician, had achieved a value
equivalent to 3.1417, which represents an error of about twenty-five
parts per million. Little work was done on the problem in the western
world during the Middle Ages, but at the time of the Renaissance
the search began again. By 1948 collaborating British and American
mathematicians achieved a value which cross-checked to 808 decimal
points. In 1949 the computing machine ENIAC was set to work on
3 It has, of course, been shown many times that knowledge sought originally
for its own sake frequently proves useful later. See Appendix A, p. 379.
24 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
the value of TT. According to N. T. Gridgeman's account, "Four oper-
ators worked eight-hour shifts, night and day, putting in a total of
seventy man-hours, and emerged, pale-eyed but happy, with TT to an
elaborately checked 2035D [decimals]." 4
B. Problems of Value
Where the problem of fact involves a question of what occurs, how
it occurs, perhaps why it occurs, the problem of value involves the
question of what is to be preferred or how highly something should
be rated. "The characteristic of a problem of value," in the words
of F. S. C. Northrop, "is that, in part at least, it raises a question
concerning what ought to be, rather than what is, the case." 5
Many problems of value are closely related to problems of fact.
In these problems of value, judgment is rendered by reference to
an established objective standard of values, such as a rating scale
or a monetary standard. Typical of such problems are the chemist's
testing of a sample of water and the metallurgist's assaying of an
ore. Some problems of value may be studied and a basis for action
established by setting up standards or criteria appropriate to the par-
ticular problem. If a choice must be made, for example, between two
types of automobile engines the V-8 and the Straight-8 specific
questions must be answered before a decision can be reached. The
investigator may ask .which type of engine has greater power, which
operates more economically, which is easier to maintain, which is
more compact. These questions must be answered by reference to
arbitrary production and performance standards.
In contrast to problems of value which are referable to objective
standards, there are those which are referable only to personal or
subjective standards. These problems are specifically the concern of
philosophy, ethics, and religion, subjects that are rarely viewed with
detachment. The scientist can contribute to their discussion, but not
in the impersonal, objective spirit with which he attacks a problem
of fact. This distinction is illustrated by the following passage in
which an embryologist writes of the personal value which he as an
individual attaches to the study of embryology.
4 N. T. Gridgeman, "Circumetrics," The Scientific Monthly, 77:33, July 1953.
B F. S. C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities, New York,
The Macmillan Company, 1947, p. 20.
TYPES 25
I hope that the human being whose biography during the first weeks
of life is being sketched herewith, is already something more to the
reader than a diagram in a book. This is your history I am telling and
mine, and that of my own child and of yours. Here in the laboratory
we can of course study and depict for you only those whose lives have
been interrupted, and yet our experience trains us to think even of
them as witnesses of life and growth. They never seem to us static or
defunct. I have heard an embryologist who thought himself unsenti-
mental and impersonal talk affectionately of a handsome three-weeks
embryo as "he"; and speaking for myself, I seldom sit at the micro-
scope to study one of these individuals we call "specimens" without
the thought that here is one who but for the turn of circumstance
would have taken his place in the army of the living. A microscope
slide, says Professor W. B. Cannon, is a frozen moment in the flux
of life. 6
A problem of value that lacks a tangible referent does not lend
itself to scientific inquiry, nor can it be definitely resolved, nor does
it become the subject of scientific papers. Students who recognize
problems of value as such will not unwisely attempt to write conclu-
sive papers concerning controversial matters of political attitude,
aesthetic appreciation, religious belief, or the like.
C. Technical Problems (Problems of Means)
The technical problem is concerned with the means by which a
desired end is to be attained. Such problems are the province of ap-
plied science, the branch of science which applies the discoveries of
pure science to the needs of man. Thus a technical problem combines
elements of fact and value since through such problems the facts of
science are focused on man's needs or wishes.
Technical problems arise, for example, when a newly discovered
drug such as penicillin is to be manufactured on a commercial scale.
The value of the drug has been tested. The basic chemical and physi-
cal facts are known. But means must be found for manufacturing
this drug in quantity so that it will be available for general use. The
technical problems connected with the early manufacture of penicillin
were in fact so numerous that production appeared likely to be seri-
ously hampered. According to its discoverer, Sir Alexander Fleming,
6 George W. Corner, Ourselves Unborn, New Haven, Yale University Press,
1944, pp. 36-37.
26 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
it was the urgent demands of World War II that prompted scientists
and drug manufacturers, with an unprecedented display of co-opera-
tion on an international scale, to attack this problem of means so
vigorously and solve it so soon.
At times, conditions may enable the observer to anticipate future
problems of means. Fremont Rider has stated one such problem which
is being created by the rapidly increasing demands on the capacity
of American libraries.
But, if the Yale Library does continue to grow, and to grow at a
rate no whit greater than it has been steadily growing through its
more than two centuries of past existence, if it continues to grow at
a rate no greater than the most conservative rate at which all our
other American colleges and universities have grown ever since they
started, and are now growing, then, by a series of further succes-
sive doublings, the Yale Library will, in 2040, have approximately
200,000,000 volumes, which will occupy over 6,000 miles of shelves.
Its card catalog files if it then has a card catalog will consist of
nearly three-quarters of a million catalog drawers, which will of them-
selves occupy not less than eight acres of floor space. New material
will be coming in to it at the rate of 12,000,000 volumes a year; and
the cataloging of this new material will require a cataloging staff of
over six thousand persons. 7
All laboratory workers know that every scientific investigation
involves subsidiary technical problems, such as the finding of suit-
able experimental animals or the construction of apparatus. More-
over, every time a discovery is made, every time a major problem
is solved, new problems are disclosed. Smallwood has noted how the
new world uncovered by the microscope led to a need for new means
of description and measurement.
The microscope was well understood by the beginning of the nine-
teenth century, but naturalists had to create new standards of descrip-
tion when they began to use it. Old words were employed, but they
must convey new meanings. A device had to be found for measuring
the myriads of living creatures in every drop of water. Explanations
were demanded for the phenomena revealed. Even the old hypothesis
of spontaneous generation had to be revived, because without it all
attempts to unravel the life cycle of microscopic creatures seemed vain.
With so much adjustment to be made, it is not surprising that the
7 Fremont Rider, The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library, New
York, Hadham Press, 1944, pp. 11-12.
TYPES 27
microscope did not come into general use in the laboratories of the
universities before 1880. 8
On the other hand, as the Spanish neurologist Ramon y Cajal
pointed out in his autobiography, a technical discovery may open
the way for the working out of problems hitherto considered obscure
or insoluble. (See Appendix A, p. 387.) One remarkably fruitful dis-
covery is that of the principle of ion exchange. Though this principle
has been known for about a century, it has been extensively applied
only since 1910. At the present time, ion exchange is being employed
in a great variety of processes, including the recovery of metals from
solutions, the refining of hydrocarbons, and the desalting of sea
water for drinking use by fliers forced down at sea.
From the foregoing discussion of problems of fact, problems of
value, and problems of means, it is evident that the interrelationship
of these problems is complex. This interrelationship is illustrated by
a catastrophe that occurred in the building of the ?.-' ' '! l-- 1 ^
Quebec Bridge. This bridge over the St. Lawrence River was being
built according to the cantilever plan, in which projecting arms meet
or are joined in mid-air between piers. As one arm was nearing mid-
channel, the entire structure collapsed, carrying eighty-two bridge
men down with the wreckage.
The investigations following the disaster revealed that the collapse
was caused by the buckling of a compression member, due to inade-
quate lacing. Previously accepted empirical rules for the design of
sections and details of compression members, tried and tested for
smaller members, had betrayed the designer when they were applied
to compression members of larger and unprecedented dimensions. As
a result of the large-scale experiments and studies that followed, the
design and detailing of large compression members were brought to
a scientific basis. In addition, attention was now directed to the proper
design and construction of the joints between compression members,
and to the analysis and elimination of "secondary" stresses produced
in truss members by their deformations. The Quebec disaster of 1907,
more than any other occurrence in the evolution of bridgebuilding,
revolutionized the art by bringing it to a new high level of scientific
analysis and design. 9
8 William Martin Smallwood, Natural History and the American Mind, New
York, Columbia University Press, 1941, p. 195.
9 David B. Steinman and Sara Ruth Watson, Bridges and Their Builders,
New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1941, pp. 305-06.
28 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
In this instance the central problem of means was not solved until
a dramatic infringement on the value attached to human life forced
a review and further investigation of basic problems of fact.
IV. SETTING UP A PROBLEM
Finding a problem 10 suitable for laboratory research demands
knowledge of a different order from that required for perceiving a
problem suitable for a research paper. Nevertheless, if the writer is
to be successful in rinding problems, he must have the same spirit
of inquiry that motivates the laboratory research worker.
A. Perception and Formulation of the Problem
In the following subsections of this chapter, means for finding
problems for research papers are suggested. These suggestions are
not intended as logical formulas but as exploratory devices which
have proved useful to students.
7. Observation
The traditional source of a problem is an observation of a phe-
nomenon which is not satisfactorily accounted for by existing knowl-
edge. Such classic examples of problem-finding as Newton and the
apple, Watts and the teakettle, and Columbus and the ships which
disappeared beneath the horizon have become legendary. James B.
Conant has cited "a nineteenth-century episode which illustrates how
well-planned experiments may be used to follow up an observation."
The story is familiar to all scientists, though perhaps it is not gen-
erally known that before Roentgen announced his discovery several
other investigators noticed the fogging of photographic plates near an
electric discharge tube. Roentgen followed up his observation; the
others did not. But the clue from which Roentgen worked can hardly
be considered a mere happy accident. For Roentgen was studying the
stream of electrons (they were then called simply cathode rays) which
can pass through a thin window in an electric discharge tube. He
was aware that these rays would cause fluorescence of certain sub-
stances. He consequently had at hand a screen coated with such a
substance and observed that it shone even when it lay at some distance
from the tube. Following up this observation Roentgen quickly demon-
10 The expression finding a problem is used here to mean not only perceiving
or identifying a problem but seeking actively for one, as most research workers
are at times obliged to do.
SETTING UP 29
strated that some sort of radiation which passed through not only
glass but opaque substances was responsible for the effect. From then
on he was able to devise better methods of producing these rays and
thus introduced a revolutionary technique. 11
Unfortunately many students lack the questioning attitude which
serves the scientist so well and tend to accept without question much
that they read, hear, or see. Some students, however, through their
own practical experience, become aware of problems which, though
not true research problems, may serve as points of departure for un-
dergraduate research papers. Yet problems within the range of the
undergraduate are seldom research problems in a strict sense be-
cause, although the problem may be new to the student and he may
have a genuinely fresh approach to it, the study is not designed to
add consequentially to the total of human knowledge. One student,
for example, who was employed by a firm specializing in gas heating
installations found a suitable topic for a paper through his interest
in the relationship between city building codes and the use of safety
devices on gas heating equipment. Another student during his service
in the Navy had become aware of the practical problems presented
by the corrosion of metals and wrote his research paper about recent
research studies dealing with the factors affecting corrosion and
with newly developed methods of corrosion control.
The student who, while he reads, is sensitive to allusions and to
the implications of statements will often see opportunities for research
of which the less perceptive student will be unaware. For instance,
references to the strategic theories of the late Admiral A. T. Mahan
directed a naval science student to a research topic the relevance
of Mahan's theories to certain situations in recent warfare. Again,
a statement that curare, used by South American Indians as an arrow
poison, had been utilized in physiology and medicine aroused the
curiosity of another student and resulted in his writing on the use
of curare as an adjunct in anaesthesia. Another student's interest was
turned to ornithology, in which many phenomena, as he discovered
in his reading, have never been satisfactorily explained. In introduc-
ing the paper which grew out of this interest, the writer stated the
problem as follows:
11 James B. Conant, Science and Common Sense, New Haven, Yale University
Press, 1951, p. 115.
30 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
For many years ornithologists recorded occasional
observations of a peculiar phase of bird behavior
without recognizing the fact that it was a definite
habit of birds. It was not until 1935 that this type
of behavior was determined to be a specific habit of
birds and the German equivalent of the English term
"anting" was proposed by Stresemann as a term to de-
scribe it. The term refers to the application by birds
of any object, other than the oil of the uropygial
gland, to the feathers with the bill through a type of
preening action, or through "bathing" or dusting in
various substances. The objects used in anting may be
one of a number of various items, but are usually ants
of non-stinging species, hence the name. Since the
recognition of anting as a definite phase of bird be-
havior, considerable study has been undertaken in order
to ascertain the cause of this habit. Although several
theories have been advanced, none has proved completely
satisfactory, the actual cause still remaining in
doubt. The problem of determination of the motivation
resulting in anting in birds is the basis for this
paper.
2. Intersecting Interests
A method helpful to many students is that of taking two lines of
interest and searching for a problem where these lines intersect. Such
an intersection of interests is a frequent source of published research.
For instance, Robert S. Harper's Lincoln and the Press, Don C. Seitz's
Lincoln the Politician, and W. B. Hesseltine's Lincoln and the War
Governors have all been built on a connection between Lincoln and
a special interest of the authors. A stimulating historical dissertation,
Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought, de-
veloped out of an inquiry by Hofstadter into the use of phrases of
Darwin and later evolutionists in the attempt to justify the exploitive
character of American business during the latter part of the nine-
teenth century. Ciba Symposia once published as parallel articles
"Monsters in Nature" and "Monsters in Art." 12 Here, two entirely
different lines of interest that of an embryologist and that of a
professor of art intersect "monsters."
Similarly, students may have interests which, if extended to the
12 Viktor Hamburger, "Monsters in Nature"; Wolfgang Born, "Monsters in
Art," Ciba Symposia, Ciba Pharmaceutical Products, Inc., Summit, N. J.,
9:666-%, August-September, 1947.
SETTING UP 31
point where they intersect with the subject matter of a course, will
yield topics for research papers. A premedical student once wrote a
successful paper based on an interest he had developed while working
as a swimming instructor in the city pools. The student decided to
look into the question of whether the swimming pool is a serious
factor in the transmission of disease. This was his preliminary state-
ment of his problem:
People swim for two reasons, either for sport or for
their health. However, every swimmer should answer
the following question for his own sense of well
being: "Will the physical and mental benefits I can
obtain from swimming justify exposing myself to some
contagious disease which I might contract at the
pool?" Moreover, parents whose children clamor to go
swimming wish to know the risk of contagion involved.
What has been done to inform such people as to an
individual's chance of contracting some infection at
the swimming pool?
Because this student defined his problem carefully, he was able to
arrange his material effectively and in the end to arrive at definite
conclusions.
3. Problem Patterns
Certain problem patterns 13 are recurrent. Thoughtful comparisons,
to name one recurring pattern, will bring out new ideas and new
relationships. A student interested in political science found a subject
for comparison in three novels dealing with the career of a dema-
gogue: Number One by John Dos Passos, A Lion Is in the Streets
by Adria Locke Langley, and All the King's Men by Robert Penn
Warren. He compared the novels with reference to five points: the
careers of the central figures, resemblances to the career of the late
Huey Long, the demagogue's personality and its appeal to the voters,
the demagogue's retinue or entourage, and the viewpoint of the
authors. The subjects compared in this case the various interpreta-
tions of the demagogic character have enough in common to justify
the comparison and have variation enough to make it illuminating.
Another problem pattern is that of taking a single factor and trac-
13 The term pattern is used here not in the sense of a model but in the sense
of an orderly or logical arrangement of structure or activity.
32 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
ing it through different situations. An investigation of the expression
of a certain prejudice in different environments would be a study
of this type. A variation of this problem pattern is the "case study
method" as used in the social sciences. A thorough study and analy-
sis of a single representative instance of any phenomenon may help
to clarify the entire subject. Some case studies have become famous,
as did Morton Prince's study of the multiple personality which he
called "Sally" and "Miss Beauchamp." Prince's study of the case
led him to the conclusion that the repression of early conflicts had,
in combination with other factors, resulted in a dissociated per-
sonality. 14
4. Time and Place
Among the limits which may establish the boundaries of problems,
time and place are prominent. Events or circumstances may create
new problems or disclose problems hitherto unperceived. The Korean
conflict, for example, brought many changes in international outlook
and policy, any one of which might repay investigation. The dis-
covery of the Boswell papers in Malahide Castle outdated much that
had been written about James Boswell, opening the way for revision-
ary studies. When a 120-pound coelacanth believed to be of a
species that formed a linkage between fish and land animals was
caught west of Madagascar in the winter of 1952, zoologists had the
opportunity to study a species thought, until 1938, to have been ex-
tinct for 50,000,000 years. Some changes brought about by time
can, of course, be anticipated. Astronomers plan years in advance
to utilize the predictable opportunities for observation afforded by
eclipses and other recurrent astronomical phenomena.
In applied science, conditions changing with time are constantly
pushing new problems into the foreground. The gain in longevity
has advanced a new branch of medical science geriatrics, or the
care of the aged. The heavy defense production of jet planes has led
to organized research on the problem of industrial deafness. This
problem had been known to exist almost since the beginning of the
industrial revolution, but little was done about it. Indeed, "weaver's
ear" was regarded as "a badge of honor, indicating long service at
14 Morton Prince, Clinical and Experimental Studies in Personality, Cam-
bridge, Mass., Sci-Art Publishers, 1939, pp. 227-28.
SETTING UP 33
the trade." 15 Now the problem is the subject of study under auspices
of the Office of Naval Research.
The student who keeps up with current scientific news cannot fail
to find research paper topics which are fresh because they are timely.
Among the many topics which have been in the news in recent years
are motion sickness, the fluoridation of drinking water, and the use
of chlorophyll as a deodorant. The writer who chooses current topics
of this sort has a relatively rich field since there has been little
time or opportunity for a consideration of all the possible problems
involved.
An appreciation of his environment likewise opens up many re-
search problems for the student. The student of architectural history
may profitably examine architectural monuments of his own locality ;
the student of political science may study local government agencies;
the student of language may analyze characteristic local speech forms.
Probably few have exploited the possibilities of a single locality
as a source of problems as thoroughly as did the Lynds in Middle-
town. This study, described as "a pioneer attempt to deal with a
sample American community after the manner of social anthropol-
ogy," presented a full account of a community of 30,000 people dur-
ing the period from 1890 to 1925 its history, its conditions of
employment, its homes, its schools, and its leisure, religious, and
community activities. Indeed, Middletown has become the archetype
of similar subsequent studies in the social sciences.
B. Limitation of the Problem
The term problem, as has been implied, denotes not only an inquiry
but the specific portion of an inquiry which can be undertaken with
hope of success by a single investigator or group of investigators
in a single investigation. Knowledge may be compared to an ever-
widening circle. As the circle widens, each segment of it becomes
familiar to a smaller and smaller group of specialists. The more spe-
cialized knowledge a research worker has, the more exactly he should
be able to conceive and formulate a problem. Certainly no one can
formulate a problem intelligently in a field with which he is un-
15 Science News Letter, 59:37, January 20, 1951.
16 Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Con-
temporary American Culture, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929,
34 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
familiar. The exactness with which problems can be formulated, how-
ever, varies with the extent to which an area has been explored. In
new fields of investigation, initial problems are sometimes tentative
and exploratory. Even in a familiar field a preliminary period of
reading or experiment followed by reflection is needed before a prob-
lem can be cast in final form.
If a problem has been well conceived at the outset of an investiga-
tion, little further limitation may be needed. The writer may find
certain means of limitation more or less artificial or arbitrary
a help in reducing his problem to manageable proportions. Not many
students are as misguided as the one who suggested writing a research
paper on "Life and Science"; most students, however, will find it
necessary to undertake the disciplinary process of placing well-defined
limits on the original concept of a problem. Among these limits are
restrictions of time and place, restriction to fewer persons or groups,
selection of a smaller category, and division of the original question.
S. C. Ball's report Fall Bird Migration on the Gaspe Peninsula repre-
sents a limitation in time to the fall, in place to the Gaspe Peninsula,
categorically to birds, and analytically to migration. Similar bounda-
ries may be used to limit a variety of problems in applied science.
For example, the general problem of tobacco mosaic a virus disease
attacking tobacco might, for purposes of investigation, be limited
in place to one locality, in time to the current growing season, and
categorically to the effects of a specific method of control.
C. Evaluation of the Problem
To rule out problems which will not justify the expenditure of
time and energy, the student should, during the process of formu-
lating and defining his problem, use four questions as criteria to
evaluate it.
1. Can the problem be put in question form? Every idle question
does not constitute a problem, but every true problem can be stated
in question form. Often this interrogative form will help to reveal
weaknesses or inconsistencies.
2. Is the problem sufficiently limited? A serious study represents
a deep probing of a limited area, not a superficial ploughing of a
large surface.
3. Are the necessary primary sources or technical means of ob-
SETTING UP 35
taining information available? This is a practical question and an
important one. Indeed, in some instances research opportunities actu-
ally arise because of the availability of sources.
4. Will the findings have significance if the problem is satisfac-
torily resolved? To be significant a problem need not be of great
magnitude. No problem exists in isolation, and the significance of
a problem often derives from its relationship to the whole area of
inquiry of which it is a part. The solution of a seemingly insignificant
problem may supply a needed link in a chain of evidence, or the solu-
tion of a problem may be important largely because it opens up new
avenues of investigation. Failure of the public to understand these
complex relationships leads to much of the criticism concerning the
apparently trivial nature of topics chosen for research.
When the student has found a problem which satisfies these cri-
teria, he is ready for the next stage of his work, that is, for collecting
data pertinent to his problem. (See Chapter 4.)
Some of the problems which will engage the attention of the student
will doubtless seem too earth-bound to be described as "a springboard
for a leap into the unknown." Nevertheless, an attack on even these
lesser problems will afford an insight into that scientific tradition
which leads the scientist to regard a problem as a challenge.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. What are some of the major scientific problems which have been under
investigation during the past half century? In each instance name the
scientist or scientists who have been chiefly identified with the prob-
lem. Locate in the library some of the original reports concerned with
one of the problems. Explain the difference between the general prob-
lem under investigation and the specific problem on which an indi-
vidual experiment was based.
2. Douglas Bush tells in Science and English Poetry of a graduate stu-
dent who proposed doing a thesis on the influence of the eighteenth
century on the nineteenth. What characteristic of a research problem
had this student overlooked?
3. Which of the following topics would, in your opinion, lend themselves
to the setting up of library research problems? List the criteria by
which you made your selection: (a) a comparison between the work
of Newton and that of Einstein, (b) the cure of cancer, (c) recent
work on antimitotic agents, (d) famous bridges of the world, (e) the
36 THE PROBLEM CONCEPT
taxonomy of the fossil Receptaculites oweni, popularly known as the
"sunflower coral," (f) the origin and influence of the phlogiston
theory, (g) the erosion of arable land, (h) luminescence in fishes.
4. Could any of the rejected topics in the preceding exercise be limited
effectively by applying the suggestions in Section IV of the foregoing
chapter?
5. Prepare a list of problems which are of particular concern to your
locality, institution, or industry.
6. Can you classify the problems which you listed in answer to Exercise
5 as problems of fact, means, or value? To what extent are these prob-
lems combinations of more specific problems of all three types?
7. Comment on the different ways in which the word problem is used in
the excerpts given below from the Scientific American, 181(4), Oc-
tober 1949.
"... a problem that we had first tackled 12 years ago but had been
solved only in the last few months"; "problems which will challenge
science for a long time to come"; "the world's increasingly acute food
problem"; "technological problems and unpredictable economic fac-
tors"; "one of the most difficult and fascinating problems in biological
oceanography"; "the problem, then, is to find some method of separat-
ing the rates of growth and death and measuring them independ-
ently"; "a central problem of biology: the problem of the cause of
old age"; "the analysis of leaf shape may become a problem of great
importance in biology"; "the problems of clinical tuberculosis"; "the
biological aspects of the problem"; "when we decided to attack this
problem, a technical difficulty at once presented itself"; "the answer
to our problem came from chemical technology"; "a more rapid in-
vestigation of our central problem: the mechanism of virulence."
8. List the accepted denotations of the word problem and distinguish
among them. Which of these denotations represents most closely the
scientific concept of the problem?
9. Discuss the extent to which the scientist may properly concern him-
self with the uses or applications which are made of his contributions
to knowledge.
CHAPTER 3
DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
I. Scientific terminology and definition
A. A science and its terminology
B. Scientific terminology and everyday English
II. The contribution of semantics
A. The significance of context
B. Words as symbols
III. The process of definition
A. Words, terms, and concepts
B. Adaptation of a definition to its purpose
1. The formal definition
2. The operational definition
3. The informal definition
4. The extended definition
a. Arrangement of an extended definition
b. Methods of developing a definition
IV. Derivation as an aid in mastering terminology
A. Extensive use of Greek and Latin
B. The problem of eponyms
V. The misuse of technical terminology
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged,
it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly
in color and content according to the circumstances
and the time in which it is used. OLIVER WENDELL
HOLMES, JR., Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 425.
Exactness cannot be established in the arguments un-
less it is first introduced into the definitions. HENRI
POINCARE, Science and Method.
i. SCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITION
To the scientist the terminology of his subject is inseparable from
the subject itself. It is an indispensable means of expressing and
transmitting the observations, methods, laws, and theories which con-
stitute a science as a branch of knowledge. The terminology of a
37
38 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
science consists of the words or expressions that is, the terms used
in a special significance in that science, so defined in its literature,
and so understood by its adherents. Thus the terms inertia for the
physicist, catalyst for the chemist, homology for the biologist, fault
for the geologist, unit rule for the political scientist, as well as thou-
sands of other terms in the technical dictionaries, have significance
which is comprehended only partially by the general public.
Science, looked at in this way, has been described as a process
of applying names to things. The accumulation of an adequate ter-
minology is an important part of the growth of science. Every science
has in a sense its own language, and learning that language is a part
of the student's apprenticeship to the science. If the language of sci-
ence is to be adequate for transmitting our scientific heritage, the
relationship between scientific terms and the meanings they represent
must be maintained by a continuous process of definition.
A. A Science and Its Terminology
For purposes of record and terminology, scientists must have ways
of designating vast numbers of phenomena and of expressing vast
numbers of fine distinctions. The chemist must be able to differentiate
among thousands of complex chemical compounds, the botanist
among plants, the zoologist among forms of animal life. In many
sciences an important branch of terminology is nomenclature (by
derivation, calling by name) or the system of names used in classi-
fying the objects of study. In addition to the verbal terminology and
accepted abbreviations, the nonverbal symbols, such as the symbols
of chemical formulas, of genetic tables, and of mathematical equa-
tions, make up the language of a science.
One advantage of the specialized language of science is the con-
densation of systematized knowledge it achieves. When the Swiss
naturalist Abraham Trembley in 1744 published his treatise on fresh-
water polyps, he was obliged to designate them as polyps with arms
in the form of horns. Such cumbersome descriptive designations were
no longer necessary after 1758 when the Swedish botanist Carolus
Linnaeus introduced his binomial system of nomenclature into the
tenth edition of Systema Naturae. According to Linnaeus' system,
any plant or animal may be designated by a double Latin name, the
first part denoting the genus and the second part the species. For
IN SCIENCE 39
example, Linnaeus' generic name for the cat family was Felis; the
lion became Felis leo; the tiger, Felis tigrish Some technical terms
may seem long and cumbersome; yet the scientist can achieve great
economy of expression through their use. For example, the term
radioactivity is defined by Webster's as "the property or process
whereby certain elements or isotopes (notably, radium, uranium,
thorium, and their products), whether free or combined, spontane-
ously emit particles and/or rays by the disintegration of the nuclei
of their atoms." Nonverbal symbols NaCl for sodium chloride, oo
for infinity, p for micron afford still more compressed means of
expression.
A further distinguishing characteristic of scientific language is its
precision. Of all the languages of science, the language of mathe-
matics is generally conceded to be the most exact. It is doubtless
impossible for all sciences to attain the exactness of pure mathe-
matics, but scientists in all fields are constantly striving to improve
their terminology. Expansion of the existing terminology to cover
new knowledge becomes a problem in a rapidly growing science. Fur-
thermore, scientists within a field may differ as to the meaning and
application of terms. Such questions are sometimes referred to spe-
cial committees of scientific organizations and to sessions of scientific
conferences.
B. Scientific Terminology and Everyday English
Some problems of scientific terminology are complicated by the
fact that the language of science and everyday English overlap, and
as a result an interchange of expressions between the two is con-
stantly taking place. Numerous scientific terms are common words
which have been given a special scientific significance. The word
work, for example, means to most people some sort of labor, either
mental or physical. As used in physics, the term work becomes a
measurable quantity when defined as follows: The work done on a
body by a force is the product of the force and the distance the body
moves in the direction of the force. By contrast, a term which is pri-
marily scientific may be metaphorically used in a more general sense,
1 For a discussion of the use of the Linnaean system and the designation of
subspecies see John N. Hough, Scientific Terminology,, New York, Rinehart
and Company, 1953, pp. 195-210.
40 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
as when one speaks of a person going off on a tangent or of two
parallel lines of thought.
When the scientific and popular uses of a word are sufficiently dis-
tinct, little confusion arises. But when the public persistently uses
a scientific term erroneously in what it thinks is the scientific sense,
the value of the term is impaired. In one instance a specialist has
suggested trading terms with the public. The Science News Letter
for May 19, 1951, reports a proposal for substituting mental disorder
(mild, moderate, or severe) for neurosis, psychoneurosis, or psy-
chosis, on the grounds that the latter terms have become so much a
part of household language that they have lost their precise mean-
ings. This wearing away of the precise meanings of terms a sort
of linguistic erosion may be hastened by the presence of emotional
attitudes. The word neurotic has become in popular use little more
than an uncomplimentary epithet. One person may accuse another
of having complexes without any knowledge of what a complex is.
Moron, which began as a designation of a degree of feeble-minded-
ness, has become popularly a vague term of derision.
It is probably fortunate, however, that scientific terminology is a
part of the general language rather than independent of it. If no
general linguistic ground existed, specialists could communicate only
with each other not with other scientists or with the public. Never-
theless, even a brief consideration of the relationships between scien-
tific terminology and everyday English makes it evident that an
attempt to set up an exact terminology within a language is some-
what opposed to the natural tendencies of words to shift their mean-
ings in use. These tendencies have been made the subject of study
in the branch of linguistic science known as semantics the system-
atic study of meanings. Some of the semantic considerations which
have a bearing on scientific terminology and its definition will be
discussed in Section II of this chapter as a background to the presen-
tation of the process of definition in Section III.
II. THE CONTRIBUTION OF SEMANTICS
It is a principle of semantics that a word has no intrinsic meaning
apart from its use. In the languages of the world many different
words represent the idea of a house; the meaning of each word lies
CONTRIBUTION OF SEMANTICS 41
not in the word itself, but in the association between the word as a
symbol and what it stands for.
A. The Significance of Context
A corollary of this principle is that a word has only an artificial,
dictionary existence apart from the context in which it is used. In
fact, the verbal context determines the sense in which we understand
a word. The word style, for example, occurs in these four phrases
a writer's style (manner of writing), the latest style (fashion), an
architectural style (mode of execution), and typographical style
(form and arrangement) but in each of the phrases the word has
a different meaning. A second corollary is that the meaning of a
word, the sense in which it is understood, is subject to change as
the conditions of its use change. The word very, for instance, was
historically an adjective meaning true, and was a word of some force.
Through long use it has become so weakened that it is now a mild
intensive with so little force that its free use is frowned on by ex-
perts in style. The dictionary does not determine what a word means;
it only collates and records from a variety of contexts the different
meanings in which a word has been used.
This variable relationship between a word and its meaning creates
relatively little confusion as long as individuals trying to communi-
cate with one another have similar associations with words, as do
the members of the same social group. But when the interchange of
words is between people of different backgrounds or different pur-
poses when the social context changes misunderstandings arise.
Different people may refer to the same object by different words.
Conversely, the same word may mean different things to different
groups. The name worm snakes, for example, has been applied to
two entirely different groups of snakes. "This," it has been noted,
"illustrates one of the grave defects of popular names totally dif-
ferent animals in different parts of the country are often known by
the same name, so that no one can be positive as to which animal
is referred to." 2
Virginia C. Gildersleeve has reported some of the language diffi-
2 Karl P. Schmidt and D. Dwight Davis, Field Book of Snakes of the United
States and Canada, New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1941, p. 91.
42 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
culties encountered at the United Nations Conference on International
Organization at San Francisco in June 1945.
I am not dealing here with the difficulty caused by difference of
language. Of course, the use of five different languages at the San
Francisco Conference caused exasperating delays and considerable
difficulty of understanding. What I am alluding to here is something
much more profound. The same words mean different things to dif-
ferent peoples because they arouse in their minds different ideas, differ-
ent backgrounds of circumstance and tradition, and different emotions.
And often we do not realize this; we think we are agreeing. But we
are not and, later, trouble ensues. Words have been not a medium
of understanding, but a barrier to understanding. 3
Students of semantics have held that no word can ever mean ex-
actly the same thing to any two people. In the strictest sense this is
true. Yet to accept the complete individualization of meaning would
be a counsel of defeatism. The alternative is to work toward a com-
mon basis of understanding, difficult to achieve though it may be.
B. Words as Symbols
It is perhaps indicative of the complementary nature of science
and poetry that, while the theory of both is concerned with the use
of words as symbols, the word symbols of poetry are connotative and
depend for their effect upon the associations of words, and the word
symbols of science are denotative and depend for their effect upon
the accuracy with which they represent a specific meaning. Seman-
ticists have divided words as symbols into three groups according
to the types of meanings they represent. The simplest group includes
words which represent a specific referent or object referred to, some-
thing which can be perceived by the senses, such as a table, chair,
and desk. The second group consists of words of action or feeling
which can be dramatized (purchase) or indicated by pantomime
(laughter). The third group includes words representing abstractions
such as justice, freedom, and truth.
All scientific terms represent in some degree a generalized idea or
concept. The term tendon, for example, does not represent any single
tendon but a generalized idea of what a tendon is, derived from the
a Virginia C. Gildersleeve, "Intellectual Allergies," The Saturday Review, 33:5,
December 16, 1950.
CONTRIBUTION OF SEMANTICS 43
observation of many such structures. Some terms represent much
more highly generalized or abstract concepts than others. The botani-
cal term leaf, for example, though leaves are sometimes confused
with petals or leaflets, is relatively concrete since large numbers of
leaves can be assembled for observation and comparison. A term
representing a process, such as radiation, can readily be made clearer
by demonstration. At a higher level of abstraction are such terms as
heredity, environment, development, and relativity which represent
concepts which can be neither seen nor demonstrated. However, even
these highly abstract concepts must be supported by verifiable
observational or experimental data if they are to have scientific
standing. <^s
A further analysis of words as symbols shows that many words
have only relative meaning. There is a vast difference between a
small molecule, a small town, a small person, and a small planet.
Louis N. Ridenour, writing of the hydrogen bomb, refers to "the
old-fashioned atomic bomb." The application of relative terms should
not be confused with that of terms indicating precise measurements.
Toxicity, for instance, is a relative term, but can be made more
precise by the determination of the lethal dose of a drug, or the
amount which will cause death under certain specified conditions.
Words may be used to convey facts or to arouse emotions; how-
ever, they sometimes arouse emotions when we intend for them to
convey facts. Semantic studies have shown that many words in popu-
lar use have descended to the present with a high emotional content
and embody popular "myth" rather than scientific truth. Writing on
"The Myth of Blood" M. F. Ashley Montagu goes so far as to say
that "the meaning of most, if not of all words, is to some extent emo-
tionally determined." Among words "distinguished by a high emo-
tional and a low rational, or reasonable, quality" he has singled out
blood for special study. Pointing out that hereditary characters are
transmitted by the genes and not by the blood, he concludes, "What
modern science has revealed about blood renders all such words as
blood royal, half-blood, full-blood, blood relationship, and the others
to which reference has been made utterly meaningless in point of
fact, and dangerously meaningful in the superstitious social sense." 4
*M. F. Ashley Montagu, "The Myth of Blood," Psychiatry, 6:15-19, February
1943.
44 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
In summary, semantic studies 5 of word meanings have shown that
words as symbols are dependent on context and are frequently
sources of misunderstanding and are subject to emotional associa-
tions. Hence, scientists and others who wish to use words for exact
communication must not only define them but must also have in
common with their readers a background of reading and experience.
III. THE PROCESS OF DEFINITION
The purpose of the scientific writer is not to fix permanently the
meaning of terms. Such a freezing of terms would be impossible and
to attempt it would have an inhibiting effect on scientific thought.
Moreover, there is no justification for the inexcusable prolixity of
the occasional writer or speaker who insists on elaborately defining
3ommonplace and well-understood terms. But the scientific writer
should make clear to the reader the sense in which he is using a term
Jhemeaning of which is likely to be misconstrued.
A. Words, Terms, and Concepts
Definition involves a distinction between words, terms, and con-
cepts. Term, as used with reference to definition, is defined in Web-
ster's New Collegiate Dictionary as "A word or expression having a
precisely limited meaning . . . peculiar to a science, art, or the
like; ..." A single word, therefore, may embody many terms. The
noun block, for example, represents about fourteen distinct meanings,
ranging from the child's building block to the nerve block of medi-
cine and the mental block of psychology. The word featherbedding
as applied to labor practices is a metaphorical extension of its origi-
nal meaning; beginning as railroad slang, it has become established
as a distinct term in the discussion of labor relations. Many terms
are combinations of words which, taken together, have a special
meaning. The expression take-home pay originated when pay deduc-
tions became common. Familiar examples of combinations of words
5 For books presenting different points of view concerning semantics see C. K.
Ogden and I. A. Richards, The Meaning of Meaning, 8th ed., New York, Har-
court, Brace and Company, 1947; Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity: an In-
troduction to N on- Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Lancaster, Pa.,
Science Press Printing Company, 1933; Stuart Chase, Power of Words, New
York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1954; S. I. Hayakawa, Language in
Thought and Action, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949.
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 45
used as terms in the sciences are centrifugal force, natural selection,
defense mechanism, surface tension, and capillary attraction.
Terms represent concepts, or generalized ideas or principles, many
of which have developed over a long period of time and have been
extended with the growth of scientific knowledge. The astronomer,
for example, has been obliged continually to expand his concept of
the universe until now it must include the stars a billion light-years
away which are visible through the most modern telescope. Even more
startling is the growth in the biologist's concept of the cell. To the
fully informed biologist the word no longer represents the simple
walled unit of earlier biological thought, or even the more elaborate
structure visible under the high-power microscope. It represents in-
stead an intricate concept.
Even from the incomplete account which has been given of the
physico-chemical organisation of the cell it is clear that each particu-
lar region of the cell consists of a complex interlocking of very many
simultaneously active physico-chemical systems. Each particular re-
gion of the cell has its properties defined by a vast group of variables,
some of which are linked and some of which are independent. Our
understanding of these is very far from complete. In some instances
the necessary physics and chemistry is almost completely unknown.
In very few instances are we able at present to deal quantitatively
with these variables. When sufficient information is available to permit
completely quantitative treatment, it is likely that the system will be
so complex that it will be impossible to utilise this knowledge without
the aid of electronic calculating machines. 6
The knowledge that lies behind a term may thus be much too ex-
tensive to be encompassed in a definition that can include only the
distinguishing features of the concept.
B. Adaptation of a Definition to Its Purpose
Approaches to the problem of definition have ranged historically
from the classic formal definition to the operational definition favored
by many modern scientists. A definition may range in length from
the explanatory phrase which sometimes constitutes the informal
definition to an extended definition of many pages. Occasionally the
purpose of a paper is the development of a definition, and the entire
6 J. F. Danielli, Cell Physiology and Pharmacology, Amsterdam, Elsevier
Press, Inc., 1950, p. 23.
46 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
paper becomes an extended definition. A writer's purpose will deter-
mine which type of definition he will use.
7. The Formal Definition
The intent of definition is expressed in the derivation of the word,
from de meaning about and finis meaning limit or end. The object
of a definition is to locate the boundaries which limit the application
of a term. The one-sentence formal definition is the classic basis of
definition. This definition is formal because it follows a prescribed
form: the term is first placed in the class to which it belongs; then
it is distinguished from other members of that class by stating
its distinctive characteristics, called the differentiae (singular, dif-
ferentia) . For example, one of the sciences has been defined by this
statement: botany is the science which deals with plant life. Here
botany is the term, science is the class, and the clause which deals
with plant life constitutes the differentia.
The formal definition is not an arbitrary construction. It is a verbal
counterpart of the classifying process which is basic in science. Thus
in zoology the genus Diadophis includes groups of snakes (the class)
characterized by a brightly colored ring on the neck (the differentia) .
Here the definition is simply a verbal expression of the criterion by
which this group of snakes is distinguished. A thoroughly satisfactory
definition should (1) include everything that the term covers, (2)
exclude everything that the term does not cover.
In order to gain skill in formulating definitions it is good practice
to try to define some familiar term. An immature attempt at defining
calipers might be: calipers are something (class) you measure with
(differentia). Obviously this is far from an adequate definition. The
class is much too inclusive, and the definition fails to exclude rulers,
tapes, protractors, and numerous other measuring devices. Other
unsatisfactory classes may be offered calipers are a tool (inaccu-
rate), equipment (too broad), engineering instrument (too narrow)
until finally the class instrument is arrived at, and a second defini-
tion constructed: calipers are an instrument used for measuring in
one dimension, such as length, thickness, or distance. This definition
is better, but the differentiae are still not sufficient to exclude other
measuring instruments. If the differentiae are extended to include
the structure of the instrument as well as function, this difficulty is
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 47
overcome, and the following definition results: calipers (term) are
an instrument (class) which has two legs or arms usually curved
and fastened together with a rivet or screw or with a spring and
pivot, and which is used for measuring in one dimension, such as
length, thickness, or distance (differentiae).
The proper choice of a class is essential to successful definition.
If the class is too broad, it imposes too great a burden on the dif-
ferentiae; if the class is too narrow, it limits the definition beyond
the intent of the writer. A concrete term is usually easier to classify
than an abstract one a hammer is a tool, a maple is a tree, a flute
is a musical instrument. A commonplace thing may, however, be
difficult to define. It is difficult, for example, to construct a definition
of a shirt which will include all shirts and yet exclude blouses, coats,
and sweaters. On a more erudite level, similar problems beset the
scientist. In the Field Book of Snakes, the authors, curators of the
Chicago Natural History Museum, observe that it is difficult to define
the subject of their book.
The snakes are so closely allied to the lizards and monitors that it
is somewhat difficult to frame a formal definition that completely and
readily distinguishes them. This difficulty rests primarily on the fact
that many different types of lizards are limbless or nearly so. Snakes
are distinguished from all lizards by the fact that the two halves of
the lower jaw are separated, connected only by an elastic ligament;
and the great majority of snakes are at once distinguished by their
transverse ventral plates.
Snakes may be defined as elongate, scaly reptiles without limbs or
with the vestiges of hind limbs only, without movable eyelids, with-
out ear-opening, with an elongate, deeply forked, and retractile
tongue, with a transverse vent and paired organs of copulation, and
with the two halves of the lower jaw independently movable, con-
nected in front by an elastic ligament. Most snakes have straplike
transverse scales, the ventral plates, extending from side to side on
the undersurface of the body. 7
Certain difficulties tend to recur in the process of framing formal
definitions. These difficulties may be avoided by observing six basic
principles.
1. A synonym, discussion, explanation, or description should not
be substituted for the class and differentiae of a correctly framed
7 Schmidt and Davis, op. cit., pp. 17-18. Courtesy G. P. Putnam's Sons.
48 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
definition, though descriptive detail may form part of the differentiae.
For example, television should not be defined by saying that it is a
popular form of entertainment, that interest in it is increasing, that
parents are showing concern because it is interfering with children's
studies. These statements may be true, but they do nothing to define
television; they do not even distinguish it from comic books or the
movies; nor would the synonym video define television.
2. The wording of the term should not be repeated in the definition.
For example, sanitation should not be defined as the employment of
sanitary measures. Sanitation may be defined as the employment
of measures (class) tending to preserve healthful conditions and
to eliminate conditions injurious to health (differentiae). The one
exception to this rule concerns a compound term only part of which
requires definition. For example, a dry cell may be defined as a
voltaic cell (class) whose contents are treated by the use of an
absorbent so as to prevent their spilling (differentiae).
3. A definition should be stated in the positive, not the negative.
To undertake to define the term pistol by saying that a pistol is not
a rifle and not a shotgun gives no direct indication of what a pistol is.
A pistol may be defined, however, by placing it in the class of fire-
arms and then showing how it differs from other firearms. It is
often necessary in a definition to show how the subject of the
definition is unlike the, things which most resemble it, but this does
not justify predicating the entire definition in the negative.
4. The term should, whenever possible, be defined in words simpler
than the term itself. If the concept to be defined is a difficult one,
technical language may be needed to express it, but technicalities
should not be introduced needlessly. Dr. Samuel Johnson, our first
great dictionary maker, wrote the proverbial example of a violation
of this precept when he defined a network as "any thing reticulated
or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the inter-
sections."
5. The definition should not show bias or reflect the personal
opinions of the writer. Dr. Johnson violated this precept also in his
definitions of Tory and Whig. Tory he defined as "one who adheres
to the ancient constitution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy
of the church of England, opposed to a whig." Whig he defined as
"the name of a faction."
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 49
The connotative, impressionistic, or epigrammatic definition is
sometimes included in discussions of definition. An example is the
definition attributed to G. K. Chesterton, "A classical novelist is a
writer to whom one may pay a eulogy without having read any of
his books." Delightful and penetrating as such epigrams may be,
they are too subjective to be considered definitions in the scientific
sense.
6. Equivalent or corresponding parts of the definition should be
expressed in the same or parallel grammatical structure. The com-
monest violation of this rule is the linking of a noun with an adverbial
"when" or "where" clause, as in writing "capillary attraction is when
a liquid rises in a tube," or "intersection is where two lines cross."
The formal definition is the type usually used in textbooks, ref-
erence works, papers, and documents where conciseness is mandatory.
The formal definition or an extension of it is also the type usually
expected when definitions are called for in written or oral exami-
nations.
2. The Operational Definition
The formal definition originated many years ago when the em-
phasis in the sciences was on the classification of natural phenomena.
Though this process of classification is still going on, the emphasis
has shifted to processes, experiments, and operations or procedures.
In keeping with this new emphasis a type of definition has been
developed known as the operational definition which limits the
meaning of a term, not by means of classes and differentiae, but
by an account of the activities or procedures which lead to the
application of the term.
For example, density is not defined operationally by classifying
it as a state or quality. The physicist may, however, define density
operationally by saying that it is determined by calculating the ratio
of the mass of a homogeneous portion of matter to its volume. The
statistician may define density of population by saying that it can
be estimated by counting the number of persons per square mile of
area. The following excerpt offers further illustrations.
An operational definition tells what to do to experience the thing
defined. Asked to define the coefficient of friction, a physicist says
something like this: "If a block of some material is dragged horizon-
50 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOG\
tally over a surface, the force necessary to drag it will, within limits,
be proportional to the weight of the block. Thus the ratio of the drag-
ging force to the weight is a constant quantity. This quantity is the
coefficient of friction between the two surfaces." The physicist defines
the term by telling how to proceed and what to observe. The opera-
tional definition of a particular dish, for example, is a recipe. 8
One of the chief advocates of the operational definition, which
has many supporters among scientists and semanticists, is the Nobel
prize winner P. W, Bridgman, who asserts, "What a man means by
a term is to be found by observing what he does with it, not by
what he says about it." 9 And again, "The meanings of one's terms
are to be found by an analysis of the operations which one performs
in applying the term in concrete situations or in verifying the truth
of statements or in finding the answers to questions." 10
The operational definition need not, however, be regarded as a
substitute for the formal definition. After all, definition is itself a
concept, and the development of the theory of the operational defini-
tion has enlarged our concept of what a definition is and how one
can be formulated. There are times when the definite form and
compact structure of the formal definition make it the better choice.
Certainly the operational definition should not be made an excuse
for vague attempts at definition which leave the meaning of a term
no clearer than before. If an operational definition is to be adequate,
it must be as carefully constructed as a formal definition. A good
way to re-examine a concept is to attempt to construct both a formal
and an operational definition of the term which represents it.
3. The Informal Definition
The informal definition and the extended definition are not to be
regarded as distinct types of basic definitions but as shortened or
amplified versions of formal or operational definitions. The informal
definition is a short statement or phrase inconspicuously introduced
to recall or explain briefly the meaning of a term. Such definitions
are much used in writing addressed to the general public rather than
8 Anatol Rapoport, "What Is Semantics?" American Scientist, 40:128-29, Jan-
uary 1952.
9 P. W. Bridgman, Reflections of a Physicist, New York, Philosophical Li.
brary, 1950, p. 5.
iW., Preface, p. v.
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 51
to the specialist. Experienced writers become adroit in providing
definitions sufficient for the reader's immediate needs without pausing
to introduce formal definitions. To illustrate the usefulness of
informal definition an example has been chosen from each of the
seven articles in the July 1949 issue of the Scientific American.
The word communication, in fact, will be used here in a very broad
sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind can affect
another. Warren Weaver, "The Mathematics of Communication,"
P. 11.
The Pasteur treatment for rabies, a series of inoculations of rabbits'
spinal cord tissue containing weakened rabies virus, was first used on
a large scale at the end of the last century. Elvin A. Kabat, "Allergic
Mechanisms in Nervous Disease," p. 16.
The peculiar feature of the moon's physiognomy was its huge cup-
like depressions, named "craters" from the Greek word for cup.
Ralph B. Baldwin, "The Craters of the Moon," p. 21.
While the name "pile" has commonly been used for all types of
chain-reacting systems except bombs, "reactor" is now preferred as
a more inclusive term, covering the newer types. Leon Svirsky, "The
Atomic Energy Commission," p. 32.
Nearly half of the hospital beds in the United States are occupied
by patients suffering from mental illness, and about a third of these
patients have a psychosis known as schizophrenia or dementia praecox.
This is an all too common and serious form of insanity, affecting nearly
one percent of the population. Brilliant people often develop it and
are lost to society. Hudson Hoagland, "Schizophrenia and Stress,"
p. 44.
Cuvier had devoted much time to the study of the more advanced
vertebrate classes, but little had been done on the remains of fishes,
although they are as numerous and as diversified in nature as all the
rest of the backboned animals put together. Alfred Sherwood Romer,
"Louis Agassiz," p. 49.
Among the miscellany of creatures that inhabit the earth, whales
possess a peculiar interest. Although they are air-breathing mammals,
their highly specialized physiology permits them to remain under
water for prolonged periods of time. Their great size is well known.
Cecil K. Drinker, "The Physiology of Whales," p. 52.
4. The Extended Definition
The statement that "behind words lies meaning and behind mean-
ing lies life" can readily be applied to problems of definition in
science. Behind the term lies the concept, the generalized idea which
52 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
the term represents, and behind the concept lie the phenomena of
nature which generations of scientists have observed and experi-
mented on in developing that concept. When a concept is complex or
highly abstract, a short definition is adequate to summarize it or
to identify it, but not to give the reader any real understanding of it.
For this latter purpose a longer definition, the "extended definition,"
is needed. An extended definition may be in a measure creative, as
when a writer coins a term to identify a developing concept, or when
by the cogency of his summary and the breadth of his knowledge,
he enriches a concept already known. 11
a. Arrangement of an Extended Definition
The extended definition is frequently, though not necessarily, an
elaboration of a formal definition. Unlike the formal definition, the
extended definition does not have a rigid pattern. Its form develops
from the nature of the concept and the nature of the writer's contri-
bution to it. The arrangement of the extended definition is analogous
to the arrangement of a paragraph, although the definition may at
times extend far beyond a paragraph in length. The definition may,
like a paragraph beginning with a topic sentence, open with a formal
definition and then explain it, as in the following example.
The tides are a response of the mobile waters of the ocean to the
pull of the moon and 'the more distant sun. In theory, there is a gravi-
tational attraction between every drop of sea water and even the
outermost star of the universe. In practice, however, the pull of the
remote stars is so slight as to be obliterated in the vaster movements
by which the ocean yields to the moon and the sun. Anyone who has
lived near tidewater knows that the moon, far more than the sun,
controls the tides. He has noticed that, just as the moon rises later
each day by fifty minutes, on the average, than the day before, so, in
most places, the time of high tide is correspondingly later each day.
And as the moon waxes and wanes in its monthly cycle, so the height
of the tide varies. Twice each month, when the moon is a mere thread
of silver in the sky, and again when it is full, we have the highest
of the high tides, called the springs. At these times sun, moon, and
earth are directly in line and the pull of the two heavenly bodies is
added together to bring the water high on the beaches, and send its
surf leaping upward against the sea cliffs, and draw a brimming tide
11 William James' definition of "stream of consciousness" which is cited later
in this section is an example of creative definition.
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 53
into the harbors so that the boats float high beside their wharfs. And
twice each month, at the quarters of the moon, when sun, moon, and
earth lie at the apexes of a triangle, and the pull of sun and moon
are opposed, we have the least tides of the lunar month, called the
neaps. 12
Another arrangement possible in extended definition is that of
William James' classic definition of "stream of consciousness," which
begins by presenting an analysis of the author's observations and
introduces the term itself as a climax. This arrangement is compa-
rable to the inductive paragraph which begins by presenting particu-
lars and concludes with a generalization.
Within each personal consciousness, thought is sensibly continuous.
I can only define "continuous" as that which is without breach, crack,
or division. The only breaches that can well be conceived to occur
within the limits of a single mind would either be interruptions, time-
gaps during which the consciousness went out; or they would be
breaks in the content of the thought, so abrupt that what followed had
no connection whatever with what went before. The proposition that
consciousness feels continuous, means two things:
a. That even where there is a time-gap the consciousness after it feels
as if it belonged together with the consciousness before it, as another
part of the same self;
b. That the changes from one moment to another in the quality of
the consciousness are never absolutely abrupt. . . .
Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits.
Such words as "chain" or "train" do not describe it fitly as it presents
itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A "river" or
a "stream" are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described.
In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of con-
sciousness, or of subjective life. 13
A third arrangement is analogous to the paragraph which opens
with the topic sentence, develops it, and repeats it in substance at
the end. This is the pattern of James Harvey Robinson's well-known
definition of "rationalizing." 14 Early in the definition he makes the
statement that "most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding
12 From The Sea Around Us by Rachel L. Carson, p. 152. Copyright 1950,
1951 by Rachel L. Carson. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
13 William James, Psychology, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1923,
pp. 157-59.
14 James Harvey Robinson, The Mind in the Making, New York, Harper &
Brothers, 1921, pp. 4044.
54 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
arguments for going on believing as we already do." After giving
numerous illustrations to support this statement, he concludes with
a formal definition: "Rationalizing is the self-exculpation_which
occurs when we feel ourselves, or our group, accused of misappre-
Tiension or error."
b. Methods of Developing a Definition
The means of explanation employed in an extended definition must
depend on the writer's purpose in offering the definition and on the
nature of the concept. Danielli's analytical definition of narcosis
emphasizes the complexity of the reactions included under the term.
Before proceeding in further detail, it will be as well to get some
idea of what is referred to under the heading of narcosis. It is not
a word with a single precise meaning. It includes such phenomena as
the loss of consciousness, inhibition of a reflex, inhibition of the con-
tractility of, say, heart muscle, inhibition of cell division, inhibition
of ciliary movement, inhibition of respiration, etc. Usually a given nar-
cotic substance will produce all these effects, but at different concen-
trations. . . . From the facts already considered it is improbable that
all the narcotic actions of a given substance are produced by the same
mechanism. Hence it does not follow that what is established for a
narcotic in one connection is necessarily involved in any other action
involving the same narcotic. 15
The definition of narcotic drugs in the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act,
which has been adopted by most of the states to supplement the
Federal Harrison Anti-Narcotic Law, is entirely different since its
purpose is to establish a basis for legal action. Provisions 11, 12,
and 13 of the section enumerating narcotic drugs read:
"Coca leaves" includes cocaine and any compound, manufacture,
salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of coca leaves, except deriva-
tives of coca leaves which do not contain cocaine, ecgonine, or sub-
stances from which cocaine or ecgonine may be synthesized or made.
"Opium" includes morphine, codeine, and heroin, and any compound,
manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of opium, but
does not include apomorphine or any of its salts.
"Narcotic drugs" means coca leaves, and opium and every substance
neither chemically nor physically distinguishable from them. 16
15 Danielli, op. cit., pp. 97-99.
16 Emanuel Hayt and Lillian R. Hayt, Legal Guide for American Hospitals,
New York, Hospital Textbook Company, 1940, pp. 401-03; see also p. 360.
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 55
Since the essence of definition is distinction, an extended definition
may be devoted to clarifying the distinction between concepts which
are popularly confused. Lewis Mumford here distinguishes between
a machine and a tool.
The essential distinction between a machine and a tool lies in the
degree of independence in the operation from the skill and motive
power of the operator: the tool lends itself to manipulation, the ma-
chine to automatic action. The degree of complexity is unimportant:
for, using the tool, the human hand and eye perform complicated ac-
tions which are the equivalent, in function, of a well developed ma-
chine; while, on the other hand, there are highly effective machines,
like the drop hammer, which do very simple tasks, with the aid of
a relatively simple mechanism. The difference between tools and ma-
chines lies primarily in the degree of automatism they have reached:
the skilled tool-user becomes more accurate and more automatic, in
short, more mechanical, as his originally voluntary motions settle down
into reflexes, and on the other hand, even in the most completely auto-
matic machine, there must intervene somewhere, at the beginning and
the end of the process, first in the original design, and finally in the
ability to overcome defects and to make repairs, the conscious par-
ticipation of a human agent.
Moreover, between the tool and the machine there stands another
class of objects, the machine-tool: here, in the lathe or the drill, one
has the accuracy of the finest machine coupled with the skilled at-
tendance of the workman. When one adds to this mechanical complex
an external source of power, the line of division becomes even more
difficult to establish. In general, the machine emphasizes specialization
of function, whereas the tool indicates flexibility: a planing machine
performs only one operation, whereas a knife can be used to smooth
wood, to carve it, to split it, or to pry open a lock, or to drive in a
screw. The automatic machine, then, is a very specialized kind of
adaptation; it involves the notion of an external source of power, a
more or less complicated inter-relation of parts, and a limited kind
of activity. From the beginning the machine was a sort of minor or-
ganism, designed to perform a single set of functions. 17
Readers often have a superficial acquaintance with a concept with-
out having much knowledge of its historical background. In the
following paragraph Lynn Thorndike offers an historical explanation
of the term magic.
17 Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization, New York, Harcourt, Brace
and Company, 1934, pp. 10-11.
56 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
Some may think it strange that I associate magic so closely with
the history of thought, but the word comes from the Magi or wise men
of Persia or Babylon, to whose lore and practices the name was ap-
plied by the Greeks and Romans, or possibly we may trace its ety-
mology a little farther back to the Sumerian or Turanian word imga
or unga, meaning deep or profound. The exact meaning of the word,
"magic," was a matter of much uncertainty even in classical and
medieval times, as we shall see. There can be no doubt, however, that
it was then applied not merely to an operative art, but also to a mass
of ideas or doctrine, and that it represented a way of looking at the
world. This side of magic has sometimes been lost sight of in hasty
or assumed modern definitions which seem to regard magic as merely
a collection of rites and feats. In the case of primitive men and savages
it is possible that little thought accompanies their actions. But until
these acts are based upon or related to some imaginative, purposive,
and rational thinking, the doings of early man cannot be distinguished
as either religious or scientific or magical. Beavers build dams, birds
build nests, ants excavate, but they have no magic just as they have
no science or religion. Magic implies a mental state and so may be
viewed from the standpoint of the history of thought. In process of
time, as the learned and educated lost faith in magic, it was degraded
to the low practices and beliefs of the ignorant and vulgar. It was
this use of the term that was taken up by anthropologists and by them
applied to analogous doings and notions of primitive men and savages.
But we may go too far in regarding magic as a purely social product
of tribal society: magicians may be, in Sir James Frazer's words, "the
only professional class" among the lowest savages, but note that they
rank as a learned profession from the start. It will be chiefly through
the writings of learned men that something of their later history and
of the growth of interest in experimental science will be traced in
this work. Let me add that in this investigation all arts of divination,
including astrology, will be reckoned as magic; I have been quite un-
able to separate the two either in fact or logic. . . , 18
Quite different from this question of historical relationships is the
problem of defining something that is always with us. In defining
the terms weather and climate Glenn T. Trewartha uses a combination
of analysis and comparison.
The condition of the atmosphere at any time or place, i.e., the weather,
is expressed by a combination of several elements, primarily (a) tem-
perature and (b) precipitation and humidity but to a lesser degree
18 Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vol. I,
New York, Columbia University Press, 1929, pp. 4-5.
PROCESS OF DEFINITION 57
by (c) winds and (d) air pressure as well. These four are called the
elements of weather and climate because they are the ingredients out
of which various weather and climatic types are compounded. The
weather of any place is the sum total of its atmospheric conditions
(temperature, pressure, winds, moisture, and precipitation) for a short
period of time. It is the momentary state of the atmosphere. Thus we
speak of the weather, not the climate, for today or of last week. Cli-
mate, on the other hand, is a composite or generalization of the variety
of day-to-day weather conditions. It is not just "average weather," for
the variations from the mean, or average, are as important as the
mean itself. 19
One of the most valuable methods of extending a definition is
illustration. This method, used in the following example, is particu-
larly appropriate in scientific writing because it directs the attention
of the reader to the basis in fact and observation of the term to be
defined.
Muscle is a tissue that generates motion. There are many sorts of
motion and correspondingly there are different sorts of muscle. There
is, for instance, the rapid voluntary movement, such as that of the
wing muscle of the housefly with its three hundred full cycles per
second, and there is the muscle of the clam which contracts once and
may keep the shell closed for the rest of the week. Other muscles work
by producing rhythmic involuntary movements or light changes in
their "tone." The muscle of the pregnant uterus may be dormant for
months, to enter into violent activity at the end of its term, and relapse
into inactivity immediately after delivery. The slower autonomous
movements are performed mostly by the so-called smooth muscles,
which consist of spindle-shaped cells dispersed in our organs and
blood vessels, while rapid voluntary movements are performed by the
impressive mass of "cross-striated" muscles. . . . 20
From the foregoing examples it is evident that many methods
among them analysis, enumeration, distinction, historical explana-
tion, comparison, and illustration may be used in developing an
extended definition. The writer should not, however, select his method
arbitrarily; his skill lies in foreseeing tbe ways in which a term is
likely to be hazy or obscure to his readers and in offering the needed
clarification. In scientific writing definitions are offered early in a
19 By permission from An Introduction to Weather and Climate, 2nd ed., by
Glenn T. Trewartha, p. 5. Copyright 1943. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
20 A. Szent-Gyorgyi, Chemistry of Muscular Contraction, 2nd ed., New York,
Academic Press, Inc., 1951, p. 8.
58 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
paper to explain the use of key terms and elsewhere as terms are
introduced which may not be clear to the reader. Strictly technical
writing requires fewer definitions than scientific writing in general
since the reader may be assumed to have a comprehensive knowledge
of the terminology of his specialty. However, even in technical writ-
ing it is sometimes necessary for the writer to define terms the
meanings of which overlap or to explain which of variant systems
of terminology or nomenclature he is following.
IV. DERIVATION AS AN AID IN MASTERING TERMINOLOGY
The words used in English as terms in the natural sciences come
in the main from three sources: (1) they are inherited from much
earlier times when the sciences were not divided into as many dif-
ferent disciplines as at present, (2) they are everyday English words
used in a technical sense, (3) they are words borrowed from other
languages or devised, usually through a combination of Greek or
Latin roots, to fill new needs as they arise. Terms are very rarely
entirely new coinages without recognizable antecedents. Edmund
Andrews has noted as one of these rare coinages the word gas, which
the seventeenth century Brussels chemist van Helmont devised on the
model of the Greek chaos to designate the substance which fills the
atmosphere, formerly supposed to be a void. After noting this excep-
tion, Andrews continues:
Exceptions such as these serve merely to emphasize the fact that lan-
guage flows as a continuous stream; nearly all words have fathers and
forefathers going back into the mist of antiquity. "Derivation" is an
irrigator's term. It originally described the various rivulets and rills
he spread over his fields from a common source. Our purpose is to
trace these rivulets as far as possible towards their sources. Here the
dictionary fails us. Unfortunately, the quotations in the Oxford Dic-
tionary go back only as far as 1300 A.D. For the scientist that is not
enough. The English language may begin then, but the scientific lan-
guage is that of thought. It goes back through French, Latin, Greek,
and many other tongues to the dawn of learning, and it matters not
a whit when and where these thoughts overlap linguistic boundaries.
They are as continual as the flow of a river, perhaps dammed here and
there at some language barrier, but always eventually overflowing as
a waterfall. 21
21 Edmund Andrews, A History of Scientific English, New York, Richard R.
Smith, 1947, p. 12.
DERIVATION 59
As the preceding quotation suggests, the language of science has
always been in a degree international. The symbols and many of
the terms of science are internationally known and recognized. The
elements from which many scientific terms are constructed have
descended to us from ancient and medieval times when Latin was
the international language of learning. Thus a student can learn a
specialized terminology much more rapidly and accurately if he
familiarizes himself with the Greek and Latin elements from which
that terminology has been in part built up. This method is most
applicable to the language of all science and, indeed, of all abstract
thought. Though a study of the derivation of words is often thought
of as an excursion into romance, it can be a real and practical help
to the student of science.
A. Extensive Use of Greek and Latin
Comparatively few scientific terms have descended directly from
ancient science; most are combined forms built up out of Greek and
Latin elements. The word pediatrician, for instance, is made up of
three such elements, ped, from the Greek word for child, iatric from
the Greek word for healing, and the suffix ian, meaning one who.
Combined they mean a physician who treats the diseases of children. 22
A limited number of prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms have been
used many times over to form new terms. The hema or hemo (Greek
haima, blood) appears at the beginning of thirty words in the
American College Dictionary; in Stedman's Medical Dictionary four-
teen columns are required to list the terms beginning with this form.
The student, by learning a relatively small number of combining
forms, can learn a scientific terminology rapidly; he need not learn
the Latin and Greek languages themselves.
Frequent reference to a dictionary in the early stages of learning
a science will give a student a knowledge of derivations on which
he can build a strong scientific vocabulary. Moreover, most of the
combining forms appear in common words from which they can be
remembered. Guessing at derivations without using a dictionary,
22 Charles Barrett Brown has observed that the literal translation of a word
of Greek or Latin origin may take the place of a definition. Gastralgia, from
the Greek gaster (stomach) plus aLgos (pain), means pain (class) in the stom-
ach (differentia). Charles Barrett Brown, The Contribution of Greek to English,
Nashville, Tenn., The Vanderbilt University Press, 1942, p. ix.
60 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
however, is hazardous since two distinct combining forms sometimes
have the same English spelling. For example, people are often con-
fused by the form ped (pedo) from the Greek pais, paidos, meaning
child, as in pediatrician and pedagogue., and the form ped (pedi)
from the Latin, pes, pedis, meaning foot, as in pedal, pedicle, and
pediform.
In order to show the possibilities of rapid vocabulary building
through a knowledge of classic roots, selected lists of Greek and Latin
elements which have contributed to specialized terminology are given
in Appendix A, p. 388. The items have been chosen and arranged to
show how knowledge of the roots in a familiar word may be the key
to the meaning of a difficult scientific term. These lists are intended
only to point the way to further study. An extended list of Greek
words which have contributed to English vocabulary is given with
derivatives in Brown's The Contribution of Greek to English. Lists
showing the derivation of medical terms are included in 0. H. Perry
Pepper's Medical Etymology, and examples showing the use of Greek
and Latin forms in scientific terminology generally are given in
John Newbold Hough's Scientific Terminology.
Occasionally an objection is raised to the large number of classical
borrowings in science and an attempt is made to substitute simpler
expressions, as stain-haters and stain-lovers for chromophobes and
chromophils or animals without backbones for invertebrates. There
remain, however, thousands of terms which cannot be translated
without creating extremely clumsy compounds or circumlocutions.
It should be remembered, also, that borrowing freely from Latin
and Greek, and to a lesser extent from other languages, has been a
habit of the English language for hundreds of years.
B. The Problem of Eponyms
An eponym is a term derived from the name of the person credited
with the description, discovery, or invention which gave rise to
the use of the term. Such terms record many chapters in* the his-
tory of science; the genus of microorganisms known as Rickettsia,
for instance, commemorates the work of the American scientist
H. T. Ricketts (1871-1910), who established the transmission of
Rocky Mountain spotted fever by the tick. Other eponyms familiar
DERIVATION 61
to students in sciences are Fehling's solution in chemistry, Boyle's
law in physics, Gresham's law in economics, the Binet-Simon test
in psychology, the Pythagorean theorem in mathematics. Many
eponyms, such as the Fahrenheit thermometer and the pasteurization
of milk, have passed into everyday use.
In certain sciences, particularly medicine and anatomy, eponyms
have become so numerous as to be confusing. Also, as Morris Fish-
bein has observed in Medical Writing, when a discovery is credited
to several persons, national pride may lead to different names for
the phenomenon in different countries. Because of the difficulties
arising from the use of eponyms, various writers on scientific termi-
nology have deplored their persistence. Others are reluctant to aban-
don eponyms because they perpetuate scientific history. Pepper gives
an excellent and objective summary of the matter.
Most eponyms perpetuate the name of the discoverer or the first de-
scriber of some structure or phenomenon, but few survive long for
this reason alone. As a rule, an eponym remains in use only if no
satisfactory term can be found to take its place. For example, no brief
adequate term has ever been suggested to describe all that is con-
veyed by the ancient eponym "Hippocratic facies," with the sunken
cheeks and pinched nose of the terminal moribund state. Nor have
good substitutes come forward to push many of the anatomical epo-
nyms into the discard. Fallupio (1523-1562) and Eustachio (1520-
1574) still plague us with their respective tubes. The term "Broca's
area" also is no help with our medical speech.
Eponymic titles are given to diseases only for lack of something bet-
ter. The name Bright's disease persisted longer than it should have, and
the name Hodgkin's disease is still used because of our ignorance, in
spite of the cumbersome substitutes suggested. Such eponyms persist
and defy the advance of knowledge, but must always lose out in the
end, when science learns enough to justify the coining of some appro-
priate term. Often an eponym is a clear indication of our ignorance,
and constitutes a challenge to the investigator to rid our terminology of
one more eponym. Any disease designated by an eponym is a good
subject for research. 23
The problems of eponymic terminology must be left to the specialist.
But so long as eponyms exist and some of them seem destined to
23 0. H. Perry Pepper, Medical Etymology, Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders
Company, 1949, pp. 11-12.
62 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
live a long time they will lead the general reader into pleasant
bypaths of scientific history.
V. THE MISUSE OF TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY
Nothing which has been said in this chapter should be taken to
justify the use of technical terminology where it is inappropriate.
Good scientific style (see Chapter 8) does not permit the indiscrimi-
nate use of elaborate terminology. Nor do simple ideas gain scientific
standing by being encumbered with erudite diction. Half a century
ago Greenough and Kittredge in Words and Their Ways in English
Speech stated a rule for guidance in choosing between "learned
words and popular words": "The sole criterion of choice consists
in the appropriateness of one's language to the subject or the occa-
sion." 24 More recently, W. C. Allee, a successful writer for both
general and technical readers, has summed up the case for simplicity
and directness.
Despite much practice to the contrary, any biological fact which con-
cerns us can be accurately described and the conclusions from its
study be clearly expressed in relatively simple and direct language.
In research reports and scholarly discussions there is need for the
conciseness and precision made possible by technical language. Science
has no need, however, and is ill-served by any tendency to develop
a cult of obscurity. Scientists must be free to attack the unknown as
effectively as they can and in return for intellectual freedom they
have an obligation, which rests heavily on those able to do so, to
interpret research results in terms which can be understood by intelli-
gent and interested people. 25
Occasionally a writer or speaker who wishes to appear learned
will not be content to use the terminology of one science but will
borrow terms from several specialized fields and use them indiscrimi-
nately. Such a mixture may be impressive to the uninformed, but
the informed reader is likely to conclude that the writer's confusion
of mind is as great as his confusion of language. Such a misuse of
scientific terminology is the mark of the pseudo-scientist rather than
the scientist. The person of truly scientific mind respects words for
what they represent.
24 James B. Greenough and George L. Kittredge, Words and Their Ways in
English Speech, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1901, p. 27.
25 Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Abelard-Schuman, Inc., from
Cooperation Among Animals by W. C. Allee, copyright 1938, 1951, pp. 17-18.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 63
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Discuss the variant meanings of the following words when used in
different contexts: radical (mathematics and politics, for example),
collaborator, correlation, co-ordinate, tonic (music, philology, medi-
cine), equilibrium, insular, design, symbol, host, culture, potential.
2. Write a formal definition of each of the words in Exercise 1 as it is
used as a term in a single field or discipline.
3. Write an operational definition of one of the following terms : specific
gravity, square root, area, circumference, probable error, calorie.
4. Would it be possible to define profession operationally? Anti-intellec-
tualism? If not, what type of definition would you choose to explain
the sense in which you use and understand these words? As a class
project, let each member of your class prepare a definition of one of
these terms and compare the definitions to determine the extent of
agreement.
5. Write an extended explanation of one of the following pairs of terms,
using comparison and contrast as means of development: in vivo and
in vitro, mistake and fallacy, stress and strain, meiosis and mitosis,
function and dysfunction, ontogeny and phylogeny, colloquialism and
provincialism, authoritative and authoritarian, mass and weight, evi-
dence and proof.
6. Write extended explanations of the meanings of the following words,
using derivation and historical background as means of development:
empirical, paradox, cosmic, communication, panacea, cybernetics.
7. In Harper's Magazine, 209:34, July 1954, Ian Stevenson makes the
statement: "I wish the word psychosomatic had never been invented.
It has aroused new interest in an old subject, but at the same time
as so many words do it has blocked the growth of wider concepts."
In what sense may words be said to block the growth of wider con-
cepts? Can you give other examples?
8. "It [mathematics] is a language, a tool, and a game a method of
describing things conveniently and efficiently, a shorthand adapted to
playing the game of common sense or logic, as it is called in scien-
tific circles. It is a human phenomenon, not an infallible proof of
anything." Would you characterize the foregoing statements of Mario
G. Salvadori in "Math's a Pleasure," Harper's Magazine, 209:90,
August 1954, as definition or description? Comment on the choice of
words (language, tool, game}. What is the importance of the con-
cluding statement?
9. Show the influence of the prefix or suffix in the following groups of
words: traction, subtraction, contraction, distraction, retraction; en-
64 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
demic, epidemic, pandemic; synthetic, symphony, syndicate, syntax,
synonym; scientist, artist, analyst, deist.
10. E. G. Conklin in Heredity and Environment objects to the dictionary
definition of heredity as "the transmission of qualities or characteris-
tics, mental or physical, from parents to offspring" on the ground
that the qualities or characteristics as such are not transmitted from
one generation to the next. Can you formulate a more satisfactory
definition of heredity?
11. Stuart Chase in Power of Words, p. 276, refers to a saying at Antioch
College, "Education is the only commodity that the customer tries to
get as little of as he can for his money." What relationship does this
statement have to the formal definition?
CHAPTER 4
COLLECTING DATA
I. Locating source material
A. Bibliographic aids
B. The questionnaire and the interview
II. Evaluating sources of data
A. Primary and secondary sources
B. The consideration of authority
C. The relevance of date
III. Recording data
A. The card file system
1. Bibliography cards
2. Note cards
B. Good procedure in note-taking
IV. A list of reference works
Wherever there is the slightest possibility for the
human mind to know, there is a legitimate problem
of science. KARL PEARSON, The Grammar of Science.
I. LOCATING SOURCE MATERIAL
The data in original scientific papers and reports are derived
from varied sources. Archaeologists dig deep into the earth for
knowledge of the past, as did those who have been seeking the ancient
tombs of the Pharaohs. Naturalists observe the minutiae of plant
and animal life, as Darwin did during the journey recounted in
The Voyage of the Beagle. Oceanographers enter the seas, as William
Beebe did in photographing life on the ocean floor. The astronomer
searcfies the heavens; the chemist or physicist experiments in his
laboratory; the physician studies his clinical notes.
Such scientific findings are unavailable for general study until
they are housed in museums or recorded in print and deposited in
libraries. There these records in turn become sources of material for
further research. Indeed, the existence and value of many library
65
66 COLLECTING DATA
materials is wholly due to faithful recording of work done in the
field and in the laboratory. Here, as Francis Bacon put it, "Books
must follow sciences, and not sciences books."
The methods used in field and laboratory investigation must be
learned through the individual sciences; these methods are neces-
sarily excluded from this chapter, which deals primarily with library
research. The questionnaire and interview exceptions to this rule
come within the scope of the chapter insofar as they may be regarded
as general, nontechnical methods of investigation.
A. Bibliographic Aids
In library research difficulties may arise from an overabundance
of material related to the subject. The question "Can I find enough
material?" is often beside the point. On the single subject of aureo-
mycin, for example, the Lederle laboratories have listed a bibliogra-
phy of 1,915 papers published between November 1948 and Novem-
ber 1950. The World List of Scientific Periodicals 1 refers in its
Preface to a coverage of 50,000 publications. In this vast maze of
published matter, the writer must locate the sources which deal with
his problem and select those which meet his needs.
The usefulness of the card catalog, encyclopedias, and other gen-
eral reference works is recognized by most students who undertake
research. Such general guides often lead, however, to secondary
sources of limited value to the specialist. This chapter, therefore,
will emphasize the use of the more specialized reference materials.
It is good practice in searching for material on a scientific subject
to begin with recently published papers. Beginning with current
publications and working back through earlier issues will often save
time which might otherwise be wasted on outdated observations and
involved discussions of theories later revised or discarded. An espe-
cially helpful type of paper is what is known in science as a "review."
(See Chapter 10.) Some scientific publications, such as Chemical
Reviews, are devoted to papers which summarize and interpret the
reports which have previously appeared on a research problem. It
is a good plan, also, to begin with recent issues in using indexes and
abstracts.
1 World List of Scientific Periodicals 1900-1950, 3rd ed., New York, Aca-
demic Press, Inc., 1952.
SOURCE MATERIAL 67
The index may be defined as a detailed alphabetical key to names,
places, and topics in a book, an encyclopedia, periodicals, or other
printed matter. The index may appear at the end of a book or, like
periodical indexes, may be issued in separate volumes appearing at
intervals. It may be general in nature like The Readers 9 Guide to
Periodical Literature or highly specialized like the Index Medicus.
Some publications list separately author, title, and subject indexes;
in such cases all three indexes must be checked. Wherever the index
appears, its alphabetical arrangement permits quick reietetxce, xxauaSX^
to a wide range of material.
An abstract is by definition a summary or condensation usually
short of a statement, document, article, or lecture. As used in
science, it serves as both a reference to an article and an indication
of its content. (See Chapter 13.) The use of abstracts involves
more steps than the use of an ordinary index. You first look up the
author or topic in an index which will give the reference to an
abstract of the original article. You then consult the abstract, which
will contain a reference to the journal in which the original article
appeared, in the event you should want to read it. Abstracts do not
serve as satisfactory substitutes for the original articles and should
never be treated and quoted from as original sources. If the original
is not available locally, the abstract makes it possible to decide
whether to look for the article elsewhere. If an original is unobtain-
able, it may be permissible in a student bibliography to list the
abstract if its nature is clearly indicated.
Abstracting services of great importance to students of science
are Biological Abstracts, published under the sponsorship of the
Union of American Biological Societies, and Chemical Abstracts,
published by the American Chemical Society. In addition to the
annual index, Chemical Abstracts has Decennial Indexes, of which
the fourth appeared in 1946. One of the most ambitious abstracting
services ever undertaken is Excerpta Medica 9 begun in 1947 and
designed to present abstracts "of every article in the fields of clinical
and experimental medicine from every available medical journal in
the world." Although these abstracts are published in Amsterdam
and cover journals in many languages, they appear in English.
A bibliography is a complete or selective list of works concerning
an individual author or subject. In addition to the bibliographies
68 COLLECTING DATA
which accompany scientific and scholarly books and articles, many
bibliographies are published separately. Annotated bibliographies,
which include short descriptions of the individual items, are par-
ticularly useful. Available bibliographies on a subject may often
be located through "bibliographies of bibliographies," such as the
Bibliographic Index and Besterman's World Bibliography of Bib-
liographies.
Section IV of this chapter lists dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes,
abstracts, bibliographies, and other reference works. Nevertheless,
though bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts are indispensable aids
in scientific research, they cannot be depended upon to list all
the references on a subject. Cross references, footnotes, and chance
allusions will sometimes offer the only clues to some sources of
information.
The question often arises as to how extensive a coverage of sources
is necessary. For most student papers a selective coverage is suf-
ficient. On advanced levels of research the coverage approaches the
scholarly ideal of completeness. (The question of coverage will be
treated in more detail in Chapter 10, The Research Paper.)
B. The Questionnaire 2 and the Interview
The questionnaire has been defined as "a set of questions to be
answered by the informant without the personal aid of an investigator
or enumerator." 3 The successful use of the questionnaire depends
largely upon the skill with which it is planned, framed, and dis-
tributed. As a research tool, the questionnaire requires judicious
control even in the hands of the expert. It is hoped, however, that
the suggestions offered here will serve to enable the student to
discriminate among claims and findings based on the use of the
questionnaire.
Once the purpose of the questionnaire is defined and the nature
of the information desired is clearly in mind, clear and specific
questions should be framed to elicit the information from the in-
formants. For example, it is better to say, "From what institution
2 In addition to its use as a tool in social science research, the questionnaire
is, of course, commonly employed commercially in market research, opinion,
and poll surveys.
3 Wilson Gee, Social Science Research Methods, New York, Appleton-Century-
Crofts, Inc., 1950, p. 314.
SOURCE MATERIAL 69
did you receive your undergraduate degree?" than "Where did you
attend college?" Results are easier to tabulate if the questions are
"closed" that is, questions to which the possible answers are limited
to "Yes" or "No" or to a few choices such as "Poor," "Fair," "Good,"
"Excellent." However, "open" questions permitting greater freedom
of response must be used if the range of replies cannot be predicted
or if the purpose is to encourage the free expression of ideas. Leading
questions questions so framed as to suggest the answer desired
should be avoided. Replies to a questionnaire will be encouraged if
it is accompanied by a letter explaining its purpose and by directions
telling how to fill it out and return it. (An example of a questionnaire
used for a specific purpose appears in Appendix A, p. 397.)
In spite of its usefulness, the questionnaire has incurred criticism
because it has at times been indiscriminately used and the results
injudiciously interpreted. (See Chapter 6.) Certain criteria are perti-
nent in evaluating a questionnaire and its findings.
1. Was the questionnaire directed to a specific purpose?
2. Was the information requested restricted to facts or to the
expression of opinions which would not be affected by emotional
bias?
3. Did the number of replies to the questionnaire represent an
adequate sampling of the group?
4. Could the responses obtained be considered representative of
the group as a whole?
Useful as the questionnaire is, it cannot replace the personal inter-
view. Sometimes a single individual is in possession of a large part
of the information desired and will express himself more freely and
more willingly in an interview than in a questionnaire. Again, the
interview may uncover unexpected or unanticipated information.
Adequate preparation for the interview and an accurate record are
as important as the conduct of the interview itself. A tactful letter
requesting an appointment should explain the purpose for which
the information is needed and the use to which it will be put. This
letter should also indicate the probable length of time required for
the interview and the scope and nature of the inquiries to be made.
In the interest of accuracy the record should be made as soon after
the interview as possible.
70 COLLECTING DATA
The following suggestions originally offered in a course in Indus-
trial Publishing of the New York Business Publishers Association
may serve as a guide for the conduct of the interview.
1. Make a definite appointment with the man to be interviewed, and
keep it to the minute.
2. Learn as much as possible about him before you go to the inter-
view. . . .
3. Know the subject of the interview. The best interviewer is one
with whom the interviewed can talk on something like equal terms
and not have to explain every little thing in ABC language.
4. Do not expect the interviewed to volunteer information or to take
the lead in conducting the interview; that is your job.
5. Frame in advance some pertinent questions that get at the heart
of the subject.
6. Do only as much talking as is necessary to keep the person inter-
viewed talking.
7. Observe the courtesies of your position. Don't argue, don't contra-
dict, don't insist. Discuss the points that require some comeback
in order to bring out their meaning, or to bring up the other side
of the question, or to keep the interview moving.
8. Keep some . . . questions up your sleeve with which to bring the
interview back to its subject matter, if the interviewed becomes
discursive.
9. If the information quoted is of an important character, or involves
many statistical references, figures, mathematical formulas, or
other exact statements requiring careful checking, it is generally
best to submit a written record of the interview for approval before
printing it.
10. Do not overstay your time. Leave while the going is good. 4
II. EVALUATING SOURCES OF DATA
Broadly speaking, everything on earth is a source of knowledge
about some phase of natural processes or human activity. A school-
boy's letter may be just as valid a source for the purpose of studying
child psychology as a letter of Woodrow Wilson's is for the purpose
of studying the history of World War I. Some of our knowledge of
Greek civilization is derived from the ornamentation of Greek vases;
we learn of medieval musical instruments from their depiction in
art works of the time. The evaluation of sources involves distinguish-
4 Frank Kerekes and Robley Winfrey, Report Preparation, 2nd ed., Ames,
Iowa State College Press, 1951, p. 58.
EVALUATING SOURCES 71
ing between primary and secondary sources, weighing of authority
as to competence and bias, and considering the significance of the
date.
A. Primary and Secondary Sources
It is customary to classify sources as primary and secondary. The
primary, or first, source of knowledge is, in one sense, the original
experiment, the insect preserved in amber, the inscription on an
ancient tomb, that is, the source which precedes the first written
record.
The distinction between primary and secondary sources is usually,
however, applied to written or printed sources. While in scientific
work the final referent is always experiment or observation, no
scientist can possibly repeat all the experiments of others. In scien-
tific literature the scientist's original reports of his experiments are
considered primary sources ; reviews and books of others who analyze
and interpret these original reports are regarded as secondary sources.
For example, in a study of the work of Antoine Lavoisier, which
profoundly altered the science of chemistry, Lavoisier's notebooks,
reports, and treatises would be primary sources. All the biographi-
cal, historical, and scientific works which have been written about
Lavoisier since he was guillotined at the time of the French Revolu-
tion would be secondary sources.
The writer of a research paper will use primary and secondary
sources for different purposes. Though there is no substitute for
first-hand knowledge, an authoritative secondary source will give
perspective and permit the intelligent use of primary sources. The
secondary source which is based on other secondary sources or which
stresses sensational details should be treated with great caution.
Wherever possible the reliability of a secondary source should be
checked against the primary source. Encyclopedias are, of course,
always secondary sources and are subject to misuse. While an authori-
tative encyclopedia aifords a balanced account of a broad and com-
plex subject and may offer useful references, not even the beginning
student should limit himself to encyclopedias or become dependent
upon them. A paper can be no better than its sources, and it is
expected that a research paper (see Chapter 10) will include repre-
72 COLLECTING DATA
sentative primary sources and exclude those secondary materials
which are remote from the original source of knowledge.
B. The Consideration of Authority
Whether a source is primary or secondary, the degree of authority
it represents should be considered. Two factors are generally held to
affect the authority of a source: competence and bias. In a scientific
or technical field competence is not ordinarily difficult to establish.
Workers who have been adequately trained in a specialized field are
supposedly qualified to report their own experimental results. Each
field has its recognized leaders or experts. When a source appears
doubtful, the professional affiliations of the author and the reputation
of the agency which issued the publication are guides to its relia-
bility.
Bias, or a writer's tendency to observe, select, and interpret data
from a distorted or limited point of view, may be difficult to detect.
Charles V. Langlois and Charles Seignobos have suggested questions
which test the good faith and accuracy of writers. 5 Mary E. Richmond
has summed up these questions as they apply in social work, but they
are applicable to writing in all sciences.
Good Faith. Were there any practical advantages to be gained by
the witness who made the statement in its present form? Had he an
interest in deceiving? What interest did he think he had? (We must
look for the answer in his tastes and ideals, not in our own.) If there
was no individual interest to serve, was there a collective interest,
such as that of a family, a religious denomination, a political party?
. . . Was some rule or custom, some sympathy or antipathy, dominat-
ing him? Was personal or collective vanity involved? Did his ideas
of etiquette, of what politeness demanded, run counter to making a
perfectly truthful statement? ... Or again, has he been betrayed into
telling a good story, because it made an appeal to the artistic sense
latent somewhere in all of us?
Accuracy. Was the statement an answer to a question or a series
of questions? (It is necessary to apply a special criticism to every
statement obtained by interrogation.) What was the question put, and
what are the preoccupations to which it may have given rise in the
mind of the person interrogated? Was the observer well situated for
5 Charles V. Langlois and Charles Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of
History, translated by G. Berry, London, Duckworth and Company, 1898, pp.
164-77.
EVALUATING SOURCES 73
observing? Was he possessed of the special experience or general
intelligence necessary for understanding the facts? How long before
he recorded what he observed? Or did he record it, like some news-
paper accounts of meetings, before it happened? Finally, was the fact
stated of such a nature that it could not have been learned by obser-
vation alone? 6
The forms of bias detected by these questions arise chiefly from
two causes, direct self-interest and indirect self-interest. Direct self-
interest may be suspected wherever material or financial gain is
involved. For this reason the amount and character of advertising
are limited in scientific publications. In general, trade journals or
publications supported by commercial agencies, though they may
contain useful material, do not have the same scientific standing as
publications supported by scientific organizations, educational insti-
tutions, or endowments. However, some commercially sponsored
publications have achieved high standing.
On a much lower level are pseudo research agencies which may
have high-sounding titles but are actually engaged only in "proving"
what the promoters wish proved. The antecedents of suspect agencies
should, as Richard D. Altick has suggested, be subjected to intensive
inquiry.
... in recent times it has been increasingly the custom for adver-
tisers to borrow the prestige of science and medicine to enhance the
reputation of their products. The American people have come to feel
for the laboratory scientist and the physician an awe once reserved
for bishops and statesmen. The alleged approval of such men thus
carries great weight when it is a question of selling something, or
(which is the same thing) inducing someone to believe something.
Phrases such as "leading medical authorities say . . ." or "independ-
ent laboratory tests show . . ." are designed simply to transfer the
prestige of science, which presumably is incapable of either error or
corruption, to a toothpaste or a cereal. Seldom if ever are the precise
"medical authorities" or "independent laboratories" named. But the
mere phrases have vast weight with the uncritical. Similarly too the
honorific "Dr." or "professor" implies that the person quoted speaks
with all the authority of which learned men are capable when as a
matter of fact "doctorates" can be bought from mail-order colleges.
Whenever, therefore, an attempt is made to convince by appeal to the
prestige that surrounds the learned, the reader should demand full
6 Mary E. Richmond, Social Diagnosis, New York, Russell Sage Foundation,
1917, p. 64.
74 COLLECTING DATA
credentials. Just what medical authorities say this? Can they be
trusted? What independent laboratories made the test and what,
actually, did the tests reveal? Who is this man tjiat speaks as a
qualified educator or psychologist or economist? Regardless of the
fact that he is called "doctor," does he know what he is talking about? 7
Indirect self-interest may be due to the writer's identification with
a group, such as a nation or race, a religious denomination, or a
political party. Even the impulse to tell a good story, which in science
may manifest itself as the desire to make a sensational discovery,
stems from what Miss Richmond calls "collective self-esteem." Bias
due to indirect self-interest occurs in both the natural and the social
sciences. International in scope as science has always been, national
predilections have at times hampered scientific progress. The French
physicians of William Harvey's time were, for example, slow to
appreciate the Englishman's discovery of the circulation of the blood.
A recent instance of extreme bias which has attracted wide attention
is the suppression in the Soviet Union of accepted theories of genetics
and the promotion in their place of the theory of T. D. Lysenko,
which, though it "goes along with the philosophy required by Marx
and Lenin," "brushes aside all of the careful and tested results of
genetic work of the past forty years." 8
The influence of bias is marked in the social sciences where issues
of regional, social, or economic interest are involved. Differences of
opinion expressed on the United States Supreme Court's decision
on segregation in the public schools followed largely geographical
lines. An individual's views on taxation, farm policy, the tariff,
social security, universal military service, and other public questions
all tend to be influenced by his political and organizational affilia-
tions, his age, his geographical environment, and his economic status.
The reader in the social sciences must frequently raise the question,
"Is this writer the spokesman for any pressure group?"
A source is not necessarily to be discarded because it is biased.
In historical research it may be necessary to weigh the accounts of
several biased witnesses in an endeavor to get at the truth of the
matter. (See Appendix A, p. 399.) Or, if the writer is making a study
7 Richard D. Altick, Preface to Critical Reading, New York, Henry Holt and
Company, 1951, pp. 145-46.
8 Harold H. Plough, "Bourgeois Genetics and Party-line Darwinism," The
American Scholar, 18:291-303, Summer 1949.
EVALUATING SOURCES 75
of prejudice or individual differences, the bias of a source may add
to its value. However, bias should always be taken into account
and allowance made for it.
Everyone, it should be noted, has some degree of honest bias in
the sense of preconceived ideas and natural bent of mind. Some
political scientists are known to have a conservative, others a liberal
outlook. The psychologist's point of view differs from the geneticist's,
the anatomist's from the physiologist's, the engineer's from the
physicist's, the sociologist's from the archaeologist's. In both the
natural and social sciences there are schools of thought whose ad-
herents differ in approach or terminology, sometimes even in basic
assumptions. This sort of bias should be carefully distinguished from
the dishonest or unreasoned bias which leads a writer to misrepresent
or distort facts.
C. The Relevance of Date
A final point to be considered in evaluating any source is its date.
In checking the literature you should make sure that you have
obtained the most recent material on your subject. In a rapidly
changing field, out-of-date material may be valueless. In every branch
of science, however, certain classics, such as Darwin's Origin of
Species, will always have historic and even intrinsic interest; and a
secondary source does not supersede the primary source on which
it is based simply because the secondary source is of later date.
Like other factors used in evaluating a source, the date should be
considered in relation to the purpose for which the source is to be
used. In any event, the date should never be disregarded.
III. RECORDING DATA
After a source has been located and its value determined, the task
remains of taking notes from it for eventual use in writing. The
longer and more ambitious a research project is, the more important
an efficient system of taking notes becomes. It is an advantage in
undergraduate courses to become acquainted with and employ a
system which will prove adequate for even the most advanced work.
The card file system, which involves the keeping of notes on cards
which can be conveniently arranged and filed, is generally used for
research.
76 COLLECTING DATA
A. The Card File System
In following the card file system as recommended here, you keep
for each research project a file of cards, the most popular sizes being
3x5, and 4x6, and for notes perhaps 5x8. For each book, article,
or other source used, you prepare a bibliography card, giving all the
information which will be needed in listing the bibliography at the
end of the paper and in identifying the source when it is first cited
in the footnotes. On other cards, known as note cards, you record
the notes to be used in writing the paper; from these note cards
you will also get the page references for the footnotes. The use of
two types of cards saves time since it is not necessary to repeat
the bibliographical information on the numerous note cards and
since all the bibliography cards can be kept together for use in
preparing and, as necessary, revising the bibliography.
The wide use of the card file system has made its general outlines
familiar to most students. Its usefulness in library research has been
proved many times. The cards have several advantages over a note-
book: they are easier to handle, more convenient to arrange and
rearrange, and better adapted to the insertion of new material at
appropriate points. Although this system is not intended to supplant
data sheets or other forms for keeping laboratory records, variations
of it are frequently used for keeping records of experimental research.
7. Bibliography Cards
It is essential that the bibliography card contain all the information
needed for the bibliography. Time will be saved in copying the
information from the cards if the order, punctuation, and other
formal details of the entry appear exactly as they will in the final
bibliography. For this reason, those who plan to document their
papers according to one of the special systems of documentation, such
as those used in certain biology and chemistry journals (see Chap-
ter 14), should use the same form for their bibliography cards, as
illustrated in the examples in this section.
The essential items on a bibliography card for a book are the
author, title, place of publication, date of publication, publisher,
edition if not the first, number of volumes if more than one, and
number of pages. The bibliography card may also include the
BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD BOOK HUMANITIES DOCUMENTATION
57^.97 Smallwood, William Martin, in collab-
oration with Mabel Sarah Coon
Smallwood , Natural History and the
American Mind . New York, Columbia
University Press, 19^1. ^5 PP
(development of natural history in
U. S. from colonial times to latter
part of 19th century, illus.)
Check List
1. Author 7. Description (if desired)
2. Title 8. Call number (if desired)
3. Place of publication 9. Edition (if needed)
4. Publisher 10. Number of volumes (if more
5. Date than one)
6. Number of pages
BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD PERIODICAL ARTICLE HUMANITIES DOCUMENTATION
Cournos, John, "God, Existentialism
and the Novel," The American
Scholar, 18: 116-2^7 Winter
Check List
1. Author 4. Volume (and issue number if
2. Title of article needed)
3. Name of periodical 5. Pages
6. Date
BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD BOOK DOCUMENTATION REPRESENTATIVE OF
CHEMICAL JOURNALS
B Glasser, Otto, "Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen,"
610 Chap. Ik, pp, 293-307, Springfield,
R Illinois, Charles C. Thomas, 193^-
(a discussion of observations made in
1896 on the effects of roentgen rays
on the human skin and on early exper-
iments with X-ray therapy.)
Check List
1. Author 4. Place of publication
2. Title 5. Publisher
3. Chapter and pages 6. Date
BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD PERIODICAL ARTICLE DOCUMENTATION
REPRESENTATIVE OF CHEMICAL JOURNALS
Grosse, A. V., Kirshenbaum, A. D., and
Hindin, S. G., Science, 105, 101 (19^7)
Check List
1. Author 4. Page reference
2. Name of journal 5. Date
3. Volume number
7ft
BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD BOOK DOCUMENTATION REPRESENTATIVE OF
BIOLOGY JOURNALS
LINEBACK, P. 1933 Anatomy of the Rhesus
Monkey. Ed. by G. C. Hartraan and
W. L. Straus, Jr. Williams and
Wilkins Co., Baltimore. Chap. XII,
Check List
1. Author 5. Publisher
2. Date 6. Place of publication
3. Title 7. Chapter and pages
4. Editors
BIBLIOGRAPHY CARD PERIODICAL ARTICLE DOCUMENTATION
REPRESENTATIVE OF BIOLOGY JOURNALS
McFARLANE, W. D., and H. I. MILNE 193 1 *- Iron
and copper metabolism in the de-
veloping chick embryo. J. Biol.
Chem. 107:309-19'
Check List
1. Author 4. Name of journal
2. Date 5. Volume number
3. Title of article 6. Pages
79
80 COLLECTING DATA
number of pages in the introduction and, if desired, the library
card number and brief descriptive notes about the book.
The essential items on a bibliography card for a periodical article
are the author, title of article, name of journal, volume number,
number of issue if needed, page numbers, and date. Bound journals
are ordinarily referred to by the volume number; if each issue in
the volume begins with page one, or if the issue number is needed
for any other reason, the reference should include the number of
the issue, placed in parentheses between the volume and the page
number, thus, 19(3):16-23.
2. Note Cards
The essential items for a note card are the topic of the note, a
designation of the source (abbreviated if desired) , the page reference,
and the note itself in either summary or quoted form. A topic should
always be devised to head the note card because a topical heading
will be an aid in classifying and arranging the notes. A specific
topic will be much more useful for this purpose than a general one.
For example, such a heading as "Life of Pasteur" will be of little
value since many other notes will be concerned with the same topic.
A more specific heading, such as "Pasteur's methods of work," "Spon-
taneous generation controversy," or "Pasteur's devotion to the lab-
oratory," would identify the note with greater accuracy.
The designation of the source and the page numbers should be
carefully recorded on the note card because these items will be
needed for use in preparing the footnotes, and correct identification
is imperative. Some authorities suggest assigning a number to each
source and using these key numbers on the note cards, but designat-
ing the source on the note card by an abbreviated form of the title
has the advantage of being self-explanatory and of obviating the
necessity for setting up and using a numerical key.
The purpose of the study determines both the content and the
character of the note. Notes which are useful for one purpose may
have no value whatsoever for another. One note-taker may select
from a page only an anecdote which illustrates a point he has in
mind. A cogent summary of a passage may meet the need of another.
An author's main topic or central theme, historical facts, or statistical
data may be pertinent to still a different purpose. Specific points
RECORDING 81
such as dates and names of persons should be recorded with par-
ticular care. Such details easily escape the memory, and if they are
not available when the paper is written, it js likely to take on the
washed-out, colorless style often characteristic of secondary sources.
In recording notes you must choose between paraphrase and direct
quotation from the source. Quotation may be preferable when the
original wording is striking or epigrammatic, when the statement
is controversial and may be questioned, or when it is desirable to
illustrate the style of a writer or period. It is not justifiable to copy
long passages through inability or disinclination to make discrimi-
nating choices. In transcribing quoted matter, you should take the
greatest care to copy accurately the words, capitalization, punctua-
tion, and even any errors which may appear in the original, and
to indicate by the use of quotation marks exactly where the quoted
passage begins and ends. If the quoted passage begins on one page
of the original and ends on another, it is desirable on the note card
to indicate the page division by a bar, thus, ". . . the variety
appears to be / the same as . . ." Then, if only part of the quotation
is used in the finished paper, the information needed for a correct
page reference in the footnotes will be available. No omissions may
NOTE CARD SUMMARY FORM
Microscope history of
Smallwood, Nat. Hist,
and Am. Mind.
Although the microscope was well under-
stood by the beginning of the 19th
p. 195 century, its use required so many
adjustments in thought and language,
that it did not come into general use
in laboratories before i860.
Check List
1. Topic 3. Page reference
2. Source 4. Note
NOTE CARD QUOTATION
The empirical nature of Babylonian mathematics
E. T. Bell,
Dev. of Math,
"A third distinction which sharply separates
the Archimedean mensuration of the circle from
the Babylonian is exactly the distinction
between scientific and prescientific thinking.
A mind which rests content with a collection
p. 1*5 of facts is no scientific mind. The formulas
in a mathematical handbook are no more
mathematics than are the words in a dictionary
a literary masterpiece. Until some unifying
principle is conceived by which an amorphous
mass of details can be given structure, neither
science nor mathematics has begun."
Check List
1. Topic 3. Page reference
2. Source 4. Note
NOTE CARD PART QUOTATION
Philosophy in current fiction
Cournos,
"God, Existentialism
and the Novel."
Comments that current fiction deals
p. 116 with "life and death , with God and
moral values, above all with respon-
sibility."
Check List
1. Topic 3. Page reference
2. Source 4. Note
RECORDING 83
be made which alter the intent of the original statement. Permissible
omissions may be indicated by the use of three dots at the beginning
or within a sentence or four dots at the end of a sentence. It is
equally unpardonable to make use of an author's words without
employing quotation marks and to ascribe quotations to him in-
accurately; you should remember that you will be dependent on
your notes for the information needed for the correct handling of
quotations in your paper.
B. Good Procedure in Note-taking
Sometimes you may find it impossible to take full notes on a
book at the time of the first reading, or you may prefer not to dull
the pleasure of reading by full note-taking. Under these circumstances
you may for the time being choose to jot down only the page
number and a brief note indicating the relation of the material to
your purpose. If there are few interruptions for note-taking, you will
see the material in better perspective and will be better able to judge
what is relevant to your purpose.
Before letting the reference leave your hands permanently, you
should make sure that the bibliography and note cards include every
item of information which you will need for use in your research
project. Almost everyone who has done research has had the expe-
rience of wishing to make use of a reference or passage which had
come to his attention earlier but which had been lost to him through
his failure to make proper notes at the time the material was at hand.
Careful note-taking may at first seem laborious. However, it soon
gains the ease of habit and any additional effort will be compensated
for by the comparative facility with which a paper may then be
written.
Much of this chapter has been devoted to the mechanical side of
gathering material for research papers. However, the accumulation
of information which bears on a problem is never a mechanical task.
The purpose of the research and the questions to which answers are
sought must guide each stage of the work.
84 COLLECTING DATA
IV. A LIST OF REFERENCE WORKS
GENERAL
The Census Volumes, United States Department of Commerce, Bureau
of the Census
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, new edition
Encyclopedia Americana
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Foreign Commerce Yearbook, United States Department of Commerce
The Municipal Year Book
Official Gazette of the U. S. Patent Office
The Statesman's Year-book
The World Almanac and Book of Facts
BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CATALOGS, AND GUIDES
TO SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE
Basic List of Current Municipal Documents
Besterman, Theodore, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies, 2nd
edition
Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports, United States De-
partment of Commerce
Chamberlin, W. J., Entomological Nomenclature and Literature
Handbook of Medical' Library Practice
Hawkins, Reginald Robert, Scientific, Medical and Technical Books
Published in the United States of America, 1930-1944
Mellon, M. G., Chemical Publications, Their Nature and Use
Moor, Carol Carter and Waldo Chamberlin, How to Use United
Nations Documents
Pearl, Richard M., Guide to Geologic Literature
Postell, W. D., An Introduction to Medical Bibliography
Smith, Roger C., Guide to the Literature of the Zoological Sciences,
revised edition
Soule, Byron A., Library Guide for the Chemist
The United States Catalog, 1928; Cumulative Book Index, supple-
ment to The United States Catalog
United States Government Monthly Publications Catalog
The United States Quarterly Book List
REFERENCE WORKS 85
Winchell, Constance M., Guide to Reference Books
World List of Scientific Periodicals, 3rd edition
INDEXES
Agricultural Index
Bibliographic Index, A Cumulative Bibliography of Bibliographies
Book Review Digest
Bulletin of the Public Affairs Information Service
Current List of Medical Literature
Education Index
Engineering Index
Index Medicus; since 1926, Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus
Index to Dental Literature
Industrial Arts Index
International Index to Periodicals
New York Times Index
Psychological Index
Readers 9 Guide to Periodical Literature
Technical Book Review Index
Zoological Record
ABSTRACTING JOURNALS
Biological Abstracts
British Abstracts
Chemical Abstracts
Excerpta Medica
Geophysical Abstracts
Miner alogical Abstracts
Psychological Abstracts
Science Abstracts
BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Cattell, Jaques, editor, American Men of Science, 8th edition
Current Biography
Dictionary of American Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
Who's Who
Who's Who in America
86 COLLECTING DATA
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Choose a subject or individual, preferably in your own field or in one
with which you have some familiarity, about which there has been con-
siderable controversy, such as TVA, "survival of the fittest," the age of
the universe, the "recapitulation" theory in human embryology, Mary
Todd Lincoln, the origin of language. Look up this topic in several
standard reference works and compare the treatments of the subject,
noting particularly (a) the space devoted to it, (b) the agreement or
lack of agreement as to coverage of specific points, (c) any differences
of opinion. How do you account for any discrepancies you find?
2. Select a topic which you have some reason to investigate, or one sug-
gested by the instructor, and locate six references on it, using as many
different means as possible (i.e., indexes, abstracts, bibliographies,
cross references). Prepare a bibliography card for each reference. Pre-
pare a bibliography from the cards, using a format usual in the hu-
manities. Convert this bibliography to one of the formats representa-
tive of scientific journals. (See Chapter 14.)
3. Consider a list or group of references from a textbook you are using.
How many of the references would you classify as primary, how many
as secondary sources?
4. Discuss the effects of translation, abridgment, censorship on the valid-
ity of a source, citing any examples which may have come within your
experience.
5. Choose at random a topic in your field and look it up in sources of
about 1910, 1925, and the present. Compare the treatments of the topic.
6. Discuss the relative values and uses of primary and secondary sources
and show why neither can be ignored in undertaking the study of a
subject.
7. Frame a short questionnaire with the purpose of inquiring into stu-
dent attendance at convocations and preferences as to types of pro-
grams. Compare your questionnaire with those of other members of
your class. Do the questionnaires have any of the weaknesses men-
tioned in section I-B of this chapter?
8. In preparation for a reference or research paper which you expect
to write later, prepare three note cards: one in summary form, one a
paraphrase, and one a quotation.
CHAPTER 5 ANA LYSIS: METHODS AND
APPLICATIONS
I. Analysis defined
II. Methods of analysis
A. Partition
B. Classification
1. Principles of classification
2. Patterns of classification
III. Presentation of analysis
A. Tabular form
B. Outline form
IV. Function of analysis in planning the paper
A. Analytical treatment of subject matter
B. Formal and informal analysis
V. Applications of analysis
A. Analysis and prediction
B. Analysis and practical problems
It is in everything else as it is in colors; bad eyes can
distinguish between black and white; better eyes, and
eyes much exercised, can distinguish every nicer grada.
tion. VOLTAIRE, A Philosophical Dictionary.
I. ANALYSIS DEFINED
The term analysis, deriving from a Greek verb meaning to loosen
up, denotes a division into component parts or elements. Its graphic
synonym breakdown is familiar in such expressions as a "breakdown
of costs" or the "breakdown of a bill." In chemistry the term
analysis refers to the breaking down of a compound into its elements
or of a substance into its ingredients as to kind (qualitative analysis)
or as to amount (quantitative analysis). Used less literally, as in
speaking of the analysis of a situation, or of a person as having an
analytical mind, the concept of analysis has the significance of men-
tally taking apart an abstract whole in order to understand its
make-up.
87
88 ANALYSIS
Analysis is often closely associated with interpretation. However,
analysis refers to the arrangement of matter or data, interpretation
to the conclusions based on the matter or data presented. This dis-
tinction is strictly observed in scientific papers where the "Results,"
often analytically presented, and the "Discussion" of results are
treated in separate sections.
Analysis, a process of division, is often contrasted with synthesis,
a process of putting together or combining elements. The comple-
mentary relationship between analysis and synthesis may be shown
by again referring to the science of chemistry. Historically an analyti-
cal science in which compounds are reduced to their elements, chem-
istry has more recently developed as a science of synthesis in which
elements are combined into new compounds such as dyes, perfumes,
plastics, and rubber.
The French chemist Lavoisier in 1793 defined chemistry as "the
science of analysis." The German chemist Gerhardt in 1844 said: "I
have demonstrated that the chemist works in opposition to living nature,
that he burns, destroys, analyzes, that the vital force alone operates
by synthesis, that it reconstructs the edifice torn down by the chemical
forces." . . .
It was, I think, the French chemist Berthelot who first clearly
perceived the double aspect of chemistry, for he defined it as "the
science of analysis and synthesis" of taking apart and of putting
together. . . . Since Berthelot's time, that is, within the last fifty years,
chemistry has won its 'chief triumphs in the field of synthesis. 1
The process of synthesis, like that of analysis, may be used in
working with ideas as well as with things. The student of social situ-
ations may first analyze these situations into their elements and then
mentally rearrange and recombine the elements in his search for new
understanding. Thus analysis and synthesis are often used together
in arriving at interpretations.
II. METHODS OF ANALYSIS
All analyses have in common the element of division. In achieving
this division the analyst may employ whichever of two basic methods
is best suited to his material. When the process of analysis begins
with a single entity which is to be divided into its parts, the operation
1 Edwin E. Slosson, Creative Chemistry, 1930, pp. 6-7. Used by permission of
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
METHODS 89
is known as partition. When the starting point is a number of cases
which are to be divided into groups, the process is known as classifi-
cation. 2
A. Partition
I Partition, the division of a whole into its parts, may be a physical
[process applied to an object or structure or a theoretical process ap-
plied to a concept. A physical division is effected, for example, when
a derrick is divided into mast, boom, and tackle; a tooth into pulp,
dentine, and enamel; a compound microscope into eyepiece, tube,
adjusting screw, objective lens, table or stage, and illuminating mir-
ror. Through the use of technical processes, much finer divisions are
possible, such as the division of plant or animal tissue into cells,
which in turn have still smaller structural divisions discernible under
a high-power microscope.
While partition as applied to concepts is abstract, it performs the
same function as physical partition, in that it divides the whole into
its elements so that they can be studied and worked with separately.
Examples of partition as applied to concepts are to be found in the
division of color into shade, hue, and intensity; of a musical tone
into intensity, timbre, and pitch; and of a force into magnitude and
direction. The consideration of different aspects of a single subject
may be regarded as a variation of the theoretical or abstract type
of partition. Thus a novel may be treated analytically first as a liter-
ary work, second as a revelation of the author, third as a social
document.
Partition may be illustrated diagrammatically by the division of
a circle into segments, a block into sections, or a central trunk into
branches. Some such graphic device may aid the student in applying
the principle of partition to a plan, a problem, a process, or a literary
or artistic composition. This analytical habit of mind is widely use-
2 There is some divergence among different writers in the application of
the terms analysis, division, partition, and classification. Usage regarding these
terms differs particularly in logic and in composition and rhetoric. Indeed, a
distinction is sometimes made between logical analysis and expository (rhe-
torical) analysis. In this text we have followed the usage favored by numerous
authorities in composition of treating partition and classification as methods
of analysis. Classification in this sense, the division of a group into classes, is,
of course, closely related to the process of taking an individual entity and
placing it in its class. (See the discussion of definition in Chapter 3.)
90 ANALYSIS
ful. Not only is partition used in all fields of science, but, as one logi-
cian has noted, "Partition is employed by the builder in laying out
his work; it is indispensable to the playwright in fashioning his
plot; it is an aid to the lawyer in drawing up his brief, to the orator
in marshaling his argument, to the painter in balancing his composi-
tion, and to the musician in apportioning his theme." 3
B. Classification
Classification is the dividing of a group into homogeneous classes.
Many classifications have become fixed in the theory of science, such
as the botanical and zoological classifications of plants and animals.
(See Appendix A, p. 400.) In the applied sciences much research con-
sists of classifying experimental results and accumulated data. For
instance, after forty-one years of manufacturing automobiles, General
Motors in an engineering report classified auto noises into seven
groups: squeak, scrape, grind, rattle, thump, knock, and hiss. 4 Some
classifications, like this one, are useful to a specialized group. Others
have become a part of general knowledge.
A close relationship exists between dividing a group into classes,
or classification, and placing a term in its class and then distinguish-
ing it from other members of the class, or definition. This relation-
ship is clearly indicated in the following example which proceeds
through a classification of particles to a definitive distinction between
colloids and true solutions.
... it is evident that there are three very broad classifications of
particles in respect to size: (1) those easily visible to the unaided eye,
such as raindrops or sand; (2) those which cannot be distinguished
even in powerful optical microscopes, exemplified by very fine fogs
and some types of clay; and (3) molecules of a substance like water
or sugar. We are chiefly concerned with particles belonging to the
second group. Any substance existing in the form of particles so small
that they will not settle out of a solution is called a colloid, or is said
to be in the colloidal state. The molecular particles of group (3), on
the other hand, form what are designated as "true solutions.*' 5
8 Thomas Crumley, Logic: Deductive and Inductive, New York, The Mac-
millan Company, 1947, pp. 85-86. Used by permission of The Macmillan Com-
pany.
4 Newsweek, 34:71, September 12, 1949.
5 Reprinted from Small Wonder by Gessner G. Hawley, by permission of
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
METHODS 91
1. Principles of Classification
Classification proceeds ideally according to well-recognized prin-
ciples.
1. A single basis of division should guide the grouping of indi-
viduals into classes at any one stage of the process.
2. The classes should include all individuals subjected to the classi-
fication.
3. The classes should be mutually exclusive, that is, should not
overlap.
A simple illustration of the first of these three principles may be
drawn from everyday practice in classifying houses. It is useful at
times to classify houses according to material into brick, stone, and
frame houses; according to architectural style into colonial, French
provincial, Tudor, English cottage, etc.; according to the accommo-
dations provided into one-family, duplex, and apartment houses.
These classifications are correct according to the first principle be-
cause a single criterion is used each time to establish the points of
division. It would not be correct, however, to divide a group of
houses into brick houses, duplexes, and English cottages, because
such a classification would have more than one basis of division.
It would be virtually impossible to make a classification of houses
which would observe the second and third as well as the first of the
three principles. To include all houses in the classification, in ac-
cordance with the second principle, would be impossible since some
houses would be too individualistic to find a place in any class. To
prevent overlapping, in accordance with the third principle, would
likewise be impossible since some houses, for example houses of a
hybrid architectural style, would share characteristics of two or
more classes. Incomplete and imperfect classifications, such as those
which can be made of houses, often have great practical usefulness
(in setting up insurance or zoning requirements, for example), even
though they cannot attain the ideal. However, even when the ideal
cannot be attained in a classification, it should be approximated as
nearly as possible.
The scientist whose purpose is to reduce natural phenomena to
an orderly system encounters many difficulties in endeavoring to
make his classifications as nearly complete and perfect as possible.
92 ANALYSIS
The difficulty in classifying the duckbill platypus, for example, has
made it a zoological curiosity. It has a beak and webbed feet and
lays eggs characteristics which would classify it as a bird. It also
shows reptilian characteristics, such as poison spurs which suggest
the fangs of a snake. Nevertheless, zoologists, applying the accepted
criterion, have classified this furry little animal as a mammal because
it suckles its young.
Problems comparable to those of the zoologist arise whenever a
comprehensive classification is attempted. The following account,
written from the soil scientist's point of view, stresses the importance
of classification, the difficulties encountered in preparing classifica-
tions, and the necessity of revising classifications to accommodate
new discoveries and new materials.
It is obvious that some sort of soil classification is essential, since
the world has a great many thousands of kinds of landscapes, kinds
of soil profiles, and kinds of mineral-organic cycles. Of course, one
cannot deal with all of these at one time, nor do they present equal
contrasts. Actually, there are few sharp lines between soil types ; rather
the soil of the world is a continuum that may be divided into reasonably
homogeneous units according to the state of our knowledge, and the
demands for accuracy and scientific prediction. The soil is a natural
product, and no two soil profiles are identical any more than two oak
trees or two college professors are. Soil types are man-made creations.
In one soil type are included all the soils that appear to have the
same kind of profile, 'even though they are not alike in every single
respect.
This is not the place to go into the age-old problem of classification.
All the natural sciences have the same problem. A classification is
good to the extent that it serves the purpose of remembering charac-
teristics, seeing relationships, and developing principles. A classifica-
tion is bad to the extent that scientists become slaves to it, and twist
their data and ideas to fit the classification. It improves as our knowl-
edge grows. Some wonder when soil classification will "settle down"
when names and definitions will no longer be changed. This will
happen when soil science has ceased to discover anything new in
other words, when it dies. 6
2. Patterns of Classification
While all classification results in the division of the entire group
into classes, there is a distinction between the pattern or arrangement
6 Charles E. Kellogg, "Modern Soil Science," American Scientist, 36:526,
October 1948.
METHODS 93
arrived at by a division into two classes and that arrived at by a
division into more than two classes. Division into two classes on a
positive-negative basis is known as dichotomy, which means a cut-
ting in two. For example, according to the presence or absence of
a single attribute, motions may be classified as voluntary or involun-
tary, actions as legal or illegal, fruits as edible or inedible. Such a
dichotomous division may have great practical utility when one at-
tribute is of paramount importance. It may, for instance, be desirable
for one purpose to classify metals as ferrous and nonferrous, for
another purpose as critical or noncritical.
A simple dichotomous division, however, is less satisfactory for
many purposes than a division into a larger number of classes. For
example, division of individuals into age groups according to those
over forty and those under forty would serve few purposes, though
a categorical division into infants, children, adolescents, etc., is gen-
erally useful. In preparing such a categorical classification, the dif-
ferentiating factors on which the division is based, such as time,
place, physical differences, must be selected with care. Then the classi-
fication must be completed according to one differentiating factor
before another is introduced. Since the scientist often has to classify
material which is exceedingly complicated, the setting up of signifi-
cant categories depends upon the ability to recognize significant like-
nesses and differences.
In order to learn all he can from his data, the scientist may find
it desirable to classify them several times, each time setting up the
categories on the basis of a single differentiating factor. In setting
up a classification, the classes formed on the basis of one factor may
become the main division and those formed on the basis of another
factor the subdivisions. For example, arrests made during a certain
period might be classified according to the sections of the city in
which they occurred; then each of the classes might be subdivided
according to the nature of the offense.
A study of cancer cases 7 illustrates the advantage of classifying
data under different sets of categories so that comparisons may be
made and conclusions drawn. In this study 531 cases were tabulated
7 Howard C. Taylor, Jr. and Walter F. Becker, "Carcinoma of the Corpus
Uteri," Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics, 84:129-39, February 1947.
94 ANALYSIS
according to such factors as age of patient, duration of symptoms,
histologic type, and method of treatment, as well as end results. This
analysis permitted the study of the relationships between these differ-
ent factors and the end results.
III. PRESENTATION OF ANALYSIS
In addition to graphic and pictorial means of presenting analysis
(see Chapter 15) there are two forms of presentation, tabular and
outline, which employ verbal headings. A study of analytical tables
and outlines furthers an understanding of analysis because these
means present analysis in skeleton form. Tables are used principally
to show classifications of data. Outlines may be used to show either
classifications or partitions within a paper or the structure of the
paper as a whole. The paper, of course, may present the analysis in
amplified form together with a discussion of the material and an
interpretation of its significance. (See Section IV.)
A. Tabular Form
Tabular presentations of material usually follow a columnar ar-
rangement with one set of variables listed in the column at the left
and another set expressed in the headings of the remaining columns.
The first of the following examples is a relatively simple though com-
prehensive table which shows the applications of the terms large,
medium, and small at different size levels. The size levels, numbered
and listed at the left, are arranged in descending order.
Summary of Size Levels 8
Level
Large
Medium
Small
1. Celestial
Nebula
Star
Planet
2. Geographic
Earth
Island
Mountain
3. Ocular
Skyscraper
Football
Sand grain
4. Microscopic
Bacteria
Blood corpuscle
Fat globule
5. Colloidal
Rubber particle
Carbon black
Protein molecule
in latex
particle
6. Molecular
Cellulose
Sugar
Water
7. Atomic
Atom
Electron
Proton
8 Hawley, op. cit., p. 35.
PRESENTATION 95
The next table shows "the relation of smallpox morbidity to vacci-
nation laws in the United States during the period 1919-1928." Here
analysis almost anticipates interpretation, since, as the author notes,
the figures tell the "tale more graphically than any polemic. The inci-
dence per 100,000 of the population is in direct proportion to the
kind of law operating."
Relation of Smallpox Morbidity to Vaccination Laws in the
United States, 191 9-1 928 9
Vaccination Number of p lalim
laws states *
Number of Incidence per
cases 100,000
Compulsory vaccination
10
32,434,954
21,543
6.6
Local option
6
17,930,882
91,981
51.3
No vaccination laws
29
59,923,117
393,924
66.7
Compulsory vaccination
prohibited
4
4,002,888
46,110
115.2
* Including the District of Columbia.
B. Outline Form
The outline is an excellent device for showing either a classification
or a partition. In an outline intended to show a partition the main
headings indicate the principal segments of the whole.
The following partitive outline of John H. Skinkle 10 is preceded
by a statement indicating the exact structure partitioned.
The pendulum tester is the type in common use for all textile
materials. . . .
The pendulum tester consists of three main parts:
I. Straining mechanism
A. Constant speed motor, gear train, nut, and screw; or
B. Cylinder and piston, with hydraulic pressure
II. Jaws or clamps holding the specimen
III. Loading and recording mechanism
A. Chain
B. Drum
C. Pendulum arm and weight
9 I. Bernard Cohen, Science, Servant of Man, Boston, Little, Brown and Com-
pany, 1948, pp. 300-01.
10 John H. Skinkle, Textile Testing, Brooklyn, Chemical Publishing Company,
Inc., 1949, p. 148.
96 ANALYSIS
D. Pointer and scale
E. Notched sector and ratchet
F. Autographic stretch-load recorder
Another example of a partitive outline, taken from General Biology,**
also shows a statement of the structure to be partitioned.
A well-developed muscular system is .present in the earthworm. Its
main parts are as follows:
I. Muscles of the body wall
A. Circular; outer layer, which constrict and lengthen the body
B. Longitudinal; inner layer, which shorten and thicken the body
II. Muscles of intestinal wall, thin layers between lining epithelium
and chloragen cells
A. Circular, within, which constrict the intestine
B. Longitudinal, without, which shorten the intestine
III. Muscles of setae
A. Protractors, which protrude the setae from their sheaths
B. Retractors, which draw the setae into their sheaths
In an outline intended to show a classification, the main headings
indicate the chief classes or in some instances the principles according
to which the material is classified. For example, if material is classi-
fied three times, once according to time, once according to place,
and once according to use, the three headings would be built around
the terms time, place, and use. The subheadings show the divisions
within each class, or, if the main headings express principles, the
classes derived by applying each principle.
The first classificatory outline reprinted here presents the classifi-
cation of "the sources of water available in the hydrologic cycle." * 2
I. Rain and snow
II. Surface water
A. Streams
B. Natural ponds and lakes
C. Impounding reservoirs
III. Ground water
A. Springs
B. Shallow wells and infiltration galleries
C. Deep wells
11 Leslie A. Kenoyer and Henry N. Goddard, General Biology, New York,
Harper & Brothers, 1945, p. 212.
12 Water Quality and Treatment, 2nd ed., New York, American Water Works
Association, Inc., 1950, p. 1.
PRESENTATION 97
The second classificatory outline is accompanied by the author's
introduction which explains the coverage and basis of the classifi-
cation.
Why Do People Write Personal Documents? 1S
The following outline summarizes the forms in which personal docu-
ments are found. The many varieties of third-person case studies, life
histories, interview-reporting, psycho-portraits, biographies, institutional
records, etc., are not included, for it is only with first-person documents
that we are here concerned.
I. Autobiographies
A. Comprehensive
B. Topical
C. Edited
II. Questionnaires
III. Verbatim Recording
A. Interviews
B. Dreams
C. Confessions
IV. Diaries
A. Intimate Journals
B. Memoirs
C. Log-Inventories
V. Letters
VI. Expressive and Projective
Documents
A. Literature
B. Compositions
C. Art Forms
D. Projective Productions
E. Automatic Writing
F. Various
The faults of outlines prepared by inexperienced writers to show
classification frequently arise from an illogical or incomplete classifi-
cation, as in the following example submitted by a student.
DEFENSE MEASURES IN SNAKES
I. Protective positions
A. Balling
B. Freezing
C. To play dead
II. Uses of tails
A. Some snakes are
shield-tailed
B. Mimicry
III. Expanding body and
head
IV. Contortion
V. Noise-making
A. Hissing
1. Russell f s
viper
B. Scale-rubbing
C. Rattling
13 Gordon W. Allport, The Use of Personal Documents in Psychological Sci-
ence, New York, Social Science Research Council, Bulletin 49, 1942, p. 67.
VI . Speed
VII. Protective habitats
A. Burrowing snakes
B. Arboreal snakes
C. Aquatic snakes
VIII. Biting
A. Nonpoisonous
B. Poisonous
C. Fang types
IX. "Spitting" poison
X. Coloration
98 ANALYSIS
The inadequate classification in the preceding outline is apparent
in the large number of main topics and in the raising of such minor
points as "Spitting" poison to equal rank with more general headings.
A single subtopic such as the one occurring under A of section V
is regarded as a flaw in an outline since any section divided must
be divided into at least two parts. This comment applies particularly
to partition. Occasionally a single subtopic is unavoidable in classifi-
cation if certain classes contain only one member.
As frequently happens, inconsistencies in logic are accompanied
in the outline by inconsistencies in form. Co-ordinate topics are not
expressed in parallel grammatical form, particularly gross errors
being the co-ordination of the infinitive with two gerunds under head-
ing I, and of the sentence with the noun under heading II.
The revised form of the outline incorporates corrections of the
most conspicuous faults in the original.
DEFENSE MEASURES IN SNAKES
(Revised)
I. Protective charac-
teristics
A. Shield tail
B. Fangs
C. Coloration
D. Speed
II. Protective positions
A. Balling
B. Freezing
C. Playing dead
III. Protective behavior
A. Body movement
1. Expansion
2. Contortion
IV.
B. Mimicry
C. Noise-making
1. Hissing
2. Scale-rubbing
3. Rattling
D. Biting
1 . Nonpoisonous
2. Poisonous
E. "Spitting" poison
Protective habitats
A. Burrows
B. Trees
C. Bodies of water
IV. FUNCTION OF ANALYSIS IN PLANNING THE PAPER
Many writers have a theoretical understanding of analysis without
appreciating the function of analysis in the planning of a paper.
Just as the scientist has been able to organize large bodies of knowl-
edge by means of partition and classification, the writer can employ
analytical methods in organizing the materials of his paper. The
plan of every paper which follows a logical rather than a chrono-
logical pattern depends in part upon analysis. Even a chronicle of
FUNCTION 99
events is analytical to the extent that the events are grouped into
steps, periods, or phases. The purpose of many expository papers is
primarily analytical. Reports of surveys, for instance, consist largely
of a classification of the findings. Reports of experimental research
often present the results in classified form. Other papers present the
subject in its parts or aspects and hence are essentially partitions.
If an expository paper is not analytical in purpose, the author must
at least classify or group his ideas, usually through the use of an
outline.
When the problem under investigation is carefully formulated, the
process of analysis begins before the data are studied, or even before
they are collected. If, for example, the purpose of an investigator is
to study the effect of sugar on the teeth of a certain group of chil-
dren, a categorical division of the children according to the amounts
of sugar in their diets is implicit in the problem. On the other hand,
records already available may be made the means of studying a vari-
ety of problems. Thus if an investigator has available for analysis
the complete records of a group of university students, he may make
cross tabulations according to age, sex, grades, etc. Such groupings
will serve the same purpose as if he had been able originally to
select comparable groups of students for study.
A. Analytical Treatment of Subject Matter
The precise place of analysis in the planning of a paper depends
upon whether the paper deals primarily with data from the writer's
own investigations or with the findings and conclusions of other
writers.
If the investigator begins with raw data, such as measurements,
vital statistics, replies to questionnaires, he must classify them before
he can draw his conclusions and organize his paper. This process
of classification consists of setting up meaningful categories and
distributing the data accurately among the categories so that the
number in each class may be counted. The writer who is describing
an object or structure is likely to rely directly on partition; the divi-
sions of the object or structure into parts will suggest the divisions
of the paper.
The writer who is dealing with a variety of materials, part of them
more or less assimilated by previous writers, often finds it difficult
100 ANALYSIS
to make a start in organizing his paper. Here a consideration of the
relative advantages of partition and classification will often be help-
ful. Is the subject matter chiefly material to be classified or an entity
to be considered in different aspects?
One student, for example, planning a paper presenting material
he had accumulated in his casework with children, wished to empha-
size the case of one particularly self-centered and introspective child.
His difficulties in organizing the paper were greatly lessened when
it was suggested that he could either make it primarily a case study
of the one individual, introducing other material as background,
or arrange the cases in groups, giving prominence in the discussion
to those he considered of greatest interest. The first choice would,
of course, represent a partitive plan, the second a classificatory plan.
The reporting of some studies will demand a more complex plan
of attack. The author of one paper dealing with the diabetic school
child, for instance, chose to center the study on the child, partitioning
the paper into the principal aspects considered physical character-
istics, heredity, environment, special difficulties, and care. Some of
these topics were in turn made the headings of such classifications
as physical and emotional difficulties. It must be remembered, how-
ever, that while the experience of other writers may be helpful, the
planning of each paper involves individual problems in analysis
which the writer must resolve in organizing his material.
B. Formal and Informal Analysis
Formality in analysis implies relative completeness, the use of tech-
nical language in designating parts and classes, and close adherence
to logical principles. There is a great range in the degree of formality
expected of analyses. The range extends from an exhaustive statistical
analysis of data which can be measured quantitatively to the simple
enumeration of the most important factors in a situation. Analysis
directed to the expert is naturally more formal and detailed than
that prepared for the general reader. Characterizing analysis as in-
formal does not, on the other hand, imply a hasty, superficial treat-
ment. To the contrary, it implies only a less detailed and less ex-
haustive treatment, carefully tailored to suit a less than technical
audience. And an informal analysis should be no less informative
and provocative to its audience than a formal analysis is to experts.
FUNCTION 101
Both the following examples are analytical discussions of the
properties of titanium. The first example is definitely informal. It
does not attempt a comprehensive discussion of the properties and
uses of titanium, but selects those of interest to the general reader.
Numerical and technical terms are kept to a minimum.
Titanium metal offers some new and valuable combinations of proper-
ties. ... It is no all-purpose metal; such metals do not exist. Alumi-
num, for instance, is light, easily formed and machined, but it has
relatively low strength and some bad corrosion problems. Stainless
steel has high strength and corrosion resistance, but its weight is a
handicap for many uses. For certain purposes, therefore, titanium fits
right in between the two in engineering use: it is strong, medium
weight, corrosion resistant. Its melting point is some 300 degrees higher
than iron. While this doesn't give it as high heat resistance as might
be expected, titanium retains its strength at moderately elevated tem-
peratures where aluminum and magnesium alloys lose much of theirs.
Paradoxically, titanium's great affinity for oxygen benefits the ductile
metal. Upon its first exposure at room temperature, it acquires an
impenetrable (but invisible) oxide coating, which protects it from
the atmosphere, salt water, and most acids (excluding, principally,
sulfuric and hydrochloric). In a series of tests, titanium endured, with-
out harmful effect, 600 hours of exposure at 190 Fahrenheit to fruit
juices, onion in water, vinegar, lard, tea, coffee, and lactic acid. Corro-
sion resistance is at present titanium metal's most important property. 14
In contrast to the preceding example, the following example is rela-
tively formal and presents a detailed and technical discussion of the
properties of titanium and their relation to its uses.
Potential Uses for Titanium Metal. Titanium has many actual and
potential uses, based for the most part upon its properties as a silvery
white, light, corrosion-resistant, tough, strong metal. Among the metals
available for construction there is a gap between aluminum and steel.
Aluminum, with a desirably low density of 2.7, is easily formed and
machined, but it has relatively low strength and is not resistant to
corrosion. Iron, at the other extreme, can be alloyed to give high
strength and resistance to corrosion, but its greater density, 7.87, is a
decided disadvantage where weight is an important factor. Titanium,
with a density of 4.5, coupled with its strength, ductility, high melting
point, and noncorrosive characteristic, is the present outstanding candi-
date to fill this gap. It combines the properties of stainless steel with
*4 "Titanium: the New Metal," Fortune, 39(5): 123, May 1949.
102 ANALYSIS
those of the strong aluminum alloys and possesses certain definite
advantages over both. One outstanding advantage is its high propor-
tional limit which is comparable to that of heat-treated steels and
aluminum bronze, while its density is only a little over half that of
these materials. As a result, wrought titanium is in a class by itself
so far as the weight of a section having a given proportional limit is
concerned. Titanium would be a preferred structural material in air-
craft design where a minimum weight combined with a continued high
stress is important. Its resistance to corrosion would be an added
advantage in airships for use over the sea or along the coast. A
potential use of great importance is for making reciprocating mechani-
cal parts in jet engines where heat and pressure are great. The metal
seems almost ideal for ocean-going vessels because of its outstanding
properties of lightness, strength, and great resistance to corrosion. As
the cost of production is decreased, titanium will be used extensively
for structural purposes. Even at the present high price it should find
use in all sorts of diaphragms that are maintained under tension,
particularly in microphones where weight is important. Titanium seems
well suited for textile machinery where a considerable saving of power
can be effected by using such a light, strong metal for high-speed
spindles, spools, warp beams, and other moving parts. It does not
stain the threads as do aluminum and magnesium alloys. Another of
the important uses of the future is in suspension-bridge cables. These
properties of titanium may prove important in the eventual utilization
of atomic energy.
The surface-hardening property of titanium gives it a definite advan-
tage over the really light metals in the construction of parts subject
to frictional wear. It seems suited for automobile pistons, because, in
addition to the characteristic properties of lightness and strength, it
has a coefficient of expansion a little less than that of cast iron that
is ordinarily used for cylinders. The high heat conductivity suggests
its use for handles for aluminum pans and cooking utensils. It has
been proposed for many sports uses, such as tennis rackets and fishing
rods, where its excellent physical and working properties would be
utilized. Combination of stainlessness, high proportional limit, and
low modulus makes it an ideal material for springs, and its use should
make possible the construction of greatly improved spring balances
and watch springs. Its properties also recommend it for use in tool
mountings where a certain amount of give is desirable to prevent
breakage, and in making pen points and styluses. X-ray diffraction
tubes with titanium targets are in the development stage. Rubbing
titanium metal against a hard surface often produces a smear which
is difficult to remove, and this characteristic is employed for a variety
of purposes, including the production of very stable high electrical
FUNCTION 103
resistance glass, simply by marking the surface with a titanium point.
Such smears can be used to coat materials with a metallic film and
to etch glass without the use of hydrofluoric acid. Herenguel investi-
gated the use of titanium powder as a paint pigment.
The really large-scale use of titanium seems to depend only on its
availability in suitable form at a price in line with the common metals
such as iron and aluminum. It would be a notable exception to techno-
logical progress if titanium, with such desirable properties, failed to
be an important engineering metal of the future. It is hoped that this
book will encourage research on the production of low-cost titanium
metal. 15
V. APPLICATIONS OF ANALYSIS
The use of analysis antedates modern science. The ancient Greeks
particularly were of a highly analytical disposition. Aristotle, whose
called a feat in analysis, drew many distinctions
in poetry, in philosophy, insclence di s'tinctions which have ever
since influenced, and perhaps at times inhibited, thought. However,
analysis is today closely associated with science because it has been
constantly employed in the organization of scientific knowledge and
is fundamental in scientific procedure. Science students will readily
think of examples from their own fields : botanists of monocotyledon-
ous and dicotyledonous plants; geologists of igneous, sedimentary,
and metamorphic rocks; bacteriologists of aerobic and anaerobic
bacteria.
The applications of analysis are today undergoing rapid expansion
and development. Many of these developments lie in two areas: the
use of analysis, particularly advanced statistical analysis, as the basis
of prediction; and the co-operative application of analysis to prac-
tical problems in business, industry, and military operation.
A. Analysis and Prediction
The ability to predict the future has long been recognized as a
test of scientific validity. On the basis of successful predictions, hy-
pothesis becomes a theory, and the theory an accepted principle.
Some time may elapse before all the discrepancies between fact and
theory are successfully accounted for. This process may be illustrated
15 Jelks Barksdale, Titanium, New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1949,
pp. 52-54.
104 ANALYSIS
by the experience of chemists with the Periodic Table. This table,
which lists the elements according to their atomic weights and ar-
ranges them in groups having similar properties, is considered a
major achievement in the classification of natural phenomena. When
Mendelyeev constructed the table in the 1860's he left blanks at cer-
tain points, thus predicting the existence of elements then unknown,
some of which were later discovered. One difficulty which arose, how-
ever, was that some elements appeared to have more than one atomic
weight. This discrepancy was not accounted for until the work on
isotopes in the first quarter of the twentieth century.
Predictions made on the basis of analysis should not, of course,
be confused with the process of analysis itself. However, analytical
methods have proved so successful in determining probabilities that
their use is constantly being extended. Even in literature analytical
study has led to successful predictions.
Some thirty years ago, a student of the Germanic languages, reading
over an Old English poem of considerable length, called the Genesis,
was struck by the fact that five or six hundred lines, in the heart of
the poem, seemed to differ in various respects from the lines which
preceded and followed. Pursuing his inquiry further, and comparing
the forms of these lines with those of a kindred language, he came
to the conclusion that this section, which had always been supposed
to be the original Old English, had been in fact translated from Old
Saxon, the continental, Germanic tongue referred to above, and was
therefore led to believe in the existence of an Old Saxon poem on
this subject of Genesis, though he was obliged to confess that he had
found no other trace of its existence. Some twenty years after, another
scholar, at work in the Vatican Library, which had only recently
rendered its treasures more accessible, discovered a fragment of the
missing Old Saxon Genesis, of which probably no one had read a line
for a thousand years. Yet such had been the faith of competent
scholars in Sievers' processes that no one was surprised when the
missing manuscript swam into sight, any more than astronomers were
amazed when the telescope pointed to the quarter of the heavens
indicated by Adams and Leverrier, and revealed the planet Neptune,
which no human eye till then had ever seen. Professor Sievers might
have read histories of Old English literature, and essays on it, for
decades; he might have read this poem in a casual way a score of
times, just as Adams and Leverrier might have rushed about the sky
with their telescopes for unnumbered nights, without anything to re-
ward their diligence; but by the intensive methods they actually
APPLICATIONS 105
employed, Sievers became famous at twenty-five, and Adams immor-
talized himself at twenty-seven. 16
At the opposite extreme from such a relatively simple example are
the large-scale applications of statistical analysis to a great variety
of problems. The theoretical basis of some of these statistical tech-
niques and their application in insurance and in the telephone indus-
try, as well as in investigating certain scientific problems, are ex-
plained in Appendix A, p. 403.
B. Analysis and Practical Problems
In other rapidly developing applications of analysis, the point of
emphasis is on the problem to be solved rather than on prediction.
In this category fall content analysis, which attacks the problem of
evaluating the accuracy of mass media of communication, and job
analysis, which attacks the problem of fitting the capabilities of the
individual to the requirements of the job.
The specialized field known as operations research developed rap-
idly during World War II because of the centering of many scientific
minds on the problems of improving military operations. The term
operations research has been defined as "a scientific method of pro-
viding executive departments with a quantitative basis for decisions
regarding the operations under their control." 17
Up to the present time many of the applications of operations re-
search have been military, but the following example illustrates its
usefulness in business.
In one analysis of a mail order concern, selling extensively to low-
income rural families, it was discovered that there was a sharp de-
pendence of COD refusals on time between the writing of the original
order by the family and the delivery of the item by the mailman.
Evidently, in this case, there was a "mean free time" of ready cash
in such families, whether because of other financial pressures or im-
patience or simple shortness of memory. If the item ordered did not
arrive within a certain time, the money was spent somewhere else and
the COD item had to be refused. From this simple observation came
* 6 Albert S. Cook, The Higher Study of English, Boston, Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1906, pp. 75-76.
17 Philip M. Morse and George E. Kimball, Methods of Operations Research,
New York, published jointly by the Technology Press of Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1951, p. 1.
106 ANALYSIS
a reorganization of selling methods of the firm, resulting, incidentally,
in considerable reduction in such lost sales. 18
Analysis has its limitations. To analyze a problem is not necessarily
to solve it, as we are reminded by the title of a government report
published in 1919, "Analysis of the High Cost of Living Problem."
Analysis yields its greatest successes when it is used not alone, but
in conjunction with interpretation and synthesis. Nevertheless, when
all the past achievements and future promises of analysis are taken
into account, one finds increasingly significant the statement of Sir
Arthur Eddington, u Foji_j^cJntife^autlook I think the most funda-
jnental of all forms of thought is the concept ofjmalysis." CT
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Prepare a classificatory outline on one of the following topics: motor
vehicles, air-conditioning units, types of central heating, textile fibers,
orchestral instruments, halogens.
2. Prepare a partition outline on one of the following topics : a condenser,
a telephone switchboard, a business letter, an individual halogen such
as iodine, the human ear.
3. Show how the contrasting methods of classification and partition may
be used in an analysis of each of the following: human teeth, methods
of research, university organization, the sales tax, flammability of
fabrics.
4. Discuss the proposition that the whole is often equal to more than the
sum of its parts.
5. Explain the difference between treating a situation or problem "de-
scriptively" and treating it "analytically."
6. Can you give instances of predictions which were based on analysis
and which were later verified?
7. William P. D. Wightman has said of the work of Josiah Willard Gibbs,
"Gibbs' first contribution to knowledge was to show that far wider
consequences could be drawn from curves showing the relation be-
tween volume and entropy. . . . His great powers of geometrical im-
agery enabled him to introduce a third variable, energy, whereby
thermodynamical surfaces instead of curves were generated. By the
analytical manipulation of these surfaces Gibbs was able to break
entirely new ground in the application of thermodynamics." (The
Growth of Scientific Ideas, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1951,
i*Ibid., p. 6.
19 Sir Arthur Eddington, The Philosophy of Physical Science, Cambridge,
Eng., Cambridge University Press, 1939, p. 118.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 107
p. 294.) Through library reading, inform yourself further concerning
Gibbs' contributions to physical science and show the importance of
analysis in Gibbs' work on the criteria of equilibrium and the Phase
Rule as well as in that on the thermodynamical surfaces.
8. Prepare a list of practical problems of current concern which might
be studied by analyzing each problem and then enlisting the aid of
experts to concentrate on its elements.
CHAPTER 6
INTERPRETATION: APPLYING THE
PRINCIPLES OF LOGIC
I. Logic and the scientific writer
A. Logic in planning and reporting research
B. Errors in reasoning
II. Interpretation
A. Distinguishing among data, inference, and opinion
B. Relationships among data, analysis, and interpretation
III. Inductive reasoning
A. Meaning of inductive reasoning
B. Fallacies in inductive reasoning
IV. Deductive reasoning
A. Meaning of deductive reasoning
B. Fallacies in deductive reasoning
V. Interpretation of statistics
A. The statistical unit
B. Adequacy in the treatment of statistics
C. The misuse of statistics
VI. A reasoned attitude
On all questions where his passions are strongly
engaged, man prizes certitude and fears knowledge.
Dispassionate inquiry is welcomed only when the re-
sult is indifferent. J. W. N. SULLIVAN, Aspects of
Science.
It is a delusion that the use of reason is easy and needs
no training or special caution. W. I. B. BEVERIDGE,
The Art of Scientific Investigation.
I. LOGIC AND THE SCIENTIFIC WRITER
Philosophers and scientists have frequently questioned whether sci-
entific investigation is actually as indebted to logic as it is assumed
to be. One modern philosopher, F. C. S. Schiller, placed high among
"the obstacles to scientific progress" the analysis of scientific pro-
cedure which logic has provided. W. I. B. Beveridge in The Art of
Scientific Investigation quotes, with approval, Schiller's comments
ma
LOGIC AND THE WRITER 109
and others in similar vein and stresses the importance in research
of imagination, intuition, observation, and chance, as well as reason.
This divergence in viewpoint between the scientist and the logician
exists partly because the scientist centers his work on observations
of material phenomena, while the work of the logician emphasizes
the framing and testing of verbal or formal propositions. However,
each has much to learn from the other, and it is the purpose of this
chapter to show the usefulness of the principles of logic to the scien-
tific writer in interpreting his data.
Within the past hundred years modern logic, like modern science,
has undergone rapid development. Emphasis on the logical deter-
mination of probability has replaced the emphasis of earlier times
on formal proof. Another development has been the rise of symbolic
logic, which represents an endeavor to get away from verbal pitfalls
by devising logical formulas which can be manipulated somewhat
like the formulas of mathematics. Symbolic logic is, however, an ex-
tremely complex subject, and the writer who is not a specialist in
logic must still depend on verbal expression of logical principles,
mindful, of course, of the difficulties which arise from the tendency
of words to shift their meanings according to context.
A. .logic in Planning and Reporting Research
Experimental method involves expressing a theory as a logically
framed statement and then conducting tests to determine whether the
proposition is true or false. For instance, chemical tests for proper-
ties presuppose the framing of such hypothetical propositions as "this
unknown substance is an acid" or "this unknown substance is a
base." By the use of other propositions known to be true, such as
"acids turn litmus paper red," "bases turn litmus paper blue," pro-
cedures may be employed to test the truth of these hypothetical propo-
sitions. The same principle of setting up a hypothesis that is, a
tentatively accepted theory and then subjecting it to test is used
in designing much more complex experiments.
When results of research are reported, the plan of the ensuing
paper takes on a logical sequence which may not have been evident
at all stages of the investigation. As Hans Reichenbach has observed,
the "actual process of thinking evades distinct analysis. . . . We con-
nect logical analysis, not with actual thinking, but with thinking in
110 INTERPRETATION
the form of its rational reconstruction." l In like manner, the scien-
tific report is a rational reconstruction of a scientific investigation.
The report disregards the false starts, "hunches," and errors that
may have occurred during the course of the investigation.
B. Errors in Reasoning
The theory of logic as it has been developed in the past embodies
the description and classification of fallacies or errors in reasoning.
The term fallacy is not applied in strict usage to a mere mistake or
illusion but only to an error in reasoning. Fallacious reasoning is
most dangerous when it appears outwardly to be most logical.
II. INTERPRETATION
From the time the writer first conceives his problem, there is no
point at which he can ignore logical considerations. In any investiga-
tion it is essential to distinguish between the data collected, the back-
ground of fact and theory on which the writer relies in interpreting
these data, and the inferences and conclusions drawn from the data.
And both data and inferences must be distinguished from unsup-
ported expressions of opinions.
A. Distinguishing Among Data, Inference, and Opinion
The term data refers specifically to the investigator's own findings
in the course of his study. The word data (singular datum) means
literally the things given. Bertrand Russell has observed: "The ques-
tion of data has been, mistakenly as I think, mixed up with the ques-
tion of certainty. The essential characteristic of a datum is that it
is not inferred." 2 For example, a statement made to an interviewer
may or may not be true; but true or false, the statement as made and
accurately recorded forms a part of the interviewer's data, and prop-
erly interpreted, may legitimately be made the basis of inference.
The essential characteristic of an inference is that it is derived
not from observation or memory but from reasoning on the basis
of accepted data, sometimes less specifically termed "the facts." For
example, records may show that a supporting metal bar has repeatedly
1 Hans Reichenbach, Elements of Symbolic Logic, New York, The Macmillan
Company, 1947, pp. 1-2.
2 Bertrand Russell, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, New York, W. W.
Norton and Company, Inc., 1940, p. 155.
INTERPRETATION 111
given way under stress. It may be justifiably inferred that the bar
is not strong enough to support the weight to which it is subjected.
An inference must be based on reliable data and be logically sound
if it is to be used in arriving at more general conclusions.
Opinion 'must be sharply distinguished from inference. An opinion
represents a personal judgment; it is not necessarily based on reason
and evidence. For example, one could be of the opinion that seeds
grow better if planted in the dark of the moon; on the basis of evi-
dence and reason, one must infer that rates of growth are determined
by other factors. It is futile to argue questions which can be settled
by reference to factual evidence. In such areas as philosophy, reli-
gion, and politics, opinions are difficult to validate by evidence based
on observation and tend to be influenced by emotional or cultural
bias. In areas where evidence is not conclusive, the value of an opin-
ion depends on the competence of the person expressing it and the
process by which he arrived at it. Nevertheless, many readers accept
quoted opinion as valid without examining its origin or the evidence
behind it.
B. Relationships Among Data, Analysis, and Interpretation
An investigation of a problem, when broken down into its parts,
proceeds from the collecting of data to the analysis of data and thence
to interpretation. In actual practice, however, the investigator is con-
stantly drawing inferences, and even the most elementary obser-
vations involve some interpretation. For example, a layman on a
country walk may pick up a rock which he considers unusual; to a
geologist the same rock may be an addition to his collection of geodes.
The natural phenomenon is the same in both cases both men have
classified the rock on the basis of inference but the geologist's train-
ing enables him to classify and interpret his sensory impressions
more meaningfully. Continuous interpretation in the light of training
and experience accompanies all our observations. As Eddington has
put it, "We shall probe down towards the roots of knowledge; but
the most primitive data we can reach will not be wholly independent
of the primitive forms of thought. We just cannot help being brainy,
and must try to make the best of it." 3
3 Sir Arthur Eddington, The Philosophy of Physical Science, Cambridge, Eng.,
Cambridge University Press, 1939, p. 195.
112 INTERPRETATION
Moreover, an investigator throughout his research project con-
siders the significance of results he has already obtained and relates
them to his previous knowledge.
If we understand by interpretation the establishment of a link
between the results of a study and other pertinent knowledge that
is, the search for broader meaning it would be uneconomical, and
indeed often impossible, to make interpretation the last crowning step
of an inquiry. The search for such links is a continuous preoccupation
of the social scientist during the entire course of an inquiry ; in particu-
lar, interpretation is often inextricably interwoven with the process of
analysis. 4
From these considerations it follows that if final conclusions are to
be valid, the logical sequence from data to inference must be estab-
lished at every stage of the inquiry.
III. INDUCTIVE REASONING
Logically there are two methods of drawing inferences from ac-
cepted facts or data; these methods are known as inductive and de-
ductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning proceeds from a number of
observations to a conclusion or general principle, that is, from the
particular to the general. Deductive reasoning the method of formal
proof familiar in geometry proceeds from an established principle
to its application in individual instances, that is, from the general
to the particular.
A. Meaning of Inductive Reasoning
Scientific induction may be regarded as a refinement of folk prac-
tice in learning from experience. Many popular inductions are ex-
pressed in rhymes and adages. For example, the saying "Evening red
and morning gray sends the traveler on his way; evening gray and
morning red sends the traveler wet to bed" expresses the popular
induction that clouds in the morning are a less serious portent of
rain than clouds in the evening. Scientific inductions may likewise
be derived, with proper precautions, from experience, including the
observation of controlled experiments.
4 Marie Jahoda, Morton Deutsch, and Stuart W. Cook, Research Methods
in Social Relations, Part One, New York, The Dryden Press, Inc., 1951, p. 255.
Reprinted by permission of The Dryden Press, Inc.
INDUCTIVE REASONING 113
Among the many inductions which form a part of the whole body
of scientific knowledge a few simple examples may be cited: metal
expands when heated, altitude affects the boiling point of water, light
travels faster than sound, fever or elevation of body temperature is
frequently a sign of illness or inflammation, sugar is soluble in water.
The term empirical is often applied to knowledge based on experience
and experiment, as opposed to theory.
B. Fallacies in Inductive Reasoning
Since it is not feasible to examine all the possible instances of a
general principle arrived at by a process of inductive reasoning, in-
ductions are regarded as being supported by evidence rather than
by absolute proof. As the evidence accumulates, the probability of
the correctness of the induction increases until eventually the induc-
tion may be accepted for all practical purposes as established.
Fallacies in inductive reasoning occur when a conclusion is ac-
cepted as valid on the basis of insufficient evidence, or is drawn from
nonrepresentative instances. A single experience with an individual
may lead a thoughtless person to conclude that all members of that
individual's nationality are dishonest. The instance of dishonesty
which is conspicuous because of its rarity may attract attention and
lead to a generalization on the basis of an experience which is the
reverse of typical. This fallacy of generalizing from insufficient
knowledge becomes even more dangerous when the conclusions are
extended beyond the group under immediate consideration. For ex-
ample, a study of a small group of students in one college may be-
come "the drinking habits of the college man," or inferences drawn
from observation of a teen-age club in one city may be applied to
"modern youth."
The study of groups by means of the "sampling technique" in
research has in recent years been greatly extended. Through this tech-
nique the attempt is made to postulate the .characteristics and po-
tential behavior of a group or a whole, or of parts of the whole,
by a study of a relatively small sample. Certain standards must be
adhered to if this technique still undergoing development is to
be successful. These standard precautions are stated explicitly in the
government's requirements for samples of uranium ore.
114 INTERPRETATION
Samples submitted to the Geological Survey or the Bureau of Mines
should weigh at least 1 pound. . . . Each sample should also be a
representative one; that is, it should represent, as fairly and accurately
as possible, the rocks of the entire deposit from which it was taken.
If one part of the deposit appears to be more radioactive than another,
rocks taken from both parts should be included in the sample. If a
small amount of high-grade ore is submitted, it should be stated that
the sample is not representative of the entire deposit, but only of a
small portion of it. 5
These standards that the sample should be not less than minimum
size and should fairly and accurately represent the whole remain
the same whether the sample is taken of a physical substance, as here,
or of people and their ideas. Experience in political polls has shown
that even a large sample may be misleading if it is not representative.
The Literary Digest election poll of 1936, for example, went widely
astray in spite of the large number of individuals polled because
the method of selection from telephone subscribers failed to give a
representative cross section of the voting population.
Another fallacy in inductive reasoning is the overextension of
analogy. An analogy is a comparison between two things not neces-
sarily alike except in the characteristics or attributes compared. (For
a discussion of the rhetorical uses of analogy, see Chapter 7.) In
drawing inferences on the basis of analogy it is reasoned that if two
things resemble one another in certain respects, they are likely to
resemble one another in other respects. An inference based on anal-
ogy may be misleading if the resemblance is assumed to be more
far-reaching than it actually is.
Theories and hypotheses based on analogy must therefore be con-
sidered highly speculative until they have been thoroughly tested.
Substances harmless to one individual may, for instance, be toxic to
another, results obtained with experimental animals may not be
applicable to man, and the species of grapes which succeeds in one
region may fail elsewhere.
The uncritical application of analogy leads also to many errors
in handling social problems. It is falsely assumed, for example, that
methods of handling employer-employee relationships which work in
one plant will work in another where conditions are different, that
6 Prospecting for Uranium, United States Atomic Energy Commission and
the United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C., United States Govern-
ment Printing Office, 1951, p. 40.
INDUCTIVE REASONING 115
methods of discipline successful at school will necessarily be success-
ful at home, that methods of instruction which are effective in one
time and place may be used with equal success in another. The value
of an analogy as a means of inductive reasoning may be summed
up by quoting Rudolf Carnap, who expresses "agreement with the
general conception according to which reasoning by analogy, al-
though admissible, can usually yield only rather weak results." 6
Analogical reasoning or the noting of resemblances has, neverthe-
less, often been productive of scientific advance. Charles Darwin,
for example, was able to formulate his theory of natural selection
on the basis of comparisons he had made of myriad forms of plant
and animal life. At first he "without any theory collected facts on a
wholesale scale," and his theory developed as a result of comparable
instances of adaptation which he found. 7
The goal of much inductive reasoning is to establish general prin-
ciples based on causal relationships. The relationship between cause
and effect is, however, one of the most intricate and difficult of logical
problems. One of the commonest fallacies is to assume that because
one occurrence follows another closely, the first one is the cause of
the second. This fallacy, often referred to by its Latin name post
hoc, ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) appears
in various guises.
Many popular superstitions are examples of this fallacy. Some proj-
ect begun on Friday turns out disastrously, and it is inferred that
some causal relation existed between the fate of the enterprise, and
the day on which it was begun. Or thirteen persons sit down to dinner
together, and some one dies before the year is out. It is to be noticed
that such beliefs are supported by the tendency ... to observe only
the instances in which the supposed effect follows, and to neglect the
negative cases, or cases of failure. "Fortune favours fools," we exclaim
when we hear of any piece of good luck happening to any one not
noted for his wisdom. But we fail to take account of the more usual
fate of the weak-minded. 8
6 Rudolf Carnap, Logical Foundations of Probability, Chicago, The Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1950, p. 569.
7 A passage from Darwin's Autobiography in which he describes his methods
and a twentieth century biologist's analysis of Darwin's reasoning appear in
Appendix A, p. 405 and p. 406.
8 James Edwin Creighton, An Introductory Logic, 4th ed., New York, The
Macmillan Company, 1922, p. 310. Used with permission of The Macmillan
Company.
116 INTERPRETATION
The post hoc fallacy has likewise led to many errors in pure and
applied science. In the past many medical cures were attributed to
the efficacy of the treatment whether pills and potions or the long-
honored practice of bleeding when the true curative agent was the
inherent recuperative power of the body or the self-limiting nature
of the disease. Not long ago a speaker attributed the lowered hospital
death rate entirely to improved hospital conditions, ignoring the con-
current increase in medical knowledge and the influence of the pres-
ent practice of admitting to hospitals patients with comparatively
mild illnesses. Many scientists also question the value of retrospective
investigations that is, studies which go back and review the circum-
stances which preceded an abnormal case because of the difficulty
of obtaining histories of comparable normal cases to serve as con-
trols. Beveridge has stressed the difficulty and the importance of
separating possible causative factors in an investigation: "If when
the tide is falling you take out water with a twopenny pail, you and
the moon can do a great deal." 9
In all inductive reasoning there is a point sometimes termed "the
inductive leap" at which one must leap from the concrete to the
abstract, from the accumulated data to the general statement. The
scientific writer is mindful that although inductive reasoning leads
only to probabilities, there is a wide range in the degree of proba-
bility. He learns to take the "inductive leap" with caution.
IV. DEDUCTIVE REASONING
Once a general principle has been accepted, it may be employed
in the interpretation of new facts through the use of deductive rea-
soning. Unlike inductive reasoning which begins with the assembling
of facts and generalizes from these facts, deductive reasoning begins
with the statement of a principle and proceeds to apply it to a par-
ticular instance.
A. Meaning of Deductive Reasoning
Deductive thought processes can be demonstrated by expressing
them in the form of a syllogism, or logical scheme of a formal argu-
ment. The syllogism, the theory of which was first worked out by
9 W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation, London, William
Heinemann, Ltd., 1951, p. 20.
DEDUCTIVE REASONING 117
Aristotle, consists of three parts: the major premise, which states
a general principle, the minor premise, which states a particular in-
stance, and the conclusion. This may be illustrated by a classic ex-
ample :
All men are mortal, (major premise)
Socrates is a man. (minor premise)
Therefore Socrates is mortal, (conclusion)
Usually people reasoning deductively do not stop to reduce their
thought processes to syllogistic form. However, people are constantly
drawing deductive inferences. For example, a new family moves into
the neighborhood. The neighbors observe that the family car has
a California license and infer that its owners came from California.
Expressed as a syllogism, this reasoning would go:
Holders of California car licenses are residents of California.
This family is the holder of a California car license.
Therefore the members of this family are (or have recently been)
residents of California.
Deductive reasoning is employed in applied science to relate scien-
tific principles to particular cases. This is a simple example:
Sugar is soluble in water.
This spot is sugar.
Therefore this spot is soluble in water.
Probabilities may be expressed syllogistically if the qualification of
the premise is preserved in the conclusion; for example:
Cases of illness A are usually helped by drug B.
This is a case of illness A.
Therefore it will probably be helped by drug B.
Often in less formal reasoning the major premise, particularly if
generally accepted, is left unexpressed. For instance, the statement
"He failed because he did not study" implies the major premise that
students who do not study will fail. An argument in which one of
the premises is not expressed is called an enthymeme (in the mind).
118 INTERPRETATION
B. Fallacies in Deductive Reasoning
Stating reasoning in syllogistic form shows the grounds on which
conclusions rest and helps to bring to light latent fallacies in deduc-
tive reasoning. Logicians have held, however, that a complete classi-
fication of fallacies is impossible because of the infinite possibilities
of error. Nor is it possible to distinguish perfectly between the falla-
cies of inductive and deductive reasoning, since certain fallacies are
common to both. The careless use of terms, for example, makes in-
valid any reasoning which depends upon the accuracy of those terms.
Nevertheless, many fallacies in deductive reasoning are sufficiently
common to be classified.
One group of fallacies involves treating as facts propositions which
have yet to be established. This fallacy of presumption is evident in
titles which imply in advance the validity of the author's conclu-
sions for example: The Dangers of ... ; The Cumulative Nature
of ... ; The Best Plan for. . . . Again, the presumption may be
implied in the words in which the argument is expressed. For in-
stance, the statement "This nonflammable material should be used"
implies that the material is nonflammable though its nonflammability
may not have been demonstrated.
The terms begging the question and arguing in a circle are applied
to fallacies which assume the conclusion in the major premise and
then proceed in a superficially rational manner to arrive at the con-
clusion by means of the premise. An example is the argument that
it is to the best interest of a country to be governed by a small group
because then the small group can use its power for the good of all
the people. A related presumption may take the form of a question
such as, "When will you make a new will?" implying that a new
will is to be made; or of a dependent clause, "When you sign this
paper, be sure to have it notarized," implying that the paper will be
signed.
A fallacy known as the false dilemma involves the mishandling of
premises by presenting only two choices when more than two are
possible. An advocate of a certain site for a power plant, for example,
may mention only two possible sites the one he favors and one
obviously undesirable, ignoring the advantages of a third possibility.
Another group of fallacies is particularly concerned not with the
DEDUCTIVE REASONING 119
truth of the premises but with the correctness of their relation to
the conclusion. The term non sequitur (it does not follow) , sometimes
used to apply to fallacies in general, denotes specifically fallacies in
which the premises, though they may be true, are irrelevant to the
conclusion or inadequate to prove it. For example, evidence that a
suggested policy will have advantages is not adequate to prove that
it should be adopted. Nor is evidence that it will have disadvantages
sufficient to prove that it should not be adopted. The point at issue
is whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages sufficiently
to justify adoption of the policy. Likewise it is not adequate to show
that a situation is bad to prove that a given remedy will better it.
Nor does showing that a situation could be worse sufficiently demon-
strate that it could not be improved.
A gross example of a non sequitur in which the conclusion does
not follow from the premise is this statement from a student theme:
"The damage sustained by the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki when the atomic bombs were exploded over them is com-
mon knowledge. Today there is hardly anyone who doubts the power
of atomic energy; therefore, the purpose of this paper is to relate
how research in the field of atomic energy is being used in peacetime
industry." Macaulay cites a notable example of a non sequitur in
which the premises are irrelevant to the conclusion. He objected that
the defenders of Charles I were basing the issue of his competence
as a ruler, not on his conduct as king, but on his conduct as a private
person.
The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other malefactors
against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, generally decline
all controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling
testimony to character. He had so many private virtues! And had James
the Second no private virtues? Was Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest
enemies themselves being judges, destitute of private virtues? And
what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles? A religious zeal,
not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-
minded, and a few of the ordinary household decencies which half
the tombstones in England claim for those who lie beneath them. A
good father! A good husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen
years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood!
We charge him with having broken his coronation oath; and we are
told that he kept his marriage vow! We accuse him of having given
up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and
120 INTERPRETATION
hard-hearted of prelates; and the defence is, that he took his little
son on his knee and kissed him! We censure him for having violated
the articles of the Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable
consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that
he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning!
It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress,
his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily
believe, most of his popularity with the present generation. 10
Weak arguments are frequently introduced by implication since
their illogicality is evident if they are fully expressed. For example,
long scientific terms may be used in advertising a product to increase
its appeal to the public. Yet no one would attach validity to the fol-
lowing argument: this product contains ingredients with long chemi-
cal names; therefore it will serve the designated purpose.
Fallacies comprising one important group result from the mis-
handling of the middle term that is, the term which appears in both
premises and upon which their relationship to the conclusion depends.
In one such fallacy the difficulty is a shift in the meaning of the
middle term between the major and the minor premise.
All people should be liberals.
The Liberals are in favor of this measure.
Therefore all people should be in favor of this measure.
In this example the word, liberals the middle term is used in the
major premise to denote people of open mind, in the minor premise
to denote members of the Liberal Party.
Difficulties also arise from failure to comprehend fully the sig-
nificance of the statements in the major and minor premise with
reference to the middle term. Such misunderstanding may lead to
such a faulty reasoning as this:
Soda is a white powder.
This unknown substance is a white powder.
Therefore this unknown substance is soda.
Here the reasoning has proceeded as if the word is in the premises
meant equals, whereas it means in each case only that the subject
10 Thomas Babington Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays, New York,
Frederick A. Stokes & Brother, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 36-37.
DEDUCTIVE REASONING 121
belongs to the larger class of white powders. Nothing can be inferred
about resemblances or relationships between soda and the unknown
except that both are white powders.
It is always easier to detect other people's errors than one's own.
Nevertheless, if an awareness of the most common fallacies in logic
is to be of utmost benefit to the scientific writer, he must learn to
apply it to his own reasoning as well.
V. INTERPRETATION OF STATISTICS
Much of the material which the writer of scientific papers and
reports has occasion to interpret is statistical data; consequently, it
is desirable for everyone engaged in research to have some training
in statistical method. As one statistician has pointed out, a more
extended knowledge of scientific methods of collecting, analyzing,
and interpreting data would do much to reduce the general confusion
about the place and the validity of statistics. "The fact that expert
statisticians well-versed in these methods can and do come out with
sound conclusions from a given set of data which differ very little
from one statistician to another is evidence that there are no real
grounds for the naive claim that statistics can prove anything." ll
A. The Statistical Unit
The writer who is collecting or handling statistics should keep
constantly in mind the importance of the statistical unit. The com-
pilation of statistics involves counting or enumeration, and the unit
is the thing counted. If statistics are to be meaningful, the unit to
be counted must be precisely determined before the statistics are
collected. In the enumeration of individuals of a certain age, for ex-
ample, it must be remembered that age to the nearest birthday is
not the same thing as age in years. In comparing statistics collected
at different times or in different places, it is essential that the sta-
tistical units represented be the same in actuality and not merely
in name. It is well known that a grade of A in an educational in-
stitution of high standards does not represent the same value as an
A in an institution of low standards. Comparative studies of the in-
11 S. S. Wilks, Elementary Statistical Analysis, Princeton, Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 1949, p. 1.
122 INTERPRETATION
cidence of diseases are complicated by the fact that accuracy in
disease detection and reporting varies. Thus a health agency of high
reporting standards may list more cases of measles in the month of
February than an agency of low reporting standards lists, though
the actual number of cases occurring in the two areas was about the
same.
Even in relatively simple situations it is not always easy to arrive
at an accurate definition of the unit to be counted, as the following
account shows.
Any count of objects presupposes a definition whereby the objects
to be counted may be positively distinguished from other objects which
are not to be included in the count. It would seem at first thought that,
aside from a possible reminder that infants and children were to be
counted, as well as adults, little in the way of a formal definition
of a "person" would be required as a basis for counting the inhabitants
of a given state or city.
But the census must count persons who belong in or to a given
geographic area on a given date. There's the rub. The census of the
United States cannot be taken instantaneously, nor even within the
space of a single day. The period of enumeration spreads out over
two, three, or four weeks, during which time persons come and go,
are born, and die, in appreciable numbers.
Further, there must be some criterion by which to settle the question
as to who belongs in a given area which is being enumerated. In the
English census a person is counted as a part of the population of the
place where he is found at midnight of the census date, giving what
has been termed the de facto population. In the United States a person
is counted as a part of the population of the area within which he
has his "usual place of abode," giving the de jure population. In the
early days, when most persons were to be found for 365 days in the
year at or near their "usual place of abode," the problem of counting
the population was far simpler than it is now and the American census
plan presented few of its present difficulties. With the increase of travel,
the loose ties which bind people to their living places, and the facility
with which whole families now move from one locality to another,
following seasonal occupations or actuated by other motives, it seems
likely that eventually the census of the United States also will have
to be taken on the de facto basis, counting the people where they are
found, even though the results have to be tabulated in such fashion
as to assign each person to that area in which he has his customary
residence (or perhaps his legal residence). . . .
There are, therefore, three different concepts under which a geo-
STATISTICS 123
graphic location might be assigned to a person for census purposes;
namely, (1) where the person is found on the census date (or on the
date of actual enumeration) ; (2) where his usual home or place of
residence is located; and (3) where he has his legal or voting resi-
dence. Of these three the English census, as already noted, chooses the
first. The census of the United States is now taken in accordance with
the second, and conceivably some future census, seeking a strictly logi-
cal basis for apportionment of representation, may choose the third. 12
B. Adequacy in the Treatment of Statistics
One function of statistics is to give a composite picture of a group.
There is a tendency when statistics are used for this purpose to rely
unduly on the average, or arithmetical mean. This, of course, is a
figure obtained by totaling the numerical values of all the items in
a group and dividing by the number of items. It has no validity in
cases where there is no meeting ground between extremes. For in-
stance, the average income would be nonexistent in a region where
part of the population was wealthy and the remainder poverty
stricken. The average daily rainfall might never occur in a locality
which had a wet season and a dry season. Even a single extreme in-
stance will affect the average so that the group as a whole appears
higher or lower than it actually is. It is desirable to know also the
mode, the value which occurs most frequently, and the median, or
the middle value. In the following series of figures representing, for
example, breakage fees $13, $8, $7, $6, $6, the mode is $6, the
median $7, and the average $8. A graph or curve can show the entire
distribution of a series. (See Chapter 15.)
An incomplete statistical picture may also result if percentages
alone or total figures alone are given. A total of a hundred petition
signers may be impressive if it is not known that the figure repre-
sents only 10 per cent of those requested to sign. The statement that
75 per cent of a club's members favored a certain action loses its
significance if it is disclosed that the club has only eight members.
Figures indicating correlation, that is, the degree of positive or
negative relationship between two sets of values, may be misinter-
preted by those not familiar with statistical methods for computing
correlations. (See Appendix A, p. 407.)
12 Leon E. Truesdell in Methods in Social Science, Chicago, The University of
Chicago Press, 1931, pp. 199-201.
124 INTERPRETATION
It should always be remembered that statistics deal with groups.
Statistics may predict accurately what will happen to the group with-
out predicting what will happen to any one individual. Those who
work with individuals, as do doctors, lawyers, teachers, and social
workers, must always be prepared for the possibility that any one
individual may be the exception. Social scientists warn against inter-
preting any individual in terms of a stereotype, that is, a generalized
picture of the group. Even when such a composite picture is based
on complete and accurate evidence, a given individual may differ
markedly from it. A stereotype based on incomplete, prejudiced, or
outdated evidence, such as the cartoon caricature of the gum-chewing
stenographer or the cranky schoolteacher, may be altogether unjust.
C. The Misuse of Statistics
Although statistical evidence is valid when properly used, its in-
tricacy and impressive character make it particularly liable to mis-
representation by the self-interested and to misunderstanding by the
unsophisticated. The scientific writer has a special obligation to
handle statistics equitably insofar as he employs them.
Many people are impressed by statistics simply because they sound
substantial and scientific. Hence statistics may be introduced to make
a subjective study seem objective or to buttress a weak cause. If the
statistics are irrelevant to the point at issue, this practice is, of course,
a variant of the non sequitur fallacy. Even if related to the issue,
partial statistics may be misleading. The special pleader may select
statistical evidence from the place or the time most favorable to
his cause. Even out-of-date statistics may impress the particularly
unwary. In estimating economies, employment, number of new in-
stallations, or of accidents, for instance, overlapping categories may
be combined to give an inaccurately large total.
Small errors in collecting statistics, if they all tend in the same
direction, may rise to a large aggregate through processes of addi-
tion and multiplication. Stating in decimals, weights or measurements
which were obtained in large fractions may give a false impression
of accuracy. A British statistician has cited an instance of such mis-
leading exactness.
In a reply to a parliamentary question . . . , the approximate num-
ber of Moslems in the Empire was given as follows:
STATISTICS 125
India 92,000,000
Dominions 161,750
Colonies 13,325,000
Total 105,486,750
The first figure is rounded to the nearest million. It is not only a waste
of time to show the last six digits in the sum; it is positively mislead-
ing. The sum should be given as 105 millions approximately. 13
VI. A REASONED ATTITUDE
From the foregoing discussion of principles it is evident that there
is no easy way to accurate interpretation. The interpreter must be
constantly aware of man's tendency to rationalize; in the words of
James Harvey Robinson, to engage "in rinding arguments for going
on believing as we already do." The interpreter must be aware also
of the dangers of oversimplification in its many forms of seeking
a scapegoat or a panacea, of accepting plausible explanations of
cause and effect, and of reducing complex problems to simple terms.
Yet the interpreter must not become so engrossed by the exceptions
and the doubtful cases that he loses perspective in viewing the whole.
An experienced Committee on Research has summed up the qualities
to be desired in the interpreter: "(1) a critical attitude toward the
quantity and quality of evidence accumulated; (2) logical reasoning
from this evidence; (3) maintenance of perspective concerning the
subject as a whole; and (4) the use of good judgment in fitting the
recommendations to the given situation." 14 Only constant regard for
these injunctions will enable the writer to arrive at interpretations
that will bring out the potential significance of his findings.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Identify the fallacies represented or referred to in the following
passages: (a) Many patients recovered who were treated by the old
practice of blood-letting. Therefore the treatment must have had value,
(b) This appliance has developed a leak and is not usable. Therefore
18 R. G. D. Allen, Statistics for Economists, London, Hutchinson & Company,
Ltd., 1949, p. 73.
14 By permission from Manual on Research and Reports, by the Committee
on Research of the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, Dart-
mouth College, 1937, p. 49. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
126 INTERPRETATION
it should be replaced by a new one. (c) Men of courage always make
enemies. I have enemies. Therefore I am a man of courage, (d) Our
city charter should not be revised, even though it is out of date, be-
cause in the course of revision some of its good features might be
lost and undesirable ones introduced, (e) Every well-informed person
has some knowledge of chemistry. This individual has a knowledge of
chemistry. Therefore he is a well-informed person, (f) The members
of a college composition class misspelled from one to ten words on a
single set of themes. Present-day college students are certainly poor
spellers, (g) The voter in question must be a Republican because he
comes from Vermont, (h) The law proposed should not be passed,
because it is class legislation, (i) People never die at flood tide. They
always "go out with the ebb." (j) All acids are not poisonous. This
is an acid. Therefore it is not poisonous, (k) The last graduate of a
certain preparatory school to be admitted to a college in a neighboring
city made a very poor college record. Therefore graduates of this high
school should not be considered for admission in the future. (1) A fal-
lacy noted by Lynn Thorndike in The History of Magic and Experi-
mental Science, Vol. I, p. 21 : "But to return to the supposed immunity
of the Hellenes from magic; so far has this hypothesis been carried
that textual critics have repeatedly rejected passages as later inter-
polations or even called entire treatises spurious for no other reason
than that they seemed to them too superstitious for a reputable classi-
cal author."
2. What would probably be the statistical unit in statistics concerned
with each of the following: coal production, wheat production, inci-
dence of cases of diphtheria, death rate, birth rate, unemployment,
traffic accidents, industrial accidents, railroad car loadings, stock
values? In each of these instances how much preliminary definition
would be needed to define the statistical unit accurately?
3. Why is it necessary to define the statistical unit carefully before col-
lecting statistics? What precautions must be observed in comparing
statistics collected by different agencies or at different times?
4. Show how an average value might be misleading in each of the fol-
lowing instances: stock market values in September 1929, the rainfall
on an island in the South Pacific, a patient's temperature readings for
a three-day period, bacterial count of milk over a period of a year.
5. In commenting on Varga's experiments on rabbit muscle, experiments
which had been interpreted to indicate that muscle does not contract
at zero degrees Centigrade, A. Szent-Gyorgyi observes, "It was rather
shocking to find a frog swimming about in ice water after the con-
clusion of these experiments, and we had to decide whether the frog
or Mr. Varga was wrong." Szent-Gyorgyi conducted similar experi-
ments with frog muscle and found that not until 3 degrees did it
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 127
reach the condition which the rabbit muscle had reached at zero
degrees. At this point, adds Szent-Gyorgyi, the matter no longer in-
terests the frog "because at this temperature he is frozen anyway."
(Chemistry of Muscular Contraction, New York, Academic Press, Inc.,
1947, pp. 48-49.) What principles of scientific method and of inter-
pretation are illustrated by this episode?
6. Charles Darwin wrote: "I had, also, during many years followed a
golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation
or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results,
to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once ; for I had found
by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to
escape from the memory than favourable ones." (Life and Letters,
New York and London, D. Appleton and Company, 1925, Vol. 1, p. 71.)
How do logicians express the principle which Darwin had discovered
from his own experience?
DIRECTING THE PAPER
CHAPTER 7 READER
I. Communication as a concern of the scientist
A. Historical division between scientific and literary writing
B. The rise of science writing
II. Reaching a variety of readers
A. Differences between technical and nontechnical writing
B. A preliminary analysis of periodicals
III. The process of popularization
A. Establishing contact with the reader
1. The reader's self-interest
2. Human interest
3. Interest in the concrete
4. Curiosity and wonder
B. Keeping material within the reader's range
1. A central plan of intrinsic interest
2. The use of rhetorical devices
Communication is the matrix in which all human
activities are embedded. JURGEN RUESCH and GREGORY
BATESON, Communication, 1951.
I. COMMUNICATION AS A CONCERN OF THE SCIENTIST
The first American journal devoted entirely to science and its re-
lation to the arts, The American Journal of Science, began publica-
tion in 1818. Its founder, the chemist Benjamin Silliman, on the
tenth anniversary of the journal commented on the state of scientific
writing in this country at that time: "... our savants, unless they
would be, not only the exclusive admirers but the sole purchasers
of their own works, must permit a little of the graceful drapery of
general literature to flow around the cold statues of science." 1
Silliman could hardly have imagined the number and variety of
readers for whom the modern scientist has occasion to write. In ad-
1 John F. Fulton and Elizabeth H. Thomson, Benjamin Silliman, 1779-1864,
Pathfinder in American Science, New York, Henry Schuman, 1947, p. 127.
COMMUNICATION 129
dition to his fellow specialists and scientists in related fields, there
are individuals seeking expert opinion, as well as numerous agencies
which sponsor research projects and control research funds. Finally
there are general readers. How large a circle of readers then should
the scientist attempt to reach, and how freely may he use literary
adornment in order to appeal to a more diversified group?
A. Historical Division Between Scientific and Literary Writing
A conscious distinction between a scientific and a literary English
prose style goes back more than three hundred years. Richard Jones 2
has shown how British scientists of the seventeenth century deliber-
ately avoided rhetorical ornament then so much a feature of the
prevailing literary style because they considered rhetoric unsuited
to the expression of scientific truth. Not all scientific writers were
successful in avoiding the metaphors they so much deplored, as is
evident from the words of Joshua Childrey in the preface of Britannia
Baconia (1660) : "I have endeavour'd to tell my tale as plainly as
might be, both that I might be understood of all, and that I might
not disfigure the face of Truth by daubing it over with the paint
of language." Nevertheless there is ample evidence to justify the con-
clusions that "repugnance to the prevailing style and a feeling for
the need of a simpler, more direct manner of expression were a
characteristic feature of the new science from its very inception"
and that style was regarded as "a distinguishing mark between the ex-
perimental philosophers and those who held to the old tradition." 3
A widely known expression of this ideal of scientific writing ap-
pears in Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society (1667). The
aim of the members was as he put it:
... to return back to the primitive purity, and shortness, when men
delivered so many things, almost in an equal number of words. They
have exacted from all their members a close, naked, natural way of
speaking; positive expressions; clear senses; a native easiness: bring-
ing all things as near the Mathematical plainness, as they can: and
2 Richard F. Jones, "Science and English Prose Style in the Third Quarter of
the Seventeenth Century/' Publications of the Modern Language Association,
45:977-1009, 1930.
8 Reprinted from The Seventeenth Century by Richard F. Jones with the per-
mission of the author and of the publishers, Stanford University Press. Copy-
right by the board of trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
130 DIRECTING THE PAPER
preferring the language of Artizans, Countrymen, and Merchants,
before that, of Wits, or Scholars.
Jane Oppenheimer in quoting this passage 4 suggests that Sir Thomas
Browne's failure to be admitted to the Royal Society may have been
due to his metaphorical and ornate style.
This tradition of plainness and directness in scientific style has
endured to the present time, but various factors have combined to
create new problems in communication for the scientific writer of
the twentieth century. The extension of the scientist's technical vo-
cabulary far beyond that of "Artizans, Countrymen, and Merchants"
has made it increasingly difficult to achieve plainness. Meanwhile,
the social and industrial ramifications of the scientist's work have
increased, the number of potential readers has grown, and the knowl-
edge to be communicated has been extended beyond anything which
could have been foreseen. As this growing need for communication
between the scientist and the public became more and more apparent
in the latter half of the nineteenth century, such pioneering scientists
as Thomas Henry Huxley and John Tyndall undertook the task of
educating the public in science. This movement has continued until
the present time, and many eminent scientists now address part of
their writing to the lay reader.
Writings on science have been divided into four groups: technical
papers for fellow specialists, reviews and more general papers for
other scientists, textbooks, and books and articles for the general
reader. 5 Some of this writing is made available to the public through
scientific societies which have recognized the importance of appeal-
ing to the layman as well as to their own membership. The American
Association for the Advancement of Science in addition to Science,
its newsweekly for scientists, publishes a semitechnical journal, The
Scientific Monthly, "for scientists and for everyone interested in
the history, progress, and philosophy of science." Similarly the Amer-
ican Medical Association besides its Journal publishes Today's
Health, formerly Hygeia, for the general public. However, scientists
are not entirely satisfied with their efforts to reach the general reader.
4 Jane M. Oppenheimer, "John Hunter, Sir Thomas Browne and the Experi-
mental Method," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 21:25-26, January-
February, 1947, The Johns Hopkins Press.
5 Marston Bates, The Saturday Review, 35(24): 16, June 14, 1952.
COMMUNICATION 131
As one scientist has observed: "We have not solved the problem of
how to write about science for the non-scientist." 6
One reason perhaps for the persistence of this problem is that
scientists have frequently shrunk from communication with the pub-
lic for fear of being misunderstood. Now the view is growing that
scientists are more likely to be misunderstood if they do not com-
municate with the public. The newer attitude toward the dissemina-
tion of scientific discoveries is expressed in the program of the 1954
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The necessity for the general public to be kept informed of the
results of the scientific research which it supports, directly and indi-
rectly, is quite evident. Organized science and the individual scientist
must have the understanding and support of all. It is, of course, equally
important that the advances of science be publicized with accuracy
and clarity without sensationalism. Progress in this direction in recent
years has been most gratifying thanks largely to members of the
National Association of Science Writers, other accredited science re-
porters, managing editors of American newspapers, and program man-
agers of radio and television stations.
It is in the interest of accuracy and completeness that science writers
frequently wish to discuss various research results with investigators.
If you are asked to cooperate in this respect or to participate in a
press conference, please do so not only for your own protection but
for the benefit of science in general. 7
B. The Rise of Science Writing
It will be noted that the authors of scientific papers referred to
in the preceding quotation are in this instance not communicating
with the general public directly but through science writers or jour-
nalists. This branch of journalism is not to be confused with scientific
writing. The scientific writer is first a scientist and secondarily a
writer; the science writer is primarily a professional writer. Scientific
writing stems from the scientific tradition, science writing from the
journalistic tradition. However, since some science writers are well
trained in science and since some scientists devote part of their time
to journalism, the categories do at times overlap. Scientific writing
6 Bates, loc. cit.
1 General Program, Annual Meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Berkeley, Calif., 1954, p. 63.
132 DIRECTING THE PAPER
done strictly by and for specialists may be termed technical writing.
Like other branches of journalism, science writing was in its early
days frequently lurid and sensational, and at times still is. Since the
1920's, however, the influence of such writers as the late Howard W.
Blakeslee, science editor of the Associated Press from 1927 to 1952,
and Waldemar Kaempffert, a former editor of the Scientific American
and science editor of the New York Times since 1931, has done a
great deal to raise the general level of science writing.
II. REACHING A VARIETY OF READERS
The individual who wishes to extend his own writing range must
recognize two facts. First, it is not often that the same piece of
writing appeals equally to technical and lay readers since the very
qualities which give it popular appeal may be unpalatable to the
expert. Each paper must be directed to the reader group which it is
designed to reach. Second, there are easily recognized differences
which distinguish technical and popular writing ; in adapting material
to the destined reader group, the writer can follow specific techniques.
Certain difficulties are inherent in the process of popularization.
The general reader is likely to be impatient of the caution expressed
by the scientist in such qualifications as "relatively," "with reason-
able assurance," "although it has not been definitely proved," "in
some but not in all cases," "the observations indicate," "from
the present observations," and "are essentially in agreement, ex-
cept. . . ." While some scientists overwork these phrases, the use of
them is representative of the scientist's caution in interpreting his
results. Though science writing for the layman should be accurate
by nontechnical standards, it cannot go into all the possible qualifica-
tions and objections which the technical writer is obliged to consider.
While on the whole the relations between scientists and journalists
are becoming more sympathetic, there are still occasions when the
scientific and journalistic attitudes are widely divergent. For exam-
ple, an article entitled "How to Keep from Getting False Teeth" 8
drew cautionary comment from a Council of the American Dental
Association. The article opens, ". . . now they've discovered that
8 Herb Bailey, "How to Keep from Getting False Teeth," Better Homes and
Gardens, 29(15) :32ff., November 1951.
VARIETY OF READERS 133
chlorophyll a chemical substance found in every blade of grass . . .
may well save you the price of a set of 'store teeth,' heal your sore
mouth if your newly acquired dentures give you trouble, or let you
indulge your passion for onions without risking social ostracism."
A preliminary report of the Council on Dental Therapeutics of the
American Dental Association concludes more cautiously, "Since the
Council's preliminary consideration of the available evidence gives
rise to grave doubts about the remarkable statements concerning
this dentifrice, the profession may be well advised to adopt a con-
servative attitude toward this subject until a more comprehensive
examination can be completed." 9
The importance of scientific news and the difficulties of having
it reported accurately have been summed up by E. Bright Wilson, Jr.
But scientists are, and correctly so, under tremendous moral pressure
to work incessantly for the proper utilization of their work by society.
This must include strenuous efforts to educate the public, not only
on the facts of science, a discouragingly vast job in view of the igno-
rance in this field of even most college graduates, but also on the basic
aims of science, its effects, and the climate necessary for its advance-
ment. In this enterprise most scientists are inhibited by their well-
grounded fear of dealing in any way with the press. Almost every
scientist has at some time yielded, as a matter of duty, to requests
for interviews with newspaper reporters. In spite of the most solemn
promises, his reward is all too frequently a distorted and sensational
article which serves no public purpose and damages his reputation.
After such experiences, many scientists shun the press as the plague.
Nevertheless the public should receive information about scientific
advances, and some way should be worked out to give it to them.
Reporters frequently promise to show their write-ups to the scientist
for correction, but they do not always live up to these promises. This
check also provides little protection from the headline writers, who
reporters claim are out of their reach. A perfectly sound article on
an anthropological expedition is of little help if headed by "Harvard
Savant Discovers Savage Love Nest." Perhaps the best procedure is to
work through an experienced press officer who understands the scien-
tist's viewpoint and who also is in a position to apply some pressure
on the newsmen. 10
9 "Chloresium Toothpaste: Preliminary Report," The Journal of the Amen,
can Dental Association^ 43:645, November 1951.
10 By permission from An Introduction to Scientific Research by E. Bright
Wilson, Jr., p. 9. Copyright 1952. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
134 DIRECTING THE PAPER
Among prizes and awards recognizing distinction in science writing
have been the George Westinghouse Science Writing Awards, spon-
sored by the Westinghouse Educational Foundation and administered
by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Rachel
Carson won the 1950 Westinghouse magazine award for "The Birth
of an Island" and later received the 1951 nonfiction National Book
Award for The Sea Around Us, a best-selling account of oceano-
graphic research in which "The Birth of an Island" forms a chapter.
In accepting the latter award Miss Carson expressed her philosophy
of interpreting science to the layman.
Many people have commented with surprise on the fact that a work
of science should have a large popular sale. But this notion that
"science" is something that belongs in a separate compartment of its
own, apart from everyday life, is one that I should like to challenge.
We live in a scientific age; yet we assume that knowledge of science
is the prerogative of only a small number of human beings, isolated
and priestlike in their laboratories. This is not true. The materials
of science are the materials of life itself. Science is part of the
reality of living; it is the what, the how, and the why of everything
in our experience. It is impossible to understand man without under-
standing his environment and the forces that have molded him physi-
cally and mentally. 11
A. Differences Between Technical and Nontechnical Writing
Most of the differences between technical and popular writing
arise from the differing demands and purposes of the two groups
of readers. General readers require background information and
interpretation. They often have little or no information about the
subject and little prior interest in it. Technical readers, on the con-
trary, have been classed as "a captive audience" readers who are
obliged to read as part of their work.
They come to the author, furthermore, with a common background of
knowledge. He does not have to tell them; they know where his work
fits into the scheme of things. They want him to get down to business
right away, to give them all the data and a sufficiently detailed descrip-
tion of the experiment so they can repeat it themselves. This leaves
little space or time for generalization on what the work means. In fact,
such generalization especially in American scientific literature has
come to be regarded as an impropriety. As the judges of the work,
11 The Courier- Journal, Louisville, February 3, 1952.
VARIETY OF READERS 135
the author's colleagues claim the evaluation of its significance as their
prerogative; they do not want to be told what it means. 12
Often the title alone of an article indicates the reader group it
will appeal to. All of the following titles appeared under the heading
"Chlorophyll" in the Readers 9 Guide: "Green Stuff," "Nature's De-
odorant," "Sweeter Smell," "Chlorophyll Formation in Potato Tubers
as Affected by Temperature and Time," and "Phosphorescence of
Chlorophyll and Some Chlorin Derivatives." The first three titles are
definitely popular in appeal and are designed to attract the reader's
attention rather than to inform him about the contents of the articles.
By contrast the last two titles give an accurate and specific indication
of the contents of the articles and of their exact limitations. They
would repel the general reader but would attract the scientist working
in the same or a related field.
The opening paragraphs of an article are likewise an indication
of its potential audience. The technical article follows a logical plan,
stating at once the problem in which the reader may be assumed
to have interest. The article for "a wider audience of scientists" states
the problem in somewhat broader terms. The article for the general
reader often opens with an appeal to the reader's own interests or
with a touch of human interest which will attract the reader's atten-
tion. A difference is also apparent in the words and terms used, the
diction becoming increasingly technical at advancing scientific levels.
The three following examples, each of which deals with an applica-
tion of hybridization, show a progression from a moderately popular
to an extremely technical form of presentation.
In the first example hybrid corn is presented as a "man-made
product" and associated with agriculture in the American Corn Belt.
Thus two human motives pride in man's achievement and economic
interest in food production are appealed to. The wording is non-
technical, and the key term hybrid corn is defined.
Hybrid corn, a man-made product developed during the past 25
years, may prove to be the most far-reaching contribution in applied
biology of this century. With its accompanying improvements in farm-
ing methods, it has revolutionized the agriculture of the American
Corn Belt. Because of it U. S. farmers are growing more corn on
12 Gerard Piel, "Biology for the General Reader," A. L B. S. Bulletin, The
American Institute of Biological Sciences, 4(3): 17, July 1954.
136 DIRECTING THE PAPER
fewer acres than ever before in this country's history. The new abun-
dance of food brought by hybrid corn played a significant role in World
War II and in the rehabilitation of Europe after the war. Now this
product, spreading to Italy, to Mexico and to other countries where
corn is an important crop, promises to become a factor of considerable
consequence in solving the world food problem.
What is hybrid corn and how has it made possible these substantial
contributions to the world's food resources?
In a broad sense all corn is hybrid, for this plant is a cross-pollinated
species in which hybridization between individual plants, between vari-
eties and between races occurs constantly. Such natural, more or less
accidental hybridization has played a major role in corn's evolution
under domestication. But the hybrid corn with which we shall deal
here is a planned exploitation of this natural tendency on a scale far
beyond that possible in Nature. 13
Though human motives are recognized in the second example,
they are appealed to less directly. The diction is more technical; the
term heterosis, for example, is introduced with only an incidental
definition.
In the year 1932 corn was planted on 113,024,000 acres of United
States farm land. The total yield for that year was 2,930,352,000 bush-
els, an average of 25.9 bushels per acre. In the year 1946, 3,287,927,000
bushels were harvested from plantings on 90,027,000 acres, represent-
ing a per acre yield of 36.5 bushels. The difference in yield was due
in greatest measure to the use of hybrid corn on a large scale. The
production of 36 bushels to the acre instead of 26 represents nothing
short of a revolution. The importance of the revolution extends even
further than the increased yield figures indicate, for it has freed ap-
proximately 23,000,000 acres of land for the growing of other crops
or for inclusion in a rotation and conservation scheme to provide a
hedge against soil fertility exhaustion.
These developments suggest startling potentialities for other crops,
and they may be a consideration pointing the way out of the dilemma
of increasing populations and decreasingly fertile farm lands with
which most of the Temperate Zone countries of the world are faced.
The superiority of hybrid corn has its basis in a little-understood
phenomenon known to biologists as heterosis. After some preliminary
observations, we shall consider the various hypotheses as to the nature
of heterosis. Whatever may be involved, heterosis gives to hybrids a
developmental vigor which makes them larger, higher-yielding, im-
proves the quality of their products, or otherwise renders them more
18 Paul C. Mangelsdorf, "Hybrid Corn," Scientific American, 185(2) :39, Au-
gust 1951.
VARIETY OF READERS 137
desirable than their parents. The occurrence of this hybrid advantage,
generally referred to as hybrid vigor, provides one of the most in-
triguing of biological puzzles. 14
The concluding example is immediately recognizable as highly
technical because of its diction and the assumption that the reader
will be interested in the unadorned facts.
The cytogenetical problem of introgression, as exemplified in trans-
fer of genes from wild species of Nicotiana to cultivated tobacco, Nico-
tiana tabacum, involves special features owing to the high sterility of
the Fj hybrids and to the low degree of association of chromosomes
of the two species in the hybrids. Thus in the transfer of necrotic
mosaic resistance from glutinosa to tabacum, the normal hybrid is al-
most completely sterile and the chromosomes of the two species exhibit
only a low degree of association. The sterility may, however, be over-
come by crossing tetraploid instead of diploid tabacum with diploid
glutinosa, producing in the first instance a relatively fertile triploid
hybrid having two sets of tabacum and a single set of glutinosa chromo-
somes. 15
The title, the opening paragraphs, the diction all indicate whether
an article is intended for general or specialized readers. Beyond
these easily recognized hallmarks, the entire cast of a popular article
will be characteristic. The article will riot be as concise as one in-
tended for the technical reader, nor will it include as much technical
detail. This does not mean, however, that the popular article is
merely a series of generalizations with the technical data omitted.
Nothing is more discouraging to the general reader than unsupported
abstractions. Carefully selected facts and cases, amplified by anec-
dotes, illustrations, comparisons, and references to everyday situa-
tions, replace the technical presentation of data in order to bring
abstract theory within the range of the reader's experience.
B. A Preliminary Analysis of Periodicals
The habit of analyzing periodicals will help the reader in evaluat-
ing what he reads (see Chapter 4) and aid the writer in shaping
his material to meet the needs of different journals. Many journals
14 W. Gordon Whaley, "The Gifts of Hybridity," The Scientific Monthly,
70:10, January 1950.
15 Roy E. Clausen, "The Cytogenetics of Introgression," Science, 115:481,
May 2, 1952.
138 DIRECTING THE PAPER
of interest to the scientific writer are organs of scientific societies
and industrial groups so that ^sponsorship is always a first considera-
tion. In general, scholarly journals do not depend upon advertising
as a source of income but derive their support from subscriptions,
endowments, and organizations. Contributors to learned journals
customarily do not receive financial compensation but are rewarded
by the opportunity to exchange results and ideas with other investi-
gators and by the recognition accorded their work.
The outline given here suggests a plan for an analysis of periodi-
cals which the writer can follow as fully as his current needs demand.
Careful examination of representative issues, including the cover,
title page, and masthead, will yield most of the information desired.
To make a thorough analysis of a journal, however, it will be neces-
sary to examine selected issues covering a period of years, including
anniversary issues, and to consult such sources as N. W. Ayer & Son's
Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals, Ulrich's Periodicals Direc-
tory, and World List of Scientific Periodicals.
Outline for an Analysis of Periodicals
I. General information
A. Name of periodical
B. Sponsorship
C. Editor
D. Place and frequency of publication
E. Circulation
F. Sources of income
1. Subscriptions
2. Endowments or organized support
3. Advertising
II. General description
A. Appearance
B. Range of subject matter
C. Reader-level
D. Professional standing
III. History
A. Origin
B. Development
C. Trends in policy
VARIETY OF READERS 139
IV. Editorial policy
A. Acceptance of articles
1. Type
2. Length
B. Compensation of contributors
C. Form of articles
1. Titles
2. Arrangement
a. Subheadings
b. Paragraphing
D. Style preferences
E. Documentation
1. Adequacy
2. Form
a. Of citations in text
b. Of footnotes
c. Of bibliography
F. Illustrations
1. Number
2. Kinds
3. Size
4. Methods of preparation
5. Captions
If the writer is not preparing the material for publication but for
submission in the form of a letter or a report to an individual, a
committee, or an agency, he still must make an analysis of the inter-
ests, purposes, and wishes of his readers. (See Chapters 11 and 12.)
However, the preceding outline will be primarily useful to the writer
who is contemplating publication either for technical or general
readers.
III. THE PROCESS OF POPULARIZATION
The writer addressing the general reader will find useful two re-
minders of man's natural disposition. The one is, "Whether or not
it be true that the proper study of mankind is man, it is certain that
he finds great difficulty in studying anything else"; 16 the other, "The
16 J. W. N. Sullivan, Aspects of Science, London, Richard Cobden-Sanderson,
1923, p. 67.
140 DIRECTING THE PAPER
more the subject matter deviates from the reader's particular inter-
ests, the greater the skill that must be exercised in retaining his at-
tention." 17 Most readers are interested first in themselves, second
in other people, third in things, and only remotely in abstract theory.
Thus it follows that the reader must be led to discussions of theory
through his more immediate interests.
A. Establishing Contact with the Reader
Establishing contact with the reader at the beginning of an article
is particularly important; if the reader's interest is lost at this point
it can never be regained. The possibilities for varying the openings
of articles have been analyzed in detail. One such analysis 18 lists
historical approach, specific instance, startling statement, appeal to
fundamental interests of the reader, short narrative passage, quota-
tion and literary references, definition, descriptive opening, analogy,
anecdote or joke, gradual narrowing, comparison or contrast, nega-
tive detail, direct statement of thesis, particulars and details, reference
to specific occasion. Most of these approaches, however, are different
forms of four major appeals to the reader's own self-interest, to his
natural interest in other people, to his liking for the concrete, and to
fundamental human emotions, such as curiosity or wonder.
7. The Reader's Self-interest
Few writers have shown greater skill in approaching the reader
directly than has Thomas Henry Huxley, who opened an address
to the working men of Norwich with these words: "If a well were
sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the diggers
would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance
almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as
'chalk.' " 19 From the chalk in the working man's pocket and beneath
the working man's feet, Huxley proceeded to discuss the skeletons
of organisms which made up the chalk, the history of the chalk de-
posits, and finally the theory of evolution.
17 George S. Fichter, "Scientists and Science Writers," American Scientist,
38:137, January 1950.
18 W. George Crouch and Robert L. Zetler, A Guide to Technical Writing
New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1948, p. 130.
10 Thomas Henry Huxley, Discourses Biological and Geological, New York,
D. Appleton and Company, 1896, p. 1.
POPULARIZATION 141
Following the same principle, the author of an introductory history
of anatomy echoes in his opening paragraph the anatomy student's
inmost thoughts:
The day when the medical student enters the dissecting room is the
time of dedication to his profession; for then he puts his hand to a
task which other men dread, and joins the company of those who have
laid aside the deepest fears and prejudices of mankind, to seek in the
dead bodies of their fellows some increase of knowledge wherewith
to fight the ignorance and disease that laid them low. As he under-
takes his share of this work, the student of anatomy engages in one
of the oldest of the sciences. He is following a tradition of twenty-five
centuries; and if he is sensitive to such influences, the burden of his
work will be lightened and his effort will be quickened by a sense of
pride that he is one of that profession whose history is an endless
record of hard-won progress from darkness toward the light. Whether
we feel it thus keenly or not, however, the influence of the past in-
evitably guides our hands as we work, for not only in the ancient
seats of the science of anatomy, but in the newest schools of America,
the methods we use, the names we learn, the present trends of our
investigation have been determined by our predecessors; unless we
understand them we can scarcely understand our own tasks. 20
2. Human Interest
The reader's interest in other people is secondary only to his in-
terest in himself. Consequently, the anecdote, biographical allusion,
case history, and other references to people are favorite openings
for articles designed for popular appeal. The following example opens
with a case history (see Chapter 13).
A number of years ago a West Indian Negro youth who was enrolled
in an Illinois professional school came to a Chicago hospital complain-
ing of fever, a cough, dizziness and a headache. He showed the scars
of recent ulcers on his ankles. The attending physician, James B. Her-
rick, put the patient through a comprehensive examination and re-
viewed his history exhaustively, but was not able to identify the illness.
He observed a peculiarity in the blood, however, and described it
as follows: "The shape of the red cells was very irregular, and what
especially attracted attention was the large number of thin, elongated,
sickle-shaped and crescent-shaped forms."
The odd shapes were found repeatedly in blood taken from the pa-
tient. Herrick was unable to find such cells in other persons whose
20 George W. Corner, Anatomy, New York, Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., 1930, pp.
1-2.
142 DIRECTING THE PAPER
blood he examined. He concluded: "The question of diagnosis must
remain an open one unless reports of other similar cases with the same
peculiar blood-picture shall clear up this feature."
That was in 1910. Herrick recorded the strange and striking phe-
nomenon he had observed in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The
following year a Virginia physician reported a similar case. And four
years later a mulatto woman came to the Washington University Hospi-
tal in St. Louis for treatment of a leg ulcer, and again the blood showed
the presence of numerous sickle cells. These three cases put doctors
on the alert to watch for the abnormal shapes in blood. It soon ap-
peared that the condition was hereditary and occurred almost ex-
clusively in Negroes. 21
3. Interest in the Concrete
Many readers who are disinclined to accept abstract ideas can be
appealed to through concrete images or illustrations. In the following
example a concrete description of carved panels introduces Albert
Einstein to the general reader, favorably disposing him to the sub-
sequent discussion of the abstractions in Einstein's theory of rela-
tivity.
Carved in the white walls of the Riverside Church in New York,
the figures of six hundred great men of the ages saints, philosophers,
kings stand in limestone immortality, surveying space and time with
blank imperishable eyes. One panel enshrines the geniuses of science,
fourteen of them, spanning the centuries from Hippocrates, who died
around 370 B.C., to Albert Einstein, who was sixty-nine years old this
March. It is noteworthy that Einstein is the only living man in this
whole sculptured gallery of the illustrious dead. 22
4. Curiosity and Wonder
The very nature of scientific writing precludes emphasis on the
emotions. However, there are among the fundamental human drives
a few, such as curiosity and a feeling for order and harmony, to
which the scientist may on occasion legitimately appeal. The range
permitted the science writer is somewhat wider. He too, however,
has been well advised to address himself to "the highest interest"
of his readers rather than to contribute "to further distortion of the
"George W. Gray, "Sickle-Cell Anemia," Scientific American, 185(2) :56 f
August 1951.
22 Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein, New York, William Sloane
Associates, 1948.
POPULARIZATION 143
popular idea of science as the modern 'House of Magic' and the mis-
casting of the scientist as the shaman and bringer forth of won-
ders." 23
The following illustration of legitimate projection of feeling is
taken from an article based on material presented in one of the
National Lectureships of the Society of the Sigma Xi, whose aim is
the encouragement of original investigation in pure and applied
science. The author undertakes to depict for the general public the
"thrill" which the scientist finds in the pursuit of the unknown.
One of the most intriguing things about research work is the totally
unexpected places it may lead. The casual passer-by does not sense
this. When he glances into a laboratory he sees only a man oblivious
of his surroundings, huddled over a bottle-littered table or peering
intently down the tube of a microscope. As he goes on his way, if he
thinks again of the scientist, he probably envisages him as having
thick-lensed glasses and whiskers, a shambling walk, and an impervi-
ous cloak of absent-mindedness. The visitor does not see the cherished
visions, nor appreciate the possible intangible rewards of the long
hours of critical observation and experimentation. He does not realize
the thrill that conies to the scientist when he observes something never
before seen, or finds by his experimenting the explanation of a phe-
nomenon often seen but never understood. But the visions are there,
nevertheless, for it is the dream of every investigator that some day
he may feel the exaltation of unearthing the unknown. Few are des-
tined to realize such dreams, but the dreams are always a lodestar
a hope that never dies. And whether or not any one of us is fortunate
enough to explore to the end the particular paths that lead toward
great accomplishment, the joy of starting along an unknown trail and
following where it leads belongs to us all. 24
The author of the next selection has set forth clearly in a few sen-
tences the scope and purpose of his article. At the same time by
personifying the quantum theory and using the words history, prov-
ince, and empire, he has cast over the brief account something of the
glamour which surrounds the course of empire.
This is the history of a physical theory which began in 1900 by tak-
ing over a small province of physics and now has extended its empire
over almost the whole of the sciences of physics and chemistry. More
23 Piel, loc. cit.
24 Bradley M. Patten, "The First Heart Beats and the Beginning of the
Embryonic Circulation," American Scientist, 39:225, April 1951.
144 DIRECTING THE PAPER
precisely, it is half of the history, for it carries the story only to 1923,
which happens to be about as far along the road as the non-physicist
can travel easily. The story is that of the quantum theory, and this
account will relate the main events in its early history. 25
In making contact with the reader in the opening paragraphs of
an article the writer should observe these precautions: the introduc-
tory material should not be so long as to delay unduly the progress
of the article, the necessity for interesting the reader should not be
made an excuse for the use of irrelevant anecdote or statements, and
the opening paragraphs should be linked smoothly with the rest of
the article.
B. Keeping Material Within the Reader's Range
Though capturing the reader's interest at the beginning is essential,
this alone does not insure the success of an article. To maintain this
interest the writing must remain within the range of the reader's
mind and imagination. Yet the writer must avoid a tone of either
writing down to his reader or sermonizing, keeping in mind the
sound advice never to overestimate the reader's knowledge and never
to underestimate his intelligence. Lancelot Hogben has ascribed the
success of some of the great Victorians in popularizing science to
their "conviction that they could instruct their audiences . . . their
firm faith in the educability of mankind." 2G In contrast, a reviewer
has censured a present-day writer for condescending to her readers.
The author's technique is to describe the aims of the investigation, its
methods, its results and their interpretations, through the device of
relating her own personal and professional experiences while carrying
out the tests. The text is extensively written in the first person, which
in itself might be no defect. But it degrades itself in content, style, and
even grammar ("If I could not get the subjects the study was a bust";
"I showed the blot to Chico, our poodle, who is the only other person
anywhere near. He was very haughty about the whole thing and a
little insulted") in an apparent attempt to bring the material down to
the level of the lay reader. The more technical portions of the text,
which have escaped transposition to colloquialism, prove to be the
most readable, since they follow the first of the cardinal rules for
25 Karl K. Darrow, "The Quantum Theory," Scientific American, 186(3) :47,
March 1952.
26 Lancelot Hogben, Science for the Citizen, New York, Alfred A. Knopf,
1938, p. vii.
POPULARIZATION 145
successful popular exposition, that is, they respect rather than belittle
the intelligence of the reader. Dr. Roe is to be commended for her
decision to describe psychological research in subjective terms, but it
is a pity, particularly in view of the great inherent interest of the ma-
terial presented, that she has misjudged the key in which to compose
her theme. 27
7. A Central Plan of Intrinsic Interest
The plan or scheme of organization adopted for an article is im-
portant in keeping the interest of the reader. Whether basically narra-
tive or expository, the plan should be simple enough for the reader
to grasp and follow readily. Newspaper science feature stories in
which space does not permit much introductory material often rely
largely on simplicity of plan and the news value of the subject to
hold the reader's interest. Other sources of intrinsic appeal are the
elements of drama and conflict which are inherent in many subjects.
Those who sense the elements of drama in their subjects frequently
do effective popular writing. The author of a popular treatment of
archaeology attributes this quality to Paul de Kruif:
De Kruif found that even the most highly involved scientific problems
can be quite simply and understandably presented if their working
out is described as a dramatic process. That means, in effect, leading
the reader by the hand along the same road that the scientists them-
selves have traversed from the moment truth was first glimpsed until
the goal was gained. De Kruif found that an account of the detours,
crossways, and blind alleys that had confused the scientists because
of their mortal fallibility, because human intelligence failed at times
to measure up to the task, because they were victimized by disturbing
accidents and obstructive outside influences could achieve a dynamic
and dramatic quality capable of evoking an uncanny tension in the
reader. It was in this spirit that the famous Microbe Hunters evolved. 28
In his own work Ceram highlights personality and makes full use
of suspense, as in his account of the Carnarvon-Carter excavation
of the tomb of Tutankhamen. (See Appendix A, p. 409.) This account
is largely narrative with suspense arising from the question as to
what would be uncovered as the excavations proceeded. The writer
27 Jane Oppenheimer, Review of The Making of a Scientist by Anne Roe,
American Scientist, 42:14445, January 1954.
28 Reprinted from Gods, Graves, and Scholars, the Story of Archaeology, by
C. W. Ceram, translated from the German by E. B. Garside, p. vi, by permission
of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright 1951 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
146 DIRECTING THE PAPER
need not, however, become dependent upon the narrative form since
cause and effect, analysis of contributing factors, evidence and con-
clusion, basis for predictions, and other expository patterns may also
be developed in readable fashion if clearly presented.
2. The Use of Rhetorical Devices
Even when material seems to lack dramatic possibilities, the writer
may introduce human and even dramatic interest through the use
of such devices as anecdote, literary allusion, analogy, and personifi-
cation. As the word rhetorical descending from a Greek word mean-
ing orator implies, these devices which we now think of as useful
to the writer originated in the orator's desire to hold the attention
of his audience. Probably no one of these devices has been more
frequently abused than the anecdote. Nevertheless the well-chosen
illustrative story will often put over a point more effectively than will
a long explanation.
In the following example, an anecdote enlivens the abstractions
of mathematics. The graphic detail helps the reader to comprehend
the idea of large numbers, always particularly difficult for the layman.
One victim of overwhelming numbers was King Shirham of India,
who, according to an old legend, wanted to reward his grand vizier
Sissa Ben Dahir for inventing and presenting to him the game of chess.
The desires of the clever vizier seemed very modest. "Majesty," he
said kneeling in front of the king, "give me a grain of wheat to put
on the first square of this chessboard, and two grains to put on the
second square, and four grains to put on the third, and eight grains
to put on the fourth. And so, oh King, doubling the number for each
succeeding square, give me enough grains to cover all 64 squares of
the board."
"You do not ask for much, oh my faithful servant," exclaimed the
king, silently enjoying the thought that his liberal proposal of a gift
to the inventor of the miraculous game would not cost him much of
his treasure. "Your wish will certainly be granted." And he ordered
a bag of wheat to be brought to the throne.
But when the counting began, with 1 grain for the first square, 2
for the second, 4 for the third and so forth, the bag was emptied before
the twentieth square was accounted for. More bags of wheat were
brought before the king but the number of grains needed for each
succeeding square increased so rapidly that it soon became clear that
with all the crop of India the king could not fulfill his promise to
POPULARIZATION 147
Sissa Ben. To do so would have required 18,446,744,073,709,551,615
grains !
That's not so large a number as the total number of atoms in the
universe, but it is pretty big anyway. Assuming that a bushel of wheat
contains about 5,000,000 grains, one would need some 4000 billion
bushels to satisfy the demand of Sissa Ben. Since the world production
of wheat averages about 2,000,000,000 bushels a year, the amount re-
quested by the grand vizier was that of the world's wheat production
for the period of some two thousand years!
Thus King Shirham found himself deep in debt to his vizier and
had either to face the incessant flow of the latter's demands, or to
cut his head off. We suspect that he chose the latter alternative. 29
Literary allusion or reference to figures, episodes, or situations in
literature is not common in the writing of scientists, even when it
is directed to the general reader. The bookish tone which such allu-
sions produce is removed from the world of natural phenomena with
which the scientist works. The professional writer guards particu-
larly against the hackneyed or irrelevant reference. Occasionally,
however, a literary allusion establishes a common literary bond with
the reader.
The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, alluded to in the following example,
is the source of one very trite allusion Topsy's statement that she
"just growed." In the passage quoted here a scientist has turned to
a less familiar passage to illustrate a complex relationship between
environment and personality.
Environment (including particularly the attitude of one's contem-
poraries) doubtless often leads certain individuals to behave as if one
of their physical characteristics were the cause of a behavioral differ-
ence. Thus Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin refused to behave properly
because she was black, saying, "Couldn't never be nothin' but a nigger,
if I was ever so good. If I could be skinned, and come white, I'd try
then." Topsy seems to have appreciated also the difficulty of being
accepted on equal terms by the majority, even if her behavior were
up to their standards. No doubt many a person in real life is similarly
deterred from attempts to live up to a different cultural ideal. 30
Writers who wish to bring unfamiliar ideas within the range of
the reader's experience frequently turn to analogy. An analogy is a
29 George Gamow, One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of
Science, New York, The Viking Press, 1948, pp. 7-9.
30 William C. Boyd, Genetics and the Races of Man, Boston, Little, Brown
and Company, 1950, p. 14.
148 DIRECTING THE PAPER
comparison, often extended, between two unlike things which, never-
theless, have certain essential characteristics in common. Among
commonplace analogies are the comparison of the earth to an orange,
the heart to a pump, man to a machine. The very readiness with which
people resort to analogy entails certain dangers. An analogy may
lead the reader to believe that he understands an abstraction when
in reality he understands only its analogical counterpart. He may,
for instance, have a fair understanding of the telephone switchboard
without having any real comprehension of the human brain. Too,
the analogy may be extended, through intent or through ignorance,
beyond its logical application. (See Chapter 6.) If these limitations
are kept in mind the analogy can be effective, as when William
James compared habit to an endowment fund through which we
could "capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest
of the fund," 31 or when a newspaper columnist likened the two politi-
cal parties "to two big office buildings the tenants may move out
from time to time, and different persons may occupy the offices, but
the two buildings remain just as sturdy." 32
In the following selection Sir James Jeans, physicist and astrono-
mer, uses a series of analogies to explain the twentieth-century physi-
cist's new philosophy, first comparing the physicist to a traveler and
nature to a desert. In a subsequent paragraph an analogy between
the observer of nature and the viewer of a rainbow is elaborately
developed.
That time has now come. The old philosophy ceased to work at the
end of the nineteenth century, and the twentieth-century physicist is
hammering out a new philosophy for himself. Its essence is that he
no longer sees nature as something entirely distinct from himself.
Sometimes it is what he himself creates, or selects or abstracts; some-
times it is what he destroys.
In certain of its aspects, which are revealed by the new theory of
quanta, nature is something which is destroyed by observation. It is
no longer a desert which we explore from the detached position of an
aeroplane; we can only explore it by tramping over it, and we raise
clouds of dust at every step. Trying to observe the inner workings
of an atom is like plucking the wings off a butterfly to see how it flies,
or like taking poison to discover the consequences. Each observation
81 William James, Psychology, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1923,
p. 144.
32 David Lawrence, Evening Star, Washington, D. C., August 5, 1952.
POPULARIZATION 149
destroys the bit of the universe observed, and so supplies knowledge
only of a universe which has already become past history.
In certain other aspects, especially its spatio-temporal aspects a
revealed by the theory of relativity, nature is like a rainbow. Th<
ancient Hebrew the analogue of the nineteenth-century physicist-
saw the rainbow as an objective structure set in the heavens for al
men to behold, the token of a covenant between God and man, am
as objective as the signature to a cheque. We now know that the ob
jective rainbow is an illusion. Raindrops break sunlight up into rayi
of many colours, and the coloured rays which enter any man's eye:
form the rainbow he sees; but as the rays which enter one man's eye*
can never enter those of a second man, no two men can ever see the
same rainbow. Each man's rainbow is a selection of his own eyes, i
subjective selection from an objective reality which is not a rainbov
at all. And it is the same with the nature which each man sees.
Again, just as a man's rainbow follows him about as he moves
round the country-side, so nature follows us about. At whatever speec
we move, we find nature adjusting itself to our motion, so that this
motion makes no difference to its laws.
Yet the analogy fails in one respect. A rainbow will disclose our owr
motion to us by the speed with which it moves against a backgrounc
of distant forests and hills, but physical science can find no such back
ground for nature. The whole of nature appears to follow us about.
Imperfect though these analogies are, they will shew that the physi
cist of to-day must needs have some acquaintance with ideas whicli
used to be considered the exclusive preserve of metaphysics. 3 -*
An even more extended analogy was used by H. J. Muller to stress
the comparative brevity of man's existence. (See Appendix A, p. 412.)
The last device to be discussed the personification of a type
cannot be considered scientific although it has proved useful in fac-
tual and informative writing of a more general nature. Such a per-
sonification is a sort of composite picture which has all the distin
guishing characteristics of the type but is individualized by name
and sometimes by personal characteristics. It lacks the scientific
standing of the case history (see III-A-2 of this chapter), which is
an authentic account of a typical case. The public has been known
to create its own personified types G.I. Joe, for example. Again,
popular approval may carry such a personification beyond the intenl
of the originator. The creator of Mr. Blandings, the personification
38 Sir James Jeans, The New Background of Science, Cambridge, Eng., Cam
bridge University Press, 1933, pp. 2-3.
150 DIRECTING THE PAPER
of the home builder, very possibly did not anticipate the sympathetic
reception which greeted the Blandings and their struggles with the
house, the architect, and the contractor as described in a magazine
article, 34 a book, 35 and a motion picture. A somewhat related literary
form is the documentary, in which a number of typical episodes and
cases are combined into a unified whole to depict a place, situation,
or social problem.
The following paragraphs introduce Victor Martin, the personifica-
tion of the political grafter. The last sentence of the quotation makes
it clear that the name Victor Martin represents a generalized por-
trait rather than an individual.
Victor Martin was in grammar and high school during the confident
years before 1914. His father had done well as a city contractor and
Victor went on to college, taking a sort of common denominator course
and specializing in nothing because he had no idea of what kind of
career he wanted. But World War I, a year in the Army, a commission
as second lieutenant of infantry, and a chance afterward to help or-
ganize a local post of the American Legion, bent him toward politics.
What he knew about it then he had learned chiefly from observation.
His father, he was well aware, had paid graft to city councilors, state
representatives, and senators: had contributed to mayors' campaign
funds and had delivered the votes of those who worked for him. Victor
knew this was wrong. He felt he had ideals and principles. He had
seen some politicians who didn't seem to work that way, and he was
determined that he wouldn't.
Victor's father, interested in his ambition, spoke to a state senator.
Victor was appointed executive secretary to a joint recess committee
investigating electric light and power rates. When the hearings ended,
he could hardly recognize his report after members tore it apart,
amended, rewrote, and distorted it; but as he was Mike Martin's boy,
the committee praised his work elaborately and he was taken over by
the Public Utilities Commission as an assistant secretary. During the
next three years he became an active member of every fraternal, serv-
ice, and civic organization open to him, and managed to stand before
the news camera at outings, clambakes, and celebrations. So when he
became a candidate for the City Council his name was fairly well
known.
This candidacy of his was a carefully planned move. He had thought
* Eric Hodgins, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Castle," Fortune, 33(4) : 138 ff.,
April 1946.
86 Eric Hodgins, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, New York, Simon
and Schuster, 1946.
POPULARIZATION 151
it out, talked it over with his father. He got heavy assists from the
political friends to whom his father had paid graft for contracts, and
the fact that he was engaged to Jean Tarbi, daughter of another con-
tractor, did not hurt in a ward with a heavy Italian vote. In a non-
partisan election he won handily.
Thus Victor Martin, at the age of twenty-five, took the first step up
the political spiral stairs. He was loyal, dependable, a good cam-
paigner, a hard worker for the party ; he went down the line regularly
at every primary and election. And he was ambitious. Victor Martin
does not, of course, exist under that name, but almost every political
reporter knows a dozen or more Victor Martins; they are to be found
in every rank of government. 36
In conclusion it may be said that this chapter does not purport to
answer the question posed in its opening paragraphs concerning the
extent to which scientists may employ literary devices without depart-
ing from scientific attitudes. Only scientists themselves can answer
this question, and it seems unlikely that they will ever come to total
agreement. There is evidence in the foregoing pages, however, that
scientists are thoroughly aware of the broader problems of communi-
cation and that some scientists have employed a variety of means of
reaching the general reader.
A story which Sainte-Beuve once told of a surgeon in the time of
Louis XIV seems applicable here. The surgeon remarked to the
French Chancellor that he wished to see an impenetrable wall erected
between surgery and medicine. "But," replied the Chancellor, "on
which side of the wall will you place the patient?" 3T Scientists can
hardly erect a wall between themselves and the rest of society, leaving
man in the position of the chancellor's patient. Therefore it seems
probable that efforts to reach the general public, difficult and dis-
couraging though the task may be at times, will continue to be an
important part of scientific communication.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. The paper by W. C. Allee et al. referred to in Chapter 1 opens with
these two sentences: "When individual members of vertebrate groups
are marked to permit ready recognition, they have been found to pos-
36 Joseph F. Dinneen, "The Anatomy of Graft," Harper's Magazine, 205 :38,
July 1952.
87 C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du, Lundi, 3rd ed., Paris, 1850, Vol. Ill, p. 425.
152 DIRECTING THE PAPER
sess a surprisingly rich social life. Territory, social hierarchy and
leadership are now known to extend down the vertebrate series at
least through the teleost fishes." Write a paragraph giving the neces-
sary definitions, details, and background to make these sentences,
originally directed to the technical reader, meaningful to the general
reader.
2. Classify the following titles as to the reader group which they prob-
ably appealed to: "Living Records of the Ice Age," "Some Observa-
tions on the Growth and Function of Heteroplastic Heart Grafts,"
"Nature's Undertaker," "Theory of Braids," "Rockets," "Future of
Atomic Energy," "The Problem of the Spurious Letter of the Emperor
Alexis to the Count of Flanders," "When Surgeons Improvise," "Plant
Hormones," "In vitro Resistance of the Genus Bacteroides to Strepto-
mycin," "The Egg and Dr. Romanoff," "The Theory of Games," "Some
Problems of Human Ecology in Polar Regions," "Danger! Population
Explosion Ahead," "Science Vindicates Antihistamines," "A System
of Nomenclature for Isotopic Compounds," "Radiation Damage to
Genetic Material."
j& Choose a scientific concept which you feel biifficiently well informed
(^ about to undertake to explain. Check your knowledge by reference
reading and then devise an analogy which you think will make this
concept more intelligible. Using this analogy, write an explanation of
the concept for the general reader JThe following terms may suggest
possible topics: ion exchange, valence, ambivalence (as used in psy-
chology), parasite, buffer solution, diffraction, tension (restrict to one
field), antibody, polymer, electrolysis.
4. In the American Scientist, 39:136, January 1951, James E. Miller gives
the following satiric account of "How Newton Discovered the Law
of Gravitation." Can this selection be classified as scientific writing?
Explain your answer.
"It was on this excursion into the night air of Cambridge that
Newton was struck by a flash of insight which set off a chain of events
culminating in his announcement of the law of gravitation to the world
in 1686. The season was autumn. Many of the good citizens in the
neighborhood of the modest Newton home had apple trees growing in
their gardens, and the trees were laden with ripe fruit ready for the
picking. Newton chanced to see a particularly succulent apple fall to
the ground. His immediate reaction was typical of the human side of
this great genius. He climbed over the garden wall, slipped the apple
into his pocket, and climbed out again. As soon as he had passed well
beyond that particular garden, he removed the apple from his pocket
and began munching it. Then came inspiration. Without prelude of
conscious thought or logical process of reasoning, there was suddenly
formed in his brain the idea that the falling of an apple and the
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 153
motions of planets in their orbits may be governed by the same uni-
versal law. Before he had finished eating the apple and discarded
the core, Newton had formulated his hypothesis of the universal law
of gravitation. By then it was three minutes before midnight, so he
hurried off to the meeting of the Committee to Combat Opium Eating
Among Students Without Nobility.
"In the following weeks Newton's thoughts turned again and again
to his hypothesis. Rare moments snatched between the adjournment
of one committee and the call to order of another were filled with the
formulation of plans for testing the hypothesis. Eventually, after sev-
eral years during which, according to evidence revealed by diligent
research, he was able to spend 63 minutes and 28 seconds on his plans,
Newton realized that the proof of his hypothesis would take more spare
time than might become available during the rest of his life. He had to
find accurate measurements of a degree of latitude on the earth's sur-
face, and he had to invent the calculus.
"Finally he concluded that he must find some relief from his col-
legiate administrative burdens. He knew that it was possible to get
the King's support for a worthy research project of definite aims,
provided a guarantee could be made that the project would be con-
cluded in a definite time at a cost exactly equal to the amount stipu-
lated when the project was undertaken. Lacking experience in these
matters he adopted a commendably simple approach and wrote a short
letter of 22 words to King Charles, outlining his hypothesis and point-
ing out its far-reaching implications if it should prove to be correct.
It is not known whether the King ever saw his letter, and he may not
have, being overwhelmed with problems of state and plans for pend-
ing wars. There is no doubt that the letter was forwarded, through
channels, to all heads of departments, their assistants, and their
assistants' assistants, who might have reason to make comments or
recommendations."
5. What is the means of explanation employed in the following example :
"This magnification [that of the electron microscope] can be under-
stood better when one learns that with it a 25-cent piece would appear
to have a diameter of about 1% miles!" (Walter C. Alvarez's column,
"Dr. Alvarez on Health.") From your general reading bring in
examples of explanations which you consider particularly vivid and
understandable. What means have been used to bring the material
within the experience of the reader?
6. Use illustrations or examples to explain what is meant by one of
the following: erosion, reciprocity, calcification, perfectionist, fungus,
ecology.
CHAPTER 8
SCIENTIFIC STYLE
I. Qualities of scientific style
A. Essentials of scientific style
1. Clarity and precision
2. Conciseness and directness
3. Objectivity
B. Distinction in scientific style
II. Elements of style
A. Sentence structure
1. Relationship of ideas within the sentence
2. Faulty reference of pronouns and misrelated modifiers
3. Illogical shifts
4. Balance and parallelism
5. Interrogations
6. Revision of sentences
B. Diction
1. Errors and incongruities in diction
2. Idiomatic expression
3. Tautology
4. Cliche
5. Mixed metaphor
6. Making use of the dictionary
III. Problems in scientific style
A. The influx of shoptalk and jargon
B. Achieving readability
IV. Analysis of the style of a scientific paper
Science demands great linguistic austerity and disci-
pline, and the canons of good style in scientific writing
are different from those in other kinds of literature.
J. H. WOODCER, Biology and Language.
I. QUALITIES OF SCIENTIFIC STYLE
In good scientific writing the style or manner of writing does not
draw attention to itself but serves as unobtrusively as possible to
QUALITIES 155
embody the thought. For more than three hundred years it has been
recognized that the linguistic ends and needs of the scientific writer
differ from those of the litterateur. (See Chapter 7.) Scientific writing
belongs to what Thomas de Quincey once called "the literature of
knowledge."
There is, first, the literature of knowledge; and, secondly, the litera-
ture of power. The function of the first is to t each ; the function of the
second is to move: the first is a rudder; the second, an oar or a sail.
The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second
speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or
reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy. 1
The recording of scientific observations and the formulation of
scientific theory demand, as J. H. Woodger has emphasized, stringent
discipline in the use of language.
. . . English is not only used for purposes of communication in the
scientific sense. It is also used for the writing of poetry, for religious
devotion, for political controversy and for persuading people to buy
some of the products of industrial activity which they would not other-
wise want. But these pursuits make demands upon language which
are very different from those made by science. The requirements of
science prove on investigation to be quite surprisingly meagre, and
the excessive riches of a natural language like English are a source
of embarrassment. They tempt us to employ linguistic devices bor-
rowed from extra-scientific usages which can have unfortunate conse-
quences. Metaphors, for example, with which some branches of biology
abound, are often suggestive and may be harmless enough if they are
recognized for what they are. But at best they are makeshifts and sub-
stitutes for genuine biological statements, and the fact that recourse
is had to them is surely a sign of immaturity. 2
Woodger in fact has gone so far as to advocate the development of
specialized languages in other disciplines analogous to the language
of mathematics and the formulas and equations of chemistry. Even
those commentators who are less critical of "the excessive riches of
a natural language like English" recognize that the use of language
for scientific communication imposes rigid restrictions on the writer.
Though no attempt will be made in this chapter to review the sub-
1 De Quincefs Literary Criticism, London, Henry Frowde, 1909, p. 94. Used
by permission of Oxford University Press.
2 J. H. Woodger, Biology and Language, Cambridge, Eng., Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1952, pp. 7-8.
156 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
ject of English style in general, the chapter will provide a discussion
of the qualities essential to good scientific style and of the stylistic
problems especially likely to arise in scientific writing. (For an ex-
pression of the underlying philosophy of style, see Appendix A, p.
414.)
A. Essentials of Scientific Style
A reasoned approach to the subject of style demands a distinction
between the qualities of style and the elements of style. Qualities of
style represent over-all impressions or characteristics and are ex-
pressed by nouns or by descriptive adjectives. Thus a style may be
said to have the qualities of clarity, terseness, simplicity, or by con-
trast may be described as obscure, wordy, involved. These qualities
result from the author's characteristic use of the elements of style:
diction, phrasing, sentence length and sentence structure, and figures
of speech.
I. Clarity and Precision
It is generally agreed that the qualities of greatest importance
in a good scientific style are clarity, precision, conciseness, directness,
and emphasis. Clarity and precision are to a great degree interde-
pendent. Clarity results when the writer is successful in making his
communication understandable to the reader. Precision represents
rather the attainment of an exact correspondence between the matter
to be conveyed and its verbal expression.
Lack of clarity in a piece of writing may be attributed most often
to certain specific causes.
1. The writer may not have mastered his subject matter sufficiently
to be in a position to state it clearly.
2. The writer, though informed on his subject matter, may not
perceive fully its inner relationships. Thus he is not able to
separate the important from the unimportant and to achieve a
clear, logical pattern of presentation.
3. The writer who has a thorough understanding of his subject
matter may be inarticulate because of a deficiency in diction
and syntax. The student who complains that he "knows but can't
say it" may be acknowledging an incompetence in the funda-
mentals of language.
QUALITIES 157
4. The writer's familiarity with his subject may prevent him from
realizing what points will be obscure to his readers.
Examples of confused or ambiguous statements may be particularly
helpful to students who are not aware of their own lack of clarity.
Confused
It is apparent that a hypothesis
which narrows the question is the
only answer that can be given.
When a patient who has taken
penicillin develops an allergic re-
action, several ways of administer-
ing it are possible.
With all his work he brought
many new facts and aspects into
the open which had not been
known before.
Clearer
It is apparent that formulating
a hypothesis that can be tested by
experiment is the only feasible
procedure.
When a patient who has taken
penicillin develops an allergic re-
action, the difficulty may possibly
be overcome by changing the form
in which the drug is administered.
His work introduced new facts
and new theories.
The scientific writer has an obligation to use words as accurately
as he does numbers and symbols. Following are examples of the im-
precise use of words.
Inaccurate
With this information before
them, ornithologists have an en-
tirely new field open to them by
which bird study may be made.
The new factor was called the
Rh factor, using the first two let-
ters of the rhesus monkeys.
More precise
Bird banding has opened up a
new field of study to ornithologists.
The new factor was called the
Rh factor after the first two letters
of the word rhesus.
2. Conciseness and Directness
Writing that is concise that expresses its meaning in the fewest
possible words saves the time and energy of the reader and con-
tributes to readability. Directness also serves these ends and facili-
tates communication through the avoidance of circumlocutions and
awkward inversions and of excessively numerous "there is" and "it
158 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
is" constructions in which the appearance of the subject is delayed.
In general, directness is the foe of verbiage, which impedes a simple,
straightforward approach.
Wordy More concise
There is an abundance of evi- An abundance of evidence in the
dence in the literature which sup- literature supports the view . . .
ports the view . . .
The fact that these critics ignore These critics ignore the fact that
is that this test has been made this test has been made several
several times in the past. times in the past.
3. Objectivity
It is expected that the scientist's style should reflect the objectivity
of his attitude toward the problems he investigates and toward his
results. This emphasis on objectivity as a quality of scientific style
implies that in subordinating subjective considerations, scientific
style should be more formal and more impersonal than is prose
style in general. Slang, colloquial expressions, and localisms are
avoided; strict grammatical usage is observed; close is preferred
to open punctuation ; and a technical rather than everyday vocabulary
is employed.
There is some difference of opinion as to whether impersonality
in writing requires the use of the third person style in which the
author refers to himself as "the writer," in preference to the first
person style in which "I" or "we" is used. Some editors and advisers
recommend the use of the first person, maintaining that its simplicity
and directness outweigh any supposed gain in objectivity resulting
from the use of the third person. 3 Among writers themselves, how-
ever, there is a tendency toward the use of the third person, and some
authorities recommend or specify this practice, especially in formal
communications. 4 When the third person style is used, it may be
necessary to employ the phrase "the present author" or "the present
8 See The Wistar Institute Style Brief, p. 7; also Joseph N. Ulman, Jr., Tech-
nical Reporting, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1952, pp. 92-95.
4 See William Giles Campbell, Form and Style in Thesis Writing, Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954, pp. 61-62; also W. George Crouch and Robert
L. Zetler, A Guide to Technical Writing, New York, The Ronald Press Com-
pany, 1948, p. 129.
QUALITIES 159
writer" to prevent confusion with authors quoted or referred to.
Whatever the point of view adopted whether the author is referred
to as "I" or "the writer" it should be maintained throughout the
paper. In any event, if the writing is objective and impersonal in
spirit, occasions for references to the author or authors will be few.
The first of the three examples given here shows the first person
singular pronoun referring to a single author, the second shows the
first person plural pronoun referring to coauthors, and the third
illustrates the impersonal third person construction.
The formation of Liesegang Rings is adequately explained by the
theories of Ostwald and Chatter ji and Dhar; an explanation of the
origin of the radial lines, for which I propose to use the term radii,
is still lacking. 5
In the fall of 1941 we had an opportunity to study 18 adult male and
female C. v. viridis recently removed from a hibernating den located
near Cheyenne, Wyoming. 6
The problem confronting the reviewer is, as usual, how to present the
field in the space allowed. No apologies are offered for materials not
included. . . . 7
The passive voice is more frequently used in scientific than in
general writing because it contributes to impersonality of style and
because in scientific work the personal agent is often subordinated
to what takes place; unfortunately, this legitimate use of the passive
voice often becomes so habitual that the writer neglects to make use
of the more forceful active voice even when its use is desirable.
The passive voice is justified in the two following examples since
nothing would be gained by reference to the agent the experimenter.
Lead shielding 2 cm thick was placed so as to protect all plant parts
except the short length of stem to be irradiated. 8
5 H. Friedeberg, "Diffusion Lines in Silver Chromate Gelatin," Science, 119:
651, May 7, 1954.
6 L. E. Chadwick and Hermann Rahn, "Temperature Dependence of Rattling
Frequency in the Rattlesnake, Crotalus v. viridis" Science, 119:442, April 2,
1954.
7 J. S. Nicholas, "Developmental Physiology," Annual Review of Physiology,
10:43, 1948.
8 Eric Christensen, "Root Production in Plants Following Localized Stem
Irradiation," Science, 119:127, January 22, 1954.
160 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
As the experiment progressed, additional water was added to equal
the amount lost from evaporation. 9
Recasting in the active voice is an improvement in the next exam-
ple, which is more concise and direct in the revised form.
Original Revision
This procedure may be justified Economy may justify this pro-
in the interest of economy. cedure.
Scientists differ about the extent to which figurative language may
be employed in scientific writing. Owsei Temkin, in contributing
to the University of Wisconsin centennial symposium "Science and
Civilization,"- points out that writers of the past helped by the use
of metaphors to shape the concepts of biological science. 10 Similarly
a contributor to a symposium on "Form in Nature and Art" writes
of "the engineering problems which living organisms have had to
face" and refers to the biochemist Frederick Gowland Hopkins as
"possessed of a particularly penetrating gift of imagination, which
enabled him to visualize the protoplasm of the cell as a kind of chemi-
cal factory, where a large number of reactions were able to proceed
in close contiguity without becoming disorganised." 1X
Another point of view, represented by the comment of J. H. Wood-
ger, quoted earlier in this chapter, is that language can become com-
pletely serviceable to science only as it draws away from the use
of metaphor. It may be said at least that adherence to strict standards
of scientific writing demands limitation in the use of figures of
speech, particularly those which reflect emotion. The statement "na-
ture abhors a vacuum," for example, is no longer considered genu-
inely scientific, nor is it a mark of scientific sophistication to refer
subjectively or emotionally to experiments or results. In such a state-
ment as "Unfortunately it was impossible to collate the data at that
time" the word unfortunately should be omitted.
9 W. H. Preston, Jr., John W. Mitchell, and Wilkins Reeve, "Movement of
Alpha-Methoxyphenylacetic Acid from One Plant to Another Through Their
Root Systems," Science, 119:437, April 2, 1954.
10 Owsei Temkin, "Metaphors of Human Biology," Science and Civilization,
Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1949, pp. 169-94.
11 Joseph Needham, "Biochemical Aspects of Form and Growth," Aspects of
Form, New York, Farrar, Straus & Young, Inc., 1951, pp. 77 and 83.
QUALITIES 161
These essentials of good scientific style clarity, precision, concise-
ness, directness, and objectivity are all stressed in the following
editorial directive concerning style.
The style of presentation should be of the simplest, most direct and
thoroughly objective type, since the purpose of the writing is to inform
and not to entertain. Brief, clear and concise sentence structure is,
perhaps, the most important feature of such a style. If to this is added
a careful analytical outline, as a guide to the arrangement of the ma-
terial, the paper should clearly convey the author's observations and
conclusions. Circumlocutions, excessive qualification and irrelevant de-
tail confuse the issue. . . . Words should be accurately adjusted to
the shade of meaning desired. If a thing is actually observable it
should be so stated and not be mentioned in conditional terms. Repe-
tition is undesirable in written presentation. Final steps and conclu-
sions, not the author's developmental progress in understanding and
appreciation, are what interest qualified readers. 12
B. Distinction in Scientific Style
It is possible for a piece of scientific writing to have the essential
qualities of style and still to be flat and dull. The qualities of smooth-
ness, rhythm, emphasis, and even epigrammatic expression, which
lift writing above mediocrity are, however, difficult to acquire by
conscious effort. Writers who have commented on the subject agree
that smoothness and rhythm are best developed by wide reading
among the great English stylists. The writer who couples his reading
with extensive practice in writing in an effort to improve his own
style may find useful guidance in H. W. Fowler's definition of
rhythm. "A sentence or a passage is rhythmical if, when said aloud,
it falls naturally into groups of words each well fitted by its length
and intonation for its place in the whole and its relation to its ne^h-
bors . . . For, while rhythm does not mean counting syllables and
measuring accent-intervals, it does mean so arranging the parts of
your whole that each shall enhance, or at the least not detract from,
the general effect upon the ear; and what is that but seeing to it that
your sentences sound right?" 13
12 The Wistar Institute Style Brief, Philadelphia, The Wistar Institute Press,
1934, p. 7.
13 H. W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modem English Usage, Oxford, Oxford at
the Clarendon Press, 1927, p. 504.
162 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
Like smoothness and rhythm, emphasis is attained partly by un-
conscious imitation. The writer may, however, rely on the principle
that the beginning and end of the sentence are the strongest positions.
Hence emphasis will be gained if important elements are placed in
those positions and not relegated to the less conspicuous middle
position. A good sense of sentence rhythm also contributes to em-
phasis. Since the cadence of a passage will in part determine where
the verbal emphasis falls, the skilled writer can use this natural
stress to reinforce the important elements in his thought.
In the following example, italics have been added to indicate points
of emphasis as they are determined by the positions of words at the
ends of clauses and sentences, balance and parallelism, and sentence
rhythm. The order of climax in the concluding sentence is especially
noteworthy.
No one would deny that science has had a great effect on the reli-
gious outlook. If I were asked to sum up this effect as briefly as pos-
sible, I should say that it was two-fold. In the first place, scientific dis-
coveries have entirely altered our general picture of the universe and
of mails position in it. And, secondly, the application of scientific
method to the study of religion has given us a new science, the science
of comparative religion, which has profoundly changed our general
views on religion itself. To my mind, this second development is in
many ways the more important of the two, and I shall begin by trying
to explain why. There was a time when religions were simply divided
into two categories, the true and the false; one true religion, revealed
by God, and a mass of false ones, inspired by the Devil. Milton has
given expression to this idea in his beautiful "Hymn on the Morning
of Christ's Nativity." This view, unfortunately, was held by the ad-
herents of a number of different religions not only by Christians,
but also by Jews, Mohammedans and others. And with the growth of
intelligent tolerance, many people began to feel doubtful about the
Qruth of such mutually contradictory statements. But the rise of the
science of comparative religion made any such beliefs virtually impos-
sible. After a course of reading in that subject, you might still believe
that your own religion was the best of all religions; but you would
have a very queer intellectual construction if you still believed that it
alone was good and true, while all others were merely false and bad**
To summarize, good scientific style conveys meaning with a maxi-
mum of directness and accuracy and a minimum of interference.
14 Julian Huxley, in Science and Religion: A Symposium, New York, Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1931, p. 2.
QUALITIES 163
Though it is not lacking in aesthetic value, its aesthetic appeal is
functional and intrinsically related to content. The scientific writer
should have an understanding of simplicity as Frank Lloyd Wright
once defined it "to know what to leave out and what to put in,
just where and just how." 15
II. ELEMENTS OF STYLE
When questions arise concerning usage, sentence structure, spell-
ing, punctuation, and capitalization, the writer may refer to a stand-
ard handbook of English composition and to a standard dictionary.
Where practice differs concerning such details as capitalization and
abbreviations, editorial and departmental style sheets and technical
dictionaries afford guidance. Two major concerns sentence struc-
ture and diction are so closely associated with the logic of scientific
writing that they merit discussion here.
A. Sentence Structure
Editors generally agree in their emphasis on sentence structure,
ranking it, with diction and logical organization, among the aspects
of composition which the writer should master.
7. Relationship of Ideas Within the Sentence
Certainly, the scientific writer who understands and appreciates
the capacities of the sentence for expressing simple and complex re-
lationships will find it a responsive medium in giving form to his
observations and generalizations.
For stating an uncomplicated, unqualified observation a simple
sentence is used.
From June to September Trident's activity was marked by quiet ex-
trusion of lava accompanied by steady, moderately vigorous steaming. 16
The compound sentence expresses co-ordinate ideas in balance or
contrast.
15 Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture, Being the Kahn Lectures for
1930, Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology, Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1931, p. 76.
16 Ernest H. Muller, Werner Juhle, and Henry W. Coulter, "Current Vol-
canic Activity in Katmai National Monument," Science, 119:319, March 5, 1954.
164 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
The flow is dark brown and blocky on the surface, but it continues
to steam from hot viscous lava beneath. 17
In the complex sentence dependent clauses are used to express ideas
subordinate to the thought of the main clause.
In the year 1675, I discovered living creatures in rain water, which
had stood but a few days in a new earthen pot, glazed blue within. 18
Generalizations whether of fact or opinion may be expressed in
simple sentences when the ideas are so completely crystallized that
little or no condition or qualification is necessary.
Mercury will dissolve many metals, such as pieces of tin or gold, but
not iron, nor substances like salt, sugar, or wax. 19
Great specialization is associated with corresponding limitations in
other directions. 20
When a generalization involves a subordinate idea of consequence
a complex sentence is required, as in the following axiom from New-
ton's Laws of Motion.
Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a
right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces im-
pressed upon it. 21
Scientific writing allows less latitude in sentence structure than
does creative writing. Unconventional verbless sentences or contact
clauses (independent clauses joined by a comma) are rare in scien-
tific writing. Lapses such as those in the following examples taken
from student papers require revision.
17 Loc. cit.
18 Anton van Leeuwenhoek, "Little Animals in Rain Water," The Autobiog-
raphy of Science, New York, Doubleday Company, Inc., 1946, p. 158. Leeuwen-
hoek spoke and wrote only Dutch. His letters to the Royal Society, from which
this excerpt is taken, were translated for publication in the Society's Philosophi-
cal Transactions.
19 Julian Huxley and E. N. da C. Andrade, Simple Science, New York,
Harper & Brothers, 1935, p. 49.
20 Edwin Grant Conklin, Heredity and Environment, 5th ed., Princeton,
Princeton University Press, 1923, p. 252.
21 Sir Isaac Newton, Mathematical Principles, revision by Florian Cajori of
Motte's translation, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1946, p. 13.
ELEMENTS 165
Incorrect
Also the fact that there are dif-
ferences of opinion among mem-
bers of the profession as to the
meanings of terms.
Although if this apparatus is op-
erated under pressure, objection-
able quantities of gas escape.
The combustion chamber was
quartz and the furnace brick-lined,
a silica tube cooler was used to
cool the gas.
The author does not name the
materials of which the burner was
constructed, however, it seems that
he used refractory materials such
as silica.
Correct
Also there are differences of
opinion among members of the
profession as to the meanings of
terms.
If this apparatus is operated un-
der pressure, objectionable quanti-
ties of gas escape.
The combustion chamber was
quartz and the furnace brick-
lined ; a silica tube cooler was used
to cool the gas.
The author does not name the
materials of which the burner was
constructed ; however, it seems that
he used refractory materials such
as silica.
Failure to establish correct structural relationships between the
main and subordinate ideas in a sentence results in loosely con-
structed compound sentences or in faulty subordination.
Faulty co-ordination
In February 1930 he was mar-
ried, and in 1933 after making
various archaeological expeditions,
he wrote his treatise on the sub-
ject.
Although the book will be of
greatest value in introductory
courses, it includes material from
several different levels.
Improved
In February 1930 he was mar-
ried. In 1933, after making vari-
ous archaeological expeditions, he
wrote his treatise on the subject.
Although the book includes ma-
terials from several different levels,
it will be of greatest value in in-
troductory courses.
2. Faulty Reference of Pronouns and
Misrefafed Modifiers
Faulty reference of pronouns and dangling and misplaced modi-
fiers are responsible for many of the ambiguous statements and ludi-
crous errors which vex the editorial reader.
166 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
Reference of Pronouns
Faulty
The president's statement not
only strengthened the feeling of
uncertainty but also suggested
changes in policies that the mem-
bers of the board disapproved of.
The temperature readings varied
several points that day which left
the interpretation of the results
still more obscure.
Revised
The president's statement not
only strengthened the feeling of
uncertainty but also suggested
policy changes that the members
of the board disapproved of.
A variation of several points in
the temperature readings that day
left the interpretation of the re-
sults still more obscure.
Dangling Modifiers
Faulty
Realizing that dogmatic state-
ments are unscientific, the follow-
ing material will be presented with
the understanding that it is in ac-
cord with the best research avail-
able at this time.
When working on a large scale,
it is more practical to prevent these
conditions than to attempt to cope
with them.
Revised
Realizing that dogmatic state-
ments are unscientific, I shall pre-
sent the following material with
the understanding that it is in ac-
cord with the best research avail-
able at this time.
When the work is done on a
large scale, it is more practical
to prevent these conditions than to
attempt to cope with them.
Misplaced Modifiers
Faulty Revised
A sponge was placed on the nose A sponge filled with narcotics
of the person filled with narcotics. was placed on the person's nose.
The members were requested to
fill out the questionnaire enclosed
in ink.
The members were requested to
fill out in ink the questionnaire
enclosed.
3. Illogical Shifts
While changes in thought may necessitate changes in tense, person,
voice, mood, and sentence pattern, irrational shifts are never justi-
fied. Practice concerning tense, it may be noted, differs somewhat
in different fields. One group of editors states, for example:
Careful choice of tense, appropriate to the event, will make for brevity
and clearness. A persistent condition observed at all times should be
described in the present tense, while one which characterizes particu-
ELEMENTS 167
larly the conditions of the observation or experiment should be in
terms of the past tense. 22
Another editorial preference is for adherence, in general, to the past
tense.
Writers often skip lightly from one tense to another, even in the
same paragraph, and not infrequently confuse the reader. Furthermore,
[William H.] Woglom emphasizes that good reason does not exist
for describing experiments in the past tense and microscopic morphol-
ogy in the present, though this is common practice. Perhaps safest is
to keep to the past tense in all descriptive matter. . . .
A related difficulty arises with regard to the expressions "he be-
lieved" and "he believes." In many instances it is impossible to deter-
mine whether the view cited is still held and therefore whether "he
believes" is correct. "He believed," on the other hand, may leave the
reader with the impression that the opinion has been abandoned. In
the publications of this press the difficulty is avoided as a rule by
changing the verb of thinking to a verb of saying, so that, for instance,
"Brown considered" becomes "Brown expressed the opinion." In re-
views of recent literature in which the verbs of saying are in the
present tense and in papers in which an author is discussing recent
work by men whose opinions he obviously knows well, "he believes"
is of course permissible. 28
The following examples show unjustified shifts in tense, person,
voice, and mood with accompanying revisions.
Shift in tense Revised
These effects were usually con- These effects were usually con-
centrated on the blood system of centrated on the blood stream of
the animal. The count of red and the animal. The count of red and
white blood cells is affected white blood cells was affected. The
greatly. The percentage of hemo- percentage of hemoglobin was also
globin was also reduced. reduced.
Shift in person Revised
First, a new filing system can be First, a new filing system can be
introduced. Second, you can train introduced. Second, personnel can
personnel to handle the present be trained to handle the present
complicated system. complicated system.
22 Wistar Institute Style Brief, p. 7.
28 By permission from Medical Writing, 2nd ed., p. 15, by Morris Fishbein.
Copyright 1948. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
168 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
Shift in voice
The technicians began the tests
on March 15, and the results were
tabulated the following day.
Shift in mood
The student should take mean-
ingful notes in outline form and
keep them in order. Do not cram.
Revised
The technicians began the tests
on March 15 and tabulated the re-
sults on the following day.
Revised
The student should take mean-
ingful notes in outline form and
keep them in order. He should not
cram.
A shift in sentence pattern occurs when the writer begins his sen-
tence with one construction in mind and concludes it with another.
Confused
It was because of a natural in-
terest that made me choose the
topic of anesthesia.
As to whether a person suffering
from self-pity could apply the ad-
vice intelligently and with perse-
verance is doubtful.
Corrected
It was because of a natural in-
terest that I chose the topic of
anesthesia.
Whether a person suffering from
self-pity could apply the advice in-
telligently and with perseverance
is doubtful.
4. Balance and Parallelism
Writers frequently begin the listing of a series of problems, pur-
poses, effects, etc., only to break balance and parallelism by intro-
ducing grammatical inconsistency or by abandoning the series before
completing it. Faulty parallelism and balance may also result from
the omission of necessary words, mishandling of correlative con-
junctions, and incomplete or illogical comparisons. The following
examples illustrate faulty parallelism and balance and suggest ways
of correcting it.
Faulty
These phenomena include change
of heart-beat rate, controlled dila-
tion of the pupil of the eye, and
recall or inhibit experiences which
were a part of normal waking con-
sciousness in the past.
Revised
These phenomena include change
of heart-beat rate, controlled dila-
tion of the pupil of the eye, and
the recall or inhibition of experi-
ences which were a part of nor-
mal waking consciousness in the
past.
ELEMENTS 169
Faulty Revised
The investigator neither made a The investigator made neither a
report nor a verbal statement to report nor a verbal statement to
the committee. the committee.
Your judgment is as good as Your judgment is as good as
some of us who are years your that of some of us who are years
senior. your senior.
5. Interrogations
Interrogations are not encountered with great frequency in scien-
tific writing. Occasions for direct questions seldom arise and the
rhetorical question is a literary rather than a scientific device. At
times, however, the question form may be used advantageously to
present a problem or to raise a topic for discussion. Each of the
three questions quoted here serves to introduce one of three suc-
cessive paragraphs in the author's "Discussion." 24
At what point in the development of the young of Pomacentrus do
the melanophores become active?
How does the melanophore picture of the embryos and larvae of
Pomacentrus fit into the picture given by the reports of other investi-
gators in regard to their work on other fish embryos and larvae?
What is the interpretation of these data?
6. Revision of Sentences
The consideration of sentences isolated from their context, like
the examples in this section, serves the purpose of focusing attention
on specific weaknesses with which the student must cope. The student,
faced with the task of revising his manuscript sentence by sentence,
may find encouraging the knowledge that Charles Darwin "did not
write with ease, and was apt to invert his sentences both in writing
and speaking, putting the qualifying clause before it was clear what
it was to qualify. He corrected a great deal, and was eager to express
himself as well as he possibly could."
24 B. R. Coonfield, "Chromatophore Reactions of Embryos and Larvae of
Pomacentrus leucostictus," Papers from Tortugas Laboratory, Vol. XXXII,
Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 517, Washington, D. C.,
1940, pp. 176-77.
170 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
In commenting on these statements of Darwin's daughter, his son
Francis Darwin adds:
Perhaps the commonest corrections needed were of obscurities due
to the omission of a necessary link in the reasoning, something which
he had evidently omitted through familiarity with the subject. Not
that there was any fault in the sequence of the thoughts, but that
from familiarity with his argument he did not notice when the words
failed to reproduce his thought. He also frequently put too much mat-
ter into one sentence, so that it had to be cut up into two.
On the whole, I think the pains which my father took over the liter-
ary part of the work was very remarkable. He often laughed or grum-
bled at himself for the difficulty which he found in writing English,
saying, for instance, that if a bad arrangement of a sentence was
possible, he should be sure to adopt it. ... When a sentence got
hopelessly involved, he would ask himself, "now what do you want to
say?" and his answer written down, would often disentangle the con-
fusion. 25
B. Diction
Probably no element in writing is more closely associated with
an author's thought than are the words which he chooses to convey
his meaning. Nevertheless, writing in both student papers and pub-
lished work too frequently displays a weakness in diction.
7. Errors and Incongruities in Diction
Many errors in diction arise from mistaking one word for a re-
lated word: infer (conclude) for imply (suggest) ; effect (bring
about) for affect (influence) ; homogenous (alike in structure) for
homogeneous (alike in nature). Such confusion misled the student
who wrote, "Examples were presented and conclusions deducted."
Again, words may be incorrect in combination: "The author gave
the theory of these techniques." One might "give" an explanation of
a theory but hardly the theory itself. Similarly it is unwise to use
the same word in different senses in close proximity, as in the example
quoted by one editor : "After reaching Greenland the authors reached
different conclusions." 26
25 The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by his son Francis Darwin,
New York and London, D. Appleton and Company, 1925, Vol. I, pp. 130-31.
26 Eugene S. McCartney, Recurrent Maladies in Scholarly Writing, Ann
Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1953, p. 28.
ELEMENTS 171
The undiscriminating writer fails to make a careful selection
among such synonyms as dull, blunt, obtuse, or as pay, reimburse,
indemnify, recompense, compensate which, though similar in mean-
ing, are by no means interchangeable. Or he may lapse into outright
illogicalities: "The identical procedure was followed with the excep-
tion that. . . ." If the procedures were identical, no exception would
be possible. The word fact is often illogically used:
The facts he tells are few, and subsequent research has shown that
they are inaccurate. 27
However, a number of facts remain to be established.
Such blunders are due in part to the tendency to overwork a few
words instead of seeking the exact and appropriate word. On slang
levels this tendency results in every object being known as a "doo-
dad" or a "thingamajig," every person disapproved of being desig-
nated as a "pill" or a "dope," and everything approved of being
described as "smooth" or "cool." Yet writers who carefully avoid
all suspicion of slang may be equally injudicious in their use of
such words as thing, factor, field, interest, function, which are often
used to the point of monotony.
2. Idiomatic Expression
The idioms of a language are expressions, usually of long stand-
ing, which cannot be grammatically analyzed or logically explained.
Writers who are trying hard to be technically correct sometimes avoid
the use of such expressions. This extreme caution results in stiff,
stilted writing what is known as an "unidiomatic" style. Among
the idioms most frequently violated are those involving prepositions.
The best preventive of departures from idiom is wide reading in
those English writers who are recognized masters of idiom. It is also
helpful to consult handbooks and dictionaries which list idioms, usu-
ally under the key word of the phrase.
The use of idiom often makes possible the succinct phrasing of
an idea. For instance, Sir James Jeans' statement "It [humanity]
has before it time enough and to spare in which it may understand
Ibid., p. 39.
172 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
everything" would be more cumbersome if expressed less idiomati-
cally. Examples of violations of idiom, with revisions, follow.
Unidiomatic Revised
Probably no city in the United Probably no city in the United
States of any age or size has not States of any age or size has es-
experienced the sporadic and un- caped the sporadic and unorgan-
organized rebuilding of sections of ized rebuilding of sections of its
its central core areas. central core areas.
The project was undertaken for The project was undertaken for
the benefit to the public. the benefit of the public.
3. Tautology
Tautology the needless repetition of meanings, differently ex-
pressed is an extreme form of wordiness. It is usually not difficult
to avoid the more glaring tautological expressions such as sometimes
occur in student themes: "Lincoln's fatal death," "fiction novel,"
"the first primary necessity," "when gases combine together." One
should, however, guard also against less obvious but still objection-
able tautologies such as "employ the use of" for "use," "during the
daytime" for "during the day," and "recopy" for "copy."
4. Cliche
A cliche is a trite, overworked phrase, so called after a French
word denoting a stereotype plate or cast of type. Such phrases as
"last but not least," "beg to differ," "all walks of life" give the im-
pression that the writer is willing to borrow worn-out words of others
rather than exert himself to find fresh words which express his
thought. The habitual use of cliches indicates that the writer has be-
come uncritical of his own style. Like overworked slang, cliches, as
Frederick A. Philbrick has pointed out, lower the tone of a composi-
tion.
. . . such things are fatal to the creation of mood. A lawyer's argu-
ment is equally valid whether he expresses it in terse and vivid Eng-
lish or in hackneyed phrases that might have been taken from the
balloon-enclosed conversations of the comic strip. But the mood that
might win him a verdict is fatally injured by such mistakes, and just
ELEMENTS 173
as a vulgarism can destroy the mood produced by a sermon, so can
a lawyer's eloquence be made ineffective if his diction shows too
clearly that he spent a neglected youth. 28
5. Mixed Metaphor
Although scientific writing requires the use of relatively few figures
of speech (see Section I-A-3), no writing is entirely devoid of figura-
tive language. The metaphor, or implied comparison, is the basis of
many everyday expressions "run for office," "place the blame,"
"pass over the objection," "table the motion." The careless mixing
of metaphors, as in the following examples, offends both editors and
readers.
President Truman was an unknown quantity when he was tossed into
the maelstrom of world affairs on a scale never before known to
history.
We may now have the determination to take the unpalatable but nec-
essary steps for our survival.
In another letter, the question of agreeing on the price was a bone
of contention.
6. Making Use of the Dictionary
When Sir William Osier made his famous comment, "After all,
there is no such literature as a Dictionary," he showed the way to
a full appreciation of the dictionary as a repository of knowledge.
This reference makes available a wealth of information geograph-
ical, theological, literary, rhetorical, philosophical, historical, so-
ciological, economic, scientific, and linguistic. In using the diction-
ary to solve problems of diction the student will find, in addition
to the definition of a word, its pronunciation, spelling, syllabication,
derivation, classification among the parts of speech, and usage level.
The listing of synonyms and antonyms is helpful in making discrimi-
nating choices among words and in expressing fine shades of
meaning.
28 Frederick A. Philbrick, Language and the Law, 1949, p. 23. Used with the
permission of The Macmillan Company.
174 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
Many representatives of professional institutions and business
groups have expressed concern in recent years about the faulty spell-
ing of some college students and graduates. (A list of words reported
as misspelled in science and professional courses appears in Ap-
pendix A, p. 415.) Students who have difficulty with spelling will find
it expedient to supplement the use of the dictionary with an analysis
of their individual spelling problems.
III. PROBLEMS IN SCIENTIFIC STYLE
Apart from individual problems in attaining an adequate and
pleasing style, there are broader problems of scientific style which
have provoked wide discussion. Among such problems are the influx
of shoptalk and jargon and the attainment of readability in scientific
writing.
A. The Influx of Shoptalk and Jargon
Because of its factual, impersonal character, scientific writing is
subject to two frequently associated forms of vulgarization shoptalk
and jargon. Shoptalk is the laboratory or office slang or colloquial
usage characteristic of a professional or business group. Permissible,
perhaps, in the oral exchange incident to the day's work, shoptalk
is likely to be objectionable when transferred to writing. The abbre-
viating of frequently used terms such as lab, hypo, schizo; the piling
up of nouns used as adjectives as "the business world type man";
the use of such questionable forms as enthused, accessorize, phony
these are characteristic of shoptalk and lower the tone of a piece of
writing. Many companies forbid the use of shoptalk and localisms
in reports because the terminology of a report must be such that
the report can be circulated to other branches of a company and
be understandable in years to come.
Of somewhat different origin, jargon, or writing which is un-
necessarily pretentious, verbose, and involved, derives its name
from its unintelligibility. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch years ago identi-
fied the marks of jargon as first, the use of vague, "fuzzy," abstract
nouns in preference to specific concrete ones; second, a tendency
toward elaborate circumlocution.
PROBLEMS 175
Jargon Improved
One of the major causes of One of the major causes of the
inaccurate or fallacious interpre- misinterpretation of experimental
tations of the results of an ex- results is the experimenter's fail-
periment or investigation is the ure to understand the basic as-
absence of the experimenter's or sumptions underlying his study,
investigator's cognizance of his
basic assumptions in the area of
the particular experimentation or
investigation.
We are about to enter an area We are ready to begin,
of activity.
More recently, Representative Maury Maverick coined the terra
gobbledygook to designate the excessively wordy, obscure jargon
often found in official documents and exemplified by the following
passage.
The careers department, not to be confused with the placement office,
has taken its position on the campus because this institution recog-
nizes the need to obviate one contributing factor in careers maladjust-
ment stemming from inadequacy of occupational information and
sound interpretation during the undergraduate training.
B. Achieving Readability
In recent years the terms readability and readability yardsticks
have become rallying points for many of those who have resisted
the influence of jargon in current factual writing. This group asserts
that many writers, particularly scientific writers, in an effort to be
formal, have become pretentious and have deviated farther and far-
ther from simplicity of speech. As the proponents of "readability"
themselves recognize, their position is not entirely new, but is a re-
cent development of the old conflict between the plain and the literary
style.
The history of English prose is, in fact, the history of the plain
style and successive attempts to replace it by something else. All these
attempts broke down in the end; the plain style is the only classic
style that has survived. The pomposities and complexities of Dr. Sam-
uel Johnson, Edward Gibbon, Edmund Burke, Walter Savage Landor,
Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and Walter Pater are now museum
176 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
pieces; the simplicity of John Bunyan, Samuel Pepys, John Dryden,
Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, and Oliver Goldsmith is still a model
of good writing. 29
The belief that readability can be measured has grown up during
the past thirty years and has attracted widespread interest since
World War II. A number of readability "yardsticks" have been de-
vised, some of which distinguish two elements in readability : reading
ease and reading interest. 30 While different "yardsticks" rely on
different units of measurement, the factors listed by Robert Gun-
ning 31 include those most often taken into account:
Average sentence length in words
Percentage of simple sentences
Percentage of strong verb forms
Portion of familiar words
Portion of abstract words
Percentage of personal references
Percentage of long words
This current emphasis on readability as a central aim in writing
has undoubtedly helped to reactivate the attack on jargon, long,
windy introductions, awkward inversions and otherwise involved
sentence structure, pretentious diction, "fine writing," and verbiage
generally. The uncritical acceptance of all that has been written in
behalf of readability may, however, lead to two misconceptions: an
expectation that the art of writing can be reduced to a formula and
a disregard of the fact that the scientific writer has an obligation
to his material as well as to the reader. (See Appendix A, p. 415.)
IV. ANALYSIS OF THE STYLE OF A SCIENTIFIC PAPER
"The Great Piltdown Hoax," 32 an article reprinted in part here
for purposes of stylistic analysis, affords ample evidence that scien-
tific writing need not be dull. The author has evidently addressed
29 Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Readable Writing, New York, Harper & Brothers,
1949, p. 198.
30 Rudolf Flesch, How to Test Readability, New York, Harper & Brothers,
1951, pp. 5, 9.
31 By permission from The Technique of Clear Writing, pp. 32-33, by Robert
Gunning. Copyright 1952. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
32 William L. Straus, Jr., "The Great Piltdown Hoax," Science, 119:265-69,
February 26, 1954.
AN ANALYSIS 177
his review not to the specialist but to readers generally who are in-
terested in the history of scientific thought. With this wider circle
of readers in mind, the author has undoubtedly permitted himself
adjectives "astounding," "inexplicable" which would be inappro-
priate in a report of experimental results to a group of specialists.
At times a tinge of irony verging on humor colors the phrasing "a
veritable bone of contention," "polite anthropological society," "the
disjecta membra of the Piltdown 'dawn man,' " as if the author were
mindful that it is a chronicle of scientific fallibility he is recounting.
While this article could not serve as a model for all types of scientific
writing, it is admirably adapted to its purpose.
The analysis which is offered following the article permits a de-
tailed comparison of the two introductory paragraphs and paragraph
15, which is more theoretical. The analysis covers principally sentence
structure and diction with some attention to qualities of style. In
the calculation of the length of sentences and paragraphs each proper
name has been counted as one word, as has each foreign phrase.
THE GREAT PILTDOWN HOAX
William L. Straus, Jr.
Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, The Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Maryland
[1] When Drs. J. S. Weiner, K. P. Oakley, and W. E. Le Gros Clark
(7) recently announced that careful study had proven the famous Pilt-
down skull to be compounded of both recent and fossil bones, so that
it is in part a deliberate fraud, one of the greatest of all anthropologi-
cal controversies came to an end. Ever since its discovery, the skull of
"Piltdown man" termed by its enthusiastic supporters the "dawn
man" and the "earliest Englishman" has been a veritable bone of
contention. To place this astounding and inexplicable hoax in its
proper setting, some account of the facts surrounding the discovery
of the skull and of the ensuing controversy seems in order.
[2] Charles Dawson was a lawyer and an amateur antiquarian who
lived in Lewes, Sussex. One day, in 1908, while walking along a farm
road close to nearby Piltdown Common, he noticed that the road had
been repaired with peculiar brown flints unusual to that region. These
flints he subsequently learned had come from a gravel pit (that turned
out to be of Pleistocene age) in a neighboring farm. Inquiring there
for fossils, he enlisted the interest of the workmen, one of whom, some
time later, handed Dawson a piece of an unusually thick human parie-
178 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
tal bone. Continuing his search of the gravel pit, Dawson found, in the
autumn of 1911, another and larger piece of the same skull, belonging
to the frontal region. His discoveries aroused the interest of Sir Arthur
Smith Woodward, the eminent paleontologist of the British Museum.
Together, during the following spring (1912), the two men made a
systematic search of the undisturbed gravel pit and the surrounding
spoil heaps; their labors resulted in the discovery of additional pieces
of bone, comprising together with the fragments earlier recovered by
Dawson the larger part of a remarkably thick human cranium or
brain-case and the right half of an apelike mandible or lower jaw with
two molar teeth in situ (2). Continued search of the gravel pit yielded,
during the summer of 1913, two human nasal bones and fragments of
a turbinate bone (found by Dawson), and an apelike canine tooth
(found by the distinguished archeologist, Father Teilhard de Chardin)
(3). All these remains constitute the find that is known as Piltdown I.
[3] Dawson died in 1916. Early in 1917, Smith Woodward an-
nounced the discovery of two pieces of a second human skull and a
molar tooth (4). These form the so-called Piltdown II skull. The cra-
nial fragments are a piece of thick frontal bone representing an area
absent in the first specimen and a part of a somewhat thinner occipital
bone that duplicates an area recovered in the first find. According to
Smith Woodward's account, these fragments were discovered by Daw-
son early in 1915 in a field about two miles from the site of the origi-
nal discovery.
[4] The first description of the Piltdown remains, by Smith Wood-
ward at a meeting of the Geological Society of London on December
18, 1912 (2), evoked a controversy that is probably without equal in
the history of paleontological science and which raged, without prom-
ise of a satisfactory solution, until the studies of Weiner, Oakley, and
Clark abruptly ended it. With the announcement of the discovery, sci-
entists rapidly divided themselves into two main camps representing
two distinctly different points of view (with variations that need not
be discussed here) (5).
[5] Smith Woodward regarded the cranium and jaw as belonging
to one and the same individual, for which he created a new genus,
Eoanthropus. In this monistic view toward the fragments he found
ready and strong support. In addition to the close association within
the same gravel pit of cranial fragments and jaw, there was advanced
in support of this interpretation the evidence of the molar teeth in
the jaw (which were flatly worn down in a manner said to be quite
peculiar to man and quite unlike the type of wear ever found in apes)
and, later, above all, the evidence of a second, similar individual in
the second set of skull fragments and molar tooth (the latter similar
to those imbedded in the jaw and worn away in the same unapelike
manner). A few individuals (Dixon [6], Kleinschmidt [7], Weinert
AN ANALYSIS 179
[8]), moreover, have even thought that proper reconstruction of the
jaw would reveal it to be essentially human, rather than simian. Re-
constructions of the skull by adherents to the monistic view produced
a brain-case of relatively small cranial capacity, and certain workers
even fancied that they had found evidences of primitive features in
the brain from examination of the reconstructed endocranial cast
(9, 10) a notoriously unreliable procedure; but subsequent altera-
tions of reconstruction raised the capacity upward to about 1400 cc
close to the approximate average for living men (10, p. 596).
[6] A number of scientists, however, refused to accept the cranium
and jaw as belonging to one and the same kind of individual. Instead,
they regarded the brain-case as that of a fossil but modern type of
man and the jaw (and canine tooth) as that of a fossil anthropoid
ape which had come by chance to be associated in the same deposit.
The supporters of the monistic view, however, stressed the improba-
bility of the presence of a hitherto unknown ape in England during
the Pleistocene epoch, particularly since no remains of fossil apes
had been found in Europe later than the Lower Pliocene. An anatomist,
David Waterston, seems to have been the first to have recognized the
extreme morphological incongruity between the cranium and the jaw.
From the announcement of the discovery he voiced his disbelief in
their anatomical association (11, p. 150). The following year (1913)
he demonstrated that superimposed tracings taken from radiograms
of the Piltdown mandible and the mandible of a chimpanzee were
"practically identical"; at the same time he noted that the Piltdown
molar teeth not only "approach the ape form, but in several respects
are identical with them." He concluded that since "the cranial frag-
ments of the Piltdown skull, on the other hand, are in practically all
their details essentially human ... it seems to me to be as inconse-
quent to refer the mandible and the cranium to the same individual
as it would be to articulate a chimpanzee foot with the bones of an
essentially human thigh and leg" (12). . . .
[7] A third and in a sense neutral point of view held that the whole
business was so ambiguous that the Piltdown discovery had best be
put on the shelf, so to speak, until further evidence, through new dis-
coveries, might become available. I have not attempted anything re-
sembling a thorough poll of the literature, but I have the distinct im-
pression that this point of view has become increasingly common in
recent years, as will be further discussed. Certainly, those best quali-
fied to have an opinion, especially those possessing a sound knowledge
of human and primate anatomy, have held largely with a few notable
exceptions either to a dualistic or to a neutral interpretation of the
remains, and hence have rejected the monistic interpretation that led
to the reconstruction of a "dawn man." Most assuredly, and contrary
180 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
to the impression that has been generally spread by the popular press
when reporting the hoax, "Eoanthropus" has remained far short of
being universally accepted into polite anthropological society. . . .
[8] In 1892, Carnot, a French mineralogist, reported that the
amount of fluorine in fossil bones increases with their geological age
a report that seems to have received scant attention from paleontolo-
gists. Recently, K. P. Oakley, happening to come across Carnot's
paper, recognized the possibilities of the fluorine test for establishing
the relative ages of bones found within a single deposit. He realized,
furthermore, that herein might lie the solution of the vexed Piltdown
problem. Consequently, together with C. R. Hoskins, he applied the
fluorine test to the "Eoanthropus" and other mammalian remains found
at Piltdown (20). The results led to the conclusion that "all the re-
mains of Eoanthropus . . . are contemporaneous"; and that they are,
"at the earliest, Middle Pleistocene." However, they were strongly in-
dicated as being of late or Upper Pleistocene age, although "probably
at least 50,000 years" old (19). Their fluorine content was the same
as that of the beaver remains but significantly less than that of the
geologically older, early Pleistocene mammals of the Piltdown fauna.
This seemed to increase the probability that cranium and jaw be-
longed to one individual. But at the same time, it raised the enigma
of the existence in the late Pleistocene of a human-skulled, large-
brained individual possessed of apelike jaws and teeth which would
leave "Eoanthropus" an anomaly among Upper Pleistocene men. To
complete the dilemma, if cranium and jaw were attributed to two
different animals one a man, the other an ape the presence of an
anthropoid ape in England near the end of the Pleistocene appeared
equally incredible. Thus the abolition of a Lower Pleistocene dating
did not solve the Piltdown problem. It merely produced a new prob-
lem that was even more disturbing.
[9] As the solution of this dilemma, Dr. J. S. Weiner advanced the
proposition to Drs. Oakley and Clark that the lower jaw and canine
tooth are actually those of a modern anthropoid ape, deliberately
altered so as to resemble fossil specimens. He demonstrated experi-
mentally, moreover, that the teeth of a chimpanzee could be so altered
by a combination of artificial abrasion and appropriate staining as
to appear astonishingly similar to the molars and canine tooth ascribed
to "Piltdown man." This led to a new study of all the "Eoanthropus"
material that "demonstrated quite clearly that the mandible and canine
are indeed deliberate fakes" (1). It was discovered that the "wear"
of the teeth, both molar and canine, had been produced by an artificial
planing down, resulting in occlusal surfaces unlike those developed
by normal wear. Examination under a microscope revealed fine
scratches such as would be caused by an abrasive. X-ray examination
AN ANALYSIS 181
of the canine showed that there was no deposit of secondary dentine,
as would be expected if the abrasion had been due to natural attrition
before the death of the individual.
[10] An improved method of fluorine analysis, of greater accuracy
when applied to small samples, had been developed since Oakley and
Hoskins made their report in 1950. This was applied to the Piltdown
specimens. . . . The results clearly indicate that whereas the Pilt-
down I cranium is probably Upper Pleistocene in age, as claimed by
Oakley and Hoskins, the attributed mandible and canine tooth are
"quite modern." As for Piltdown II, the frontal fragment appears to
be Upper Pleistocene (it probably belonged originally to Piltdown I
cranium), but the occipital fragment and the isolated molar tooth are
of recent or modern age. . . .
[11] In conclusion, therefore, the disjecta membra of the Piltdown
"dawn man" may now be allocated as follows: (1) the Piltdown I
cranial fragments (to which should probably be added Piltdown II
frontal) represent a modern type of human brain-case that is in no
way remarkable save for its unusual thickness and which is, at most,
late Pleistocene in age; (2) Piltdown I mandible and canine tooth
and Piltdown II molar tooth are those of a modern anthropoid ape
(either a chimpanzee or an orangutan) that have been artificially
altered in structure and artificially colored so as to resemble the
naturally colored cranial pieces moreover, it is almost certain that
the isolated molar of Piltdown II comes from the original mandible,
thus confirming Hrdlicka's (78) earlier suspicion; and (3) Piltdown II
occipital is of recent human origin, with similar counterfeit coloration.
[12] Weiner, Oakley, and Clark conclude that "the distinguished
palaeontologists and archaeologists who took part in the excavations
at Piltdown were the victims of a most elaborate and carefully prepared
hoax" that was "so extraordinarily skilful" and which "appears to
have been so entirely unscrupulous and inexplicable, as to find no
parallel in the history of palaeontological discovery."
[13] It may be wondered why forty years elapsed before the hoax
was discovered. Two factors enter here: first, there was no reason at
all to suspect the perpetration of a fraud, at least, not until fluorine
analysis indicated the relative recency of all the specimens, thus mak-
ing the association of a human cranium and an anthropoid-ape jaw,
either anatomically or geologically, hardly credible; and, second,
methods for conclusively determining whether the specimens were
actual fossils or faked ones, short of their wholesale destruction, were
developed only in recent years (it will be recalled that even the
fluorine-estimation method used by Oakley and Hoskins a few years
ago was inadequate for detecting a significant difference between brain-
case and jaw). . . .
182 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
[14] The ready initial acceptance of the Piltdown discovery at its
face value, at least by a majority of interested scientists, can probably
be attributed to the philosophical climate that invested the problem of
human evolution at that time. In September, 1912, before the announce-
ment of the discovery of "Piltdown man," the distinguished anatomist,
Elliot Smith, in an address before the Anthropological Section of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science at Dundee (22),
expressed a prevailing point of view when he developed the theory
that the brain led the way in the evolution of man and that modification
of other parts of the body followed. Thus the stage was set for the
ready acceptance of the Piltdown fragments as constituting a single
individual, a "dawn man" possessing a human cranium housing a
human brain, but with phylogenetically laggard, hence simian, jaws
and teeth. . . .
[15] Recent finds of fossil men and other primates, however, indi-
cate that it is the brain that was the evolutionary laggard in man's
phylogeny; indeed, the studies of Tilly Edinger (24) of the phylogeny
of the horse brain suggest that this may well be a general rule in
mammalian evolution. It was such concepts as this, leading to a change
in philosophical climate, that evoked an increasing skepticism toward
the validity of the monistic interpretation of the Piltdown fragments
and led in turn to what appears to have been the prevailing recent
opinion, namely, that the fragments should, as expressed in 1949 by
Le Gros Clark (25), "be laid aside without further comment until
more evidence becomes available." This view, enhanced by the redating
of the remains by Oakley and Hoskins, provided the proper psycho-
logical setting for the coup de grace delivered by Weiner, Oakley, and
Clark.
[16] As the three latter point out, the solution of the Piltdown
enigma greatly clarifies the problem of human evolution. For "Eoan-
thropus," both morphologically and geologically, just simply did not
fit into the picture of human evolution that has gradually been unfold-
ing as the result of paleontological discoveries throughout the world.
[17] The Piltdown story is a significant one in the history of ideas,
more particularly as it bears on the concept of the precise course of
human evolution. For, if man's biological history be likened to a book,
it is seen to be composed of both blank and written pages and, by
those who note them carefully, many if not most of the written ones
will be seen to be in the nature of palimpsests pages that have been
rewritten after their original writing has been rubbed out. Of this,
the Piltdown affair is a striking demonstration. It is a demonstration,
furthermore, that the palimpsest nature of the pages of man's history
is not always due directly to new fossil discoveries but can also result
AN ANALYSIS 183
from changes in the philosophical climate of the science. That this
phenomenon is peculiar to anthropology, however, is seriously to be
doubted.
REFERENCES
1. WEINER, J. S., OAKLEY, K. P., and CLARK, W. E. LE GROS. Bull. Brit. Mus.
(Nat. Hist.}, Geol. 2, 141 (1953).
2. DAWSON, C., and WOODWARD, A. S. Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London 69, 117
(1913).
3. DAWSON, C., and WOODWARD, A. S. Ibid. 70, 82 (1914).
4. WOODWARD, A. S. Ibid. 73, 1 (1917).
5. MILLER, G. S., JR. Smithsonian Kept. 1928 413 (1929).
6. DIXON, A. F. Nature 99, 399 (1917).
7. KLEINSCHMIDT, O. Cited by Miller, p. 437 (5).
8. WEINERT, H. In: Anthropology Today, (p. 111). A. L. Kroeber, Ed. Chi-
cago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1953.
9. SMITH, G. ELLIOT. Appendix to Dawson & Woodward (2).
10. KEITH, A. The Antiquity of Man, Vol. 2, 2nd ed. London: Williams and
Norgate, 1925.
11. WATERSTON, Prof. Appendix to Dawson & Woodward (2).
12. WATERSTON, D. Nature 92, 319 (1913).
13. MILLER, G. S., JR. Smithsonian Inst. Pubs. Misc. Collections 65, no. 12
(1915).
14. BOULE, M. UAnthropologie 28, 433 (1917).
15. RAMSTROM, M. Bull. Geol. Inst. Univ. Upsala 16, 261 (1919).
16. FRIEDERICHS, H. F. Z. Anat. Entwicklungsgeschichte 98, 199 (1932).
17. WEIDENREICH, F. Palaeontologia Sinica, n.s.D, no. 10 (whole ser. no. 127)
(1943).
18. HRDLICKA, A. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop. S, 337 (1922).
19. OAKLEY, K. P. In: Anthropology Today, (p. 47). A. L. Kroeber, Ed. Chi-
cago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1953.
20. OAKLEY, K. P., and HOSKINS, C. R. Nature 165, 379 (1950).
21. WOODWARD, A. S. The Earliest Englishman. London: Watts, 1948.
22. SMITH, G. ELLIOT. Nature 90, 118 (1912).
23. SOLLAS, W. J. Ancient Hunters, 3rd ed. New York : Macmillan, 1924.
24. EDINGER, T. Geol. Soc. Am. Mem. 25 (1948).
25. CLARK, W. E. LE GROS. History of the Primates. London: British Museum
(Natural History), 1949.
Sentence Structure
Simple Compound Complex ' Toial
Par. 1
2
1
3
Par. 2
3
1
5
9
Par. 15
1
1
1
3
The author's liking for periodic sentences (sentences in which the
main idea or principal clause comes at the end) is also evident, as
184 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
in the three sentences of paragraph 1 and the second sentence of
paragraph 2.
Sentence Length (in words)
Longest
Shortest
Average
sentence
sentence
length
Par. 1
47
28
35
Par. 2
71
12
29
Par. 15
66
29
47
A few extremely long sentences raise the average sentence length.
The effective use of short sentences to open and close paragraph 2
should be noted.
Diction
PARAGRAPH 1
Total number of words: 105
Technical terms: Piltdown, fossil, anthropological. Total 3, about
3 per cent.
Words with "human interest": famous, skull, bones, deliberate,
fraud, greatest, controversies, discovery, man, enthusiastic, sup-
porters, "dawn man," "earliest Englishman," veritable, bone of
contention, astounding, inexplicable, hoax, setting. Total 21,
about 20 per cent.
Foreign words:
PARAGRAPH 2
Total number of words : 255
Technical terms: Pleistocene, parietal, frontal, paleontologist, cra-
nium, mandible, molar, nasal, turbinate, canine, archeologist, in
situ. Total 12, about 4.7 per cent.
Words with "human interest": lawyer, amateur, antiquarian, walk-
ing, farm, road, peculiar, brown, flats, unusual, region, gravel, pit,
neighboring, inquiring, interest, unknown, human, bone, search,
autumn, skull, discoveries, aroused, comment, spring, spoil, heaps,
labors, fragments, remarkably, brain-case, apelike, jaw, teeth,
AN ANALYSIS 185
yielded, summer, distinguished, remains, find. Total 40, about
15 per cent.
Foreign phrase: in situ.
PARAGRAPH 15
Total number of words: 142
Technical terms : primates, phylogeny, mammalian, Piltdown. Total
4, about 3 per cent.
Words with "human interest": recent, finds, men, brain, laggard,
horse, suggest, rule, change, climate, fragments, comment, evi-
dence, view, remains, setting. Total 16, about 9 per cent.
Foreign phrase : coup de grace.
Unlike paragraphs 1 and 2, paragraph 15 contains a number of no-
ticeably long or abstract words: evolutionary, concepts, philo-
sophical, skepticism, validity, monistic.
Comments
From the foregoing analysis and from further examination of the
article the following generalizations seem justified.
1. The preference for simple or complex rather than compound
sentences is a mark of a mature style. In contrast the average student
paper would probably contain a number of straggly compound sen-
tences.
2. Though a few sentences are extremely long, their length does
not impair readability because the length of sentences is varied, minor
considerations are skillfully subordinated to major ones, and sen-
tence rhythm is maintained.
3. Human interest is not lacking although this article was con-
sidered suitable for publication in a journal directed almost entirely
to scientific readers.
4. In spite of the use of everyday, concrete words, the tone of the
article is detached rather than subjective or personal. There are no
direct references to the author in either first or third person.
5. The diction is clear and precise, and the movement of the sen-
tences direct and straightforward. There is no evidence of shoptalk
or jargon.
6. The style varies slightly as the immediate purpose changes in
different paragraphs of the article. The opening paragraph, for ex-
186 SCIENTIFIC STYLE
ample, designed to introduce the subject to the reader, is less tech-
nical than paragraph 5, which sums up the contrasting theories by
which scientists interpreted the Piltdown remains.
At the opening of this chapter it was noted that style in scientific
writing should be unobtrusive. This does not mean, however, that
style in scientific writing is unimportant. On the contrary, style is
of great consequence in all expository writing. Perhaps the most
famous definition of style is Buffon's "Style is the man." Generalized
to apply to scientific writing such a definition would imply that scien-
tific style is expressive of the scientific attitude of mind.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Contrast the style of these two sentences: (a) Lillie represented the
American Society of Zoologists for four years in the Division of Biol-
ogy and Agriculture, serving as Vice Chairman of the Division in the
year 1921-22 and as chairman the following year, (b) Lillie was active
during this period in scientific organizations and his abilities were
recognized by elevating him to a number of offices. By the standards
of scientific writing, which is to be preferred?
2. Dwight E. Gray says (Journal of Chemical Education, 25:226-28, April
1948) that "somewhere in his consideration of organization the author
should decide upon a sensible title" and cites as bad examples two
reports received in the laboratory, one called "Final Report on Item
No. 2" and the other "The Most Important Research Work of the Last
Time and Proposals about Reports Still to Be Written." What is wrong
with these titles and what should titles covering comparable subject
matter include?
3. Point out the faults in style in the following statements and suggest
revisions: (a) The article contrasted the problems of the rural country-
side with those of the urban city, (b) The property reverted back to
the original owner, (c) Almost all of the cells present are small in
size, (d) Illumination at controlled thermal temperature was obtained
by the use of a light -transmitting quartz rod. (e) The availability of
the necessary raw materials is essentially negligible, (f ) A death rate
of almost 35 per cent is claimed by this deadly disease, (g) Blood
coagulation has puzzled medicine for many years.
4. Revise the following sentences: (a) However, he does not overempha-
size wit; observe this sentence, which illustrates his style, (b) The
summary condensed what the lecturer covered for the student's con-
venience, (c) The mesenchymal parts are reduced in size which is
more marked in some parts of the bodies than in others, (d) If the
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 187
two instruments are examined closely it will be seen that they are not
alike but differ, (e) Nowhere does the author make reference to this
occurrence, instead one finds vague generalities, (f) Bearing this in
mind, the weaknesses of theory are obvious.
5. Suggest changes to improve the diction of the following sentences:
(a) He brings out the concept of science as being too indifferent to
human values, (b) This is a comparatively minor error and one of
little importance, (c) The author has prepared this as the first volume
of an anticipated eight-volume work, (d) Numerous phenomena which
revolve around us are taken for granted, (e) His statement inferred
that he had begun the project some time before.
6. Proofread the paragraph below, correcting all errors in spelling, punc-
tuation, and usage. Make no unnecessary changes.
Although this problem has long been familiar to members of the
medical profession ; it is difficult to find it's nucelus and to seperate its
essential from its nonessential elements. It is all to easy to let our very
familarity with the subject prevent us making a vigorous attack on the
problem. The principle issues have been slow to develope, their serious-
ness would now be difficult to exagerate. Before we can hope to affect
a solution we must undo some of the affects of yesterdays neglect. A
first step is to breifly define the boundries of our present knowledge
and of course establishing a criteria by which we can evaluate a new
possibility as they arise.
7. Apart from the errors you have corrected in the foregoing paragraph,
what do you find to criticize in its style?
CHAPTER 9
TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
I. The place of exposition in writing
A. Exposition defined
B. Exposition and the other forms of writing
II. The expository paragraph
A. Length of paragraphs
B. Structure of paragraphs
1. The paragraph as an assembling unit
2. The paragraph as a developmental unit
III. The plan of the short expository paper
A. Defining the purpose
B. Achieving progression
C. Maintaining unity, coherence, and emphasis
IV. Analyses of examples
/ could wish that it [instruction] were more expository,
less polemical, and above all less dogmatic. JOHN
STUART MILL, Inaugural Address.
I. THE PLACE OF EXPOSITION IN WRITING
In the process of writing there are certain products of training
and experience which the writer utilizes but which he does not com-
municate directly to the reader. Such terms as exposition, statement
of purpose, paragraph structure, and method of development seldom
appear in the finished paper, but the knowledge they represent guides
the writer as he prepares it. This technical knowledge of the writer's
craft often makes the difference between an effective and an ineffec-
tive piece of work.
Fundamental in the theory of writing is the division of prose dis-
course into four forms: narration, description, exposition, and per-
suasion. Though all four are used by the scientific writer, his greatest
concern is with exposition.
iftft
THE PLACE OF EXPOSITION 189
A. Exposition Defined
The distinction among the four forms of writing is arrived at by
defining the author's intention. If the dominant intent is to relate
a series of events with regard for chronological order, the writing
is classified as narration. If the intent is to convey to the mind of
a reader a sensory or emotional impression a "mental picture"
the writing is description. If the intent is to win the reader to the
writer's way of thinking, it is persuasion (sometimes termed argu-
mentation) . If the intent is to explain facts, theories, or ideas, it is
exposition. The derivative meaning of exposition a setting forth
is literally realized in public expositions where the products of art
and industry are arranged and displayed. Exposition in writing is
a setting forth also, but it is the information and ideas of the writer
which are arranged and presented for the reader's consideration.
Expository writing is further characterized by its inherent appeal
to reason. Unlike narrative which establishes a time order, or descrip-
tion which is guided either by an impressionistic or a spatial order,
or persuasion which follows the order that will gain the desired sup-
port (which may of course be also the logical order), exposition is
committed by its nature to a logical development. It proceeds from
the whole to the parts, from the parts to the whole, from cause to
effect, from purpose to method, and from evidence to conclusion.
When the physical relationships of time and space become conse-
quential in exposition, it is because they are important to the rational
concept which is being developed in the reader's mind.
B. Exposition and the Other Forms of Writing
If exposition is to be fully understood, its relationship to the other
forms of writing must be clear. Little difficulty arises in distinguish-
ing exposition from narration. However, passages of narrative often
appear in exposition as subsidiary means of explanation. The writer
may narrate an incident to illustrate a point or to dramatize a result.
What purpose, for example, may be ascribed to the writer of the
following paragraphs?
A puff of wind comes down the street. An old newspaper stirs in
the gutter, jumps up on the sidewalk, spirals up to second-story height
and flaps about there for a moment; then, with a new burst of energy,
190 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
it sweeps upward again, and when you last see it, it is soaring high
above the roof tops, turning over and over, blinking in the sunlight.
The wind has picked up a piece of paper and blown it away. What
of it? A generation ago, in philosophical discourse, one might have
chosen this as an example of an event completely void of significance,
completely chance. But not in the air age. The tiny occurrence demon-
strates an important fact concerning the air ocean one that is only
now becoming the practical knowledge of practical airfaring men:
there are winds which blow neither east nor west, neither north nor
south, but in the third dimension: straight up. 1
In other contexts the first of the preceding paragraphs might serve
a writer in various ways. The last sentence of the second paragraph,
however, establishes the passage as exposition and makes it clear
that the significance of the simple incident as related here lies in its
demonstration of a principle of aeronautics. The concrete illustration,
because of its greater appeal to the general reader, has been placed
before the statement of abstract principle.
The distinction between description and exposition is often difficult
to define. There are two quite different types of description: first,
factual or scientific description, which is closely related to exposition,
and, second, the more subjective type of description which is met
with in the short story or novel. The passage quoted below illustrates
the second type. It creates a mood, an impression, as well as a sen-
sory image. The words are chosen for their sound and connotative
values as well as for the meanings they convey. The situation is spe-
cific and the treatment highly subjective.
... I wandered out, pursued by distressful thoughts, into the gardens,
those famous gardens of Stein, in which you can find every plant and
tree of tropical lowlands. I followed the course of the canalised stream,
and sat for a long time on a shaded bench near the ornamental pond,
where some waterfowl with clipped wings were diving and splashing
noisily. The branches of casuarina-trees behind me swayed lightly,
incessantly, reminding me of the soughing of fir-trees at home. 2
In contrast, the following example of scientific description conveys
factual knowledge, and the words are chosen from an established
scientific terminology to convey exact technical meanings. The situa-
1 Wolfgang Langewiesche, "Winds That Blow Straight Up," Harper's Maga-
zine, 191:107, August 1945.
2 Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday, Page & Company,
1925, p. 349. Used with permission of J. M. Dent & Sons, London.
THE PLACE OF EXPOSITION 191
tion is generalized and the treatment objective. It will be noted that
the sentences are not complete; the verb to be is omitted throughout.
LINDEN 8
Tilia americana
A large symmetrical tree 50-70 and in favorable conditions of forest
growth 130 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 3 or more feet, the
stem rising straight to the round-topped head, the branches horizontal,
slender, often drooping. Bark deep brownish gray, firm, scored per-
pendicularly with elongated fissures, the ridges confluent, narrow,
flat-topped marked with transverse cracks; the twigs slender, smooth,
ruddy brown, and often zig-zagged, slightly dotted.
The leaves perfectly heart-shaped, sharp-pointed, sometimes oblique
or asymmetrical, large, 4-7 inches long, coarsely double-toothed, promi-
nently yellow-veined, light green above, scarcely paler beneath . . .
with few white hairs scattered on the general surface, the stem about %
of the length of the leaf. Flowers with 5 cream white petals and sepals,
sweet-scented, a scale alternating with each petal; blooming in May-
June. Fruit spherical, about the size of a pea, borne singly or few in
a cluster on a common stalk merged half-way in a leaflike narrow
wing or bract; often persistent on the tree until mid- winter.
Like this example, much scientific writing is descriptive. In the
development of every natural science, time has been devoted to the
minute description of the phenomena with which the science deals,
and to this end a precise descriptive vocabulary has been accumu-
lated. The botanist, for example, may choose from oval, elliptical,
linear, deltoid, ovate, lanceolate, and a number of other terms to
describe the general outline of a leaf. 4
The distinction between exposition and persuasion is at times dif-
ficult to establish since a tinge of persuasion often colors otherwise
expository material. (See Chapters 11 and 12.) While a writer is
free to employ narration and description in exposition, if he intro-
duces a perceptible note of persuasion, his writing is better classified
8 F. Schuyler Mathews, Field Book of American Trees and Shrubs, New
York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915, pp. 322-23.
4 Scientific description, in contrast to literary or impressionistic description,
is sometimes classified as a form of exposition. At the other extreme are those
who maintain that "the primary aim of Science is the concise description of
the knowable universe" in the sense that science deals with verifiable phe-
nomena rather than with ultimate causes. See J. Arthur Thomson, Introduction
to Science, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1911, p. 35 if.
192 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
as persuasion. This leaves to persuasion a wide field, and persuasion
both for good and ill is becoming an increasingly large factor
in our national life. In contrast to the honest use of persuasion is
the activity of the propagandist who disguises his motives and the
sources of his material.
In the first of the two following examples of legitimate persuasion
an anecdote disarms the reader.
At present, however, a certain amount of criticism of both historians
and social scientists for their indifference to each other's work is
justified. Perhaps no single historian or social scientist deserves all
of the reproof contained in this little volume. There is a story (se non
e vero, e ben trovato) told about Charles Dana as a young reporter,
which may be appropriate here. Asked to cover the United States
Senate, he had expressed the opinion that everyone in the Senate was
a fool. The editor, realizing that such an opinion would anger every
member of the Senate, advised him to change his statement to read
that every senator but one was a fool. The revised statement, the
editor explained, would have the approval of every senator. Since I
readily admit that the "historian" and the '"social scientist" rebuked
in the following pages are merely straw men, made up out of frequently
obsolescent or unwanted bits that probably belong to no one person
altogether, I hope many historians and social scientists will be tolerant
of my opinion, while admitting that certain of my criticisms apply to
certain of their colleagues. 5
In the second example the method is partially that of factual ex-
position, but the persuasive tone is evident in such phraseology as
"respective claims," "narrowly individualistic outlook," "if any event
must be singled out," "if any event need be singled out."
The respective claims of Newton and his continental contemporary
Leibniz to be regarded as the author of the infinitesimal calculus have
given rise to considerable discussion in which national sentiment has
played no small part. Such controversies reflect a narrowly individu-
alistic outlook on the history of science. Nobody invented the calculus.
It was the co-operative product of a group of men. If any event must
be singled out as the beginning of the differential calculus, credit
would seem to be due pre-eminently to Barrow, who was Newton's
teacher. If any event need be singled out as the beginning of the
integral calculus, it was the recognition that the determination of an
5 Louis Gottschalk, "The Historian and the Historical Document," The Use
of Personal Documents in History, Anthropology and Sociology, New York,
Social Science Research Council, Bulletin 53, 1945, p. 5.
THE PLACE OF EXPOSITION 193
area is the same thing as solving a differential equation, and the credit
for this step is mainly due to Leibniz, who also introduced the dx
symbolism. Newton's main contribution was to show how differential
equations could be used to interpret the observed truths of mechanics,
astronomy, and optics, and so to emphasize the extraordinary useful-
ness of the new methods. 6
Only a small part of all exposition follows the tradition of the
literary essay. A larger part consists of reports, reviews, and short
articles varied in length and pattern to suit the immediate purpose.
II. THE EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH
Whatever the length of the entire paper, the accepted unit of ex-
position is the paragraph. In order to handle paragraphs competently
the writer must realize that they have two functions which are quite
different. One is to present the material in units of thought and de-
velopment which can be readily grasped in their entirety by the
reader. The other function is to provide physical and mental breaks
for the reader in order to spare him the effort of too long continued
attention.
A. Length of Paragraphs
The paragraph length which will best serve these ends naturally
varies with the subject matter and the circumstances. Light journal-
istic articles usually have shorter paragraphs than do heavier articles
to which the reader is expected to give more serious attention. How-
ever, in brief presentations of some types of very technical material,
short paragraphs are customary. For most purposes considerable
variety in paragraph length is permissible and even desirable, and
it is not unusual to find paragraphs within a single article ranging
in length from fifty to two hundred words.
Some writers tend habitually to compose short, choppy para-
graphs; others to compose long, tedious paragraphs. Each of these
tendencies is annoying to the reader who must be either constantly
shifting his attention or fixing it for excessively long periods. Even
if a paragraph seems like a unit to the writer, the units may still
be too short or too long to be readily assimilated by the reader. The
6 Lancelot Hogben, Mathematics for the Million, New York, W. W. Norton
& Company, Inc., 1937, p. 542.
194 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
recommended practice is to combine short paragraphs or to develop
them more fully and to divide extremely long paragraphs or to
streamline them by making omissions or by employing more efficient
expression.
B. Structure of Paragraphs
There are two ways of undertaking the construction of a paragraph.
If space is available for the expansion and development of the writer's
ideas, the paragraph is primarily a developmental unit elaborating
the basic thought. In a condensed style such as that demanded in
some types of scientific papers, the paragraph is essentially an as-
sembling unit.
7. The Paragraph as an Assembling Unit
As an assembling unit the paragraph is used to group ideas or
facts which are closely related, but such a paragraph affords little
opportunity for elaboration or extended discussion. The first of the
two following examples brings together facts of general interest
concerning amber.
Amber is a translucent substance, yellowish, brownish, or reddish
in color, formed by the fossilization of resin exuded from ancient trees.
It is found in the region of the Baltic Sea, Sicily, Burma, India, and
elsewhere. When rubbed, it electrostatically attracts small pieces of
paper, chaff, and other light materials. This property of amber first
provided man with an opportunity to observe static electricity in a
simple form. 7
The second example lists the types of scientists needed in the South-
west Pacific during World War II.
The types of scientific men that officers in the Southwest Pacific
were eager to obtain as they laid elaborate plans to conquer climate,
distance, terrain, equipment, and supply in chopping off the military
tentacles of Japan were these: medical experts to study their second
most important enemy, malaria, and to cure the fungus infections
that sapped morale; electronics engineers to test a homing torpedo
developed in the field; radio and radar research men to study propa-
gation of radio waves and to design lightweight air-transportable radar
gear; counter-measures experts to find ways of jamming enemy radar;
engineers to assist in introducing an aerial bomb launched backwards
7 "Amber," Medical Radiography and Photography, 29(l):cover 2, 1953.
EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH 195
to offset its forward path so that it drops on a target directly below
the point of release; biologists whose skills could be used against tiny
marine organisms that were destroying wooden craft and docks in
tropical waters; chemists and chemical engineers to study the behavior
of poison gases and smokes in thickly forested, humid areas ; physicists
to produce a fuze that would cause a bomb to explode about thirty
feet above the ground; experts in time and motion analysis to unwind
snarls in handling communications; men to analyze bottlenecks in
transportation, failure of equipment, effectiveness of antiaircraft fire,
and tactics of our air and surface craft in spotting and obliterating
Japanese submarines. 8
2. The Paragraph as a Developmental Unit
The expository paragraph as a developmental unit offers a further
explanation of the central idea of the paragraph, which is often ex-
pressed in a topic sentence. The concept of development in writing is
analogous to the concept of development in biology. A point empha-
sized in biological studies is that though the potentialities of the adult
organism are present in the germ cell from which it develops, these
potentialities are not realized until the organism has grown to the
adult stage. Similarly the potentialities of a paragraph are present
in the central or germinal idea, but are not realized until the idea
has been developed into the completed paragraph. Thus development
does not mean mere repetition or extension any more than biological
development is a simple multiplication of cells.
It is the writer's responsibility to choose the means of exposition
which will bring the central idea of the paragraph to its full develop-
ment. Illustrations may be offered, terms defined, situations analyzed,
entities classified or compared, evidence presented and inferences
drawn, causes and effects traced, misconceptions corrected, or some
of these means of exposition may be employed in combination. While
the following examples of expository paragraphs have been selected
to show different methods of development, the order of sentences
within the paragraph and the means of gaining coherence and em-
phasis (see Section III-C) should also be noted.
The following paragraph illustrates development by example. In
this instance concrete illustrations are particularly effective since the
8 Lincoln R. Thiesmeyer and John E. Burchard, Combat Scientists, Boston,
Little, Brown and Company and Atlantic Monthly Press, 1947, p. 34.
196 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
central idea of the paragraph, expressed in the opening sentence, is
highly abstract.
Let me illustrate the predictive nature of abstract laws by some
examples. The law that fire is hot goes beyond the experiences on
which this law was established and which belong to the past ; it predicts
that whenever we shall see a fire it will be hot. The laws of the motion
of the stars permit us to predict future positions of the stars and
include predictions of observations like eclipses of the sun and the
moon. The atomic theory of matter has led to chemical predictions,
verified in the construction of new chemical substances; in fact, all
industrial applications of science are based on the predictive nature
of scientific laws, since they employ scientific laws as blueprints for
the construction of devices that function according to a preconceived
plan. Bacon had a clear insight into the predictive nature of knowledge
when he coined his famous maxim: knowledge is power. 9
The next example, developed by definition, first explains the varied
uses of the word document and then indicates how the writer expects
to use the term.
The word document has been used by historians in several senses.
On the one hand, it is sometimes used to mean any written source of
historical information as contrasted with oral testimony or with arti-
facts, pictorial survivals and archaeological remains. On the other, it
is sometimes reserved for only official and state papers such as treaties,
laws, grants, deeds, etc. Still another sense is contained in the word
documentation, which, as used by the historian inter alios, signifies
any process of proof based upon any kind of source whether written,
oral, pictorial or archaeological. For the sake of clarity, it seems best
to employ the word document in the last, the most comprehensive
definition, which is etymologically correct, using written documents
and official documents to designate the less comprehensive categories.
Thus document becomes synonymous with source. 10
The type of analysis known as classification (see Chapter 5) is
fundamental in science. The following paragraph, developed by anal-
ysis, deals with some of the problems of classifying odors.
Any number of groupings of odors have been recorded. A great
number of these are on the basis of "like" some well-known substance.
Thus, they may be fruity, aromatic, balsamic, or alliaceous. On the more
9 Hans Reichenbach, The Rise of Scientific Philosophy, Berkeley, University
of California Press, 1951, pp. 80-81.
10 Gottschalk, op. cit., p. 12.
EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH 197
objectionable side are the empyreumatic or burnt odors, the caprylic or
goaty odors, the fetid odors, and so on. Most of these classifications are
convenient but scientifically are meaningless. The Crocker-Henderson
classification and method of classification are at the present time the
most acceptable. In this procedure, four fundamental odor sensations
are recognized as being fragrant, acid, burnt, and caprylic. Each of
these four qualities is arbitrarily registered on a scale of from
through 8. On this basis a substance without any odor would appear
as 0000. Ethanol, for example, an odorous substance, is registered as
5414. This number indicates that ethanol is substantially fragrant,
moderately acid, scarcely burnt, and fairly caprylic. A large number
of substances have been registered on this basis, and the method is in
common application among odor analysts. 11
The two following selections, both developed by comparison and
contrast, show the usefulness of this method in entirely different
fields. The first concerns a problem in engineering, the second in the
history of language.
There are two extreme conditions of lubrication hydrodynamic and
boundary. In the hydrodynamic condition, no contact exists between
the rubbing solids; the parameters of importance involve only proper-
ties of the bulk liquid such as the viscosity, the density, the tempera-
ture coefficients of the viscosity and the density, the heat transfer
coefficients, and those defining the geometry of the bearing system.
In the boundary condition, contacts always exist between the rubbing
solids, and the physical and chemical properties of the contacting
surfaces are important. Hydrodynamic conditions of lubrication are
usually desired in the operation of mechanisms because the coefficient
of friction may be a few hundredths or less, and practically no wear
occurs ; boundary conditions of lubrications are avoided where possible,
because of the resulting power consumption and the wearing, galling,
or seizure of the rubbing solids. 12
Any Chinese or Sinologist reading my brief description of [Egyp-
tian] hieroglyphics will say to himself that it applies very well to
Chinese characters. The Egyptians and the Chinese, working inde-
pendently at two ends of the world, created two vast collections of
word symbols. It is very interesting to compare the fruits of those
11 By permission from Air Pollution by L. C. McCabe, Proceedings of the
United States Technical Conference on Air Pollution, p. 249. Copyright 1952.
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
12 W. A. Zisman, "Present Problems and Future Trends in Lubrication,"
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 45:1406, July 1953. Reprinted by per-
mission.
198 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
gigantic experiments. They started with pictograms as everybody
would; moreover, the early Chinese and Egyptian pictograms of the
same objects sun, moon, mountains, water, rain, man, bird were
often analogous. As the two kinds of word symbols were standardized
and simplified, and became more and more numerous, both peoples
reached the same general conclusion that each word should contain
a phonetic element (sound sign) and a determinative one (sense sign) .
The Chinese did this very consistently. About 80 percent of their
characters are made up of two parts, one of which is a clue to the
sound, while the other (one of 214 "classifiers") is a clue to the
meaning; generally speaking, the pronunciation of the classifier and
the meaning of the phonetic element are disregarded.
Thus far the Chinese and Egyptian achievements are very much
alike; there are fundamental differences between them, however and
what else could we expect, considering that the two nations were very
unlike and had been submitted for thousands of years to very different
physical and psychologic environments? In Egyptian writing the vowels
are omitted and in speech they are frequently changed either to
obey grammatical inflections or to indicate variations of meaning;
in Chinese, on the contrary, the vowels belong to the root, have a
semantic value, and are constant. The study of the meanings of Chinese
words cannot be separated from the study of their sounds. One can see
how alphabetic signs could eventually emerge from the Egyptian habit
of script; they could not have emerged from the Chinese one. The
Chinese word is always concentrated in a single character, more or
less complex, yet meant to occupy the same space as any other char-
acter; the Egyptian word is more like a word in any syllabic script,
it may cover more or less space. 13
The next paragraph presents the evidence derived from one of
Pasteur's experiments which showed that microorganisms are present
in the air. Since the development of the paragraph is from evidence
to conclusion, an inductive arrangement with the particulars pre-
ceding the generalization is appropriate.
Pasteur had already obtained direct evidence that germs of life are
present in the air by concentrating the fine particles suspended in
the atmosphere and observing them under the microscope. He had
aspirated air through a tube in which was inserted a plug of guncotton
which acted as a filter and intercepted the aerial germs. When at the
end of the experiment, the guncotton plug was dissolved by placing
it in a tube containing a mixture of alcohol and ether, the insoluble
13 George Sarton, A History of Science, Cambridge, Harvard University Press,
1952, pp. 22-23.
EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH 199
dust separated from the solvent and settled in the bottom of the tube.
Under the microscope, the sediment was found to contain many small
round or oval bodies, indistinguishable from the spores of minute
plants or the eggs of animalcules; the number of these bodies varied
depending upon the nature of the atmosphere and in particular upon
the height above the ground at which the aspirating apparatus had
been placed. The dust recovered from the alcohol and ether solution
always brought about a rapid growth of microorganisms when it was
introduced into heated organic infusions, despite all precautions taken
to admit only air sterilized by heat. It was thus clear that the fine
invisible dust floating in the air contained germs which could initiate
life in heated organic fluids.^
The following paragraph dealing with the causal connection be-
tween air movement and sound is developed by showing this cause
and effect relationship in a number of different situations. Cause and
effect paragraph development whether used with reference to a physi-
cal situation, as it is here, or to a social situation demands careful
treatment such as Jeans has given it, since causal relationships are
sometimes extremely complex.
We may seem to be still a long way from music. Actually we are
very near, for it is precisely these little whirlwinds of air that are
responsible for the production of sounds in wind instruments without
them our flutes and organ-pipes would cease to function. When whirl-
winds are formed by the wind streaming past an obstacle of any kind,
the formation of each little whirlwind gives a slight shock, both to the
obstacle and to the air in its neighbourhood. If the wind blows in a
continuous steady stream, these shocks are given to the air at perfectly
regular intervals. We may then hear a musical note it is what is
often described as the "whistling of the wind," or the "wind whistle."
Its pitch is of course determined by the frequency of the shocks to the
air, and this is the number of whirlwinds formed per second. Experi-
ment shews that a whirlwind is formed every time the wind passes
over a distance equal to 5% times the diameter of the obstacle, and
this makes it possible to calculate the pitch of the note. Suppose, for
instance, that we are at sea, with the wind blowing at 40 miles an
hour through the rigging of half-inch ropes. Simple arithmetic shews
that 40 miles an hour is 704 inches a second, so that the wind traverses
1408 diameters of the rope every second. Dividing this by 5%, we
obtain 261 as the frequency of the note of the "wind whistle"
middle C of the piano. If the wind blows faster, whirlpools are formed
14 Rene J. Dubos, Louis Pasteur, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1950,
p. 170.
200 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
faster and the pitch of the wind whistle rises, the frequency being
exactly proportional to the wind velocity. When the wind "howls,"
we hear the pitch of the note rising and falling, and its frequency
at any instant gives a measure of the speed of the wind at that instant.
If the obstacles which the wind meets are smaller, the pitch is higher;
this is why we hear notes of high pitch when the wind blows over
the telegraph wires on land, and still higher notes when it blows
through stalks of corn or blades of grass. 15
When the paragraphs offered as examples in this chapter are con-
sidered as a group, it is evident that the means of development in
each instance have been chosen because of their appropriateness to
the exposition of the central thought of the paragraph. Analyses of
paragraph development should not lead to the impression that para-
graphs are constructed according to formula or that all paragraphs
can be placed in distinct categories. Many paragraphs are combina-
tions of different methods of development, as is the concluding ex-
ample which leads from definition into inference.
By far the most prolific sources of neutrons known are the nuclear
chain reactors or piles. A nuclear reactor is an assembly of fissionable
material (such as uranium, enriched U 235 , Pu 239 , or U 233 ) arranged
in such a way that a self-sustaining chain reaction is maintained. In
each fission process a number of neutrons (somewhere between one
and three) are emitted. The requirement common to all reactors is
that at least one of these neutrons must be available to produce another
fission rather than escape from the assembly or be used up in some
other type of nuclear reaction. Therefore, for a given type of reactor
there is a minimum (or critical) size, below which the chain reaction
cannot be self-sustaining. It is also necessary to avoid as much as
possible the presence in the reactor of materials which consume neu-
trons in processes other than the fission reaction. This imposes a severe
restriction on structural materials, coolants, and moderators. 16
III. THE PLAN OF THE SHORT EXPOSITORY PAPER
In a well-planned short paper, each paragraph not only is ade-
quately developed in itself but contributes its share to the develop-
ment of the paper as a whole. Planning an expository paper involves
15 Sir James Jeans, Science and Music, Cambridge, Eng., Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1937, pp. 126-27.
10 Gerhart Friedlander and Joseph W. Kennedy, Introduction to Radiochem-
istry, New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949, p. 101. Reprinted with per-
mission.
SHORT EXPOSITORY PAPER 201
certain steps: (1) defining the scope of the paper; (2) deciding on
the topics to be treated; (3) determining the aspects of the paper
which should receive the greatest emphasis; (4) arranging the topics
in the order in which they will be taken up; and (5) anticipating
the approximate number of paragraphs which will be needed to
assemble or develop the topics to be considered. Anyone who has
once sensed the difference between a planned and an unplanned
paper will appreciate the value of plan in even a brief piece of
writing.
A. Defining the Purpose
Before a successful plan can be made, the writer must have clearly
in mind his specific purpose in writing the paper. While the general
intent of all exposition is, of course, to explain, each individual paper
has also its specific or immediate purpose, often called the controlling
purpose because it guides the entire plan of the paper. In other
words, the writer intends to explain a specific subject to the reader.
Whether a formal statement of purpose appears in the paper or not,
the writer should prepare such a statement for his own guidance.
The following statements of purpose are representative of those which
a writer might draw up for his own use before beginning a paper.
1. The purpose of this paper is to explain the principal differences
between the Student Council's new by-laws and the old ones.
2. The purpose of this paper is to explain what is meant by the
term Mannich reaction.
3. The purpose of this paper is to describe the nesting habits of
the mourning dove.
4. The purpose of this paper is to explain the principal precau-
tions observed in handling radioactive materials.
5. The purpose of this paper is to explain the principle of opera-
tion of the Diesel engine.
Once the writer has the controlling purpose of the paper clearly
in mind, he is prepared to select and list the topics to be considered.
This list of topics may be arranged in an order of climax (from
those of lesser to those of greater importance), may proceed from
the simple to the more complex, or may follow one of the many pos-
sible patterns of logical sequence (see Section I-A). A simple outline
202 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
of this sort is usually all that is needed for a short paper, (For a dis-
cussion of more extensive outlines see Chapter 5.)
B. Achieving Progression
Unlike longer papers, the short paper does not have a strongly
defined introduction, central section, and conclusion. However, the
opening, the advancement of the subject, and the ending combine to
create a sense of progression. It is particularly important that the
short paper open briskly and proceed without wasted motion to the
conclusion. Many writers mistakenly try to adapt to this type of
paper the long, formal introductions often used in extended scientific
papers and reports. Such introductions are inappropriate in short
papers. Similarly, if an attention-getting device such as an anecdote
or quotation is used at the beginning, it should be brief and closely
linked to the main point of the paper.
A roundabout introduction is an unfailing means of losing the
reader's interest. For example, one report on the subject of on-the-job
training programs in a certain industry began with a long discussion
of the impracticality of many academic courses and the limited prac-
ticality of others. By the time the writer reached his real topic, all
possible enthusiasm for the subject had been destroyed.
After the paper is under way there is less temptation to digress.
While continuity should, of course, be maintained, elaborate transi-
tional sentences are out of place. Bringing the paper to a conclusion
is often difficult. Three common types of ineffective endings are
the abrupt ending, the spun-out ending, and the tacked-on ending.
Sometimes a summarizing sentence is all that is needed to round
out the paper. Or the last sentence may re-emphasize the central
thought developed in the paper. Again, a question may be an appro-
priate ending. Since the ending is the writer's last word with the
reader, it should make a definite contribution to the purpose of the
paper.
C. Maintaining Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis
If the purpose of a paper is well conceived and an efficient plan
devised to achieve that purpose, it should not be difficult to insure
the presence in the paper of the traditional rhetorical virtues unity,
coherence, and emphasis.
SHORT EXPOSITORY PAPER 203
The word unity in composition implies singleness of effect, impact,
or impression. Because of the limited scope of a short paper, it is
essential that every element contribute directly to the controlling
purpose. "In the whole composition," as Edgar Allan Poe expressed
it, "there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct
or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." 17
A unified composition should be an organic whole in which each
part is adequately developed in itself and also serves to advance the
central theme; that is, the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
It cannot be assumed that a paper is unified merely because it deals
with a single subject. Though a thousand word paper on the geog-
raphy of South America would deal with a single subject, it could
scarcely attain unity ; it would cover a diversity of topics which could
not in brief compass be joined into a harmonious whole. The short
paper should be restricted to a purpose which can be achieved within
the projected length.
If the paper from the opening sentence advances consistently to-
ward the ending, the paper will have a natural coherence; its dif-
ferent parts will hold together well. If sentences or paragraphs are
inserted without reference to what precedes or follows, coherence is
lost. The continuity will be strengthened by the use, where appropri-
ate, of transitional expressions such as however, hence, indeed, at
the same time, on the contrary. The repetition of key words and the
effective use of pronouns also contribute to coherence. In a short
paper these means of gaining coherence are preferred to the transi-
tional sentence or paragraph.
Emphasis, the placing of stress on important ideas, should also
be in part a natural result of the writer's interest in his subject and
his feeling for what is consequential concerning it. It is well to re-
member in planning any unit of composition that the beginning and
the end are the positions of prominence; the middle is less conspicu-
ous. (For emphasis as a quality of style, see Chapter 8.)
IV. ANALYSES OF EXAMPLES
Much can be learned about the techniques of exposition by ana-
lyzing the work of skilled writers. With this understanding, three
17 Edgar Allan Poe, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, W. J. Wid-
dleton, 1849, Vol. Ill, p. 198.
204 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
examples are presented here to show how the same basic techniques
may advantageously be used in articles differing markedly in subject
matter.
The first example has been chosen for two reasons: it shows how
a unit of exposition may be developed as a part of a longer paper,
in this instance one which is partially persuasive; it shows how co-
herence may be obtained by the use of phrases and reference words
(indicated by boldface in the example).
The controlling purpose of the entire article might be stated as
showing the usefulness of scientific method in human affairs. The
purpose of this part of the article is to explain the importance and
use of measurement in scientific method. Nothing is included which
does not contribute to this purpose.
The arrangement of paragraphs leads from the general to the
specific. The first two paragraphs, developed partly by comparison
and partly by example, support the author's opening generalization
that the scientific method is a measuring method. The third para-
graph divides measurement into qualitative and quantitative and
also serves as a transition leading into the specific example to which
the next two paragraphs are devoted. This example in turn is used
to demonstrate the point with which the selection ends the possi-
bility of serious error if measurements are not accurately made and
interpreted. This idea echoes the reference in the first paragraph to
procedures which "look" scientific. The emphatic style of the short
opening sentence and of the concluding sentence should be noted.
. . . The scientific method is a measuring method. It is the method
by which the "facts in the case" are weighed. It is the method which
uses "facts" as the basis of judgments. Since science is based on
measurement, any situation which can be treated by the use of units,
methods and means of measurement has reached its highest possibility
of development in the matter of scientific treatment. Of course, if the
wrong units are used, and the methods and means used are not appli-
cable to the situation, the whole procedure may look very scientific,
but it is not. The scientific method will not tolerate anything that is
false, whatever the intentions of those who try to use it.
It should also be recognized that the scientific method may be
applied to the phenomena of human behavior, and that the scientist
is able to measure some kinds of human reactions. But so far, the kinds
ANALYSES OF EXAMPLES 205
of measurements which may be made in this field are for the most
part relative and not absolute. A relative measurement is one which
associates a given kind of behavior with a given kind of environment.
It is not absolute in the sense of how much. For example, it is a well
demonstrated fact that fear (for which there is no unit of quantitative
measurement) will cause many specifically determinable body changes
(some of which can be measured) and that the relationship between
fear and these changes is always positive. Fear then is a kind of force
which can be depended upon to produce specific kinds of reactions. . . .
The scientist measures quantities (how much) and qualities (what
kind) and the relationships between forces that is, how one tends to
behave with respect to the other. These tendencies may be measured
quantitatively in some cases and only qualitatively in others. How does
the scientist go about making such measurements? What are some of
the methods he uses, especially in measuring trends and relationships?
A usual method employed for measuring relationships is that of
charting observations. For example, suppose it is desired to know the
relation between the amount of weight put on a given coiled spring
and the corresponding amount of deflection in inches. The measure-
ment is made by putting different known weights on the spring, ob-
serving the number of inches of deflection with each weight, and
plotting the results. Such an experiment with a given spring may lead
to the following observations:
When the The
weight deflection
in pounds in inches
10 1
20 2
30 3
40 4
50 5
A piece of paper is ruled as shown in the accompanying figure, and
each observation is plotted as follows: on the lower "scale," weight
in pounds, locate the reading 10, then follow the line upward and
make a mark on the horizontal line passing through the number 1
on the deflection "scale" to the left of the chart. Follow the same
procedure for relating the weight 20 pounds to the deflection 2 inches,
and so on. Connect the five points with a line. By this means the
relationship between any load between 10 and 50 pounds and the
resulting deflection in inches, can be predicted, for this spring or any
206 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
other spring made exactly like it in material and dimensions. For
example, it can be stated that if the load should be 35 pounds, the
deflection will be 3 l /2 inches.
5
z
O 4
U I
Uj U 3
10 20 30 40
WEIGHT IN POUNDS
50
This prediction is made by locating the number 35 on the weight scale,
tracing upward a line and when the slanting line connecting
the points is reached, tracing from there to the left a horizontal line
and reading the number (3%) which it meets on the deflection
scale.
In using the above relationship to predict what deflection will result
from a given load, you will note that the load (35) chosen for illustra-
tion was between 10 and 50 pounds. Can the chart be used to predict
the deflection resulting when a load greater than 50 pounds is applied?
Does the trend shown hold true beyond the range of observation?
It may, and then again it may not. It depends on the length of the
spring, for one thing, and on the range of elasticity of the material
of which the spring is made. It is known from experience that a given
spring, when stretched beyond a certain amount, will not deflect uni-
formly that is, equal amounts for equal additional weights. This point
can be determined by experiment, but the fact in this case is that it
was not determined. Hence the behavior of the spring when loaded
more than 50 pounds cannot be confidently predicted from the known
facts. Any prediction in this matter would be a guess which might or
might not give the correct answer.
ANALYSES OF EXAMPLES 207
This is very important, for the incorrect use of data and the incorrect
interpretation of the range over which a given observed relationship
between the data holds, has led to some serious errors in predicting
probable future events. . . , 18
The second example is noteworthy for the way in which interest
is maintained through effective arrangement of the facts with no
sacrifice of conciseness. In approximately 750 words the author es-
tablishes the truth of his opening description of the rattlesnake's
rattle as "one of the most remarkable structures in nature," and ex-
plains its structure and function. To emphasize the strong sense of
paragraph value in the selection, marginal notes are included. An
examination of the paragraph topics shows that though each para-
graph is a unit, all contribute to the author's central purpose, giving
unity to the article as a whole. The sequence of the paragraphs, end-
ing with the discussion of the rattle's origin and purpose, indicates
a feeling for climax. The article opens briskly and ends strongly. It
would be difficult to accomplish more in the same number of words.
THE RATTLE 19
"Remarkable" character The rattle is the most characteristic feature of
the rattlesnakes, and is one of the most remarkable
the use of the adjective, structures in nature. Nothing remotely resembling
the rattle is found in any other group of snakes.
The astonishment and incredulity with which early
travelers to America were greeted when they re-
turned to Europe with stories of a snake with a
"bell" on its tail may easily be imagined.
Long interest in the It is not surprising that so extraordinary a struc-
subject. The historical ture sn ould have attracted the attention of natu-
aspects of the subject
are not treated here, but ralists from the time of its discovery. A long
a reference is given, ^ Qf their writings Qn this su bject is given by
Klauber (Klauber, L. M, 1940, A Statistical Study
of the Rattlesnakes. VII, The Rattle, Occ. Papers
San Diego Soc. Nat. Hist., No. 6, 62 pp., il.), who
has also carefully reviewed the many theories
regarding the rattle and studied its development,
structure, and method of functioning.
18 Walter Rautenstrauch, "The Scientific Method in Human Affairs," The
American Scholar, 14:475-79, Autumn 1945.
19 Karl P. Schmidt and D. Dwight Davis, Field Book of Snakes, New York,
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1941, pp. 290-93, courtesy G. P. Putnam's Sons.
208 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
Structure of the rattle.
This paragraph is
developed by details
and comparison.
Development of the
rattle. This account is
adroitly introduced as a
refutation of error.
Length of the rattle in
nature. This paragraph
assembles a number of
facts of interest.
The rattle is made up of a number of segments
that interlock loosely with one another to form a
jointed string. The rattle is higher than it is wide,
and is vibrated sideways, not up and down. Each
segment is composed of a thin shell of hornlike
substance, and the several segments striking
against each other when the tail is vibrated pro-
duce the "rattling" sound. Actually the sound is
more like the buzz of a cicada or the hiss of
escaping steam than like a true rattling sound.
Klauber found by using a kymograph (the instru-
ment used to record heartbeats) that the rattle
averages about 48 cycles per second, a speed that
makes the rattle look blurred when it is in motion.
One of the most persistent stories about rattle-
snakes is that their age can be told by the number
of segments or "joints" in the rattle. This story is
false for several reasons. One reason is that a
rattler adds a new segment to its string every time
it sheds its skin, which it does three or four times
a year or oftener, instead of only once. A rattle-
snake is born with a delicate rounded structure,
quite different from the true rattle in shape and
texture, on the tip of its tail. This is the "pre-
button," which is lost the first time the baby snake
sheds its skin, usually within a week or two after
birth. At the same shedding the snake acquires
the "button," which is the first segment of the true
rattle. Thereafter another segment is added each
time the skin is shed, the button being displaced
farther and farther from the tip of the tail. Of
course, a young rattlesnake with only a button
cannot rattle, since the button alone has nothing
to rattle against.
If a rattlesnake retained all the segments that
were added to its rattle, in a few years it would
be carrying around an enormous string of a dozen
and a half or two dozen segments. Such phenome-
nal rattles are never seen in nature, although they
are sometimes faked by slipping parts of several
rattles together. A very long string does not rattle
properly, and hence would be much less useful to
the snake than a shorter one. Wild-caught rattlers
usually have from five to nine segments in their
strings, and one of 14 segments is exceptional.
ANALYSES OF EXAMPLES 209
What happens is that segments are continually lost
from the end of the string through wear and
breakage, so that an adult rattler with a "perfect
string" (that is, with the original button present
at the tip) is very unusual; most of them have
"broken strings."
Function of the rattle, in The origin of the rattle is much easier to
"wSTaTtelt 6 ima ine when h is remembered that many harm-
to this pomt conciete m less snakes vibrate their tails when they are nerv-
content, a philosophical Al * . ri_'
point is introduced-the ous or **&?> exactly as a rattler does. This is
ongm and function of a particularly characteristic of rat snakes and king
protective device in the , , , , , ,
snake Thus, unhke the snakes, for example. Many people have speculated
preceding selection, this on t h e purpose of the rattle, and it is now gen-
one leads from the
specific to the general, erally agreed that it is a warning to intruders who
might injure the snake, like a skunk or badger
intent on a meal or a bison that might crush the
snake by stepping on it accidentally. It is all too
easy to assume human purposive reasoning on the
part of the snake, however, and hence to assume
that it is consciously "warning" an intruder. Actu-
ally the snake vibrates its tail for the same reason
that a harmless snake does because it is nervous
and angry; the fact that a startling noise results
is incidental, and certainly unknown to the snake.
Remember that a rattlesnake is deaf, and conse-
quently cannot hear its own rattle!
The concluding example is strictly factual. Its readability derives
from the clear arrangement of the facts. The opening paragraph fol-
lows the journalistic principle of giving the most important informa-
tion in the "lead." The remaining paragraphs deal with different
functional aspects of the building.
The American Memorial Library now under construction in West
Berlin was made possible by the Point IV program of the United States
Government; in the words of former U. S. High Commissioner John
McCloy, it was given to the German city "in recognition of the
courageous attitude of all Berliners during the time of the blockade."
It will be one of the city's most important public libraries, serving as
a research center and lending agency for some 60 smaller district
libraries.
The new building is in the south central portion of Berlin, almost
facing the present boundary between the eastern and western zones.
Its main fagade, an impressive curve of reinforced concrete, is to the
210 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
north, fronting on a square which is an important intersection for city
transportation systems. The area to the south is densely populated, and
contains numerous small and medium-sized industries.
Although part of the building is six stories in height, all reading
rooms and public areas are on the ground floor, eliminating the need
for public stairs or elevators. One lobby serves both the library and
the 350-seat auditorium forming the low east wing; since checkrooms
and washrooms are at the eastern end of the lobby, both are accessible
from the auditorium even when the library itself is closed.
The plan of the main library floor stresses maximum flexibility.
There are only two fixed partitions in the entire area glass walls
enclosing the children's department and the listening booths of the
music departments; all other partitions are movable book shelves ar-
ranged around book lifts to the basement stacks. The book lifts are
spaced at regular intervals along the entire length of the building,
giving every department direct access to the stacks no matter how
the movable partitions are placed. A long corridor, with display cases
on both sides, runs from east to west, connecting every department
with the lobby.
The location of the various reading rooms and departments has been
worked out on a basis of use and noise. Those departments expected
to be used most frequently are nearest to the main entrance, with the
public catalog and reference room serving as a focal point. The "noisy"
rooms home reading, youth department, and children's library will
be at the eastern end of the building, the quieter specialized sections
such as law and science at the opposite end.
Main floor book shelves will accommodate about 65,000 reference
and general circulation volumes; the basement stacks will house an-
other 360,000. 20
Writers no doubt differ greatly in the conscious thought which they
give to technique. Nevertheless, the theory of paragraph development
and paper planning has its concrete counterpart in the work of suc-
cessful writers of exposition. With an understanding of these basic
techniques, the writer can advance confidently from short units of
exposition to longer and more specialized types of papers.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Characterize each of the following passages as predominantly narra-
tive, descriptive, persuasive, or expository:
20 "American Memorial Library," Architectural Record, 113(3): 125-26, March
1953.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 211
"The seaweeds are primitive, water-dwelling plants, ranging from
microscopic, one-celled forms to large and complex plants. They show
an advance over some other groups of the thallophytes in the presence
of the green coloring matter, chlorophyl, which is, however, in certain
of the algae masked by brown or red pigments. . . . Upon other struc-
tural and reproductive characters coupled with the difference in color
is based the classification into green, brown, and red algae." 21
"... a young man sitting outside on a bench turned his head and
greeted him by a careless nod. His face was rather long, sunburnt and
smooth, with a slightly curved nose and a very well-shaped chin. He
wore a dark blue naval jacket open on a white shirt and a black neck-
erchief tied in a slip-knot with long ends. White breeches and stockings
and black shoes with steel buckles completed his costume. A brass-
hiked sword in a black scabbard worn on a cross-belt was lying on the
ground at his feet." 22
"The most obvious thing about Ruskin is his sensibility. Other char-
acteristics his integrity, his simplicity, his attitude towards art, his
fatherly affection for the English poor, his querulous indignation are
the most striking at certain times; but underlying all these and ani-
mating his whole life is an extreme emotional sensitiveness." 28
"Having finished his pipe and obtained a bit of candle in a tin
candlestick, Citizen Peyrol went heavily upstairs to rejoin his luggage.
The crazy staircase shook and groaned under his feet as though he
had been carrying a burden. The first thing he did was to close the
shutters most carefully as though he had been afraid of a breath of
night air. Next he bolted the door of the room." 24
According to a newspaper account, so many agencies had reported
directly to the President that the situation became a nightmare to
experts on military and industrial organization. And it grew steadily
worse as Congress added more to the list.
"Military theorists," it was noted, "say no top-level commander
should have more than seven or eight subordinates directly under him.
Management engineers have said that no policy-making official in in-
dustry should have to deal with more than four or five second-level
men.
"But directly under the President of the United States are 61 agen-
cies departments, commissions, authorities, administrations, etc. Be-
21 H. W. Shimer, An Introduction to the Study of Fossils, New York, The
Macmillan Company, 1924, p. 35.
22 Joseph Conrad, The Rover, London, E. P. Dent and Sons, 1926, p. 39.
28 Walter S. Hinchman and Francis B. Gummere, Lives of Great English
Writers, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908, p. 447.
24 Conrad, op. cit. f p. 11.
212 TECHNIQUES OF EXPOSITION
sides that there are a number of permanent committees and temporary
commissions. More than 235 officials have direct access to him."
"The concrete highway was edged with a mat of tangled, broken,
dry grass, and the grass heads were heavy with oat beards to catch
on a dog's coat, and foxtails to tangle in a horse's fetlocks, and clover
burrs to fasten in sheep's wool; sleeping life waiting to be spread and
dispersed, every seed armed with an appliance of dispersal, twisting
darts and parachutes for the wind, little spears and balls of tiny thorns,
and all waiting for animals and for the wind, for a man's trouser cuff
or the hem of a woman's skirt, all passive but armed with appliances
of activity, still, but each possessed of the anlage of movement." 25
2. Select one of the expository selections from Appendix A and analyze
the structure and development of the individual paragraphs; point out
the relationship of each paragraph to the plan of the selection.
3. Write two or three well-developed paragraphs, explaining the distinc-
tion between pure and applied science and using comparison, contrast,
and illustration as the principal means of paragraph development.
4. Write a paragraph in which you state an opinion as a topic sentence
and then present evidence in support of this opinion.
5. Write a paragraph in climax order, devoting the first part of the para-
graph to controverting a belief which is in your opinion erroneous and
concluding the paragraph with a topic sentence summarizing the
proposition which you have undertaken to establish.
6. Examine a miscellany of short expository articles such as one might
find in current scientific or industrial publications or in periodicals
and state in a sentence what you understand to be the central purpose
of each article.
25 John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, New York, The Viking Press, 1939,
p. 20.
CHAPTER 10
THE RESEARCH PAPER
I. Types of long scientific papers
A. The report and the review
B. The thesis
C. The research paper
II. Preparation of a research paper
A. Steps in writing
B. Pervasive importance of the problem
C. Value of the outline
D. Clarity of framework
III. Process of evaluating a research paper
A. Criteria employed
B. Frequently occurring faults
IV. Analysis of a paper from a scientific journal
Such is the substance of my faith; and if I were to
sum up my credo in a single word, it would be that
proud motto of Fustel de Coulanges, Quaere / seek
to learn. SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON, Faith of a His-
torian, The American Historical Review, January 1951.
I. TYPES OF LONG SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
When the student of scientific writing turns his attention to long
scientific papers, he is likely to think first of the research paper. This
type of paper involves the investigation of a problem through library
research and the presentation of the results in a fully documented
composition. The preparation of a research paper has great value
for the student because it affords training in many of the techniques
employed in writing and preparing for publication various advanced
types of scientific papers, particularly the report, the review, and the
thesis. Though these types of papers differ in the situations which
occasion them, and in the source of the subject matter, they share
a basic pattern. This pattern consists of the statement of the problem
213
214 THE RESEARCH PAPER
or subject to be treated, an analysis of the findings, and the presenta-
tion of the conclusions reached.
A. The Report and the Review
Two basic types of papers in scientific writing are the report of
a scientific investigation (see Chapters 11 and 12) and the review.
An essential difference between the two lies in the origin of the sub-
ject matter. The report presents at first hand the research of the
author or authors. Many scientific journals are devoted to the pub-
lication of such reports. The purpose of the review, not to be con-
fused with the book review, is to summarize and to some extent to
interpret the research which has been done on a problem over a
period of time. The writer of a review draws his material not from
his own research but from published reports of research on the
subject.
Reviews represent an intermediate stage between original reports
and books. When a new field of research is opened up, the first pub-
lications to appear on the subject are reports, followed shortly by
reviews, and later by books. When a topic awakens immediate and
general interest, the periods of time between these stages may be
very short. Some journals, such as Chemical Reviews and Biological
Reviews, have as their principal purpose the publication of reviews.
Reviews also appear in numerous periodicals published by academic,
professional, and industrial groups. The value of a review depends
in part upon an exact delimitation of the time and subject covered.
In some fields annual reviews are customary. Since about three-
quarters of a million scientific and technical articles are published
annually, 1 the importance of the review in enabling the research
worker to keep up with his own and related fields is evident.
Both the report and the review are formal scientific papers. As
such, they are fully documented, the report with the references which
give the background of the problem, the review with the sources
covered in the paper. Many informative magazine articles resemble
the review since they are designed to give a factual and interpretive
presentation of a single topic. Such articles, being intended for a
1 E. Bright Wilson, Jr., An Introduction to Scientific Research, New York,
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1952, p. 10.
LONG SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 215
less restricted group of readers, are not documented and are less
formal and usually less authoritative than the scientific review.
B. The Thesis
The thesis, also a fully documented formal paper, is particularly
associated with the academic requirements for certain college and
university degrees. Based on the candidate's research, the thesis typi-
cally follows the pattern of the statement of the problem, presentation
of methods and results, analysis and interpretation of findings, and
the summarizing of conclusions.
Departmental directions as to the form and arrangement of the
thesis should be carefully followed. Style manuals (see Chapter 14)
and manuals in thesis writing 2 are valuable adjuncts to the instruc-
tions of the department or institution concerned. Theses are fre-
quently published as books or, especially in the sciences, as journal
articles.
C. The Research Paper
The research paper as it is known in colleges and universities is
designed partly to afford instruction in the techniques of such ad-
vanced types of papers as the report, the review, and the thesis. At
the same time the demands of the research paper are kept within
the limitations of the classroom situation. The writing of a research
paper culminates a project customarily completed in an academic
semester. It is usually not expected that the undergraduate should
do original research or that he should cover library sources with
the thoroughness of the professional reviewer. It is possible, how-
ever, for him to approach a problem from an individual angle, to
collect and select material bearing on that problem, to analyze and
interpret his material, to come to conclusions concerning his prob-
lem, and to present his work in a properly drawn up and adequately
documented paper.
The term research paper has been the subject of some controversy.
Since the word research strictly used denotes original investigation
leading to new knowledge, some scientists have objected to the use
of the word research in connection with undergraduate study, pre-
2 A useful manual of this type is Form and Style in Thesis Writing by
William Giles Campbell, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1954.
216 THE RESEARCH PAPER
ferring to reserve it for work leading to advanced degrees and be-
yond. It has been suggested that in graduate research the emphasis
falls on the search, implying a searching for new knowledge, while
in undergraduate work the emphasis is on the re (again), implying
that the student, from his own point of view, re-examines materials
already known. Since the research paper even on the undergraduate
level represents the working out of a problem (see Chapter 2), it
is more challenging than the reference paper, which represents only
the summarized presentation of source material on an assigned topic.
The scientist's regard for the term research should, moreover, be
respected. The tendency to refer to all library reference work as
"doing research" is to be deplored.
It should be noted finally that some authoritative published papers
which interpret previous research may be considered research papers
rather than reviews since they represent a discussion of a single
aspect of a subject rather than a review of it as a whole.
II. PREPARATION OF A RESEARCH PAPER
Most of the considerations which apply to writing a research paper
apply also to writing other types of papers described in this chapter.
For the sake of simplicity these considerations are discussed here
in connection with the research paper, with the understanding that
much of what is said has a broader application. The length of time
devoted to the entire process of collecting, studying, and writing up
material may range from the several months usually allowed for
an undergraduate research paper to several years for a doctor's
thesis or report of research.
A. Steps in Writing
Many of the steps involved in the writing of the research paper
and closely related types of papers are an integral part of the phi-
losophy and method of scientific writing. Consequently, the discus-
sion in this chapter relies on the detailed treatment of these steps
in other chapters of this book, as the following outline indicates.
1. Finding and limiting the problem (see Chapters 1 and 2)
2. Locating and selecting material and preparing a tentative bib-
liography (see Chapter 4)
PREPARATION 217
3. Reading and taking notes (see Chapter 4)
4. Analyzing and interpreting material (see Chapters 5 and 6)
5. Preparing an outline (see Chapter 5)
6. Writing the paper (see Chapters 7, 8, and 9)
7. Documenting the paper (see Chapter 14)
8. Revising the paper (see Chapter 8)
9. Providing illustrations if needed (see Chapter 15)
10. Putting the manuscript into final form (see Chapter 14)
These steps are interrelated, and one step cannot necessarily be
completed before another is begun. An early focusing of the problem
will always save time in collecting material and preparing the outline.
Nevertheless, the fuller understanding of the subject which the stu-
dent gains through his reading may at times make it desirable to
restate the problem midway in the study. Similarly, the finding of
new material may necessitate a revision of the outline. Hence, like
science itself, the plan for the preparation of a research paper should
not be so inflexible that it precludes taking advantage of new facts
or new ideas.
B. Pervasive Importance of the Problem
If the research paper is to rise above mere reference work, it must
do so on the basis of the problem. Research training is held to be
inadequate when it develops "scientific workers who know how to
carry out instructions and to follow in the footsteps of others, but
who have not learned how to discover a rewarding research problem,
how to plan the attack on it and how to solve it." 3 The first task of
a research paper is to explain the problem and its background to
the reader, the second to give an account of the research, and the
third to summarize the conclusions. Since all of these phases of the
paper depend on the problem, the paper is likely to have progression
and unity to the degree that the writer keeps the problem in the fore-
front of his mind.
Although the introductory section which states the problem and
the concluding section which sums up the outcome appear respec-
tively at the beginning and the end of the paper, their relationship
is very close. If the problem has been well conceived, well investi-
8 George B. Kistiakowsky, The New York Times, October 4, 1952, p. 19.
218 THE RESEARCH PAPER
gated, and well stated, the point or points summed up in the con-
clusion will correspond to those under investigation as explained in
the introduction.
An adequate introduction to a research paper must contain all
the information necessary to an understanding of the problem. Points
covered in a typical introduction include, not necessarily in this
order:
1. A brief account of the history of the problem. This account
serves to show the origin and significance of the problem and to
relate the paper to previous studies.
2. A definition of key terms. All terms essential to the problem
should be denned initially if there is any possibility that the terms
will be ambiguous or confusing. Often technical papers do not re-
quire definitions, since specialists in the field are already familiar
with the accepted terminology. (See Chapter 3.)
3. A statement of the assumptions on which the investigation is
based. These assumptions may be implicit in the historical back-
ground of the problem and the definition of terms. It sometimes hap-
pens, however, that certain previous work has been accepted by some
investigators in the field and not by others. In such situations the
writer should make his own position clear.
4. The simple statement of the problem. The intention of the sim-
ple statement of the problem is to set forth explicitly for the reader
the specific purpose of the study covered in the research paper. In
papers intended for technical readers it is customary to make this
statement directly. In papers intended for the general reader the
problem may be stated less directly or expressed in the form of a
question. However, the writer of a report of research, a review, or
a thesis should not hesitate to tell in so many words the purpose of
his paper.
It is a good plan for the writer at an early stage of his investiga-
tion to prepare a preliminary draft of his introduction, which later,
when the study is nearly complete, is rewritten. The conclusion
cannot, of course, be written until all the material has been examined
and interpreted. The first of the examples given here, all of which
are accompanied by explanatory notes, presents the introduction and
conclusion of a social anthropologist's inquiry into the curious prac-
tice of water witching.
PREPARATION 219
WATER WITCHING:
AN INTERPRETATION OF A RITUAL
PATTERN IN A RURAL AMERICAN
COMMUNITY 4
The opening sentence of [1] This paper will attempt an interpretation
^^""TtirsptTfil > the phenomenon of water witching as a folk-
problem of this paper, ritual pattern which has been extraordinarily per-
The remainder of the fitst . , . . , 11-11
paragiaph relates this sistent in rural American culture and which has
specific problem to not b een replaced by the services of competent
previous discussions of .
water witching, ground water geologists in locating family-size
wells in countless rural American communities.
There is a vast literature on this water-divining
pattern, but by and large the writings have cen-
tered on the problem of whether dowsing does or
does not work as an empirical technique for locat-
ing underground supplies of water. The latest
publication of note in this vein is the best seller
by Kenneth Roberts, Henry Gross and His Dowsing
Rod, which, as a spirited defense of the empirical
validity of the dowsing technique, has renewed
and publicized the age-old controversy. But, so far
as this writer has been able to determine, there
has been no systematic attempt to analyze the
phenomenon as a folk-ritual pattern functionally
equivalent to the magical practices found in the
nonliterate cultures of the world.
The second and third [2] Emanating from the writings of Pareto,
b^oTa^S"? Malinowski, and Weber, and continuing in the
the immediate problem present generation of theorists notably Parsons,
thp significance of water T^T 111 ITT iijf
witchmg-bv i elating it to Kluckhohn, and Romans a general body of
the linger piobiem of the theory concerning the function of ritual in the
significance of rituals The . . , . i r> n
theory of ritual stated situation of human action has emerged. Briefly
here is one of the concepts sta ted, the essence of this theory is that when
on which this study
is based, human beings are confronted with situations that
are beyond empirical control and that are, there-
fore, anxiety-producing both in terms of emotional
involvement and of a sense of cognitive frustration,
they respond by developing and elaborating non-
empirical ritual that has the function of relieving
emotional anxiety and of making some sense of the
situation on a cognitive level. Kroeber has recently
4 Evon Z. Vogt, "Water Witching: An Interpretation of a Ritual Pattern in
a Rural American Community," Scientific Monthly, 75:175-76, 186, September
1952.
220 THE RESEARCH PAPER
questioned the universality of this relationship by
pointing out that the Eskimos, who live in a far
more uncertain and anxiety-producing environ-
ment than do Malinowski's Trobriand Islanders,
have little ritual as compared to the Trobrianders,
whereas given Malinowski's formulation one would
expect more Eskimo ritual. Kroeber goes on to
indicate that the arctic environment is so severe
that had the Eskimos devoted much energy to the
development of ritual patterns, they would long
since have perished. This latter point is sound, but
further analysis of Eskimo culture may reveal that,
although there is little elaboration of ritual, the
ritual patterns that do exist are still clustered
around the greatest uncertainties of Eskimo life.
[3] Others, notably Radcliffe-Brown, have raised
the issue as to whether rituals do not create anx-
iety (when they are not performed or are not per-
formed properly) rather than alleviate it. Romans
has treated this problem in terms of "primary"
and "secondary" rituals focused around "primary"
and "secondary" types of anxiety. Primary anxiety
describes the sentiment men feel when they desire
the accomplishment of certain results and do not
possess the techniques that make these results
certain; secondary anxiety describes the sentiment
resulting when the traditional rites are not per-
formed or are performed improperly. Kluckhohn
has carried the analysis further by demonstrating
that ritual patterns have both a "gain" and a
"cost" from the point of view of the continued
functioning of a society, and that problems are
created as well as solved by the presence of ritual
patterns in a given culture.
Paragraphs four and five [4] Finally, I should like to advance the theory
t^M H"* that ritual P atterns which initia y eraer .s e as
and set up his assumptions responses to critical areas of uncertainty in the
concerning the nature . . e -. , t j j ^ ^ j
of ritual, situation of action are elaborated and reinterpreted
in terms of certain selective value-orientations in a
given culture.
[5] We are brought, then, to a dynamic con-
ception of ritual which includes the following
considerations: Ritual patterns develop as a re-
sponse to emotional anxiety and cognitive frus-
tration in a situation of uncertainty; but ritual
PREPARATION 221
The last paragraph of this
section states the three
aspects of the problem
with which the paper
is concerned.
The two final paragraphs
of the paper state and
explain briefly the
conclusion that the author
has reached as the result
of his study. The points
brought out in the
conclusion coi respond to
those raised in the intro-
duction : the relationship
of water witching as
a ritual pattern to an
aiea of uncertainty, the
significance of this pattern
to the community, and the
attachment of value to
the supposedly "rational"
control of the environment.
patterns come to have both "functional" and "dys-
functional" aspects (both a "gain" and a "cost")
for the continuing existence of a society as the
patterns are elaborated and developed in terms of
the selective value-orientations of a given culture.
[6] In this paper I shall analyze the relation-
ship of the water-witching pattern to the critical
area of uncertainty in the location of underground
water supplies, explore the functional and dys-
functional aspects of this pattern for the continu-
ing survival of the community, and try to show
how the pattern has become an expression of the
value stress on "rational" environmental control in
a rural American community. . . .
[7] Our conclusion is that water witching is a
ritual pattern which fills the gap between sound
rational-technological techniques for coping with
the ground water problem and the type of control
which rural American farmers feel the need to
achieve. The best geological knowledge of ground
water resources that is currently available still
leaves an area of uncertainty in the task of predict-
ing the exact depth to water at a given location in
a region with a variable ground water table. The
water-witching pattern provides a reassuring mode
of response in this uncertain situation.
[8] Thus, although water witching is to be re-
garded by the scientific observer as a nonempirical
means for achieving empirical ends and is func-
tionally equivalent to the magical practices of
nonliterate societies it is generally viewed as a
rational-technological procedure by its adherents
in rural communities. The technique can, there-
fore, best be described as a type of "folk science"
or "pseudo science" in the rural American cultural
tradition. As a body of pseudo-scientific knowl-
edge, the water-witching pattern in our rural farm-
ing culture is the same order of phenomena as the
pseudo-scientific practices that cluster around situ-
ations of uncertainty in other areas of our culture ;
as, for example, in modern medical practice where
there appears to be a pattern of "fashion change"
in the use of certain drugs, an irrational "bias" in
favor of active surgical intervention in doubtful
222 THE RESEARCH PAPER
cases, and a general "optimistic bias" in favor
of the soundness of ideas and efficacy of proce-
dures which bolsters self-confidence in uncertain
situations.
The next example of an introduction is of particular interest be-
cause of the definitions presented as a background for the remainder
of the paper. (The figures referred to in the text are not included
here.)
STRENGTH IN TENSION 5
How tensile strength data from standard property
tests can be used more effectively in design
The first two paragmphs Actual loading of a machine part can seldom
aV^KT'J be res lved int sim P le unidirectional stresses.
show the difficulties Consequently the prediction of actual part per-
involved in mtorpietmg r r , -111. i
tension strength values, tormance from theoretical loading considerations
and knowledge of conventional strength "proper-
ties" data is at best an approximation. The margin
for error, however, can be reduced by careful at-
tention to the implications of the various strength
properties.
Strength in tension is perhaps the most widely
used type of strength data, being employed not
only to supply numerical strength values, but also
as a comparative indicator of strengths of various
materials. Here again, caution is necessary, since
compression, torsion, shear or flexural strength
may actually be a better indicator for the particu-
lar design. Additionally, different materials are
not always evaluated on the same basis tension
strength values reported for one material may not
have the same meaning as similar values reported
for another. Condition (cold-rolled, heat-treated,
etc.) has a large influence on the value reported,
as do section size, variations between lots and
other effects.
Paragraph three states the Some of these considerations will be discussed
immediate ^^* e pe f i n this article, along with a summary of the main
tensile properties for representative engineering
materials. Tensile strength and various other
5 Robert L. Stedfeld, "Strength in Tension," Machine Design, 25(11) :161,
163, November 1953.
PREPARATION 223
strength properties of materials will also be con-
sidered further in future articles.
The next thiee paragraphs Characteristic Stress-Strain Curves: As pointed
"^"trrare out in man y engineering texts, most materials can
essential to the reader's be classified into one of three groups: ductile,
undei standing of the i . i i i r i A i *i
remainder of the article, brittle or elastomeric, as shown in big. 1. A ductile
material, Fig. 1 a, has a stress-strain curve com-
posed essentially of an elastic portion, in which
the stress-strain curve follows Hooke's law, and a
"plastic" portion where the curve deviates from a
constant stress-to-strain relationship. Some ductile
materials, such as mild steel, have definite yield
points. Most, however, show only a relatively sharp
"bend" where the material enters the plastic re-
gion, without a definite reversal in slope of the
stress-strain curve. The main distinguishing fea-
tures of the curve are the large "hump" and
the difference in strain or elongation between the
tensile strength and breaking strength.
Brittle materials usually have a curve similar to
Fig. 1 b. Generally, the distinction between brittle
and ductile materials is the tensile strain at rup-
ture; metals with a total elongation greater than
0.05-inch per inch (5 per cent elongation), for
instance, are considered to be ductile. The curve
of Fig. 1 6, however, may be representative of
materials normally considered as brittle but which
have larger elongations than called for by this
criterion. For most materials with a curve of this
shape, such as gray cast iron or austenitic alloy
steels, there is no true elastic region; the elastic
portion of the curve is slightly curved and even
for ductile materials there is some question
whether highly accurate measurements might not
show deviations from Hooke's law. The "tail" of
the curve (roughly from the yield strength up-
ward) may be shortened or missing entirely for
very brittle materials. Laminated plastics, for in-
stance, have almost no elongation, and conse-
quently the stress-strain curve becomes practically
a straight line.
Stress-strain curves for elastomeric or soft ma-
terials resemble Fig. 1 c. Soft rubber and plastics
such as vinyl chloride, nylon and polyethylene are
typical examples.
224 THE RESEARCH PAPER
The third and most technical of the examples is the introduction
and conclusion from a forty-five page contribution to Chemical Re-
views. Following the conclusion, nine pages of the review are devoted
to listing 378 references, ranging in date from 1861 to 1953 with
a preponderance in the 1940's and 1950's. The selection is notable
for the clarity and conciseness of its style.
THE NATURE OF THE MINERAL
PHASE OF BONE 6
/. Introduction
This review opens with an In nearly all of the higher forms of animal life,
Vbot 6 structural strength and rigidity are provided by
the bony skeleton. The strength and rigidity of
bone are derived from its composition and archi-
tecture, which is unique among living tissues.
About one-third of its mass is in the form of
mineral crystals, which are embedded in an extra-
cellular matrix composed largely of a complex
interwoven network of a tough fibrous protein,
collagen. There is present also a poorly char-
acterized interfibrillar "ground substance." Bone
cells, attached to one another by protoplasmic proc-
esses, small blood vessels, and variable amounts
of extracellular and intracellular fluid make up
the rest of the organic matrix.
The next two paragraphs This review is concerned with the general prob-
o? e th P e r p b ap" "d lem f establishing the chemical nature and prop-
define its coverage, erties of the mineral crystals of bone. While this
problem has been under investigation for over a
century, very recently a number of new techniques,
principally electron microscopy and tracer chem-
istry, have added a great deal to our understand-
ing. With this newer knowledge an attempt has
been made to present a unified concept of the
problem. To do this it has been necessary, where
critical data are lacking, to resort to speculation.
It is the aim of this review to stimulate interest
and research, not to predict the future. If, as new
facts are learned, all of the speculation here prc-
6 W. F. Neuman and M. W. Neuman, "The Nature of the Mineral Phase of
Bone," Chemical Reviews, 53(1) :l-2, 35-36, August 1953.
PREPARATION 225
sented proves false, the authors will be neither
surprised nor discouraged.
Only certain phases of the subjects have been
covered in detail. The reader is referred, therefore,
to a number of excellent reviews (9, 65, 80, 81,
121, 139, 187, 241, 248, 262, 291, 325) for a more
comprehensive bibliography. . . .
VIII. Conclusions
The seven paragraphs Subject to modification and, with the risk of
:^ oversimplification, the present knowledge concern-
proceed from the more ing the nature of the mineral phase of bone may
specific conclusions to , j f n
those which are more be summarized as follows:
theoretical and speculative. The crystals of bone are minute tablets, 25-50 A.
In accordance with the . . , . . t i 11
problem as stated in thick, approximately 400 A. long and nearly as
the introduction, the w ^ e j n tne j ntact k one t h ese crystals are found
conclusions are concerned
with "the chemical natuie to be closely associated with the collagen, lying
" b ! tween the Characteristic banding of the fibers,
with the long crystal axis (and the c-axis) paral-
lel to the longitudinal direction of the fiber.
These crystals are comprised of calcium, phos-
phate, and hydroxyl ions arranged in a hexagonal
lattice structure which diffracts x-rays to give a
pattern characteristic of the apatite minerals. This
lattice structure is not of fixed composition but
may undergo some isomorphic substitution, par-
ticularly at the surface.
The specific surface area of bone mineral is
enormous, because of the minute size of the crys-
tals. To obtain measurements it is necessary to
remove the organic material by heat treatment;
therefore, the observed values of about 100 m. 2 /g.
are minimal.
Because of this enormous area, surface phe-
nomena dominate the chemical behavior of the
bone mineral. One of the most important proc-
esses yet demonstrated is ionic exchange. The sur-
face ions have been shown to be in equilibrium
with the solution bathing the crystals. By hetero-
ionic exchange, many non-lattice ions are bound
by the crystals: hydronium, sodium, fluoride, car-
bon dioxide, and citrate. The crystals become
highly hydrated in aqueous medium because of a
226 THE RESEARCH PAPER
boundary charge and the presence of exchange-
able ions. The extreme thinness of the crystals
permits an interchange of ions within the crystal
with ions in solution, a process termed recrystal-
lization.
The variability of the lattice structure, and the
crystal surfaces especially, does not permit the
application of the usual solubility principles. No
single Kfi p governs the solubility of either bone
crystals or the basic calcium phosphates. However,
the K H{} of CaHP0 4 sets a solubility maximum,
above which precipitation occurs. Present data
indicate that calcification in vivo involves a cata-
lyzed crystallization rather than a precipitation,
as frequently postulated.
All evidence is consistent with the belief that
the skeleton and the body fluids are in equilib-
rium. The bones do not regulate the blood levels
but they may provide considerable buffering ac-
tion with respect to [Ca+ + ], [HP0 4 ], and
[H 3 + ]. Thus, changes in blood composition in-
duced by diet are reflected by the skeleton, espe-
cially in acidosis. The deposition of radioisotopes
confirms the dynamic equilibrium between blood
and bone. Furthermore, recent studies with iso-
topes have shown dramatic variations in reactivity
from bone to bone and from one microscopic area
to another within a given bone. These data point
up the fact that the crystal surfaces become less
and less reactive with increasing age of the crys-
tals. Foreign elements that concentrate in the
skeleton do so by one of two processes: (1) a
surface exchange with ions in the mineral crystals
or (2) a specific but uncharacterized deposition
in the organic or osteoid portion.
C. Value of the Outline
Early in the stages of collecting material and taking notes on the
problem under investigation, the writer of a research paper begins
to consider the analytical divisions of his subject matter and the
preparation of an outline. (See Chapter 5.) The final draft of the
outline of the paper becomes a basis for the table of contents, if one
PREPARATION 227
is desired. (See Chapter 14.) During the actual preparation of the
paper, however, the outline is useful primarily as a plan for its
composition. To serve this purpose the outline must represent both
a logical organization of the material and a workable guide to its
presentation.
The Introduction and the Conclusion are fixed points at the begin-
ning and end of the outline. Usage differs as to whether the Introduc-
tion and Conclusion should be treated as outline topics and given
Roman numerals or should appear at the beginning and end of the
outline perhaps italicized but without numerals. Either practice is
correct, so long as the Introduction and Conclusion are treated alike.
It is not desirable to co-ordinate the Introduction and Conclusion
with a middle section, the "Body." Although this arrangement may
seem superficially logical, it does not represent accurately the rela-
tionship between the analytical divisions of the paper. In an outline
for a relatively short paper the Introduction and Conclusion are often
omitted, and the central idea of the paper is expressed in a theme
or thesis statement preceding the outline proper.
The preparation of the outline begins with the grouping of the
note cards accumulated in the course of the investigation. (See
Chapter 4.) The note cards should first be grouped under the main
topics suggested by the headings on the cards, and then the question
of subdivisions should be considered. At this stage a logical sequence
of ideas and a valid distinction between major and minor topics
are more important than the outward form of the outline. When
the writer is ready to consider the final form of his outline, he may
choose between two types the topic outline and the sentence outline.
The topic outline has the advantage of being more easily converted
to a table of contents, the sentence outline of showing more fully the
subject matter and process of reasoning developed in the paper.
In a topic outline the main topics are usually made up of short
phrases, most frequently nouns and their modifiers. The subtopics
show a greater variety of grammatical structure, including preposi-
tional phrases, infinitives, and even dependent clauses. Neither the
main topics nor the subtopics in a topic outline are ever complete
sentences.
In the following topic outline, set up by a student in preparation
228 THE RESEARCH PAPER
for writing an undergraduate research paper, a theme statement
replaces the introduction and conclusion.
AN INQUIRY INTO TEMPER TANTRUMS
Statement of theme: Temper tantrums are basically
reactions to frustration which may often be effectively
treated by redirecting the child's energy.
I. The temper tantrum as a response to frustration
A. The immediate causes of temper tantrums
1. Outside objects or persons
2. Conflicts within the child himself
B. Tensional outlets characteristic of different
ages
II. The relationship of aggressive tendencies to
environmental factors
A. Importance of deficiencies in family
situations
1. Undesirable parental attitudes
a. Excessive dominance
b. Submission of the parent's will to
the child's
2. Poor sibling relationships
B. The school as an influence in the child's
behavior
1. Possibility of transference of attitudes
toward parents to the teacher
2. Opportunity for development of social
compatibility
III. The treatment of temper tantrums through a
knowledge of the causes
A. Ineffective forms of punishment
1. Futility of verbal punishment
2. Danger that physical punishment may lead
to a feeling of insecurity in the child
B. Effective forms of treatment
1. Adapting treatment to the individual
case
2. Ignoring temper tantrums in very young
children
3. Redirecting energy
a. Through reasoning
b. By providing new outlets
In the sentence outline each topic and subtopic is stated as a com-
plete sentence. The following outline covers much the same subject
matter as the preceding outline, but the Introduction and the Con-
clusion are made separate topics and given Roman numerals.
PREPARATION 229
AN INQUIRY INTO TEMPER TANTRUMS
I. Introduction
A. Temper tantrums constitute a problem of
frequent occurrence at home and at school.
B. The temper tantrum may be considered basi-
cally a reaction to frustration.
II. The causes of temper tantrums are complex.
A. Temper tantrums may be related to outside
objects or persons.
B. Temper tantrums may arise from conflicts
within the child himself.
C. Differing tensional outlets for frustration
are characteristic of different ages.
III. Aggressive tendencies are related to environ-
mental factors.
A. Deficiencies in family situations are sig-
nificant.
1. Parental attitudes may be imitated or
revolted against.
a. The dominant parent exercises exces-
sive control over the thoughts and
actions of the child.
b. The submissive parent allows the
child too much freedom.
2. Good sibling relationships are difficult
to achieve but with great effort can be
realized.
B. The school shares with the home the respon-
sibility for the child's behavior.
1. Attitudes toward parents or other rela-
tives may be transferred to the teacher.
2. The school offers an opportunity to
develop social compatibility.
IV. Effective treatment of temper tantrums depends
upon a knowledge of their causes.
A. Treatment should be adapted to the indi-
vidual case.
B. Certain types of punishment are ineffective.
1. Verbal punishment is usually futile.
2. Physical punishment may lead to a feel-
ing of insecurity in the child.
C. Temper tantrums in very young children may
sometimes be ignored with good results.
D. Temper tantrums may be treated by redirect-
ing the child's energy.
V. Conclusion
A. An understanding of temper tantrums may be
achieved from a study of the environmental
situation in the individual case.
230 THE RESEARCH PAPER
B. Since temper tantrums are basically a reac-
tion to frustration, they are in general
best controlled by redirecting the child's
energy.
Certain conventions should be observed in preparing any type of
formal outline. These conventions, illustrated by the foregoing out-
lines and by the revised outline in Chapter 5, may be summed up
as follows:
1. The title of the outline is the same as the title of the theme.
2. The first word only of each topic is capitalized; the topic is not
treated as a title. The topics should not depend for clarity upon
pronominal reference to words in the title of the outline.
3. Indentation should be employed to show the subordination of
the various ranks of subtopics.
4. Periods are used following the numerals and letters designating
the topics. No periods are used following the topics in a topic
outline. The usual sentence punctuation is used in a sentence
outline.
5. The use of single subtopics under a heading should be avoided
since a whole cannot logically be divided into less than two
parts.
6. Co-ordinate headings should not be used to represent topics
differing greatly in consequence.
7. Co-ordinate headings should be expressed in parallel gram-
matical structure.
8. Fewer than three or an excessively large number of main topics
should be avoided as indicative of an inadequate analysis of
the subject.
D. Clarity of Framework
One obligation of the writer of the long formal paper is to make
the analytical framework of the paper evident to the reader. This
end is accomplished partly by the use of centered or marginal head-
ings in the text of the paper and partly by transitional words, phrases,
and statements. The more definitely a paper is directed to a specialized
group of readers, the more explicit and conspicuous the verbal indi-
cation of its structural divisions may be.
PREPARATION 231
Writers of long formal papers are frequently hampered by attempt-
ing to follow advice which is particularly relevant to the short
informal paper. The frequently heard admonition "don't write an
introduction just begin," while sound enough counsel when applied
to some short papers, is inapplicable to the long formal paper. The
space devoted to establishing the structural divisions of a paper
should be proportional to the length and seriousness of the study.
In making clear the progress of thought between the introduction
and the conclusion, transitional words, phrases, and sentences serve
as "guideposts" to the reader. Such guideposts may point forward,
awakening interest in what is to follow, or backward, reminding the
reader of what has been covered. An enumeration early in the paper
of the main points to be covered contributes to clarity and at the
same time arouses some degree of anticipation in the reader. The
following example, chosen from an article suggesting investigation
into u some unsolved problems of the scientific career," shows the
use of such an enumeration.
These investigations would throw light on such problems as: (a) the
special stresses, both economic and psychological, which occur in the
life of the young scientist; (b) the great variety of conscious and un-
conscious forces whose interplay determines a young man's choice of
scientific research as a career; (c) the interplay of conscious and
unconscious forces in his subsequent emotional and scientific matura-
tion; (d) how the special stresses which develop later in life react
upon the earlier emotional forces which originally turned him towards
science; (e) how unconscious stresses influence the young investi-
gator's general approach to scientific research and scientific contro-
versy; (/) how the unconscious symbolic significance of particular
scientific problems and theories can distort the logic and the judgment
even of men of exceptional ability. This article will attempt only to
illustrate the wide variety of problems which are relevant to these
general headings. 7
Various transitional devices are used in the next selection, which
opens with the last paragraph of the introductory section of the
article. First, a transition is effected between the introduction and
the next main division; then the idea of "an office without duties" is
picked up at the beginning of the succeeding paragraph to keep the
7 Lawrence S. Kubie, "Some Unsolved Problems of the Scientific Career,"
American Scientist, 41:597, October 1953.
232 THE RESEARCH PAPER
point under discussion in the foreground of the reader's mind. The
italics (except for those marking esse and posse) have been added
to indicate words and phrases used with transitional effect.
The issue is clear. In order to resolve it let us begin by examining
the fundamental difficulty of the vice presidency: the enormous dis-
parity between the importance of the office and the importance of the
officer.
The first thing to observe about the office is that it has no duties.
True, the vice president is President of the Senate and, as such, per-
forms duties analogous to those of the Speaker of the House. But the
two offices are separate and distinct. "I am possessed," said John
Adams, "of two powers; the one in esse and the other in posse. I am
Vice President. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything. But I am
President also of the Senate." The combination of offices has excited
surprise. Roger Sherman explained it in the Federal Convention: "If
the Vice President were not to be President of the Senate, he would
be without employment."
Now an office without duties, no matter how great its reversionary
prospects, is not an office to inspire or satisfy the expectations of an
ambitious mind. John Adams declared the vice presidency the most
insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his
imagination conceived almost the only one in the world in which
patience and firmness are useless. 8
In an effort to achieve smooth transition, inexperienced writers
sometimes introduce cumbersome, roundabout explanations which
impede rather than further the progress of thought. Illustrations of
such ill-advised attempts at transition are shown here accompanied
by suggested revisions.
Original Revision
In the year 1944 the United In 1944 approximately 280,000
States mined approximately 280,- tons of ilmenite and 7,000 tons of
000 tons of ilmenite and 7,000 tons rutile were mined in the United
of rutile. Perhaps a few words States. The ore of rutile comes
should be mentioned about the ore from Virginia,
of rutile. The ore of rutile comes
from the state of Virginia.
As indicated above, titanium is Though titanium is the fourth
the fourth most abundant structural most abundant metal in the earth's
metal in the earth's crust, yet it crust, it was selling for $3,000 a
8 Lucius Wilmerding, Jr., "The Vice Presidency," Political Science Quarterly,
68:19, March 1953.
PREPARATION 233
was selling for $3,000 a pound only pound only five years ago. This
five years ago. What does this indi- high price, which accounts for the
cate? As you know, the cost of a relatively small use of titanium, was
product depends on the availability due to the high cost of extracting
of the ore. If the ore is easy to titanium from its ore. In 1946 the
extract from the earth or its bond- Bureau of Mines released a process
ing agent then the ore is relatively developed by William J. Kroll, bu-
cheap. But if the ore is hard to reau consultant, for extracting ti-
extract from its bonding agent, we tanium from its ore for the first
then have a very costly raw mate- time in practical amounts,
rial. Thus we see the reason for the
exorbitant cost of this metal. How-
ever, in the year 1946 the Bureau
of Mines released a process devel-
oped by William J. Kroll, bureau
consultant, for extracting titanium
from its ore for the first time in
practical amounts.
In sum, transitional expressions, even in a formal paper, should
not seem artificial or extraneous but should arise naturally out of
thought relationships. In a long but less formal paper directed to the
general reader, the analytical framework is present but is less appar-
ent. Examples, anecdotes, analogies, and other means of holding the
reader's interest are relatively prominent and tend to soften though
not to obliterate the lines of the framework.
III. PROCESS OF EVALUATING A RESEARCH PAPER
When the research paper has been written, revised, and put into
final form, it will presumably undergo appraisal. It will be helpful
to the student if he can, while completing his paper, be aware in
advance of the criteria by which it will be judged. Since the subjective
element in a research paper as compared with that in impressionistic
or purely creative writing is relatively small, it is possible to achieve
some accord as to what should be expected in a research paper.
A. Criteria Employed
The research paper will ultimately, of course, be judged as a whole
since the many factors which affect its quality are interrelated and
combine to produce the impact of the entire paper. The principal
234 THE RESEARCH PAPER
criteria employed in making an analytical appraisal on which this
final judgment may be based are indicated here.
I. Research
Focusing of problem Coverage of sources Evaluation of
sources Extent of reading Efficiency of note-taking
Accuracy of documentation
II. Content of paper
Selection of material Interpretation of material
Individual contribution of ideas
III. Organization of paper
Suitability of title Outline Introduction Structural
development Transitions Conclusion
IV. Composition
Paragraph development Sentence structure Spelling
Punctuation Usage
V. Style
Conciseness Effectiveness (Choice of words Handling
of sentences ) Readability
VI. Format
Title page Table of contents Text of paper with headings
indicating subdivisions Presentation of references. (Some
instructors may also require a letter of transmittal and/or
an appendix, both of which are discussed in Chapters 11
and 12.)
B. Frequently Occurring Faults
Even when the student is aware of the criteria by which a paper
is to be judged, he may fall short in meeting these standards through
lack of experience. Faults which are often conspicuous in the finished
research paper can best be prevented through an understanding of
the causes which lead to them.
The poorly integrated research paper is a type all too frequently
encountered. Such a paper consists of a piecing together of large
blocks of material from a limited number of sources. This lack of
integration results not so much from insufficient reading as from
inadequate assimilation of material and a failure to relate the findings
to the problem under consideration.
Lack of balance is another common fault in research papers.
Disproportionate space is given to relatively minor topics while im-
portant points are treated sketchily. This difficulty is attributable to
EVALUATION 235
a number of causes, the principal ones being a faulty work schedule
which leaves insufficient time for proper development of parts of
the paper, a poorly constructed outline which fails to show relative
values accurately, and disregard of a balanced outline during the
actual writing of the paper.
The research paper which does not convey its central point to
the reader fails in its purpose. This ineffectiveness in a paper may
likewise be due to more than one cause. If the writer has not grasped
the meaning of his problem, the paper will not progress logically
from the statement of the problem to its resolution and will lack the
dynamic quality which readers find convincing. Again the writer may
have worked out his problem but may not demonstrate its resolution
because he does not appreciate the value of factual evidence and
offers it in insufficient quantity.
Finally, the slipshod or generally careless paper is ubiquitous.
Such a paper, with its irregular margins, poor handwriting or nu-
merous typographical errors, inconsistent punctuation of documen-
tary references, and many mistakes in spelling, merits little consid-
eration. Faults of this sort in a research paper, moreover, suggest
carelessness in such fundamental matters as accuracy of research
and fidelity to sources.
IV. ANALYSIS OF A PAPER FROM A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL
The theoretical study of the preparation of long scientific papers
should be followed by a careful analysis of at least one paper which
may be regarded as a model. Such a paper is presented here with
the addition of notes pointing out features particularly pertinent to
the needs of the student of scientific writing.
The utie is specific, THE UNEXPLAINED DIRECTION SENSE OF
referring explicitly to the VfTRTITPT? ATTTC 9
problem under V JLK 1 fctfttA 1 ^
consideration a-
The opening paragraph, The golden plover (Pluvialis) each fall flies a
with ,ts use of a variety nongtop 2 ()00 miles across the trackless Pacific
of illustrations, is designed v
to eaptuie the interest of from Alaska to Hawaii. The salmon (Oncorhyn-
returns from mid-ocean to spawn in the
"one of the unsolved very stream in which it was born. A pet dog
mys eues. returns home over hundreds of miles of unfamiliar
9 William J. Beecher, "The Unexplained Direction Sense of Vertebrates,"
The Scientific Monthly, 75:19-25, July 1952.
236 THE RESEARCH PAPER
terrain. We are in danger of thinking of the "di-
rection sense" here exhibited as commonplace
because these events occur every day. But actually
it is one of the unsolved mysteries.
The two succeeding Take birds, for example. If these mobile verte-
etTm g e r nT h o 8 f "Urn ^* > *> vive as a type, the early models
by illustrating the must have been able, despite stormy winds and
direction sense of . , . c e ,
vertebrates by reference extensive wandering in search of food, to return
to the migration of birds, home to the care of young. Moreover, annual mi-
grations may have been a necessity from the start.
On a planet whose spin axis is inclined to the
plane of rotation, there must always have been
seasons, even sixty million years ago when Green-
land was subtropical. These migrations probably
became longer as the Tertiary unfolded and cooler
climate crowded subtropical and tropical zones
toward the equator, and the Ice Age saw birds
pushed into our Gulf States and into Central and
South America. Warm interglacial periods per-
mitted long migrations, relieving the resulting
population pressure, and finally the Ice Cap shriv-
eled to the brooding relict we see in Greenland
now. Today, waterfowl and other birds, following
the long retreat of the ice, nest as far north as
the short summer will permit successful raising
of a brood.
What is the stimulus? We know now that it is
not the warming weather but the increasing day
length that conditions the northward migration of
birds in spring and the growth of their reproduc-
tive organs (1). Each species may "set its clock"
by the day-length threshold that will time its
arrival on the nesting ground as soon as it is ready
for occupancy a vital matter for short-season
nesters beyond the Arctic Circle. And it is not
simply the cooling weather that sends birds south
in the fall, for some leave us in July and August.
This was necessary in the Ice Age, and the day-
length threshold triggering southward movement
then may be still in effect, since natural selection
imposes no penalty for early migration south so
long as a brood is raised. Wolf son covers the phys-
iological basis of bird migration admirably (2).
AN ANALYSIS 237
This paragraph focuses the What concerns us is the precision of these
migrations. Many of these birds will return thou-
and the implication of an sands of miles, flying through dark nights when
inherited direction sense. , , .11.1 i
they cannot see, to the particular thicket or meadow
in which they nested last year. Moreover, the
young in some species precede their parents in the
southward migration to the wintering grounds, a
journey they have never made before! This seems
to imply inheritance of an instinctive direction
sense, and such navigational ability may fall into
the same class with the homing of pigeons or of
swallows, used in war by the ancient Romans (3).
All that has been said of birds goes for bats and
many other mammals (particularly aquatic ones),
various fishes, and in lesser degree reptiles and
amphibians.
Here the theories which Historically, the semicircular canals seem to
^ the first sense organs credited with space-
sense of birds are reviewed orientation, de Cyon suggesting them simply be-
and the coverage of the , , n jrn i i i
paper is indicated m the cause the three, fluid-filled, sensory canals on each
last two sentences of the s [^ e o f the head lie mutually perpendicular in the
paragraph, thus concluding .
the introduction or three dimensions of space (4). By 1882 Viguier
statement of the problem. had p ropose d t h a t birds might be able to detect
the earth's magnetic field in the canals (5), and
by 1894 Hodge was claiming that pigeons home
by random search (6). All these viewpoints have
been pursued intermittently down to the present
without resolving the question. This is particularly
interesting because each of these theories has been
revived by modern workers employing relatively
refined investigation techniques within the past
few years. Their evidence and conclusions are re-
viewed below.
Griffin's Theory of Random Search
This section of the paper Griffin (7) believes that homing can be ac-
IB devoted to reviewing counted for on the assump tion that birds make a
experiments concerned r
with "random search." random search upon release until they chance to
terrain familiar to them - Griffin and Hock
be noted. (8) removed gannets from their nests on Bonaven-
ture Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and re-
leased them 218 miles away at Caribou, Maine
70 miles from any coast. When followed by air-
238 THE RESEARCH PAPER
plane these birds appeared to wander randomly
until the St. Lawrence River or the coast was
sighted, after which most returned home. The
homing sense in these seabirds might not be ex-
pected to be highly perfected, since they are virtu-
ally never out of touch with coasts, and it is dif-
ficult to accept the application of these conclusions
to all birds. Airplane observations of homing
pigeons by Hitchcock suggest that a clear course
toward the loft is taken (9). It is hard to account
for most homing by chance. Watson and Lashley
reported noddy terns (Anous) returning to their
nehts on Bird Key, Florida, from Galveston, Texas
(north of their range), a distance of 460 miles
across the Gulf against heavy winds in three days
(10). Lack and Lockley report the record for wild
bird homing in a Manx shearwater (Puffinus) ,
transported from the coast of Scotland outside its
range to Venice, Italy (11). It returned the 3700
miles in fourteen days, averaging 260 miles per
day! When it is remembered that in both cases the
birds would have to rest at night and feed on the
way, even a thirteen-hour flying day seems exces-
sive, yet this gives an average speed for the shear-
water of 20 miles per hour.
Yeagley's Theory of Homing by a
Coriolis-Magnetic Grid
In this section experiments Yeagley hit upon the ingenious idea that pigeons
invSatr^tr/h" y home by detecting the effect, due to their
theory of bird migration movement through the air, of the earth's magnetic
discussed, field and of the Coriolis force caused by the earth's
rotation (12). Lines representing equal intensity
of these forces form a gridwork, those of Coriolis
force being true latitude lines, those of magnetic
force dipping down so as to intersect the latter at
two points in North America. The essential fact is
that the intersection at Pennsylvania State College
is duplicated by a conjugate point at Kearney,
Nebraska. Yeagley trained pigeons to home up to
70 miles to a mobile loft at State College, then
transported them, with the lofts, to the vicinity of
Kearney. He theorized that, if pigeons correlate
their ground speed with these two forces to return
AN ANALYSIS 239
to the loft where they effect the right "feeling,"
then the birds should experience the same feeling
at Kearney and should return there if released in
its vicinity. Three groups of birds were released
one near Kearney, one near State College, and one
midway between.
Although the last group were in a "tangential"
area of parallel grid lines, where navigation
should be impossible by Yeagley's theory, homing
was easterly. This agrees belter with a simple
Coriolis theory than with magnetic field or grid
detection. In fact, Thorpe (13) suggests that there
seemed to be a tendency to home to the correct
latitude. Yeagley believes the total flight vectors
in these three groups support his theory, but this
does not appear to be the consensus. The super-
imposing of a pulsating field (to destroy the effect
of the earth's magnetic field) was effected by
attaching magnets to the wings of pigeons, but this
apparently did not affect their performance when
compared with controls. Other experiments of this
sort have always been negative. This valuable
work is hard to assess because of terrain and
meteorological differences between Pennsylvania's
mountains and Nebraska's prairies. There is also
a suspicion that homing ability has been "domesti-
cated out" in pigeons. Although Yeagley is con-
tinuing his experiments with wild ducks, these are
mainly diurnal and may migrate by visual clues.
One would like to see the many nocturnal migrants
tested for homing ability, as was done with swal-
lows (Hirundo) by Polish investigators (14).
Ising's Theory of Coriolis Force Detection
in the Semicircular Canals
A third theory is dealt Ising thinks birds find their way by detecting
t^nTent^tnt ^ Coriolis force due to the earth's rotation (15).
some detail. Any object on the equator has a momentum of
about 1000 miles per hour (the earth's velocity
at the equator), whereas objects at the North Pole
have a momentum of zero. An object projected
through the air at the North Pole from the equator
will curve to the right because it is progressively
moving into latitudes of lesser momentum. The
240 THE RESEARCH PAPER
force it would have to overcome to fly to the pole
is Coriolis force. Ising showed that a microscopic
streaming occurs in a fluid-filled glass tube
fashioned into a ring when it is rotated on its own
diameter. This hydromotor force, which is due to
Coriolis effect, obeys the same law as* induced emf
in a closed conductor, and Ising suggests that the
direction sense of birds may be based on the
motion, relative to the rest of the bird's body, of
the fluid in the semicircular canals. The three
canals of the inner ear are mutually perpendicular
and thus are oriented in the three dimensions of
space on either side of the head. Within the bony
canals are membranous canals filled with endo-
lymph, each one terminating in an ampulla con-
taining a crista in which sensory hairs enveloped
by a gelatin cupula or door record flow of endo-
lymph. This is an inertia system, and the normal
function of the canals is based on the inertia of
this fluid. When an animal swings its head, the
endolymph of the canal in the plane of the move-
ment remains behind. Relative to the cupula it
flows in the opposite direction, its velocity and
amplitude directly proportional to the head move-
ment. Ising reasoned that in such a system there
should be an inertia effect resulting from the at-
tempt to fly a true course despite the deviating
influence of Coriolis force. His critics (16, 17)
object that the effect is too small for the sensory
apparatus to detect (about the amplitude of
Brownian energy), but if the bird turns its head
from side to side more rapidly, especially in flight,
the force would increase considerably.
It has appeared to me that the semicircular
canals may be more than a latitude sense, measur-
ing the increasing value of Coriolis force north-
ward (18). They should serve as a "gyrocompass,"
since Ising measured different values for different
compass directions of the couple on the glass ring.
But it also follows from Lowenstein and Sand's
(19) finding that the ampulla in the living semi-
circular canal discharges spontaneously and that
any rotation of the animal producing flow in a
canal toward its ampulla enhances the discharge,
AN ANALYSIS 241
whereas flow away from it inhibits the discharge.
Thus, if we visualize Coriolis force acting from
west to east on the latitude lines there should be
a streaming in the four vertical canals for a north-
ward course which is inhibiting ( ) in the am-
pullae on the left side, enhancing ( + ) in the
canals of the right side. On a northwest course all
the streaming will take place in a single canal of
each side, since the other vertical canal will be at
right angles to a force acting from the west.
Although it must not be imagined that Coriolis
force acts so simply, there seems to be a basis for
thinking that the opposing sign of the canals of
the two sides affords a means by which the resolu-
tion of the force for any latitude among the
six ampullae will be different for each compass
direction.
The maculae of the utricle, saccule, and lagena
of the inner ear each a layer of calcium carbon-
ate crystals (30/u) embedded in gelatin on a mat
of sensory hairs form a gravity system similarly
opposite in sign for the two sides. This may also
aid direction-finding in the canals by measuring
the deviation from the pull of gravity resulting
from Coriolis force. In their normal functions the
roles of the canals and maculae are supplemen-
tary, even complementary, the latter reporting
deviations of the head from the horizontal by the
effect of slight weight shifts of the crystals on the
sensory hairs.
If this analysis is correct in principle, the canals
and maculae may balance the Coriolis force value
of a particular latitude differently for each direc-
tion with the qualification that directions of 180
different will produce the same sensation. This
provides a theoretical basis for the inheritance
of a direction sense that would permit young birds
to migrate south before their parents and for local
populations of a species to pass on genetically
the exact direction taken to breeding and resting
grounds. The force, of course, increases on a north-
ward course, decreases on a southward one. Thus
young European storks (Ciconia) precede the
parents to the wintering grounds in South Africa.
242 THE RESEARCH PAPER
Having reviewed the three
principal theories of
"direction sense," the
writer turns to a discussion
of phenomena supporting
the Coiiohs force theory.
The phiase "inherited
direction sense" from the
first sentence of the
paiagraph is depended on
later for transition. This
section of the paper deals
first with "direction sense"
in a number of different
animals. The compression
of the last sentence is
worthy of note since six
different refeiences are
alluded to.
West German storks migrate southwest through
France and Spain to Africa by way of Gibraltar;
East German storks of the same species migrate
southeast through Transylvania, the Balkan Pen-
insula, and Asia Minor to Africa by way of the
Nile Delta. Eggs of East German birds raised in
West Germany hatch young that migrate by the
route normal to East German birds in an en-
vironment where adult birds migrate in the oppo-
site direction indicating an inherited direction
sense (20).
Other Phenomena Supporting the
Coriolis Force Theory
The larvae of European and American eels
(Anguilla) afford a striking case of inherited
direction sense (21). In the breeding ranges of
the two species south of Bermuda, the larvae hatch
and are found together but separate as they mi-
grate in opposite directions. Larvae of the Ameri-
can eel swim west, metamorphosing into elvers in
one year, at which time they find themselves off
the eastern coast of North America, up whose
rivers they swarm to complete their growth. Larvae
of the European eel swim east, metamorphosing in
three years, at the end of which time they have
reached the coasts of western Europe, in whose
streams they complete their development. The
well-known ability of the Pacific salmon to return
from far out at sea to spawn in the stream in
which it was born (22), of the fur seal (Callo-
rhinus) to make a long migration on a true course
(23), and of the green sea turtle (Chelonia) to
home indicates that direction sense is most highly
evolved in animals living in the fluid media of the
earth. It is on these fluid media that Coriolis force
acts (trade winds and ocean currents), and it may
also affect the fluid in the canals possessed by all
these animals in common, even though the fish
lack the outer and middle ear. Homing always
implies return to a known locale and is known in
all vertebrate classes e.g., in frogs (24), toads
(25), box turtles (26), snakes (27), mice (28),
and flying squirrels (29).
AN ANALYSIS 243
Direction-finding possibly related to homing and
migration is ability to run a maze. Watson (30)
found that maze-learning was not impaired in
white rats by experimental extirpation of eyes,
middle ear, olfactory lobe, or vibrissae, or by anes-
thesia of feet and nose, or even by elimination of
air and temperature currents. But he obtained one
result with these animals that he was unable to
explain satisfactorily. When the maze was rotated
180 the animals were still able to run it, with
some initial hesitation, but when it was rotated 90
none of them could run it. One hardly dares sug-
gest that these animals could run the maze by
detecting Coriolis force in the canals and maculae,
yet the inner ear alone remained, excepting pos-
sible kinesthetic receptors in muscles and joints.
In the case of the latter, rotating the maze should
have no effect, but if the rats were oriented by
Coriolis force, rotation 90 might have the effect
noted. It seems possible that, with other senses
removed, the inner ear could become supersensi-
tive to Coriolis force.
Other vertebrates learn mazes readily, turtles
showing as much aptitude as laboratory rats (31).
Birds are slower than rats, but the cowbird (Molo-
thrus) and English sparrow (Passer) learn faster
than pigeons (Columba) (32). Birds seem to
react to most environmental stimuli with complex
but stereotyped instinctive responses, and concen-
tration on learning is difficult (they are "bird-
brained," in other words). English sparrows were
confused when the maze was reversed, persistently
trying to make certain turns as they had been
accustomed to do, suggesting a sense of absolute
direction.
Bats (My otis) seem to have such a sense. When
conditioned to fly to one end of a cage 27 inches
long for food, they continued to fly to the same
absolute spot in space after the cage had been
rotated 180, even though the white square of cloth
on which they had been conditioned was plainly
visible at the original end of the cage (33).
244 THE RESEARCH PAPER
Some Peculiarities in the Ears of Birds, Bats,
and Aquatic Mammals
Another topic i elating to I have found that birds that migrate mainly at
C " 5 ni S ht . f * edin g and res ' in g b ? d *? (especially song-
birds), have a membranous sac lining the bony
wall of the outer ear (18). This sac is composed
of cavernous tissue which can be inflated with
venous blood by the action of M. tensor tympani
in damming the auricular vein leading from it.
It seems to be a mechanism for covering the drum,
which in small birds is ten times the relative size
in man. Since the outer ear in such birds is shaped
a little like an air scoop, and its opening is thinly
veiled by auricular feathers designed to admit air,
the head-turning postulated by Ising would, at 40
miles per hour, set up strong plus-minus pressures
on the drum. These would make it difficult for the
bird to make an estimate of Goriolis force, and
it may be under these conditions that the sac is
inflated. It is interesting that this tissue is special-
ized as a cavernosa just in those species making
the most phenomenal, chiefly nocturnal, migra-
tions warblers, buntings, thrushes, golden plover,
etc. The diurnal ducks, geese, and swans, gen-
erally thought to migrate by visual clues, lack this
specialization. In them the sac is composed of
relatively undifferentiated connective tissue, but in
the ruddy duck (Erismatura) , which alone mi-
grates habitually at night (34), the sac contains
a venous plexus approaching the cavernosa.
Cavernous tissue has also been reported in asso-
ciation with the drum of bats (35), though it may
never amount to more than a venous plexus (36).
Eschweiler thought the filling of this cavernosa
with blood might create tension on the drum in
place of the missing M. tensor tympani in the
pangolin (Manis) (37). This tissue has been re-
ported also in the armadillo (Tolypeutes) and
hedgehog (Erinaceus), but in my own dissections
of the ear in bats I have not been much impressed
with it, nor is the mechanism by which it might
be induced to swell evident. However, the cartilage
at the base of the pinna seemingly forms a series
of valves which may close under the combined
AN ANALYSIS 245
effect of the venous plexus and the extrinsic ear
musculature. Griffin and Galambos (38-41) have
shown that plugging the ear in bats prevents their
hearing their own supersonic cries, but they might
momentarily close their ears in homing or migrat-
ing, as was suggested for birds. Curiously, neither
bats nor birds close the ear in response to foreign
objects threatening the drum and thus may only
do this in flight when trying to determine direction
in the inner ear.
In all these animals having a cavernosa in the
ear or an approach to one, a common need to close
the external ear exists. The pangolin, armadillo,
and hedgehog are burrowing animals, and the
need for closing the external ear opening in bats
and birds has already been suggested. Aquatic
mammals are apparently also able to close the
ear (42). And now a curious relationship is seen:
vertebrates living in the earth's fluid media air
and water can either close the outer ear or (like
turtles and fishes) have it lacking. It may be
coincidence, but these are the animals that exhibit
homing and migration most dramatically, and in
them the inner ear, suspected of detecting direc-
tion stimuli, is peculiarly protected from disturb-
ing effects of the medium in which they live. The
olfactory sense may aid salmon in homing to a
stream (43) but hardly accounts for its long sea
journey and this sense seems to be totally lack-
ing in birds.
Other Theories of Bird Orientation
In these three paragraphs Ruppell (44) showed that hooded CroWS (C0r-
commented on, rounding in Europe, migrate on a course parallel to it, and
out the review, jjjj^^^ f oun( j t h a t pigeons trained to fly in only
one direction to the loft will, if released off this
flight line, continue to fly in this direction (9).
Possibly these facts are explained by Matthews'
observation that overcast skies have a disorienting
effect on homing pigeons (45). At any rate,
Kramer has been able to modify the tendency of
starlings (Sturnus) in an outdoor aviary to mi-
grate in a particular direction by altering the
246 THE RESEARCH PAPER
normal incidence of light with mirrors (46). Con-
ditioned birds were also confused in their selection
of feeders, concentrically arranged around a cage,
by mirrored light. Although they do not perceive
the polarization pattern of the sky, they apparently
allow for the daily movement of the sun. Pigeons
show the same ability, and Matthews thinks gulls
home by sun navigation (47). Unfortunately none
of this explains how starlings and the great host
of birds migrate at night. Such birds are waifs
of the winds and with their poor nocturnal vision
could hardly risk alighting at night (48). Once
launched on a migratory flight, they must presum-
ably continue until dawn, and a direction sense
must be assumed. The moon may be ruled out, for
they often migrate on nights when it is not visible.
The largest migration waves occur in the spring
in the warm sector of a low pressure area,
when the sky is overcast and even stars are in-
visible (49).
It is vital that such waves wait on southerly
winds strong Gulf air masses apt to hold all
night. On a west wind, coastal migrants would
be carried east while flying north. Dawn would
find them over the Atlantic, an error lacking in
survival value. So it may be that these waves have
evolved in adjustment to the peculiar spring baro-
metric patterns of eastern North America.
Drost (50) believes flying birds respond to
radar waves, and Kramer (51), theorizing that
they might detect the low-energy, ultra short-wave
frequencies emitted by the sun and several stars,
tried to obtain evidence. He failed to get reactions
of any kind from red-backed shrikes (Lanius),
flying or perching, to wavelengths of 60 cm, al-
though the field intensities were similar to those
used by Drost.
The final paragraph Examples of direction-finding from all verte-
ofTh^^er'lX'r.t brate groups have been assembled here in an
is possible to arrive at one effort to discover a common denominator. The
on the basis of evidence 1 -, , i r i
currently available, maze-learning results may not be examples ot the
same phenomenon, and for the other examples it
is clear that present evidence does not permit gen-
eralizing from species to species. The homing abil-
ity of gannets does not seem to be of the same
AN ANALYSIS 247
order as that of the Manx shearwater, and the
sun-compass supposedly used by starlings in day-
light could hardly serve them during their noc-
turnal migrations. Available evidence suggests that
the direction sense is most highly perfected in
animals of the fluid media air and water ani-
mals in which the outer ear is either lacking or
may be closed against pressures incidental to
movement through the media. A certain amount of
circumstantial evidence thus supports the theory
that the inner ear may detect Coriolis force and
employ it as a compass.
REFERENCES
1. Rowan, W. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. History, 38, 147
(1926).
2. Wolfson, A. Sci. Monthly, 74, 191 (1952).
3. Aldrovandi, U. Ornithologiae, hoc est de avibus
historiae, libri XII. Bononiae apud Franciscum de
Franciscis Senensem (1599-1603).
4. Cyon, E. de. Ann. scL nat. Zool, 7, (6), 1 (1878).
5. Viguier, C. Rev. intern, sci. biol. (Paris), 10, 255
(1882).
6. Hodge, C. F. Pop. ScL Monthly, 44, 758 (1894).
7. Griffin, D. R. Quart. Rev. Biol., 19, 15 (1944).
8. Griffin, D. R., and Hock, R. J. Ecology, 30, 176
(1949).
9. Hitchcock, H. B. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. (in press).
10. Watson, J. B., and Lashley, K. S. Papers Dept.
Marine Biol. Carnegie Inst. Wash., 7, 1 (1915).
11. Lack, D., and Lockley, R. M. Brit. Birds, 31, 242
(1938).
12. Yeagley, H. I. /. Applied Phys., 18, 1035 (1947).
13. Thorpe, W. H. Proc. Linnean Soc. London, 160,
85 (1949).
14. Wojtusiak, R. J. Ibid., 99.
15. Ising, G. Arkiv Mat. Astron. Fysik, 32A (18), 1
(1946).
16. Wilkinson, D. H. Proc. Linnean Soc. London, 160,
94 (1949).
17. Thorpe, W. H., and Wilkinson, D. H. Nature, 158,
903 (1946).
18. Beecher, W. J. Am. Midland Naturalist, 46, 367
(1951).
19. Lowenstein, O., and Sand, A. /. Exptl. Biol., 13,
416 (1936).
20. Schiiz, E. Vogelzug, 5, 21 (1934).
21. Norman, J. R. A History of Fishes. London: Ernest
Benn, Ltd. (1931).
22. Rich, W. H., and Holmes, H. B. Bur. Fisheries
Doc. No. 1047, 44, 215 (1929).
248 THE RESEARCH PAPER
23. Jordan, D. S., et al. The Fur Seals and Fur Seal
Islands of the North Pacific Ocean, Pts. 1-13.
Washington, D. C.: (1898).
24. McAtee, W. L. Copeia, 96, 39 (1921).
25. Bogert, C. M. Am. Museum Novitates, No. 1355, 1
(1947).
26. Nichols, J. T. Copeia, 1939, 125 (1939).
27. Stickel, W. H., and Cope, J. B. lbid. y 1947, 27
(1947).
28. Murie, 0. J., and Murie, A. /. Mammal, 12, 200
(1931).
29. McCabe, R. A. Ibid., 28, 404 (1947).
30. Watson, J. B. Psychol. Rev. Monogr. Suppl., 8, (2),
(1907).
31. Tinkelpaugh, 0. L. /. Comp. Psychol., 13, 201
(1932).
32. Porter, J. P. Am. J. Psychol., 17, 248 (1906).
33. Hahn, W. L. Biol. Bull., 15, 135 (1908).
34. Philips, J. C. A Natural History of the Ducks,
Vol. IV. Boston New York: Houghton Mifflin
(1926).
35. Bondy, G. Anat. Hefte, 1. Abt. 106, 35, 295
(1907-8).
36. Grosser, 0. Arch, mikroskop. Anat. Entwicklungs-
mech., 60, 191 (1902).
37. Eschweiler, R. Ibid., 53, 558 (1899).
38. Griffin, D. R., and Galambos, R. /. Exptl. Zobl.,
86, 481 (1941).
39. Galambos, R., and Griffin, D. R. Ibid., 89, 475
(1942).
40. Galambos, R. Sci. Monthly, 56, 155 (1943).
41. Griffin, D. R. Nature, 158, 46 (1946).
42. Howell, A. B. Aquatic Mammals. Springfield, 111.:
Thomas (1930).
43. Hasler, A. D., and Wisby, W. J. Am. Naturalist,
85, 223 (1951).
44. Ruppell, W. /. Ornithol. (Leipzig), 92, 106 (1944).
45. Matthews, G. V. T. /. Exptl. Biol., 28, 508 (1951).
46. Kramer, G. Ibis, 94, 265 (1952),
47. Matthews, G. V. T. Ibid., 243.
48. Beecher, W. J. Science, 115, 607 (1952).
49. Bagg, A. M., et al. JPilson Bull., 62, 5 (1950),
50. Drost, R. Vogelwarte, 15, 37 (1949).
51. Kramer, G. Ibid., 16, 55 (1951).
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Consider the possibilities of the following topics as starting points in
defining a problem for a research paper : the principle of ion exchange
and the variety of its applications, the importance of Gibbs' "Phase
Rule" to engineering, the work of Cuvier, Magendie, and Bernard as
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 249
illustrative of the transition from descriptive to experimental methods,
the background and significance of the term Avogadro's number, evi-
dence offered in support of the "recapitulation theory" in embryology,
Whitehead's emphasis on "the organic theory of nature" and on "or-
ganism" in contrast to Eddington's emphasis on analysis, the back-
ground and significance of the term Occam's razor. Consult a history
of science such as C. Singer's or Sir William Dampier's and list other
possible topics for research papers with a historical background.
2. On the basis of what criteria would the example which concludes this
chapter be classified as a review? What characteristics of the research
paper does it have? In examining scientific periodicals, how do you
distinguish among reports, reviews, and research papers?
3. Select a representative long scientific paper and note the means which
the author has used to make the framework of the paper clear to the
reader. Do you find that the introductory, transitional, and concluding
statements are made directly or indirectly? If this suggestion is fol-
lowed as a class project, notes may be compared.
4. Can you suggest any research paper problems which might be formu-
lated as a result of considering the area in which the following lines
of interest intersect: science and music; aesthetics and automotive
design; science and religion; science and poetry; the science of lan-
guage and chemistry, biology, or medicine; architecture and meteor-
ology; color and the work of Sir Isaac Newton; color and the work
of Goethe; color and perception; color and personality; chemical or
physical science and the determination of time intervals.
5. Which of the following topics of current interest might suggest prob-
lems for a research paper: the sea as a source of food, vaccines for
the prevention of poliomyelitis, the sun as a source of power, the tran-
sistor, space travel, helicopters, hurricane prediction, changes in life
expectancy? Can you supplement these suggestions with others, in-
cluding topics of particular interest in your locality?
CHAPTER 11
THE REPORT
I. The report as a means of modern communication
A. Characteristics of the report
B. How and why reports are initiated
II. Reports according to function
A. Work reports
1. Routine or record reports
2. Periodic reports
B. Investigative reports
III. Short reports
A. Outline reports
B. Memorandum reports
C. Business-letter reports
D. Short-form reports
Report me and my cause aright. SHAKESPEARE, Ham-
let, v. ii.
I. THE REPORT AS A MEANS OF MODERN COMMUNICATION
Any responsible individual who communicates information based
on his activities or investigations to those who want or need it is
making a report. Though the written report is an ancient form of
communication, its use has been greatly extended in modern times,
particularly during the last twenty-five years. The distances across
which modern business must be transacted, the gap of specialized
knowledge between the executive and the expert, the complex struc-
ture of governmental, professional, and business organization, and
the growing intricacy of the issues involved have combined to create
a situation in which oral reporting is totally inadequate and the
written report becomes the conduit through which modern enterprise
is channeled.
250
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 251
This pre-eminence of the report has come about inconspicuously.
Indicative of the number and variety of reports used in industry is
the estimate of a representative firm that approximately sixty regular
monthly reports, two daily reports, and fifteen quarterly, semi-annual,
and annual reports, as well as numerous single and temporary re-
ports, pass over the desk of the general manager. Likewise, the af-
fairs of the national government go forward by means of reports.
As a Naval manual puts it:
The contact between a coxswain in New Caledonia and CNO in
Washington may not be direct or immediately apparent; but it exists.
It must, or the Navy will not function. To maintain that contact is
the purpose of reports. They are numerous, they often change, they
are sometimes bewildering to the inexperienced and they can be infuri-
ating to the veteran. But they are absolutely essential. Everyone recog-
nizes that, from coxswain to admiral. It's a long, wet walk to Washing-
ton to make a verbal report. 1
A. Characteristics of the Report
The word report, from the Latin reportare (to bring back), sums
up the communicative function of the report. Varied in length and
subject matter as the many types of written reports are, they all con-
form to this basic definition. Each is a communication especially de-
signed to convey factual information from a person who has it or
who has accumulated it to persons who are entitled to it or who need
it, frequently for a practical purpose.
The form of the report varies with the nature of the information
to be conveyed, the purpose for which it is wanted, and the person
who will receive it. A report is constructed most successfully, accord-
ing to one authority, when it is "designed to meet certain definite
requirements like any structure destined to carry its load." 2 Yet
structure alone is not enough. The good report should also be dy-
namic. Whether long or short, it should move forward with no waste
motion from the presentation of its purpose at the beginning to the
conclusions or recommendations at the close. Thus, "effective reports
1 Yeoman 1 and Chief, Washington, D. C., United States Government Printing
Office, 1950.
2 J. Raleigh Nelson, Writing the Technical Report, New York, McGraw-Hill
Book Company, Inc., 1947, p. vii.
252 THE REPORT
are at once products of sound craftsmanship and contributions to
practical action." 8
Important decisions may hinge on the information presented in
a report or on its recommendations. The location of a new plant,
adoption of a new manufacturing process, rejection of a product,
changes in personnel policy, allocation of funds these are some of
the decisions that may be arrived at on the basis of reports. Since
such policies may involve millions of dollars and may affect the lives
of many people for many years, it is essential that the report should
be complete and accurate. It may even be required to withstand the
test of litigation. The signatures attached to a report, therefore, entail
great responsibility.
Since reports serve practical, utilitarian purposes, literary orna-
ment has no place in their composition. The reader is seeking facts,
well organized and clearly presented. As one engineer put it dryly:
"A report is usually a serious form of writing. The temptation to
enliven a report by including an occasional bit of levity should be
suppressed; so often those who read reports are devoid of any sense
of humor." 4 Those writers who excel in report writing excel in their
ability to understand what is wanted, to observe and record data
accurately, to analyze it intelligently, and to communicate the results
not only through verbal expression but through typographical form,
graphs, figures, charts, maps, tables, and equations.
B. How and Why Reports Are Initiated
Because of the complexity of the circumstances which demand re-
ports, no one classification will reveal the full nature of the report.
A complete understanding will come only from considering the way
in which the report is initiated, its function, and its form.
The person who writes a report is frequently not responsible for
initiating its preparation. Consequently the writer must disregard his
own interests and wishes in favor of the needs of the person who has
requested the report. Reports are often initiated by executive order.
Such orders may be either standing or special, or they may stand as
8 Lisle A. Rose, Burney B. Bennett, and Elmer F. Heater, Engineering Re.
ports, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1950, p. ix.
* By permission from Technical Report Writing, by Fred H. Rhodes and
Herbert Fisk Johnson, p. 34. Copyright 1941. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 253
long as a given piece of work is in progress. Certain reports are re-
quired by law, others by the bylaws of an organization. Custom pro-
vides the impetus for many reports, including some which are par-
tially self-initiated. A research worker may, for example, decide when
to report his results to a technical journal, but the making of such
reports is a long-established custom. The report of experimental re-
search is a highly specialized type and has been treated briefly in
Chapter 10 in connection with the research paper.
Whether the writer initiates the report or not, he should have a
clear understanding of the purpose which the report is to serve. This
purpose should be kept in mind throughout the writing process, for
it affects everything about the report from the selection of data to
the final form of its presentation. If factual data alone are desired,
the reporter is responsible for collecting them carefully and for pre-
senting them accurately and clearly. But facts alone may not be
enough : " 'The facts speak for themselves' sounds good but is often
untrue. In many reports we have to offer estimates, interpretations,
hypotheses, theories, predictions, conclusions, recommendations." 5
The writer should understand clearly whether he is expected to con-
fine his reports to facts, to go on to conclusions, or to go still fur-
ther and draw up recommendations.
Certain types of reports are used in part for promotional purposes.
A charity agency, a research foundation, or an industry may invite
the support and good will of the public by means of the annual re-
port. A persuasive arrangement of facts then is highly important.
Color, layout, and pictorial illustration become dominant features.
The appearance may simulate a newspaper, photographs may repre-
sent typical cases, or cartoons may dramatize events. If the report
is to be worthy of its name, however, the use of these devices must
be confined to bringing the facts home to the reader ; the report must
not distort or misrepresent facts or suggest unworthy motives.
... if a plan is strategic, it must be honest; anything that suggests
propaganda, however concealed or camouflaged beneath the massing
of facts, any effort of the writer to sell himself or his company to the
reader, when he is supposed to be doing something else, will bring
his report under suspicion. 8
5 Rose, Bennett, and Heater, op. cit., p. 7.
6 By permission from Writing the Technical Report, by J. Raleigh Nelson,
p. 18. Copyright 1947. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
254 THE REPORT
II. REPORTS ACCORDING TO FUNCTION
The report writer should understand the term function to mean
what the report does : whether it gives an account of work in progress,
presents the results of an investigation or survey, or recommends a
course of action. Since the functions of reports differ greatly in dif-
ferent fields, terms which classify reports according to function
should be understood in relation to their setting. A progress report
in industrial research, for example, is quite different from the prog-
ress report of a committee.
A broad classification of function generally applicable makes a
distinction between work reports and investigative reports. When the
writer of an investigative report is expressly charged with making
recommendations, the report becomes a recommendation report. A
progress report is an account of the current status of a project or
an estimate of achievement in terms of goals.
A work report gives an account of work normally in progress. An
investigative report deals with a problem of which a special study is
projected. The writer of a work report is already in possession of
the facts. The writer of an investigative report must determine the
facts before he can undertake the task of reporting them. Between
these two types there may be a relationship. In a large industrial
plant, for example, the daily reports of tests and analyses are work
reports; yet viewed in larger perspective this work is part of a re-
search program involving the investigation of problems.
A. Work Reports
Work reports are of two principal types routine or record reports,
which are prepared currently as a part of the day's work, and
periodic reports, which are prepared at intervals to sum up what has
been accomplished.
I. Routine or Record Reports
The first type of work report which a beginner will probably have
to prepare is the routine or record report of tests, examinations,
operations, or performance. (See Section III-A of this chapter.) In
some industries projects range from one-person projects to plant proj-
ects requiring several technically trained men and in addition three
DOBS* write u this sate*
tNDIANA tTATI BOARD OF BBALTB
BUREAU OF LABORATORIES
INDIANAPOLIS T, INDIANA
Bacteriological
of Private Water
Md Other Watcra Not ra SebeMe
FILL IN THIS SPACE. USE SOFT PENCIL.
bdlMt State BMrd f Itelth ! to mU NK( to
All fliers Mm* Be Rewlv* b dw Latoratory N* Liter Tfe
rrUarNoMsrAarWstk
DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE
Read Direction* on accompanying sheet
Answer all questions-USE SOFT PENCIL
BOTTLE No rnitVTV Marlon
1. 8orc of sunple (Dug, drilled or driven well, spring or
cistern) (Underline)
Pollected_5=2=52-
3 Owner
4. w
Colleoted by Js&ULDS*
J. Pe famil
f ^TtJy ?2SQ flullforil
(AddiM)
Reason for examination _ nav wall
7 Age of wellJLJttftkAny recent r*plrtu_nfl _
8. Location with respeet to pnvy_5Q_J> Cesspool 5Q-fl
Septic t.nlr y) ft Sewers or draina_50__/ t _
. Top oT pump ipout open or cloaed__jBloattH _
10 Does pump require priming? _ DO _
11 Dug well information Diameter _ Are walls water-
tight to depth of 10 ft or moreT - Is cover water-
tight? - Is waste water carried away? -
12 Driven or drilled well information Diameter-?!! __
Single or double tubular_&l&gl_Depth eased_SQ n _ft.
Is there a well pitT, . no - Drained to _ Has it a
water-tight cover? - If double tubular, is annular
space between the two pipes sealed? _
13 Spring information Is it walled up and covered? _
Can spring be flooded by heavy rams' _
14 Cistern information Material of pipe line to cistern _
1$ Remarks.
8 B H a+tt "IM-ttl)
DiMt write to ftlasfttt
DM4 write fas ftl>*M*
LABORATORY EXAMINATION
BQ'B Bo'.a BQ r B BO'B
REPORT OF SAMPLE
O SATISFACTORY At the time of examination this water
was bactenologically safe for drinking and eulinary
purposes
UNSATISFACTORY. At the time of examination this
water was bactenologically unsafe It should not be
used for drinking and eulinary purposes unless boiled or
treated.
D EXAMINATION OP SAMPLE WAS NOT MADE
BECAUSE-
Q The water sample bottle was broken in shipment
O There was too long a tims between collection of sample
and receipt for examination.
D WE ADVISE THAT ANOTHER SAMPLE BE SUB-
MITTED.
on the Mcompanyinf tbeet.
Indiana State Board of Health, Bureau of Laboi atones, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Routine or record reports often follow prepared forms. Accuracy is of
great importance in their preparation because they are sometimes the
basis of higher-level reports.
256 THE REPORT
shifts of operators records must be kept on this scale twenty-four
hours a day. 7 Accuracy is a primary responsibility of the person pre-
paring the record report, for the reliability of all reports at higher
levels depends on accuracy at this level.
Like many routine or record reports, the example 8 given on page
255 follows a printed form.
2. Periodic Reports
Whether in business, industry, institutions, or government, staff
members in an ascending scale of responsibility receive periodic
reports from their subordinates or associates. One industrial execu-
tive has explained the method used by his department to "follow up"
on all regular reports routed to the general manager. (See illustra-
tion, p. 257.)
A wall chart is maintained on which "regular" reports are listed
vertically. Horizontally, and in order, appear the days of the month.
A green [horizontally striped] square opposite a particular report and
directly under a date indicates that the report is "due" on that date.
When this due date has been passed during the month and the report
has been received "on time," a small yellow [checkered] magnet is
placed over the green [horizontally striped] square. If the report has
not been received, a red [vertically striped] magnet is placed over the
green [horizontally striped] square indicating that the report is late.
At the end of each month, a "Report on Reports" is prepared for the
Head of the Administration and Planning Department, indicating those
reports which were delinquent during the month and the reasons for
the delinquency. 9
As reports pass through various hands they undergo a sifting
process: "So efficient is this routine of condensation by which each
individual extracts for his head the essence of the reports submitted
to him, that not more than one one-thousandth of the data compiled
by the members of a railroad staff appears in the final summary pre-
pared for the stockholders." 10 The year's end has for so long been
7 E. L. d'Ouville, "Original Records of Experimental Work," Journal of
Chemical Education, 25:97, February 1948.
8 This example, classified functionally here, can also be classified according
to form as an outline report. (See Section III-A of this chapter.)
9 Administration and Planning Department, Square "D" Company, Detroit,
April 30, 1952.
10 Ray Palmer Baker and Almonte Charles Howell, The Preparation of
Reports, rev. ed., p. 97. Copyright 1938, The Ronald Press Company.
FUNCTION 257
MAGNET
REPORTS
|
DAYS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
etc.
No.l
No. 2
===!
No. 3
No. 4
etc.
Hill
U
^j| III INDICATES DUE DATE
[ffTTTT] INDICATES REPORT DELINQUENT
HI INDICATES REPORT RECEIVED
Adapted from Administration and Planning Department, Square "D" Company, Detroit,
Michigan.
A method of "follow up" for routine reports may be necessary. This wall
chart shows at a glance the over-all and individual status of reports for
a given month. Colors, instead of patterns, may be used for keying.
regarded as a stopping point for reviewing the year's work that the
annual report has become a distinct type of periodic report. In certain
fields, including public utilities, specific requirements for the annual
report have been established by law. Most annual reports include a
message from the president, a financial statement, a summary of the
year's operations, and a comparative analysis of past achievements
and future prospects.
B. Investigative Reports
The variety of problems which may be assigned for investigation
and report is almost unlimited. An engineering firm's report may
map a route for a highway, a municipal report may present a survey
of housing conditions, or an investors' service report may analyze
recent trends in the stock market. Obviously, specialized knowledge
258 THE REPORT
is basic to the successful performance of such functions. Investigative
reports depending upon the requirements may be descriptive, analyti-
cal, evaluative, statistical, experimental, or historical in approach.
The first investigative report included here follows an outline
appropriate to the analysis of chemical products.
NO. 19
DU PONT NEW PRODUCTS BULLETIN
(Electrochemicals Department Technical Division
Field Research Section)
(4)
/ C \ TETRAHYDROPYRAN
(5) H 2 C CH 2 (3)
I I (SYNONYM: PENTAMETHYLENE OXIDE)
(6) H 2 G GH 2 (2)
\ o / ELCHEM-596
(1)
PROPERTIES
Appearance Colorless, mobile
liquid
Odor Ether-like
Molecular Weight 86.13
Boiling Point 88C. (190. 4F) at
760 mm.
Specific Gravity, 20/4 .... 0.8814
Refractive Index, N20/D .... 1.420
Flash Point -20C. (-4F)
Solubility in water at 20C. . . 9.6 gms./lOO gms.
water
Solubility of water in
tetrahyd ropy ran at 20C. . . . 2.8 gms./lOO gms.
tetrahyd ropy ran
Solubility in organic solvents Miscible with alcohol,
ether and most common
organic solvents
Boiling Point of Water
Aze trope containing
8.5% water by weight .... 71C. (159. 8F)
FUNCTION 259
SOLVENT PROPERTIES
Tetrahyd ropy ran is a powerful solvent for many natural
and synthetic resins including the following:
Rosin Manila copal
Ester gum Shellac
Ethyl cellulose Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride
Cellulose acetate Vinylidine chloride copolymers
Polyvinyl chloride Alcohol soluble phenolic resins
Vinyl chloride Polystyrene
copolymers Chlorinated rubber
Lacquers and plastics can be prepared by dissolving
certain organic film forming substances in tetrahydro-
pyran. The liquids are colorless. Modifiers, dyes,
pigments, and plasticizers may be added as desired.
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
Tetrahyd ropy ran is a cyclic ether, similar to tetra-
hydrofuran in physical properties and reactions.
Chlorination yields mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrachloro-
tetrahydropyrans . Tetrahyd ropy ran reacts with acid
chlorides to form omega-haloamyl esters. Conversion
to dihalides such as 1,5-dibromopentane and 1,5-
dichloropentane can be effected. Many mono and di
substituted derivatives of pentane can be obtained
from the dihalide. Tetrahyd ropy ran reacts with ammo-
nia and aliphatic and aromatic amines to form piperi-
dine and substituted piperidines.
The following equations illustrate the above reactions
of tetrahydropyran:
Chlorination
Tetrahydropyran can be chlorinated at 65-70C and
then fractionally distilled in vacuo to obtain mainly
tri and tetrachloro tetrahydropyran. Upon distilla-
tion at 100-110C, 2,3,3-trichlorotetrahydropyran
and 2, 3, 5-trichloro tetrahydropyran can be isolated.
The former is stable on distillation at atmospheric
temperature, but the latter decomposes to give 3,5-
dichlorodihydropyran. On standing, a crystalline de-
posit of 2,2,3,3 tetrachlorotetrahydropyran comes down
which distils at 130-140C. Chlorinating tetrahy-
dropyran to 2,3-dichlorotetrahydropyran and then
distilling at ordinary pressure, with evolution of
hydrogen chloride, yields 5-chlorodihydropyran, which
260 THE REPORT
can be chlorinated further to the 2,3,3-trichloro
derivative. Also, 2,3-dichlorotetrahydropyran can be
hydrolyzed with water in the presence of calcium car-
bonate to 2-hydroxy-3-chlorotetrahydropyran, which
reacts with 5-chlorodihydropyran to form bis- (3
chloro-2-tetrahydropyryl) ether.
CH 2 CH 2
H 2 C GH 2 H 2 C C.C1 2
I | + 4C1 2 -> I |+ 4HC1
H 2 C CH 2 H 2 C C.C1 2
V V
2,2,3,3-Tetra-
chlorotetra-
hydropyran
Lit. Ref. Brit. Pat. 571,265 and 571,266 Soc. Dyers
and Colourists 62. 55, Feb. 1946.
Reaction with Acid Chlorides
CH 2
H 2 C CH 2 11
I | + CHaCOCl -> C1.CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .O.C.
H 2 C CH 2 Acetyl Omega-chloroamyl acetate
\ / chloride
Conversion to Dihalides
CH 2
H 2 C CH 2
I I + 2NaBr + H 2 SO 4 -
H 2 C CH 2
O Br.CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .Br + Na 2 SO 4 + H 2 O
1 ,5-Dibromopentane
Lit. Ref. J. Chem. Soc. 1945. 48-51. C.A. 39. 2748-9.
The halogen atoms on the above compounds are highly
reactive. For example, they can be replaced by
cyanogen (CN) radicals which, in turn, can be reduced
to primary amine groups or hydrolyzed to carboxyl
groups .
Br.CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .Br + 2NaCN ->
NC.CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CN -f- 2NaBr
Pimelonitrile
FUNCTION 261
NC.CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CN + 4H 2 ->
H 2 N.CH 2 .CH2.CH 2 .CH2.CH 2 .CH2.CH 2 .NH2
Heptamethylene diamine
NC.CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CH 2 .CN + 4H 2 O + 2HC1 ->
HOOC.CH 2 .CH2.CH2.CH2.CH 2 .COOH -f 2NH 4 C1
Pimelic acid
Reaction with Ammonia
CH 2 CH 2
H 2 G CH 2 H 2 C CH 2
I ! + NH 3 - I I + H 2
H 2 C CH 2 H 2 C CH 2
O NH
Piperidine
Lit. Ref. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 66. 1710 4(1944).
C.A. 38. 6178.
HANDLING
We recommend the following precautions:
Keep tetrahyd ropy ran away from heat and open flame.
Use with adequate ventilation.
Avoid prolonged or repeated breathing of vapor.
Avoid prolonged or repeated contact with skin.
Although tetrahyd ropy ran is fairly stable to peroxide
formation, there is a possibility of explosion haz-
ards. To avoid these, tetrahyd ropy ran should never be
distilled or evaporated without first testing it for
peroxide and removing the latter if found to be
present. Tetrahyd ropy ran as provided by the Electro-
chemicals Department contains a stabilizer to inhibit
peroxide formation. As a routine precautionary
measure, however, even the stabilized material should
be tested for peroxide before it is subjected to dis-
tillation or evaporation. (On distillation, most of
the stabilizer remains in the residue and the distil-
late is therefore unprotected.) The following method
is suggested for testing for and removing peroxide:
SUGGESTED METHOD OF TESTING FOR AND REMOVAL OF
PEROXIDE
The method consists of the use of a mixture of ferrous
sulfate heptahydrate, F0S04. 7^0, and sodium bisul-
262 THE REPORT
fate, NaHS04- The ferrous sulfate destroys the
peroxide while the sodium bisulfate provides an acid
condition which favors the peroxide destruction.
To use this method, the per cent of tetrahydropyran
peroxide present should be determined by the usual
titration. (This consists of agitating a sample with
acidified potassium iodide solution and titrating the
liberated iodine with standard sodium thiosulfate
solution. ) Then there is added to the tetrahydropyran
at ordinary temperatures somewhat more than the
theoretical quantity of an equimolecular mixture of
the ferrous sulfate heptahydrate and sodium bisulfate.
The mixture is shaken or stirred vigorously for a
short time. A sample is then titrated and if peroxide
is still present, the agitation is continued until no
test for peroxide is obtained. Usually a period of a
few minutes suffices. Since the reaction results in
the liberation of a small amount of water from the
FeS04.7H20, the product may be dried if desired by
stirring with or allowing the liquid to stand for a
time in the presence of solid caustic soda.
AVAILABILITY
Tetrahydropyran is available at present in limited
quantities for research and development purposes.
July 11, 1946
This second example illustrates the importance of making a clear
distinction between recommendations and other features of the report.
The first paragraph concludes the discussion, Section IV presents
specific recommendations, and Section V, the final section, offers
general conclusions.
Why Is Modern Architecture Modern? ll
What is most striking about the number of instances of Modern
architecture already on college campuses is the enormous variety repre-
sented in design types. Of course, this merely reiterates the fact that
the "Modern style" in architecture is above all a changing, testing
evolution which has never become sufficiently static to justify the cog-
11 "Report of the Committee for the Revision of the Larson Plan," prepared
under the direction of Dr. Walter L. Creese, University of Louisville, June
1949.
FUNCTION 263
nomen "style." Nor can such a result be adjudged completely desirable.
For three reasons this is perhaps what makes it most vital and alive:
1. Its flexibility of design allows for the adoption of any technological
or engineering improvement and a corresponding aesthetic response
in the appearance of the building, not true in Georgian or Gothic.
2. Although new crimes are constantly committed in the name of its
latitude of choice, when a person of true originality arrives, his genius
has a chance to fulfill itself completely. Unrestrained by long-standing
or deep-seated traditions, adventurous American builders have long
shown a proclivity for veering off toward experimental individualism.
Sometimes its results have been comic, sometimes tragic, but the
integrity of the architecture of Thomas Jefferson, H. H. Richardson,
Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright and many other architects at
work today would seem to indicate that when it finally makes a return,
it does so superbly. 3. Modern architecture helps to keep our buildings
in tempo with current political, social and economic changes. The
retreat into a few stylistic categories which characterized the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was in part, at least, due to
the underlying hope that America was over its erratic adolescent
growth and was ready to settle down. We know now that this was
thankfully not true, either for the whole country or more particularly
for the American university.
IV. A PERMANENT COMMITTEE
For the purpose of bringing the campus development into a better
system of coordination, the Committee for the Revision of the Larson
Plan recommends that after its dissolution a second, permanent com-
mittee be organized consisting of members of the administration, repre-
sentatives of the faculty, elected by the Senate, a member from build-
ings and grounds and possibly one from the athletic department. All
elements should have sufficient representation, but the group should
not be so large as to hinder effective action. Its duties should be light,
but it should consider itself as responsible for the maintenance of
consistent aims of which the whole university community might be
aware. If either or both a landscape and a campus plan architect is
appointed, we believe that this group should serve as a liaison body
between them and the school. If not, then the committee should be
given some authority to generally oversee the disposition of buildings,
walks, parking spaces, planting and other objects.
v. CONCLUSION
The character and appearance of the physical plant deserves perma-
nent consideration if for no other reason than its importance as a
symbol. While it may be argued that it is impossible to tell a university
264 THE REPORT
by its campus any more than a book by its cover, and that the real
worth of a school lies in its library, the minds of its scholars and
students, and in the competence of its administration, this argument
is only pertinent within certain limits. If any twentieth century indi-
vidual discounts the value of socio-physical symbols, so indispensable
to primitive man, let him try to visualize New York without thinking
of skyscrapers, Washington without the Capitol and White House, or
his own alma mater without its campus. For the alumnus, the potential
freshman and the general public, as well as present students and
faculty, the buildings of the college must constitute the essential physi-
cal fact around which other, more nebulous impressions are gathered.
Great architecture has only resulted when people have had the hardi-
hood and persistence to try to incorporate their most abstract concep-
tions in wood or stone, steel or concrete. If we neglect the outward
appearance of our campuses, do we not also deny our inner image
of a university of its rightful power to inspire external beauty above
and beyond the casual thoughts of a sadly makeshift world?
III. SHORT REPORTS
For convenience, reports are often classified according to length,
as well as function (see pages 254-64) . Short reports are ten pages or
less; long reports may run to many volumes. There are four basic
types of short reports: the outline report, the memorandum report,
the business-letter report, and the short-form report.
A. Outline Reports
The outline report is a mimeographed, multilithed, or printed form
used principally for routine and periodic reports. If the writer must
make a routine report for which no specified form has been provided,
he may devise his own form, remembering to use the same topic
headings in the same order for all comparable reports in a series.
The outline report often has a heading giving the subject, the date,
and the name and position of the person making the report.
The following examples are representative of forms used in indus-
try for making outline reports. 12
12 The example on p. 255, classified functionally as a work report, is classi-
fied according to form as an outline report.
PAENT COMPLAINT FORM
(EXTERIOR WORK)
Inspected By Date-
Dealer's Name _ Dealer's Address ____
Owner's Name - Owner's Address __
Painter's Name, _ Painter's Address _ __ __ ____
Type of building Frame Q- Bnck O Stone Q. Stucco Q
Type of roof: Tile D- Tin Q. Composition Q. Shingle Q Insulation --------------
Date of painting _ Date when defect was first noticed ___ , . _
Nature of complaint --- _ . .
TYPE OF FAILURE
Y No Yei No
General tint failure. ..................... ..- ...... - . . D D Mildewing ............... O Q
Fading in spots ............... - ........... --------- D D Metal staining ................... Q Q
Dirt collection ........ ....., ...... -... .......... D D Gas discoloration .......... Q Q
Structural defects found where water could enter.
Yes No Yet No
Window frames .................. ---- .............. --- D D Wet basement ....... . . . . Q D
Louvres _________ . _______ ...... __ ............. ___ D D Lumber siding near ground . ] Q
Headers ___ ........ ~ .................. ______________ D D Lack of ventilation in side walls Q Q
Hoof ................... . ^^ ................... . Q Q
Insulation ...... .......... ~ ........... ____________ D D Were siding butts leaded? . ______ fj Q
Warped siding or trim boards ...... D D Were valley gutters leaded? . ~ ......... Q D
Absence of flashings or defective flashings . . Q Q Were hanging gutters leaded, . _ .. Q Q
Poor drainage of surface water ............... ... . D Q Were nails driven in and puttied? . . Q Q
Have similar failures occurred on previous paintings on this job? Yes Q No Q
What was done to overcome these previous defects? - -- _
Have failures occurred on the garage or other outbuildings in the same manner and was the same kind of lumber and
paint used? - - - - - - - -- --
Indicate side of house upon which defect has occurred and the degree of failure in such terms as slight, medium or bad.
Slight Medium Bad Slight Medium B*d
O Cracking D D D D Peeling to bare wood ... ODD
D Flaking - D D D D Checking D DO
O Blistering -.. . D D D D Washing or chalking off .... D DO
Q Peeling of previous paint Q D D
Appbed on new or previously painted surface: New Q Old Q.
Condition of old paint at time of repainting Chalking ... D Cracking . . Q
Checking . n Flaking . . Q
Peeling Q Blistering fj
Number of old coats in film .Adherence of old coats to underlying surface . _
Brand of paint previously used
(Continued oxer)
LABORATORY-Return To Office For Filing
Kurfees Paint Company, Louisville, Kentucky.
An outline report, often a long prepared form, provides a checklist for
the procedure of investigation.
Name of Employee-
Present Rate
KURFEES PAINT COMPANY
Employee Rating Sheet
Dept
Title_
Date of Last Increase-
Time on Present-
Lost Time
10 9 8 765
__ Times Tardy
432 1 00
Job Performance
Does more
All that is
Barely makes
Docs not
than is ex-
expected
his standard
make his
pected
standard
Job Quality
Superior
Good
Average
Unsatisfac-
tory
Job Knowledge
Thorough
Good
Fair
Insufficient
Attitude
Enthusiastic
Interested
Indifferent
Lacks interest
Initiative
Exceptionally
Very re-
Occasional
Very little
resourceful
sourceful
effort
Dependability
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Neatness
Excellent
Average
Fair
Sloppy
Leadership
Inspires con-
Self-assured
Not too con-
Lacks assur-
(Personality)
fidence
fident
ance
Leadership
Excellent di-
Good direc-
Fair direc-
Poor
(Supervisory)
rection
tion
tion
Conduct
Above criti-
Seldom sub-
Subject to
Subject to
cism
ject to crit-
frequent
constant
icism
criticism
criticism
10 9 8 765
Is worker satisfied with what he is doing?
Does worker wish to transfer? If so, to which other Department?
432 1 00
If not, Why?
Where?-
Is he qualified to accept a better position?
Do you recommend a transfer? Or Discharged?.
Do you recommend an increase?
Remarks:
Date_
. Supervisor-
SHORT REPORTS 267
B. Memorandum Reports
Memorandum reports are used chiefly for communication between
administrative levels and between different departments within an
organization or industry. Such a report may consist of a single
sentence, or it may run to several pages. Many firms have their own
printed memorandum forms. When no form is supplied this arrange-
ment may be followed:
June 5, 1952
From: J. R. Andrews, Vice-president
To: A. B. Taylor, General Manager
Subject: Run No. 476
The short memorandum has no complimentary close, and initials
may replace the signature. With a longer and more formal memo-
randum a complimentary close such as "Respectfully submitted" and
a signature may be used. The body of the long memorandum follows
the usual pattern of a business communication. The opening para-
graph states the essential business. This paragraph or the paragraphs
immediately following may present the conclusions reached or the
recommendations to be made, depending on whether the writer feels
they will be more favorably received here or at the end of the
communication. The middle paragraphs add whatever facts or expla-
nations are needed. A final paragraph may present conclusions or
recommendations if these points have not been adequately covered
in the opening paragraphs. Tabular, mathematical, or graphic data
may be included if their use does not unduly extend the length of the
report.
The choice between the memorandum report and the more elabo-
rately organized formal report should not be made on the basis of
length alone. The memorandum is suited to the reporting of an event
or activity of limited scope, while the formal report is appropriate
for the coverage of a considerable period of time and a variety of
activities.
The following memorandum makes a final report on work done in
examination of certain materials. In this example the directive and
the report made in response appear on the same memorandum form.
268 THE REPORT
Cross Index: 436, 51, 1655 cc J. E. Masters
G. W. Neumann
L. K. Scott
J . S . Long
DEVOE & RAYNOLDS CO., INC.
Research Department
FINAL REPORT SCS-25 DATE May 9, 1952
INVESTIGATORS. C. Spalding, Jr. COMPLETED August 13, 1952
SUBJECT
EXAMINATION OF ALKYDOL PRODUCTS EMULSION RESINS
You have received samples of emulsions from Alkydol
Products Company. Such samples included polystyrene
resin dispersion, alkyd resin dispersion, copolymer
of styrene butadiene and alkyd resin dispersion.
Please use this work order to report the work you have
done in examination of these materials.
J. E. Masters
JEM: jc
P. S.
Attached hereto is the Technical Service Bulletin on
these products. Please attach this bulletin to the
file copy of the work order when the final report is
written.
J. E. M.
Report:
Alkydol Labs products Alkyd-0-Mer, 8106, 8200, 7004
(respectively an alkyd emulsion, an alkyd-emulsion GRS
type latex blend, a GR type latex) were received and
rated as films against a Syntex 40 Hi Sol. emulsion
made using Emulsifier #107 at 2% of F.F.S. and ca 60%
N.V.M. and .04%Co 0.5 Pb as driers. Alkyd-0-Mer 8106
is not as good in drying speed and does not dry to a
clear film as the Syntex 40 emulsion. Alkyd-0-Mer
SHORT REPORTS 269
8200 is matched by a blend of Syntex 40 emulsion with
Dow's 762K butadienestyrene emulsion to give 43 1/2%
of 762K solids in the dried film.
S C. Spalding. Jr.
SCS:jc
C. Business-letter Reports
The business-letter form is used for a report when it is desirable
to emphasize a person-to-person relationship. It is favored also for
reports offering professional advice or opinion. The business letter
(see Appendix B, p. 441) is not usually employed for reports of
more than a few pages since it is difficult to maintain a personal tone
throughout a lengthy document.
The effective use of the business-letter form in reporting to a group
is illustrated by the letter, reprinted here, from the president of the
Santa Fe Railway to the stockholders following the severe floods in
the summer of 1951. The presentation of the material in this report
is carefully adapted to the persons addressed. While a casual reader
might easily consider the report unnecessarily painstaking and de-
tailed, the stockholders many of them small-town investors had
a more than casual interest in damage to the Santa Fe system. An
informal, person-to-person tone helps to convey the desired note of
reassurance.
THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM
80 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago 4, Illinois
F. G. GURLEY
President
Chicago, Illinois, July 23, 1951
TO THE STOCKHOLDERS:
I returned to the office this morning from an in-
spection trip of our lines in Kansas and Missouri and
write to tell you of high water and flood damage in
those states - especially in Kansas.
There were severe rains during June. We had high
water difficulties and traffic interruptions in the
drainage of the Kaw and along Walnut Creek, a tribu-
tary of the Arkansas River. In Missouri we had some
270 THE REPORT
troubles at crossings of streams which flow into the
Missouri. We had reinstated normal train service
almost everywhere by July 9.
During the evening and night of July 10 there were
terrific rains in Kansas for instance, six to seven
inches in the vicinity of Emporia. These rains af-
fected the territory drained by the Kaw, the Osage,
and various branches of the Neosho. All of our lines
lying to the east of a line drawn through Newton -
Wichita, Kansas, were damaged sufficiently to prevent
train operation. The Kaw assumed destructive flood
proportions, exceeding the height of the disastrous
flood of 1903 by five or six feet at Kansas City,
Kansas .
Following the disastrous flood of 1903 the Kaw
Valley Drainage District was created - its principal
purpose being to protect land and property in the
Kansas City, Kansas, area. Santa Fe lands and prop-
erty were a substantial part of the lands and property
protected by dikes built by the Kaw Valley Drainage
District. The design and height of the dikes were
based upon protection against flood waters of the
proportions of 1903.
Early in the morning of July 13 the Kaw in the
vicinity of Kansas City, Kansas, was substantially
higher than the dikes, and large areas were inundated,
including our valuable terminal known as Argentine.
In some locations there was as much as twenty-two feet
of water over our track. Fifty one Diesel locomotive
units were under water, as were some steam engines and
some 4,000 freight cars. There was about two and one-
half feet of water in our shops at Topeka and much of
the line from Topeka to Kansas City, which is in the
Kaw Valley, was under water. Service on our trans-
continental line was suspended between July 10 and
July 20.
The combination of (a) revenue losses, and (b) in-
creased expenses produced by these flood waters will
amount to some millions of dollars. It has been
impossible in the time that has elapsed since the
beginning of the trouble to form anything like an
accurate estimate. The damage was that incident to
the cutting action of water and the damage that is
implicit in equipment and property being under water.
The fifty-one Diesel engines, for example, were not
damaged as damage is inflicted by the force of impact
incident to a serious derailment, but batteries were
SHORT REPORTS 271
severely damaged or ruined - battery damage will prob-
ably be about $4,000 per engine. Other than that, the
principal "repairs" to the Diesels will be drying of
motors and the removal of mud and slime, especially
from moving parts. The principal damage to freight
cars was that incident to water, mud and slime in
journal boxes, in brake cylinders, and in air brake
valves.
The money loss, of course, is serious, yet I feel
warranted in assuring you that in the light of the
volume of our traffic in 1951, it will not be "too
serious" I appreciate that it is difficult to make
an accurate distinction between "serious loss" and
"not too serious loss."
Our organization, following the sudden and terrific
rains on July 10 so controlled all train movements
that there were no derailments. While several pas-
senger trains, carrying hundreds of passengers, were
held at outlying stations for as long as two days, the
passengers were well cared for - they appreciated the
circumstances, and there have been no serious com-
plaints.
One cannot forecast now the amount of damage to in-
undated shipments in freight cars, nor can we,, say now
what our liability may prove to be under applicable
liability laws.
Now as to the future what to do in the light of
these high waters and this destructive flood.
In the places which may be described as those "out
in the country" we should make such improvements as
increasing bridge openings, and in low places raising
the track to higher elevations. These are the pro-
cedures which we have followed historically when ex-
perience has demonstrated that the changes were
necessary. In other areas, notably in the valley of
the Kaw, our future course will be decided upon fol-
lowing conferences in which the Army Engineers and
interested Communities will participate. Since the
days when the Kaw Valley Drainage District was formed,
the Congress, through passage of various flood control
acts, has charged the Army Engineers with certain
obligations for plans and has made certain appropria-
tions for the control of flood waters. The President
of the United States and various other Federal
Officers have made inspection of these areas since
July 13 and there is a meeting scheduled at Kansas
272 THE REPORT
City, July 25, to consider what should be done. This
meeting will be attended by representatives of the
Federal Government, the States, the Communities, and
individual companies. My purpose is to attend this
meeting. I am quite confident that measures will be
taken which will protect us against a repetition of
the 1951 flood waters.
Sincerely,
(signed) F. G. Gurley
An analysis of the Santa Fe report shows that the plan and para-
graphing are well adapted to its purpose. It opens with a simple
statement of subject and closes with a declaration of intended action.
Of the nine intervening paragraphs, two recount the history of the
flood, and a third describes previous efforts at flood protection. The
following five deal with damage: (1) with the extent of the inunda-
tion, (2) with the losses, particularly to equipment, (3) with the
money loss, (4) with inconvenience to passengers, (5) with damage
to freight shipments. Then comes a short transitional paragraph in-
troducing the concluding statement of future plans.
The tone of care and confidence maintained throughout this letter
is strengthened by such concrete references as those to Diesel engines
and other equipment and by the use of railroad terms. The unob-
trusive use of "I," particularly in such passages as "I returned to
the office this morning," "I feel warranted," "I appreciate," and "I
am quite confident," gives the reader a feeling of being in close
contact with the situation and with those responsible for its control.
D. Short-form Reports
Like the memorandum, the short-form report is used largely for
communication within the company or industry, and the needs of
the individual laboratory or division determine the format used. This
type of report is impersonal and objective in style. Centered or
marginal headings indicate the subdivisions. General information
the subject of the report, date, responsible agency, number, and such
other data as are desired is given on the title page or on the upper
half of the first page. Thus the short-form report is a somewhat
streamlined version of the long-form report. (See Chapter 12.) Re-
ports of this type are easily handled and quickly read, and the limita-
SHORT REPORTS 273
tion as to length encourages a concise style and compact arrangement.
In the following example the title page has several headings which
serve various company record needs. The division of the report into
sections headed Purpose, Procedure, Comments, and Conclusions
facilitates rapid examination. The specific nature of the conclusions
should be noted.
WESTINGHOUSE
ELECTRIC er MANUFACTURING COMPANY
SHARON, PA.
n.^ March 12-1948
SHARON WORKS LABORATORY
Report No. 70
Memo No.
Subject Adhesive a for Laminated Pre a aboard
Mr. J. 0. Ford, Manager, Manufacturing Engineer ing for fll*>
Copies fc Mr. W. 0. James, Division Engineer, Power
Mr. R. L. Brown* Section Engineer
Budget or Order No fi-3Hr7QQa7a
D Confidential Figuring Book No Page
SxGeneral Company Distribution Tet Record Book No.-Z26 Pge_fiL.
Pile No, MP -600.1
APPHOVALS-
nrg fingrg,
Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, Sharon, Pennsylvania.
This is the title page for the short-form report following. The format is
governed by such individual company needs as distribution and cata-
loguing.
274 THE REPORT
PURPOSE
To determine if an adhesive other than treated paper
M794-1 can be used for laminating pressboard used in
oil-filled transformers.
PROCEDURE
Standard pressboard PDS 5181-1 was built up to a
thickness of two inches according to P.S. SH-115348 by
using the following materials: (1) treated paper
M794-1; (2) Lepage's Dextrin glue #201, M7667-3; and
(3) hide glue M6249. Pressboard beams 2" x 12" were
then cut from each of the experimental plates of lami-
nated material. This was to simulate the use of lami-
nated pressboard as lead supports in power transformers.
The beams were then supported at each end (on a 12"
span) and placed in the Tinius Olsen machine, where a
measured load could be applied to the center of the
beam. The load was increased until failure of the
beam occurred.
Small pieces of the laminated material (approximately
110 grams) were placed in 400 cc. of Wemco "C" oil at
90C for one week. At the end of this time, the acidity
of the oil was measured and compared with the acidity of
a blank sample of oil under the same conditions.
The 60-cycle one-minute hold creep strength of the
laminates was measured along the glue lines at dis-
tances of one and two inches. These tests were made in
air on untreated samples and in oil after exposure to
oil at 90C for one week.
I Breaking Load of Beams (in pounds) 12" Span
Type of Adhesive
794 Paper 201 Glue Hide Glue
Test No. (M7667-3) (M6249)
1 2340 1765 1040
2 2240 1955 950
3 2020 1895 1020
4 2500 1850 1030
Ave. 2275 1866 1010
SHORT REPORTS 275
II Oil Acidity after One Week at 90C MgNaOH/gr.oil
Pressboard Bonded with:
794 Paper
201 Glue
Hide Glue
0.023
0.023
0.046
III Creepage Strength along Glue Lines 60-Cvcle
one-Minute Hold
Sample
Air
Oil
1"
2"
1"
2"
Pressboard bonded with:
794 Paper
16 KV
27 KV
16 KV
27 KV
201 Glue
16 KV
27 KV
16 KV
27 KV
Hide Glue
16 KV
27 KV
16 KV
27 KV
Remarks: Flash-over at electrodes before failure
by creep.
COMMENTS
All of the pressboard beams failed parallel to the
laminations at the values given above. Treated paper
M794-1, which we are now using, gives a laminate which
has a breaking load approximately 25 per cent greater
than a laminate made with #201 glue (M7667-3) . Hide
glue gives the poorest bond of all the samples tested,
since beams made with this adhesive fail at less than 50
per cent of the value of laminates made with treated
paper.
There was no appreciable change in oil acidity as a
result of exposure to pressboard bonded with treated
paper or dextrin glue. However, an appreciable increase
in acidity was evident after exposure to pressboard
bonded with Hide glue. The quantities of laminated
pressboard which are used in our transformers are so
small in comparison with the quantity of oil that this
increase in acidity probably will not have any notice-
able effect on the oil.
The actual creepage strength along the glue lines
could not be measured because flash-over at the elec-
trodes occurred before failure by creepage. An attempt
was made to measure the creepage strength at a distance
of six inches, but this value was not within the limits
of the laboratory test outfit.
276 THE REPORT
Treated paper M794-1 costs 25 cents per pound as com-
pared with a cost of 5 cents per pound for dextrin glue
M7667-3. This difference in cost will not be affected
by the extra labor involved in coating the pressboard
with this glue. It is estimated that a saving of
approximately $1,600 per year can be realized by using
this dextrin glue if only labor and material costs are
considered.
In addition, we have found that pressboard laminated
with dextrin glue does not require as long a cooling
cycle after pressing as does pressboard laminated with
treated paper. This factor in itself eliminates the
need for large quantities of cooling water and, as well,
reduces delays in production which occur when laminated
pressboard is made.
The shop also believes that pressboard laminated with
dextrin glue will be easier to cut and will reduce the
cost of maintenance for saws. This latter item is now
considerable and can be attributed partly to the diffi-
culty of cutting pressboard laminated with treated
paper.
The pressboard which we now get from our suppliers in
thicknesses greater than 1/4 inch is laminated by gluing
the required number of plies to the desired thickness
with dextrin glues. It has been our experience that
pressboard such as this is satisfactory in every way and
has shown no tendency to delaminate.
In view of these facts, it is recommended that dextrin
glue be used instead of treated paper for laminating
pressboard. Although no specific tests were made in
this investigation to determine the resistance of dex-
trin glue to Inerteen, we know from past experience that
water-soluble dextrins such as the #201 covered herein
are resistant to Inerteen. Process Specification
SH-115348 will be revised in the near future to specify
the use of this glue for laminated pressboard used in
oil- and Inerteen-filled transformers.
CONCLUSIONS
(1) Pressboard beams laminated with treated paper
M794-1 have a breaking strength approximately
25 per cent greater than the strength of beams laminated
with dextrin glue.
SHORT REPORTS 277
(2) Pressboard beams laminated with dextrin glue
M7667-3 have a breaking strength approximately
80 per cent greater than beams made with hide glue
M6249.
(3) The acidity of oil is not appreciably affected
by the various adhesives covered in this
report.
(4) The creepage strength of the pressboard lami-
nates is not affected by the various ad-
hesives.
(5) Based on material costs, approximately $1,600
per year can be saved by using dextrin glue
for laminating pressboard. Additional savings can be
realized in the time and amount of water needed for
cooling and in maintenance of saws.
(6) It is recommended that dextrin glue #201 (our
M7667-3) be used in place of treated paper
M794-1 for laminating pressboard for oil-filled trans-
formers.
CHAPTER 12
THE REPORT, CONTINUED
IV. The long-form report
A. Arrangement
1. Cover and title pages
2. Letter of transmittal and foreword
3. Table of contents
4. Summary or abstract
5. Body of the report
6. Bibliography and appendix
B. Preparation
1. Collecting, selecting, and arranging material
2. Writing and revising the report
V. Major considerations in report writing
A. Reaching the reader
B. Applying the principles of composition
IV. THE LONG-FORM REPORT
A project or investigation of consequence to which considerable
time has been devoted demands a long- form report. (For an example
of a long-form report, see Appendix A, p. 422.) In making long re-
ports it becomes increasingly important to employ an arrangement
which will enable the busy person to grasp the content and essential
significance of the report quickly.
A. Arrangement
In a full-scale formal report the following arrangement of parts
is widely accepted:
Cover page
Title page
Letter of transmittal
Table of contents
Summary or Abstract
Body
278
LONG-FORM REPORT 279
Bibliography
Appendix
Certain circumstances may demand the inclusion of such additional
elements as letter of authorization, foreword, list of tables, list of
illustrations, distribution lists, signatures, and index.
1. Cover and Title Pages
The title of a report should be specifically descriptive and should
include key words by which the report may be indexed. The title page
gives, in addition to the title, the name of the person or agency
preparing the report, the place of issuance, and the date. It may also
include such items as the name of the person authorizing the report,
the serial number, and the abstract. If the report is bound, it may
have a heavier cover page which includes all or part of the informa-
tion given on the title page. Examples of a cover page and of a title
page are shown on pages 280 and 281.
2. Letter of Transmitter/ and Foreword
The letter of transmitted, which usually precedes the table of con-
tents, is the personal message which accompanies the report from
the author to the recipient, usually the person who authorized it.
From one point of view this letter is like the covering letter sent with
any enclosure; from another it is the writer's opportunity to make
any necessary comments on his report and to stress his chief findings.
Certain points are customarily included : ( 1 ) a reference to the letter
of authorization, indicating the date, (2) a statement of submittal
or transmittal, (3) an indication of the purpose and scope of the
report, (4) an acknowledgment of any assistance received. Some-
times the letter of authorization, as well as the letter of transmittal,
is bound with the report.
The writer may use the letter of transmittal to stress any feature
of the report which he thinks particularly significant. Nevertheless,
this letter, like any other business letter, should be governed by the
"you attitude," and the needs and interests of the reader should take
precedence over those of the writer. Apologies and other forms of
negative suggestion should be avoided.
INDUSTRIAL
ENGINEERING
DIVISION
ED-1948
AUGUST, 19^8
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE
PREPARATION OF
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT REPORTS
E. I, du Pont de Nemours & Company
Incorporated
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Delaware.
A cover page for the long-form report presents the pertinent data in a
form such as shown here. It is used in addition to the title page, not in
place of it.
280
Serial No. ED-1948
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Wilmington, Delaware
August, 1948
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION
OF
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT REPORTS
Prepared by
F. F. MIDDLESWART
ABSTRACT
This report is the guide to be used by Engineering De-
partment personnel when preparing reports. It super-
sedes Engineering Department Report, Serial Number
ED 1447, "Instructions for Preparing Formal Reports on
Investigations and Experimental Work," and is expanded
to include instructions for the preparation of informal
and memorandum reports. Flexibility of arrangement and
variety of expression are stressed to permit adapting a
report to fit the type and importance of the subject
matter presented.
281
282 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
The following letter of transmittal with its accompanying letter
of authorization was issued with a printed report of sixty-three pages.
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL *
THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, D. C., December 11, 1947.
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
On July 13, 1946, you established the President's Commission on
Higher Education and charged its members with the task of examining
the functions of higher education in our democracy and the means
by which they can best be performed.
The Commission has completed its task and submits herewith a
comprehensive report "Higher Education for American Democracy."
The magnitude of the issues involved prompted the Commission to
incorporate its findings and recommendations in a series of six volumes
of which this is the first.
The Commission members and the staff are grateful for the oppor-
tunity which you have given us to explore so fully the future role of
higher education which is so closely identified with the welfare of our
country and of the world.
Respectfully yours,
GEORGE F. ZOOK,
Chairman.
The Honorable
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
LETTER OF APPOINTMENT
OF COMMISSION MEMBERS 2
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 13, 1946.
As veterans return to college by the hundreds of thousands, the insti-
tutions of higher education face a period of trial which is taxing their
resources and their resourcefulness to the utmost. The Federal Govern-
ment is taking all practicable steps to assist the institutions to meet
this challenge and to assure that all qualified veterans desirous of
continuing their education have the opportunity to do so. I am confident
that the combined efforts of the educational institutions, the States,
1 "Higher Education for American Democracy," Vol. I, "Establishing the
Goals," a Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education, Washing-
ton, D. C., December 1947.
2 Ibid.
LONG-FORM REPORT 283
and the Federal Government will succeed in solving these immediate
problems.
It seems particularly important, therefore, that we should now re-
examine our system of higher education in terms of its objectives,
methods, and facilities ; and in the light of the social role it has to play.
These matters are of such far-reaching national importance that I
have decided to appoint a Presidential Commission on Higher Educa-
tion. This Commission will be composed of outstanding civic and edu-
cational leaders and will be charged with an examination of the func-
tions of higher education in our democracy and of the means by which
they can best be performed. I should like you to serve on this body.
Among the more specific questions with which I hope the Commission
will concern itself are: ways and means of expanding educational
opportunities for all able young people; the adequacy of curricula,
particularly in the fields of international affairs and social understand-
ing; the desirability of establishing a series of intermediate technical
institutes; the financial structure of higher education with particular
reference to the requirements for the rapid expansion of physical
facilities. These topics of inquiry are merely suggestive and not in-
tended to limit in any way the scope of the Commission's work.
I hope that you will find it possible to serve on this Commission.
Very sincerely yours,
(signed) Harry Truman
Unlike the foregoing letters, which are official government letters,
the next example of a letter of transmittal follows the usual business
form.
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY 3
Knoxville, Tenn., August 4, 1950
Mr. George F. Gant, General Manager,
Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tenn.
Dear Mr. Gant:
Technical Report No. 23, Surveying. Mapping and Re-
lated Engineering, is the third of a series of special
reports being prepared to cover certain phases of en-
gineering and construction work common to all projects
designed and constructed by TVA in the unified develop-
ment of the water resources of the Tennessee River
system.
8 "Surveying, Mapping and Related Engineering," Tennessee Valley Author-
ity, Technical Report No. 23, Washington, D. C., United States Government
Printing Office, 1951, p. Hi.
284 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
These special technical reports have been planned as a
companion series to technical reports on the individual
projects and record the results of experience gained on
TVA projects in specialized fields over a period of
years. It is recommended that Technical Report No. 23
be printed as a public document.
Yours very truly,
C. E. BLEE, Chief Engineer
In reports addressed to a special group or to the general public,
a foreword often replaces the letter of transmittal. The foreword is
signed by the author or by the executive who is responsible for the
report. The substance of the foreword quoted here parallels that of
a letter of transmittal but is addressed to all readers, not to an
individual.
FOREWORD *
This preliminary factual report on the survey of uni-
versity patent policies which the National Research
Council has been conducting is released for the informa-
tion and guidance of research scientists, university
administrators, patent attorneys, industrialists, and
others concerned with the conduct, administration, and
support of scientific research and the handling of
patentable discoveries and inventions growing out of
research on the university campus.
For more than thirty years the National Research
Council has been interested in the patent problem. In
1917 the United States Commissioner of Patents, with the
approval of the Secretary of the Interior, requested the
National Research Council to appoint a committee to in-
vestigate the Patent Office and the patent system, with
a view to increasing their effectiveness, and to con-
sider what might be done to make the Patent Office more
of a national institution and more vitally useful to the
industrial life of the country. The report of the
Patent Committee, appointed by the Council in compliance
with that request, was issued in 1919 as the first pub-
lication in the Council's Reprint and Circular Series.
The Council's present Committee on Patent Policy,
under whose sponsorship this survey of university patent
4 Archie M. Palmer, "Survey of University Patent Policies," Preliminary
Report, Washington, D. C., National Research Council, 1948, p. i.
LONG-FORM REPORT 285
policies has been conducted, was created in 1933.
Through the years this committee has given continuing
consideration to the various aspects of the patent
problem and has held several conferences on the general
subject and on specific patent questions.
The present survey has been conducted under the direc-
tion of Dr. Archie M. Palmer, who has been a member of
the Council's Committee on Patent Policy since its in-
ception in 1933. With thoroughness and acuity, result-
ing from deep personal interest and extended experience
with the problem as university administrator and re-
search worker, he has analysed the prevailing practices
of the universities and has prepared this preliminary
report on his findings.
Through its Committee on Patent Policy and the di-
rector of the survey, the National Research Council
gratefully acknowledges its indebtedness to the college
and university officials, scientists, and others who
liberally contributed information and data concerning
existing policies and practices; to Research Corporation
which made the survey possible through a generous grant
to the National Research Council without placing any
restrictions on the conduct of the survey or assuming
any responsibility for the findings; to the various
professional journals which have published preliminary
material on the survey; and to Hugh Samson and Paul F.
Johnson who assisted the director of the survey in the
collection and analysis of the basic material used in
the preparation of this report.
GEORGE B. PEGRAM
(Chairman, Committee on Patent Policy, National
Research Council)
3. Table of Contents
The table of contents, usually headed simply Contents, directs
the reader to the page numbers of different sections of a long report.
It is prepared after the report is complete by revising the outline
from which the report was written and adding the necessary page
numbers. The headings and page references should correspond ex-
actly, even to articles, prepositions, and punctuation, to the headings
of divisions and subdivisions in the text of the report. The table of
contents offered here shows a typical arrangement.
286 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
CONTENTS 5
I 75 YEARS OF TELEPHONE SERVICE
From One Telephone to 43,000,000 1
Some Early Service Problems 3
From Bell to Bell System 6
How the Bell System Grew 7
II SEVEN DECADES A CHRONOLOGY
Inside and Outside the Telephone Business 8
III GROWING THROUGH SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
The Bell Telephone Laboratories . 17
Bell System Research in World War II . . . 20
Where Bell Telephones Come From 21
"Ready for Delivery" 24
IV STATISTICS
Telephone Statistics of the World 25
How America's Telephone System Has Grown . . 26
Statistical Notes ... . ... 27
Telephone Conquest of Distance (Chronology) ... 28
V OF GENERAL IMPORTANCE
A Good Citizen on Main Street 29
600 Bell Patents Used by Other Businesses 30
More for Your Dollar 30
A Good Place to Work 31
Increased Speed and Efficiency 32
Within a Single Lifetime 32
Looking Ahead 33
4. Summary or Abstract
For the convenience of readers a summary or abstract of the entire
report is often included between the table of contents and the body
of the report, or between the title page and the report. This summary
or abstract presents briefly frequently in a single paragraph the
essence of the report: its purpose, its chief findings, and its conclu-
sions or recommendations. Thus readers who may not wish to read
the entire document are informed of its essential contents. In some
reports, especially in industry, this abstract appears on a separate
sheet so that it can be detached and circulated independently. The
5 "75 Years of Service to the Nation," Bell Telephone System, 1951.
LONG-FORM REPORT 287
reports of some agencies close with a verbatim repetition of the open-
ing summary. Little distinction is made in general between the terms
summary and abstract as applied to this part of the report. Some
writers prefer to reserve the term abstract for the type published by
abstracting journals, which summarizes the contents more thoroughly
with less emphasis on purpose and conclusion. (See Chapter 13.)
The following abstracts introduced reports of from ten to eighteen
pages; the introductory summaries or abstracts of extremely long
reports may be more extended. The first example is entirely descrip-
tive; the second goes on to give results and conclusions. The third
abstract devotes a paragraph each to achievement, method, procedure,
and conclusion.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the effect of exposure for 10,000
hours (about 14 months) at 900, 1050 or 1200F on micro-
structure, hardness at room temperature, and notch-
impact strength at different temperatures of 18 ferritic
and austenitic steels applied in service at elevated
temperature. 6
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the important factors that must
be considered in a study of engine power loss due to
combustion chamber deposits. Data are presented to show
the effects of fuel composition, sulfur and lead concen-
tration, and lubricant composition, engine design, and
operating conditions on deposit-power loss. The influ-
ence of engine operating conditions existent during the
accumulation of deposits, and the importance of the
engine conditions selected to evaluate the magnitude of
the deposit-power loss are illustrated. It is indicated
that deposits cause power loss by thermal and physical
restriction of the intake charges, and by reduction of
thermal efficiency. It is concluded that differences in
effect among the majority of commercial fuels and lubri-
cants are probably small although relatively large dif-
ferences may exist in certain critical engine applica-
tions. The engine operating conditions under which the
deposits are accumulated are a major factor in deposit-
power loss. Constant-speed, constant-load operation
represents the most adverse condition. Engine design is
G. V. Smith, W. B. Seens, H. B. Link, and P. R. Malenock, "Microstruc-
tural Instability of Steels for Elevated Temperature Service," American Society
for Testing Materials, Philadelphia.
288 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
indicated as the principal means of alleviating the
problem where it does exist, and several design features
which will minimize deposit-power loss are discussed. 7
ABSTRACT
A rolling method for the fabrication of longitudinally tapered sheet
of aluminum alloys has been designed and proved on a pilot scale.
The developed method utilized the principle of synchronization of
screwdown speed with roll rotation velocity to accomplish the desired
purpose. This synchronization was achieved by means of an auxiliary
electrical control system used in conjunction with a conventional rolling
mill.
Methods were developed for producing both linear (one taper per
unit) and multiple (two tapers per unit) tapers. In addition, a cyclical,
repetitive mode of operation was developed by means of which tapered
sheet can be produced by a continuous rolling (high speed production)
method simulating conventional strip rolling methods.
The range of flatness attainable for tapered sheet was determined
on a pilot scale utilizing flattening facilities which were locally avail-
able.
The investigation indicated that the developed rolling method is
applicable to the commercial production of tapered sheet, and that the
necessary rolling and flattening equipment are within practical design
limits. 8
5. Body of the Report
The substance of the report comprises the body, which customarily
includes an introduction, conclusion, and such intervening subdivi-
sions as the subject matter of the report requires. All other parts of
the report are secondary to the body and are provided to increase
its availability and usefulness.
6. Bibliography and Appendix
Many reports end with the concluding section of the body, but
numerous others add a bibliography or an appendix or both. The
bibliography often called References or Literature Cited is a list
7 H. J. Gibson, C. A. Hall, and A. E. Huffman, "Combustion Chamber
Deposition and Power Loss," Ethyl Corporation Research and Engineering
Department, Detroit.
8 J. B. English and R. E. Jordan, "The Development of Rolled Tapered
Sheet of Aluminum Alloys," sponsored by the United States Air Force Materiel
Command, Reynolds Metals Company, October 1951.
LONG-FORM REPORT 289
of sources used in compiling the report. It is used, especially in
published scientific, scholarly, or technical reports, to acknowledge
sources, to direct the reader to additional information, and to com-
ply with copyright laws. Various forms of documentation, including
different combinations of bibliography and footnotes in the text, are
used by different groups and journals. (See Chapter 14.)
The appendix is a supplementary section designed for pertinent
material which the writer wishes to include but cannot present at
length in the text without impeding the reader or throwing the report
out of balance. Through the use of the appendix the writer may offer
additional evidence for his conclusions. This material may include
copies of documents, statistics, data sheets, mathematical computa-
tions, instructions and procedures, personnel lists, and illustrations.
B. Preparation
The preparation of a long report is a complex process. The writer's
work will involve initial preparation, assembling, studying, and select-
ing material, planning the report and making an outline, writing the
report, revising the report, and putting the report into final form.
This outline from the Office of Naval Research divides the process
into four major steps with a detailed analysis of each one.
SCIENTIFIC REPORT WRITING 9
Step I Study
1. Collect material
2. Check details
3. Consider purpose of report
Who will read it?
Why does he want it?
What does he require?
How will he use it?
4. Draft a thesis sentence
Step II Plan
1. List topics to be covered
2. Decide on topics for
Introduction
Body of report
Terminal section
9 Scientific Personnel Division, Office of Naval Research, Washington, D. C.
290 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
3. Make an outline
4. Sketch headings and sub-headings
Step HI Write
1. Introduction: state subject, purpose, plans; summarize results,
conclusions
2. Body: tell equipment used, action taken, facts found; analyze
results
3. Terminal Section : summarize ; draw conclusions ; make recommen-
dations; give final emphasis
4. Abstract: condense report to paragraph or two
5. Prepare Table of Contents
6. Arrange Appendix, Bibliography
Step IV Criticize
1. Examine as a whole; check balance of parts, soundness of pat-
tern; eliminate confusion
2. Check agreement of title, table of contents, introduction, and ab-
stract; check clarity of subject, purpose, plan
3. Check terminal section for agreement with introduction, for
proper emphasis
4. Check headings for agreement with table of contents, for propor-
tion of parts
5. Examine text; check topic transitions, coherence and length of
paragraphs, sentence structure, and word usage
7. Collecting, Selecting, and Arranging Material
If the writer is solely responsible for the report, he should not
slight the initial period of preparation. It involves studying the pur-
pose of the report and the wishes of the person or persons who
authorized it. The directive or letter of authorization should be care-
fully examined. Before going further, the writer should be sure that
he knows what is wanted and how far his responsibility extends. A
review of plant or institutional practice and of reports of similar
character will be helpful. These considerations will be influential in
determining the general make-up of the report.
Source materials for reports include data obtained from experi-
ments, from laboratory tests, and from field observations; letters
and other documents in company files; minutes of meetings and
hearings; records of interviews; questionnaires; and published mate-
rials of all kinds. (See Chapter 4.) Much raw data in industrial
plants is recorded in notebooks. The notebook system is given pref-
LONG-FORM REPORT 291
erence because a numbered, dated, and bound book with numbered
pages offers proof of priority in work involving patents. 10 This legal
protection offsets the advantages of the card and loose-leaf filing
systems popular in library research and in many laboratories where
patents are not involved. Whatever the sources of the material, selec-
tion according to the purpose of the report will be necessary before
the writer can plan the body of the report.
The writer may have to draw up an original outline, or he may
have at hand a conventional pattern into which he can fit details.
In either case the writer should think through his material thor-
oughly before undertaking the outline of a report. Many beginners
attempt to prepare an outline before studying their material thor-
oughly. Such a procedure is comparable to attempting to set up
categories for itemizing the merchandise in a warehouse before
finding out what the warehouse contains. (For further discussion of
the outline, see Chapters 5 and 10.)
2. Writing and Revising the Report
Once a tentative outline is set up, the writer is ready to com-
pose the body of the report. Here, as in the research paper, the
introduction and conclusion demand separate consideration. (See
Chapter 10, Section II-B.)
The first section of the body of the report, whether formally
labeled Introduction or not, serves to orient the reader to the purpose
and subject matter of the report. In this section the writer states the
purpose, defines the scope, and explains the plan of the report. Some-
times, particularly in a report of a purely factual investigation, an
anticipatory summary of the conclusions is included in the introduc-
tion. However, in delicate or controversial questions of policy, it is
frequently wise to lead the reader through the logical considerations
that resulted in a particular conclusion before presenting him with
that conclusion. The complexity of the matters covered in the intro-
duction will determine its length.
The following introduction from a report of the Testing Division of
the Douglas Aircraft Company serves to explain to the reader the
occasion and purpose of the report.
10 Marlin T. Leffler, "Abbott Laboratories Notebooks," Journal of Chemical
Education, 25:99-100, February 1948.
292 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
Introduction:
Failures of brake pressure accumulator bolts (part No. 1243720)
during and after assembly by the manufacturer have been reported.
The details and assemblies are manufactured for ... by the . . . ,
and are used on the ...,..., and some . . . models.
The assembly consists of two hemispherical, flanged aluminum alloy
forgings bolted together at the flanges by steel bolts. Installation is
normally made by tightening each bolt until it elongates .005-.006 as
measured by a micrometer. The assembly is proof tested at a hydraulic
pressure of 6,000 psi. The engineering drawing for the bolt requires
the use of 4130 steel (An-QQ-S-684) heat treated to a tensile strength
of 150-180,000 psi.
This investigation was conducted to determine the cause for break-
age, and provide data to be used in determining the disposition of
parts from the same batch as the installation failures.
The arrangement of the material between the introduction and the
conclusion varies with the subject matter of the report. Investigative
reports usually cover the methods or procedure followed, the findings,
the results derived from an analysis of the findings, and a discussion
of the results. The inexperienced writer often does not perceive the
importance of this part of the report because he tends to proceed
too quickly to conclusions. The evidence must be adequately presented
before conclusions can be drawn. In fact, authorities have attributed
greater value to the data included in a report than to the comments
on those data. This distinction between fact and judgment is also
helpful to the student who has difficulty in developing his paper to
the required length.
A judgment ("He is a fine boy," "It was a beautiful service," "Base-
ball is a healthful sport," "She is an awful bore") is a conclusion,
summing up a large number of previously observed facts. The reader
is probably familiar with the fact that students, when called upon to
write "themes," almost always have difficulty in writing papers of the
required length, because their ideas give out after a paragraph or two.
The reason for this is that those early paragraphs contain so many
such judgments that there is little left to be said. When the conclusions
are carefully excluded, however, and observed facts are given instead,
there is never any trouble about the length of papers; in fact, they
tend to become too long, since inexperienced writers, when told to give
LONG-FORM REPORT 293
facts, often give far more than are necessary, because they lack dis-
crimination between the important and the trivial. 11
The concluding section of the body of the report may be called the
summary, conclusion, or recommendations. In strict usage the term
summary denotes a synopsis while conclusion denotes the propositions
arrived at as a result of the study. The term recommendations is used
when the purpose of the report is to recommend a course of action.
The individual items in this section are often numbered as an aid
to clarity and precision. Many reports include a terminal summary
as well as a summary or abstract preceding or following the table
of contents. (See Section IV-A-4.) Even though these two summaries
may contain some of the same materials, they serve different purposes
for the reader.
Of the two examples of conclusions given here, the first represents
a numerical summary, the second offers conclusions of a more general
nature.
CONCLUSION
The following has been done in this paper: (1) The mathematical
nonlinearized equations (neglecting viscosity and heat conduction)
have been obtained in conical form; (2) an invariance relation for
these nonlinear equations has been proved; (3) it was shown that an
attached shock, two-shock pattern is not possible for air; (4) the
possibility of the existence of reciprocal flows has been discussed;
(5) the patching curve relations were obtained, and with the aid of
these, (6) the existence of a form of transonic singularity in the
straight attached wedge shock was obtained; (7) it was shown that
a certain type of attached shock flow cannot exist. 12
CONCLUSIONS
Smoke, cinder, and fly-ash emission can be reduced to conform with
air pollution ordinances. It is largely a problem of educating the small
plant owner and operator in the benefits and necessity of cleaning up
their stacks.
Many small plants are already conforming to air pollution ordi-
nances; others must improve conditions. Some of the latter plants,
however, can be made non-violators without the addition of dust traps
or collectors. It can be and has been accomplished through careful,
11 S. I. Hayakawa, Language in Action, New York, Harcourt, Brace and
Company, 1941, p. 50.
12 S. F. Borg, "On Unsteady Nonlinearized Conical Flow," Journal of the
Aeronautical Sciences, 19:85-92, February 1952.
294 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
intelligent firing practices and elimination of dust accumulations in
the hoppers, breeching, and stack bases. For certain plants a change
of fuel size has satisfactorily reduced stack dust. To aid in smoke
abatement, modern overfire jets are being increasingly used to accom-
pany proper firing practices.
When there is a need for dust traps or collectors, most problems
can be solved with inexpensive low-draft-loss equipment. 13
The accessory parts of the report (see Section IV-A) are prepared
after the first draft of the body of the report has been written. Then
the entire report is revised and polished and the copy checked for
completeness, clearness, coherence, and correctness, as well as for
tone, smoothness of phrasing, and probable effect on the reader. (See
Chapter 7.) After the writer has made the necessary changes in
the manuscript, he is ready to prepare the report for typing, hecto-
graphing, mimeographing, multilithing, photographic processing, or
printing. 14 The entire process of preparing a report is a long one,
but, as has been pointed out, "to prepare an outline, a preliminary
draft, and a final report may appear to involve the expenditure of
an excessive amount of work, but experience shows that usually less
effort is required than is needed to write a good report directly from
the data." 15
V. MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS IN REPORT WRITING
The fundamental principles of report writing are the same as those
of other forms of written composition. Some of these principles, how-
ever, apply with particular force to the report because of its special
purposes.
A. Reaching the Reader
Since the report is often an assignment and is always designed to
meet the needs of a particular reader or group of readers, the writer
has a direct obligation to make his report serviceable to the reader.
18 William S. Major, "Small Industrial Plants Can Abate Smoke and Dust,"
Bituminous Coal Research, Inc., Reprinted from The Plant, June 1950.
14 B. H. Weil and John C. Lane, "Reproduction Techniques for Reports and
Information Service," Journal of Chemical Education, 25:13441, March 1948.
B. H. Weil, ed., The Technical Report: Its Preparation, Processing, and Use in
Industry and Government, New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1954.
16 By permission from Technical Report Writing by Fred H. Rhodes and
Herbert Fisk Johnson, p. 7. Copyright 1941. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS 295
The individual who will receive the report and be responsible for
action on it is often, especially in industry, personally known to the
writer. If not, at least his requirements are known. As one authority
has explained, "My most important function was not inserting
commas or revamping awkward sentences but helping the weary
investigator plan the presentation of his results to meet the require-
ments of the man paying the bill." 16 The reader's individual interests
will influence the writer's choice of analogies and illustrations. The
knowledge with which the reader approaches the paper will affect
the number of definitions and explanations which must be provided.
In fulfilling the purpose of the report the writer must often sub-
ordinate his own desires and interests. There is an ever-present
temptation to display his knowledge, describe his difficulties, or air
his views, but this temptation must be overcome.
The skilled report writer keeps in mind diverse means of reaching
the reader. Maps, tables, charts, graphs, and pictures are among the
many forms of communication other than verbal expression which
are appropriate in reports. (See Chapter 15.) In scientific and
engineering reports, tables, technical graphs, equations, flow sheets,
maps, and diagrams will appear. The business report will mainly
employ statistical tables, as well as linear, bar, pie, and picture
graphs. The promotional report will include, in addition to relatively
simple graphic illustrations, abundant pictorial material and also
pictorial analogies.
The external design of the report is a valuable means of facilitating
the reader's study of the report. Lines, spacing, variations of type,
and centered or marginal headings may call attention to the divi-
sions and subdivisions. Emphasis may be given to important points
by spacing, capitalization, underlining, color, and even arrows or
"boxes." Meaningless ornament, such as fancy arrangements of
asterisks, is undesirable. Printed reports, especially in business and
industry, often appear as attractive booklets or brochures.
B. Applying the Principles of Composition
The report writer, however skilled in planning and designing his
report to meet the needs of the reader, is expected in composing it
16 J. Raleigh Nelson, Writing the Technical Report, New York, McGraw-Hill
Book Company, Inc., 1947, p. x.
296 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
to show above all else competence in verbal expression. It is assumed
that anyone who has advanced to the writing of long reports under-
stands the principles of composition. (See Chapter 9.)
In applying these principles the report writer may find that while
coherence and emphasis may be achieved by the same means used
in other types of papers, unity becomes a special problem in report
writing because of the multiplicity of detail and variety of subject
matter to be covered. A careful subordination of minor to major
points is the best means of coping with excessive detail. The use of
an appendix and of explanatory footnotes will sometimes help. The
problem of varied subject matter is especially likely to be trouble-
some in the annual report which must handle numerous unrelated
matters. One means of handling this difficulty is to select a "theme"
or focal point of interest for each yearly report, as is often done in
planning meetings and conventions.
Unity of tone is as important as unity of subject matter. The more
vivid cliches, such as "scraping the bottom of the barrel" or "a
rubberstamp," may at times be effective in informal reports to put
over an idea, but a serious, formal report should not descend to
colloquial or slangy language. The tone of a report may, as the
occasion demands, be highly scientific, scholarly, or technical, soberly
factual, breezy, cordial and friendly, or matter of fact. But whatever
the tone, it should be maintained consistently throughout the paper.
The style of a report should be simple, direct, and concise. (See
Chapter 8.) Except in reports in memorandum or business-letter
form, the style is usually impersonal. This impersonality may demand
considerable use of the passive voice, though the active voice is
generally considered more forceful. Passive constructions with im-
personal or expletive openings are unfortunate, such as "It was
observed in the course of the demonstration" for "The demonstration
showed" or "There was evidence to be observed in the data" for
"The data pointed to." "Deadwood" should be painstakingly pruned
from the report. The inexperienced report writer is often charged
with substituting paragraphs for sentences and pages for paragraphs.
Logic of both substance and expression affects the degree of respect
which a report commands. (See Chapter 6.) Probably the commonest
flaw in logic is extending the conclusions beyond the scope of the
data. Not only should facts be kept distinct from conclusions, but
MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS 297
any limiting factors in the data should be clearly repeated in the
conclusions.
The making of reports forms a large part of man's whole scheme
of communication. In keeping with this emphasis, new employees
entering business and industry have been well advised to cultivate
skill in expression through such "basic tools" as the report.
As an employee you work with and through other people. This
means that your success as an employee and I am talking of much
more here than getting promoted will depend on your ability to com-
municate with people and to present your own thoughts and ideas to
them so they will both understand what you are driving at and be per-
suaded. The letter, the report or memorandum, the ten-minute spoken
"presentation" to a committee are basic tools of the employee.
If you work as a soda jerker you will, of course, not need much
skill in expressing yourself to be effective. If you work on a machine
your ability to express yourself will be of little importance. But as
soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness de-
pends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or the written
word. And the further away your job is from manual work, the larger
the organization of which you are an employee, the more important it
will be that you know how to convey your thoughts in writing or speak-
ing. In the very large business organization, whether it is the govern-
ment, the large corporation, or the Army, this ability to express oneself
is perhaps the most important of all the skills a man can possess.
Of course, skill in expression is not enough by itself. You must have
something to say in the first place. The popular picture of the engineer,
for instance, is that of a man who works with a slide rule, T square,
and compass. And engineering students reflect this picture in their
attitude toward the written word as something quite irrelevant to their
jobs. But the effectiveness of the engineer and with it his usefulness
depends as much on his ability to make other people understand his
work as it does on the quality of the work itself. 17
This chapter has described the great variety of current practices in
report writing. An understanding of these practices will help the
writer on a job to learn rapidly from experience, provided he does
not let rigid conventions prevent a new approach to changing needs
and problems. Anyone who has seen the changes in business and
industry during the past twenty-five years will realize that many
changes will take place during the working years of those who are
17 Peter F. Drucker, "How to Be an Employee," reprinted by special permis-
sion from Fortune, 45(5): 126-27, May 1952. Copyright 1952 Time Inc.
298 THE REPORT, CONTINUED
now getting their training. No wonder the counsel of the experienced
is that the analyst "must never quit his education because once he
does his value is gone." 18 Inevitably, the report writer will be called
on in the future to learn and develop new techniques to meet new
demands placed on the report.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Obtain several annual reports and analyze them, covering the points
referred to in the foregoing chapter. What resemblances and differ-
ences do you note among the reports of municipalities, industrial
organizations, charitable organizations, insurance companies, etc.?
How do you account for these differences?
2. Collect as many examples of reports as possible and classify them
as to form. Among the reports of different companies do you find
greater similarity in the format of outline, memorandum, short-form,
or long-form reports? Why?
3. Make a thorough analysis of the Stone and Webster report given in
Appendix A, considering the purpose, format, parts included, ar-
rangement, organization, style, and use of illustrations.
4. Prepare in outline-report form a check list covering the various styles,
types of punctuation, salutations and complimentary closes used in
business letters. Examine a group of letters from representative firms
and fill out an outline report for each letter.
5. Analyze the reports prepared for Exercise 4, and in a memorandum
report to your instructor, summarize fully the results of your analysis.
6. List as many reports as possible which have to your knowledge been
circulated on your campus or within your organization. In each in-
stance, how was the report initiated, who prepared it, what was its
purpose, what was its form, and to whom and by what means was it
distributed?
7. Plan and carry out a survey of student opinion concerning some prob-
lem on your campus, such as poor attendance at convocations, park-
ing, student housing, or campus publications. Analyze and interpret
your findings, make any recommendations you think are justified, and
present the results as a short-form report.
8. Examine your experience for opportunities for observation which
might provide subject matter for a report. The following list may
offer suggestions: industrial practices observed in part-time or tem-
porary jobs you have held, provisions for serving food on your cam-
pus, styles of architecture represented on your campus, campus
18 D. B. Keyes, "Training Men to Appraise and Develop Markets for Chemi-
cals," Chemical and Engineering News, 27:488, February 21, 1949.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS 299
services such as the bookstore, post office, commissary. Write a letter
leport, presenting the information you have obtained to a person
whom you may assume to have requested it.
9. Many students have sources of information which can be drawn on
for long-form reports. Analyze your experience for opportunities to
make: (a) a case study a specific study of some practice or process
in an institution or industry with which you are acquainted; (b) a
comparison a comparative study of two related practices or situa-
tions; (c) a recommendation report an analysis of a local situation
with recommendations for its improvement; (d) a survey an in-
quiry into practices or situations in a number of different plants or
institutions.
10. Many reports require extensive library research, the motivation for
which must come from the needs or interests of the individuals initiat-
ing the report. Consider the following as possible topics for such
reports: advertising practices in a selected group of periodicals, the
circulation and reception of American movies abroad, design and per-
formance in automobiles of European manufacture, opportunities for
engineering or technically trained graduates, work of the recently
established educational foundations, scholarship programs, new de-
velopments in the different phases of communication, the distribution
of the modern newspaper, the relative place of soaps and detergents,
the present industrial status of pure silk, new ideas in merchandising,
accounting practices in relation to tax requirements, adjusting the
gas supply to seasonal requirements, prefabricated houses, planning
and zoning regulations, traffic signals, reforestation projects, new de-
velopments in lighting (either street or residential), electronic beams,
difficulties in developing and maintaining city water supplies, auto-
matic classifying and index cards, microfilm, microcards, suburban
shopping centers, educational opportunities in rural areas.
CHAPTER 13
SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
I. The abstract
A. Writing of abstracts
B. Examples of abstracts
II. Description of device and explanation of process
A. Definition of terms
B. Writing of papers of device and process
C. Examples of papers of device and process
III. The case history
A. Definition of terms
B. Writing of case histories
C. Examples of case histories
IV. The book review
A. The scientific writer and the book review
B. Examples of book reviews
... a// advances in science consist either in enlarging
the range of experience or in expressing the regulari-
ties found or to be found in it. HERBERT DINGLE,
Presidential Address, Royal Astronomical Society, Lon-
don, 1953.
The types of papers with which this chapter is concerned have
been evolved over a period of many years to meet specialized needs
of science or have been adapted by scientific writers to their needs.
Of these types of papers the most sharply defined is the abstract.
The case history is almost as widely used as the abstract, but its
form is less standardized. The description of device or instrument
and the exposition of process are sometimes separate papers, some-
times a part of longer papers. The book review, though not of scien-
tific origin, has an established place in scientific periodicals.
ABSTRACT 301
I. THE ABSTRACT
A number of scientific periodicals, known as abstracting journals,
are devoted wholly to the publication of abstracts. In general, an
abstract is a summary of an article which has appeared previously
elsewhere and includes a bibliographical reference to the original
article. Authors frequently have occasion to prepare abstracts of their
own papers: some scientific journals require that each paper sub-
mitted for publication be accompanied by an author abstract, scien-
tific societies in advance of their meetings issue programs in which
appear abstracts of the papers to be presented, and an author abstract
often appears at the beginning of a long report. While abstracting
journals sometimes make use of author abstracts, it is usually con-
sidered that better perspective and greater objectivity are achieved
if the abstract is prepared by another writer thoroughly familiar
with the author's field.
The most generally useful type of abstract is the informative ab-
stract which presents in condensed form the content of the original.
Since the abstract is a summary and not a criticism or evaluation,
the writer of the abstract should preserve an attitude of the utmost
objectivity, regarding himself only as a medium for conveying to
the reader the most accurate idea possible of the content of the
original article. The abstracter should follow the article's order and
sequence and should keep as nearly as possible the same proportion
and emphasis; no major division or essential material should be
overlooked or omitted. The abstract should not include anything
which was not a part of the original article, and its author should
not express his own opinion of either the subject or its presentation.
A second type of abstract, called the descriptive abstract, defines
the coverage of the original article and indicates the contribution it
has made but does not summarize it. The description of the original
article as offered by this type of abstract must be expressed in
objective terms, since evaluation of the original is not a part of the
abstracter's task. While the descriptive abstract is more serviceable
than a mere reference, its usefulness is necessarily limited.
302 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
A. Writing of Abstracts
For certain purposes the abstract may be limited by editorial policy
to a maximum length of 225 or 300 words. Since an abstract may thus
be only a fraction of the length of the article, its writing demands
rigorous exclusion of ail illustrative detail and involved discussion.
Though it is not necessary to enclose in quotation marks short phrases
taken verbatim from the original, the condensed style of the abstract
will seldom permit extended use of the original wording. The skilled
abstracter will cultivate verbal economy. A group of cases, for exam-
ple, may be reduced to an adverbial clause, a statement of purpose
to an infinitive, a list of conclusions to a series of parallel phrases.
An abstract is frequently a single paragraph. Sometimes a short
paragraph is devoted to the introduction or statement of purpose,
a paragraph to the results, and a paragraph to the conclusions. It is
seldom possible to allow a paragraph to each division of the paper,
and no attempt should be made to include topical headings or formal
outlines.
B. Examples of Abstracts
The first two examples of informative abstracts show how a con-
siderable amount of technical information can be presented in the
condensed style of the abstract. It will be noted that the example from
Chemical Abstracts employs certain acceptable abbreviations which
are characteristic of technical writing in the chemical field.
Time and stress effects in the behavior of rubber at low temperature.
J. R. Beatty and J. M. Davies. J. Applied Phys. 20, 533-9 (1949). The
stiffening of rubber-like materials at low temp, involves several dif-
ferent phenomena, sometimes with their effects superimposed. One of
these is crystn. This is a rate process which is generally very fast at
high stresses and very slow at zero stress. In these expts. at temps,
near 25 and under a shear stress of about 148 Ib. per sq. in. the
dynamic modulus of the rubber increased at a rate convenient to
study. Correlation with x-ray data showed that crystn. was likely re-
sponsible for the increase in stiffness. The rate of change of stiffness
increased rapidly with increase in applied stress, and there was no
optimum rate at 25 as has been found for unstressed rubber. The
degree of vulcanization influenced the rate of change, tighter cures
giving smaller changes. Neoprene-FR, GR-S, and polybutadiene, which
ordinarily show little evidence of crystn., showed very definite but small
ABSTRACT 303
increases in stiffness. Mixing GR-S with natural rubber seems to limit
the crystn. of the natural rubber rather effectively, but apparently
Neoprene-FR does not mix intimately enough with natural rubber to
affect the crystn. of the latter appreciably. H.P.K. 1
The example from Biological Abstracts is somewhat longer than
the average abstract, but is an effective and adept condensation of a
complex subject.
Splithoff, C. A., Origin and development of the erect posture. Surg.,
Gynecol. and Obstet. 84(5) :943-949. 5 fig. 1947. Human posture is
shown to have evolved through a series of progressive changes, begin-
ning with the prehistoric Devonian fish, 350 million years ago. Am-
phibians evolved land adaptation some 50 million years later. Because
of poor adjustment to terrestrial locomotion, their abilities were prob-
ably limited simply to obtaining food with little attempt made to move
for any distance. Walking continued to be cumbersome in the ancient
reptiles, whose limbs were widely separated. From Cynognathus, a
creature between reptile and mammal which existed 175 million years
ago, and could run on land, has evolved the more highly developed
Notharctus, an arboreal lemur-like primate. Other lemurs, monkeys,
and apes retained the ability to climb trees. The only ape able to
walk upright on the ground is the gibbon. The skeleton of this ape
begins to appear almost human in type. The gibbon has the ability
to walk by up-ending one tower of the suspension bridge to which the
shoulder and pelvic girdle, together with the spine, may be compared,
and balance it on its rear tower, represented by the pelvic girdle. The
ability to walk upright evolved from the habit of sitting upright and
from the habit of brachiating or swinging from limb to limb. The abil-
ity to walk has been peifected in the human through modification of
the entire skeleton, but principally the pelvis and lumbosacral spine.
It is true that certain apes can walk upright, but the pelvis is not
mechanically suited for such progression. The muscle pattern of ape
and man is similar, yet there is a difference in function and in com-
parative size; and a difference in the focal point of action of the glu-
teal muscles which is the secret of human ability to walk. In the
ape the external iliac surface points backward at right angles to the
acetabulum, rather than externally or outward as in the human. Thus
human posture evolved by progression from water onto land, then
into the trees and to the ground again. K. W. Buchwald. 2
The third informative abstract appeared in the section "Industrial
and Other Applications" of Psychological Abstracts. Though brief,
1 Chemical Abstracts, 43:6853 e, September 10, 1949.
2 Biological Abstracts, 22(1) :No. 73, pp. 7-8, 1948.
304 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
it is in proportion to the length of the original article, which is
included with it here.
Chandler, William R. (Harvard U., Cambridge, Mass.), The relation-
ship of distance to the occurrence of pedestrian accidents. Sociometry,
1948, 11, 108-110. From information taken from the files of the Brook-
line Police Department on 264 pedestrian-vehicle accidents, the dis-
tance between place of residence and point of accident was measured.
The data indicate that there is an inverse proportionality between the
distance from residence and the frequency of accidents. H. H.
Nowlis. 8
THE RELATIONSHIP OF DISTANCE TO THE OCCURRENCE
OF PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS *
This study investigates the relationship between pedestrian accidents
on the one hand and the pedestrians' distances from their homes at
the time of the accident on the other. 1
The data were taken from the traffic files of the Police Department 2
of Brookline, Massachusetts, and include all cases of pedestrian-
vehicle (i.e. auto, bus, and trolley) accidents in the files for the years
1946 and 1947. There were in all 284 accidents of this type recorded
of which 20 cases had to be excluded because of inadequate informa-
tion. The 264 remaining cases which were used constitute the entire
sample to which the present article refers. The distance between the
place of residence and point of accidents was measured 8 in each case
to the nearest quarter of a mile over the shortest walking route. Since
98.1% of the accidents took place within eight miles of the pedes-
trian's residence, for convenience, all accidents (i.e. 1.9%) occurring
beyond this eight mile limit were excluded, because the latter showed
wide scattering in distance.
These data are presented graphically in the adjoining Figure One
and are grouped as indicated according to the class middles of the
unit selected. Distance is measured logarithmically on the abscissa, and
the frequency of accidents is measured logarithmically on the ordinate.
The best straight line fitted to these points by least squares had a
slope of 1.191 (.265) or in equation form log y 1.919 log x
2.781 (P. ..177).
From these data it is clear that there is an inverse proportionality
between the distance that the pedestrian is from his residence and
the frequency of accidents.
8 Psychological Abstracts, 24:101, February 1950.
4 William R. Chandler, "The Relationship of Distance to the Occurrence of
Pedestrian Accidents," Sociometry, 11:108-10, 1948.
ABSTRACT 305
PEDESTRIAN
ACCIDENTS
8 12 16 20 32
DISTANCE IN QUARTER MILES
FIG. 1. Accidents to pedestrians from vehicles of all kinds in
relation to the pedestrian's distance from home (Brookline, Mas-
sachusetts, 1946 and 1947).
The reason for this inverse proportionality is not necessarily because
of any preference for accidents near home, but instead, because a
person is more often near his home and, therefore, has a greater op-
portunity to suffer an accident there. If we assume that accidents occur
at random, then we may conclude that pedestrians are proportionately
less likely to take trips of increasing lengths. This conclusion is in
line with earlier investigations of others. 4
1 A paper written under the direction of the University Lectureship of Harvard
University.
2 I am grateful to Chief M. Tonra for his cooperation in allowing me access to the
files, and to all those in the Traffic Department for their help.
3 I am grateful to the Brookhne Engineering Department for allowing me to use their
maps and street guides.
306 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
4W. J. Reilly, "Methods for the Study of Retail Relationships," University of
Texas Bulletin, 2944, Nov. 22, 1929. J. Q. Stewart, "An Inverse Distance Variation for
Certain Social Influences," Science, n. s. 93 (1941), 84; "The 'Gravitation,' or Geo-
graphical Drawing Power of a College," Bulletin American Association University Pro-
fessors, 27 (1941), 70; "A Measure of the Influence of a Population at a Distance,"
SOCIOMETRY, 5 (1942), 63-71. J. H. S. Bossard, "Residential Propinquity as a
Factor in Marriage Selection," American Journal of Sociology, 38 (1932), 219-244.
S. A. Stouffer, "Intervening Opportunities' A Theory Relating to Mobility and Dis-
tance," American Sociological Review, V (1940), 845-867. G. K. Zipf, "The Hypothesis
of the 'Minimum Equation' as a Unifying Principle: With Attempted Synthesis,"
American Sociological Review, XII (1947), 627-650; "The Repetition of Words, Time
Perspective, and Semantic Balance," Journal of General Psychology, 32 (1945), 127-148.
The following example of a descriptive abstract illustrates how
this type of abstract indicates to the reader whether the article will
be of interest to him even though it does not summarize the content
of the article.
ELECTRON BEAMS STERILIZE FOOD AND DRUGS. E. Alfred
Burrill and A. John Gale. Electronics 25, 98-101 (1952) Nov.
The importance of the scanning system used with high-energy elec-
tron beams to give uniform sterilization of sealed products moving
through the beam on high-speed conveyor belts is stressed. A 200-cps
scanning circuit to sweep the beam through an 8 arc is diagramed.
Elaborate fail-safe provisions are included. 5
II. DESCRIPTION OF DEVICE AND EXPLANATION OF PROCESS
Since every experiment in pure science and every operation in
applied science has its necessary equipment and fixed procedure,
much scientific writing takes the form of descriptions of device and
explanations of process. Such descriptions and explanations, dealing
with devices, apparatus, objects, and structures and with actions,
operations, and procedures, may be the subject of independent scien-
tific papers and are frequently included in longer papers and in text-
books. Descriptions of device and explanations of process, along with
directions for handling equipment and performing operations, also
constitute much of the subject matter of laboratory and instruction
manuals. 6
A. Definition of Terms
A process may be defined as an orderly sequence of events or ac-
tions which will, if repeated, produce the same or similar results.
5 Nuclear Science Abstracts, 7(1) :5, January 15, 1953.
6 A highly specialized type of manual is the engineering instruction manual.
A typical manual of this kind may be divided into such sections as: general
theory, theory of operation, installation instructions, operating instructions,
maintenance instructions, and catalog of replacement parts.
DEVICE AND PROCESS 307
Processes may be within man's control, like many processes of ap-
plied science, or beyond his control, like geological processes or
digestive processes. The explanation of process is an expository analy-
sis of such a sequence of actions or events. By breaking down the
process into its parts and showing their logical relationships, the
writer acquaints the reader with the process and affords him an un-
derstanding of its significance. Since many processes involve devices
or structures which demand description (see Chapter 9), description
of device is often a part of an explanation of process. When the steps
in a process are stated imperatively as a series of commands, the
whole is known as directions. Although the explanation of process,
description of device, and directions are distinct forms, they are so
often used in combination that they will be discussed together.
B. Writing of Papers of Device and Process
Before beginning an explanation of process, the writer must decide
whether his purpose is to tell the reader how to do something or how
something is done. For example, a paper on the analysis of uranium
in sea water may be intended to explore the method of analysis in
such technical detail that the properly qualified reader will be able
to repeat the process. Yet an explanation of the same process written
for the general reader may give only enough information to enable
the reader to understand the significance of the process and the nature
of the principal steps involved. Similarly, a description of device
a description of a radio receiving set, for instance may stop with
making clear the structural principles of the set or may add the detail
which will enable the reader to construct it.
In preparing papers of device and process the writer may follow
a fairly well standardized plan. If the explanation is to enable the
reader to construct the device or carry out the process, all materials
must be accurately identified and all measurements exactly given;
detailed diagrams will probably also be needed. Such necessary pre-
liminary information as definitions of terms, descriptions of essential
equipment, and lists of materials should be given before beginning
the explanation of the steps in the process. In explaining these steps
the order is determined by the time sequence, but mere regard for
time sequence is not enough. The process must be analyzed into its
separate parts. Even a simple task such as replacing a plug on an
308 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
electric cord consists of a series of distinct steps. A complex process
may consist of several stages or phases with different steps in each
phase.
Writing a description of a device or apparatus, whether such a
description is offered as an introductory part of an explanation of
process or as an independent paper, also involves the use of analysis.
A description of an electric refrigerator, for example, may begin
with the statement that there are three main parts: the motor, the
compressor, and the freezing unit. An orderly arrangement of detail
in describing a device or apparatus helps to make spatial relationships
clear. A description may proceed from the outside in, from front to
back, from left to right, or any of these directions in reverse. The use
of an analogy may help the reader to follow the description if the
structure resembles a ball, a wheel, a figure-eight, or any other well-
known and easily visualized form. The operation of the gear-shift
lever of a car, for example, is often described by reference to the
letter H.
Once the order of details within the description has been estab-
lished, the next essential is simple and consistent expression. Parallel
sentence structure should be used to state corresponding facts. Tense
and mood should not be needlessly shifted. The same terms should
be used throughout to refer to the same objects and operations. Stu-
dents are often needlessly afraid of repetition. In an exposition of
process, referring to one thing by half a dozen synonyms does not
result in pleasing variety but in most unpleasing confusion.
Careful observance of parallelism is particularly important in writ-
ing directions since the reader is treated as a participant and not
merely as an observer, and each direction given must be stated in
the imperative mood. Directions in the imperative may, however, be
accompanied by explanatory sentences in the indicative. The second
person pronoun you is used in addressing the reader, as in the follow-
ing selection from a series of directions designed to help in the de-
velopment of study skills.
1. Glance over the headings in the chapter to see the few big points
which will be developed. This survey should not take more than a
minute and will show the three to six core ideas around which the
rest of the discussion will cluster. If the chapter has a final summary
DEVICE AND PROCESS 309
paragraph this will also list the ideas developed in the chapter. This
orientation will help you organize the ideas as you read them later.
2. Now begin to work. Turn the first heading into a question. This
will arouse your curiosity and so increase comprehension. It will bring
to mind information already known, thus helping you to understand
that section more quickly. And the question will make important points
stand out while explanatory detail is recognized as such. This turning
a heading into a question can be done on the instant of reading the
heading, but it demands a conscious effort on the part of the reader
to make this query for which he must read to find the answer. 7
C. Examples of Papers of Device and Process
The following description of a spectroscope is intended to give
the student of spectroscopy an understanding of the instrument. The
classification which precedes the description explains the purpose of
the spectroscope and its relation to other instruments. The description
itself is analytical in form, and the essential parts of the instrument
are illustrated by a simple diagram.
Spectroscopes and Spectrographs. Any instrument that can be used
to produce a spectrum, visible or invisible, is called a spectroscope.
Under this general heading instruments are classified according to the
means by which the spectrum is observed.
A spectrograph produces a photographic record of the spectrum
called a spectrogram. The word spectroscope is sometimes used in a
restricted sense to designate an instrument arranged so that the spec-
trum can be viewed by eye. It will be used in this book only in the
broad sense; the term visual spectroscope will be used to designate
instruments arranged for direct eye observation of the spectrum. Spec-
trometers are so built that an observer can determine wavelengths by
reading a scale, which may or may not be calibrated to read directly
in microns, millimicrons, or angstroms.
Most spectroscopes contain three main elements: a slit; a dispersing
device such as a prism or a diffraction grating to separate radiation
according to wavelength; and a suitable optical system to produce the
spectrum lines, which are monochromatic images of the slit. A simple
spectroscope optical system is shown in Fig. 1.2. The spectrum line?
are arrayed along a focal curve where they may be photographed, ob
served with an eyepiece if visible, or isolated from their neighbors by
a second slit. The first method is used in spcctrographs, the second in
visual spectroscopes, and the third in monochromators.
7 Francis P. Robinson, Effective Study, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1946,
p. 28.
310 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
B
FIG. 1.2. Optical system of a simple spectroscope. S, slit; C, col-
limator lens; P, prism; T, telescope lens; F, curve along which
the various parts of the spectrum are in focus; B, blue or short
wavelength part; R, red or long wavelength part.
Spectrum lines are detected or recorded by various means. Infrared
spectroscopes are usually equipped with radiometers, which produce
variations in current through a galvanometer and hence vary its de-
flection. These variations of deflection may be recorded in curves of
the type shown in Fig. 1.3 [not shown]. The spectrum can be recorded
by this means at any wavelength, but more sensitive methods are used
in spectral regions where they are available. Photography is feasible
between 15,000 and 10 A. Though sensitive and convenient, photog-
raphy requires careful control if quantitative results are to be ob-
tained. Fluorescence and phosphorescence methods, combined with
visual observation or photography, can also be used between 15,000
and 10 A, with some loss in sharpness of narrow lines. Photoelectric
recording has been used between 33,000 A and the short vacuum ultra-
violet. In all these cases the 10 A limit is purely arbitrary, since the
sensitivity extends on into the region of X-ray spectroscopy. 8
The following article on the Geiger counter leads the reader effec-
tively from an identification and history of the counter through an
explanation of its operation to an enumeration of important uses.
Marginal notes are offered here to indicate the relation of the para-
graphing to the general plan.
Preliminary definition The concept of radiation, keystone of modern
of radiation is bewildering indeed to the layman. Here
lies that strange, unreal world where matter and
8 George R. Harrison, Richard C. Lord, and John R. Loofbourow, Practical
Spectroscopy (Copyright 1948 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York) ; pp. 7-10.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
DEVICE AND PROCESS 311
energy merge, where unseen light may burn and
kill deep under the skin, where voices are carried
on nothingness at fantastic speeds. The physicist
talks of X-rays, of radio waves, of cosmic rays,
of radiation from uranium and atomic bombs.
What does he mean?
Briefly radiation is the release and transmission
of energy by changes in the atom or the atomic
nucleus. Some changes result in emission of pure
energy, such as light. At other times, as in the case
of radium, actual fast-moving particles are thrown
off.
History of the Nearly 40 years ago, Hans Geiger, a German
Geiger counter student of England's Lord Rutherford, invented
a mechanism to detect radiation. The Geiger
counter, which can reveal the presence of a single,
tiny electron, is science's most sensitive instru-
ment. Moreover, it is fast becoming one of the
most important tools of science, a vital aid to
the nuclear physicist and of increasing medical
and commercial value.
Principle of operation High energy radiation, whether from X-rays,
radium, atomic bombs or cosmic rays, is able to
ionize or charge electrically neutral gas molecules
either directly by simply knocking off electrons
or indirectly. The electrons carry a negative
charge, and the molecules from which they are
separated become positively charged ions. This
resembles the photoelectric effect of visible light
which is also radiation of relatively low energies.
The ionization property is used in the Geiger
counter to detect and estimate the intensity of
radiation.
Physical description The counter consists of a vacuum tube in the
form of a negatively charged metal cylinder
through which a positively charged wire is
stretched. The difference in potential between wire
and cylinder may run from 250 to 5000 volts.
Radiation, permitted to enter the tube through a
window, ionizes the small amount of gas left in
the tube.
Mechanism of operation The positive ions move toward the negative
metal walls; the free electrons rush to the wire.
The motion produces a pulse of electricity large
enough to be measured. Upon reaching the wall
312 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
the ions are again neutralized, the pulse dies away
and the counter is sensitized for the next ray or
particle. In a "slow" counter the electric pulse
persists from one-tenth to one-hundredth of a
second following the entrance of the radiation;
in a "fast" counter it lasts only one ten-thousandth
of a second.
Uses The feeble electric discharge generated in the
process may be amplified to operate a mechanical
counter, to mark an oscillograph or to click in
a pair of head phones. The significance of the
number of pulses per second depends upon the
design of the instrument, the probable amount of
radiation absorbed by the walls and the constancy
and location of the source of radiation with re-
spect to the counter.
We live constantly bathed in radiation of all
kinds, so that a counter operates continually at
a fairly constant rate. In the vicinity of a source
of radiation, such as an X-ray machine or a cap-
sule of radium, the number of pulses recorded
goes up markedly. The counter is a super-snooper.
An atomic bomb explosion, even on the other side
of the world, releases enough radiation to increase
its activity. Increasing use of radioactive tracers
in medicine, scientific research and industry has
given it many new jobs. Foundries use it to in-
spect castings and forgings, petroleum companies
for logging of oil wells, hydro-electric plants for
estimating the volume of flow through the tur-
bines. 9
The next two examples are concerned with processes. In the first
selection the steps in the process of wool stapling are presented in
direction form. The numbered directions are accompanied by an
opening and concluding paragraph of explanation.
In the stapling of wool, it is necessary to get some idea of the dis-
tribution of fiber lengths as well as the average staple. In the case
of wool, also, we have longer fibers which are easier to handle singly
or in small numbers. Wool stapling, therefore, consists of laying out
all the fibers from a sample on a proper background in the order of
their lengths. The steps in stapling a sample of top are as follows:
9 Power Plant Engineering, 51:101, October 1947.
DEVICE AND PROCESS 313
1. On a piece of black velvet, mounted rigidly on a board, draw a
chalk line for a base.
2. Square up the end of the top by pulling out the loose fibers.
3. Grip the square end of the top between the thumb and forefinger
of the left hand and pull out a tuft of fibers free from the rest of the
top, being careful not to break the fibers. This new end will be long
and tapering.
4. Transfer the square end to the right hand and, very slightly,
twist together the longest fibers in the tapering end.
5. Place the top of the longest fibers on the chalk line, hold with
one finger of the left hand and slowly pull the main tuft away with
the right hand, at right angles to the base line. The fibers should cling
to the black velvet.
6. Repeat with the next longest fibers, alongside of the first set,
and continue until all the fibers are on the velvet. Try to get a uniform
density of fibers throughout.
For ordinary mill routine, the average length of staple is determined
by placing a rule parallel to the base line and in such a position that
there is as much long fiber above as short fiber below. This average
length is read, also the longest length. For a somewhat more accurate
determination of average staple, a tracing of the fiber layout may be
made. The area, measured with a planimeter, divided by the length
of the base would then be the average staple. A still more accurate
method would be to take all fibers between certain length measure-
ments and weigh them, repeating this operation for the same length
interval all along the array. The average length of each group would
then be multiplied by the weight of the group. These products added
up and divided by the total weight of the sample would give the aver-
age staple. 10
The concluding example in this section is an explanation of process
taken from an article dealing with procedures used in tests of com-
mercial tires for treadwear.
Procedure of Test
Weight Method. The procedure is essentially the same as that used
by Roth and Holt. The tires for test are mounted with inner tubes on
appropriate rims. The mounted tires are weighed on an equal-arm bal-
ance. The main knife edges of the balance rest on tungsten-carbide
inserts in order to avoid changes in sensitivity, which is 0.5 gram or
less. However, all weighings are made to the nearest gram. The weigh-
ings are made by the constant sensitivity method, in which a tare
10 John H. Skinkle, Textile Testing, Brooklyn, Chemical Publishing Company,
Inc., 1949, pp. 36-37.
314 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
heavier than the heaviest mounted tire is placed on one pan of the
balance and the tire assembly is placed on the other pan together with
sufficient weights to balance the tire. The balance point is detected
by the method of swings. A periodic determination of the rest point
is made by checking the tare with an equivalent known weight.
In the early tests, all weighings were made with the tires inflated.
Corrections were made in the inflation pressure for changes in the
ambient temperature. Since an error of % pound per square inch in
the adjustment of the inflation pressure results in an error of about
% gram in the weight of a 6.00-16 tire to about 3 grams in the weight
of a 11.00-20 tire, recent tests have been made by making all weighings
with the tires deflated. In these tests, the valve core was removed to
be sure that the air in the tube was at atmospheric pressure. The com-
pressed air for inflation of the tires was filtered to remove any dirt,
oil or water droplets. Before inflating the first tire, the air line was
opened to blow out any condensate that might have accumulated.
Before test, passenger car and light truck tires are dynamically
balanced and heavy truck tires are statically balanced. The weighings
are made with the balancing weights in place. A check is made before
each weighing, however, to see if any balancing weights were lost.
Also, the mass of the balancing weights on each tire is determined by
weighing the tire assembly before and after balancing. Thus, it is
possible to determine the weight of the tire in case one or more of
the balancing weights are lost.
The vehicles are loaded before each test with cast iron weights in
such a manner that the same load is on each wheel. The load in most
tests is the maximum recommended load of the Tire and Rim Asso-
ciation, Inc. Because of the limiting minimum weight of the empty
vehicle, small sizes of tires are overloaded but in no case more than
15 per cent. The alignment of the wheels and the condition of the
brakes are examined and any necessary corrections made prior to the
test. During the course of a test, every effort is made not to disturb
the alignment of the wheels, the condition of the brakes, or any other
mechanical condition of the wheels. In this connection, the alignment
of the wheels is checked before each period to verify that it has not
changed.
The tires are placed on the vehicles in accordance with the design
of test. The vehicles in each test are operated in a convoy. During each
period of slightly more than 500 miles, each tire remains on the wheel
to which it is allocated. At the end of the period, the tires are removed
from the vehicles, stones and other foreign particles are removed from
the treads, and dirt on the tires is removed by washing with water.
If the tires become contaminated with road tar, it is removed with
gasoline. After washing, the surplus water is removed with compressed
DEVICE AND PROCESS 315
air and the tires are allowed to dry at least 16 hours before they are
deflated and weighed.
As a control, the spare tire on each vehicle is treated in the same
manner as the tires being tested. The weight of the spare tire remains
essentially constant except when most of the period is wet (transient
showers do not cause any difficulty). Even under these conditions, the
weight of the spare tires remains fairly constant when mounted on full
drop-center rims. However, tires mounted on truck rims increase in
weight indicating that water has gotten into them. When this condition
occurs, the tires are deflated and dried in a room maintained at 100 F.
until the spare tires return to the correct weight (generally 48 hours).
The drying is sometimes accelerated by passing filtered compressed
air between the rim and the tire. This difficulty in wet weather is the
principal disadvantage of the weight method. The following procedure
for conditioning tires before weighing has, however, been found to
eliminate the principal difficulties generally encountered in wet
weather: After the tires are removed from the vehicles and cleaned
at the end of each test period, they are deflated and placed in a room
maintained between 100 and 110 F. for a period of 40 hours. If the
roads were wet during the test period, filtered compressed air is in-
jected through the valve hole or slot in the rim during the drying
period. Before the tires are weighed initially, they are also placed in
the drying room for a period of 40 hours.
If a puncture occurs on the road, the mileage is recorded and the
tire is replaced with the spare until the vehicle returns to the testing
station where the object causing the puncture is removed. The punc-
tured tire after complete deflation is weighed. The tube is removed and
repaired or replaced depending on the extent of the damage. After
remounting the tire with the valve stem of the tube in the same relative
position as before the puncture, the assembly is again weighed. The
difference in weight before and after repair is applied as a correction
in determining the total weight of the tread. When it is necessary to
replace the tube, the tire is rebalanced and appropriate corrections
are made for any change in the mass of the balancing weights. If a
tire is damaged beyond repair (which did not occur in any of the
tests in this paper), a duplicate tire is substituted for the one that
failed and the test continued; if necessary, the period in which failure
occurred is repeated.
After the road test is completed, the remaining tread is removed
by buffing to determine the total weight of tread. A specially designed
machine is used. It has adjustments for buffing to any tread radius
between 6 and 13 inches, to any tread depth on tires between 6.00-16
and 11.00-20 in size, and for centering the different sizes of tires with
respect to the buffing wheel. Each tread is buffed to the tread radius
316 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
that existed 1 at the end of the road test. The tread is removed in such
a manner that the depths of the two outside grooves are equal even
though one shoulder jnay have worn faster than the other during the
road test. Buffing is terminated when any one of the tread grooves
disappears for 180 degrees around the circumference of the tire. After
buffing, the tire assembly is again weighed in the manner previously
described and the weight of the tread is calculated from the initial
and final weights and any corrections resulting from punctures.
If tires having the same tread design and carcass construction are
tested, it is not necessary to buff the tread to determine the compara-
tive treadwear. Since the volume of the tread is the same on such
tires, relative treadwear can be determined from rate of wear and
density measurements only.
Depth Method. In the tests reported in this paper, the depth of each
tread groove was also measured each time that weight measurements
were made. Depth measurements were made to the nearest thousandth
of an inch at four locations in each groove, spaced approximately 90
degrees apart. Since the bottom of many tread grooves was not smooth,
three or more readings were taken with a dial gage at each location.
The minimum reading was taken to represent the depth at that point
since exploratory tests showed this reading to be the most reproducible.
The locations at which measurements were made were marked so that
the depths could be measured at the same locations after each period.
The values for the depths at the four locations in each groove were
averaged. Considerable difficulty was encountered in measuring the
depth of the grooves in certain tread designs, and the poorer reproduci-
bility in making depth measurements in these tests than in tests pre-
viously reported may be partly attributed to this cause. 11
III. THE CASE HISTORY
Of all the specialized forms of scientific writing, the case history
probably makes the strongest appeal to the general reader. The indi-
vidual instance of a principle or condition a case of murder, a case
of measles, a case of juvenile delinquency, a case of hysteria has
the human appeal which the abstraction lacks.
A. Definition of Terms
In order to understand fully the scientific significance of the case
history, the student must understand the relationship between the
individual instance and the generalization in the growth of scientific
11 R. D. Stiehler, G. G. Richey, and J. Mandel, "Measurement of Treadwear
of Commercial Tires," Rubber Age, 73:202-04, May 1953.
CASE HISTORY 317
knowledge. First, a general principle or concept is built up from the
study of many individual instances or cases. 12 Then a typical case
may be taken as illustrative of that principle. In popular usage, and
even in uncritical professional usage, the term case is often used in
referring to the person concerned. Authorities, however, are more
restrictive in their use of this term:
A case is an instance of disease, the totality of the symptoms and
of the pathologic and other conditions; a patient is the human being
afflicted. One continually finds in medical manuscripts such sentences
as "The case had a fever," "Thirty cases were admitted to the hospital"
and "The case was operated on." In the publications of the American
Medical Association such usages are banned. 13
Similarly :
The social worker's "case" is the particular social situation or prob-
lem not the person or persons concerned. For the person, as distin-
guished from his problem, the term now in general use is "client." 14
From the time that an individual presents himself for professional
assistance his case becomes a matter of record. Prepared blanks or
forms are often used in making these records, and laboratory and
other special reports are filed with them. When the case records are
written up for presentation to a professional society or agency, the
paper is known as a case report. (See Chapter 11.) A short case
report may be a simple summary in narrative form. For a longer
report analytical divisions are used, such as the subject's history,
family history, physical examination, laboratory examination, etc.
Case history is a general term used to denote an account of a case
from its inception to date or to its conclusion. The term case history
may also apply to a short illustrative summary used for teaching
12 Recognizing the possibilities in teaching general principles through spe-
cific instances, James Bryant Conant in 1947 suggested in On Understanding
Science, New Haven, Yale University Press, pp. 16-17, that the nature of science
be taught by the use of "case histories" or accounts of individual scientific
discoveries which illustrate "the tactics and strategy of science." More recently
Conant's suggestion has found expression in his book Science and Common
Sense, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1951.
13 By permission from Medical Writing, by Morris Fishbein, p. 44. Copyright
1948. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
14 Mary E. Richmond, What Is Social Case Work?, New York, Russell Sag*!
Foundation, 1922, p. 27.
318 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
or expository purposes. In introducing a series of case histories,
S. W. Ranson has stressed their instructional value:
An excellent review of anatomic neurology can be obtained by a study
of a series of neurologic patients and an attempt to interpret their
symptoms in terms of damaged cell masses and fiber tracts. The fol-
lowing brief case histories may serve in lieu of actual patients. Each
will be found to illustrate some important facts concerning the organi-
zation of the nervous system. 15
B. Writing of Case Histories
The problems presented in the writing of a case history or a case
report are those of selection, arrangement, and style. (See Chapters
8, 9, and 11.) Material, however colorful, which does not bear on
the scientific interest of the case should be excluded. Even if the
account is long enough to justify an analytical arrangement, chrono-
logical order should be followed within the divisions. The writer
should never interrupt the course of his narrative to go back to relate
something that happened previously. The telegraphic style sometimes
used in case records is not permissible in case reports or case his-
tories.
Although there is a strong resemblance among case histories, there
are also differences among them in both content and presentation. A
case may be selected for presentation to a clinical society or journal
because of its unusual or surprising features. For purposes of in-
struction, a typical case is more likely to be chosen. The aim may
be the presentation of enough clinical detail to form the basis of
thorough study or discussion, which will demand a long and analyti-
cally arranged report. Or the aim may be the inclusion of only enough
detail to make possible an understanding of the essential or the
peculiar features of the case.
C. Examples of Case Histories
The form of the medical case history has had a widespread influ-
ence in other areas. The following case history, included by John
A. Ryle in The Natural History of Disease to illustrate the "mani-
festations of thyroid deficiency," is in chronological order. It includes
15 Stephen Walter Ranson and Sam Lillard Clark, The Anatomy of the Nerv-
ous System, 9th ed., Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company, 1953, p. 396.
CASE HISTORY 319
a brief family history and a fairly detailed account of the patient's
illness, the symptoms, the treatment, and the results.
Case 1. Mrs. N , aged 42, was admitted on 23 February 1923.
Her mother died of consumption. She had two daughters living, aged
21 and 19 years. Two other children died in infancy. Twenty-two years
ago she had enteric fever. Before this date she enjoyed perfectly good
health, but she has never felt really fit since the illness. In 1911 she
had pneumonia, and six months later was operated on for appendicular
abscess. These two illnesses further aggravated her feelings of unfit-
ness. For 12 years she has noticed gradually increasing muscular weak-
ness, with impairment of memory and slowness of speech. She has also
experienced an increasing intolerance for cold, and feels chilly even
in summer. In recent years she has been growing fat, though latterly
she has again lost weight. She has noticed puffiness of the face and
eyelids and dryness of the skin. She never sweats. Recently she has
had to give up her household duties on account of weakness. She fre-
quently forgets what she wants to say, and whereas she used to be
"sharp-spoken," she is now "very slow." Her hair has been falling. The
periods have been irregular. She was sent to Guy's, however, not so
much for these general symptoms as for some vague abdominal dis-
comforts, for which she was seen by Mr. Turner. He considered that
these symptoms could be sufficiently accounted for by visceroptosis,
and was struck by her general condition. He drew attention to the
hyperaemic patches on her cheeks, which suggested mitral stenosis.
These were a striking feature, contrasting sharply with her rather
yellowish underlying pallor. Even more striking, however, was the gen-
eral heaviness of the features, and the complete absence of any play
of emotion or expression in the course of the interrogation. The eyelids
were slightly puffy. The hair was dry and coarse, and the outer half
of the eyebrows was lacking; the hair-margin had considerably re-
ceded. Her voice was monotonous, and her words were uttered slowly.
Her latent period in answering questions was longer than normal. The
integument of the forehead was thick. The skin was everywhere dry,
and the axillary hair was scanty. Her pulse was 64, temperature 97.4,
and respiration-rate 20. The systolic blood-pressure was 135. The blood
showed a haemoglobin percentage of 65, and a red cell count of 4,140,-
000. The basal metabolic rate was minus 24.7 per cent. Glucose toler-
ance was, however, normal. It should be mentioned that she had been
taking small doses of thyroid while awaiting admission. She was treated
with thyroid in the form of Tab. Thyroid (B. & W.), and seemed to
do best on a dose of gr. 2 thrice daily. This represents only about gr.
1% of dried thyroid in the day. She improved steadily, and a few
months later, excepting for a slight tendency to dizziness, had lost all
her symptoms. Her colour had improved remarkably. In figure she
320 SPECIAL T\PES OF PAPERS
became slim and sprightly. Her face and expression were happy and
vivacious. 16
Out of the vast number of case histories in psychosomatic medi-
cine, psychiatry, and psychology, it is impossible to select one which
is typical. The example included here from the writings of Sigmund
Freud has not been chosen with any thought of implying a judgment
on the Freudian theory and practice of psychoanalysis. It has been
selected rather because the interest which the ideas of Freud aroused
was undoubtedly due in part to the literary skill with which he ex-
plained his theories in terms of his case studies.
In this instance an account of the previous history of one of Freud's
patients is offered as evidence in support of Freud's theory of the
dream as a wish fulfillment, and the introduction and arrangement
of the account are governed by this purpose.
Yet another dream of a more gloomy character was offered me by
a female patient in contradiction of my theory of the wish-dream. This
patient, a young girl, began as follows: "You remember that my sister
has now only one boy, Charles. She lost the elder one, Otto, while I was
still living with her. Otto was my favourite; it was I who really brought
him up. I like the other little fellow, too, but, of course, not nearly
so much as his dead brother. Now I dreamt last night that I saw
Charles lying dead before me. He was lying in his little coffin, his
hands folded; there were candles all about; and, in short, it was just
as it was at the time of little Otto's death, which gave me such a shock.
Now tell me, what does this mean? You know me am I really so bad
as to wish that my sister should lose the only child she has left? Or
does the dream mean that I wish that Charles had died rather than
Otto, whom I liked so much better?"
I assured her that this latter interpretation was impossible. After
some reflection, I was able to give her the interpretation of the dream,
which she subsequently confirmed. I was able to do so because the
whole previous history of the dreamer was known to me.
Having become an orphan at an early age, the girl had been brought
up in the home of a much older sister, and had met, among the friends
and visitors who frequented the house, a man who made a lasting im-
pression upon her affections. It looked for a time as though these barely
explicit relations would end in marriage, but this happy culmination
was frustrated by the sister, whose motives were never completely ex-
16 John A. Ryle, The Natural History of Disease, 2nd ed., Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1948, pp. 368-69.
CASE HISTORY 321
plained. After the rupture the man whom my patient loved avoided
the house; she herself attained her independence some time after the
death of little Otto, to whom, meanwhile, her affections had turned.
But she did not succeed in freeing herself from the dependence due
to her affection for her sister's friend. Her pride bade her avoid him;
but she found it impossible to transfer her love to the other suitors
who successively presented themselves. Whenever the man she loved,
who was a member of the literary profession, announced a lecture any-
where, she was certain to be found among the audience ; and she seized
every other opportunity of seeing him unobserved. I remember that
on the previous day she had told me that the Professor was going to
a certain concert, and that she too was going, in order to enjoy the
sight of him. This was on the day before the dream; and the concert
was to be given on the day on which she told me the dream. I could
now easily see the correct interpretation, and I asked her whether she
could think of any particular event which had occurred after Otto's
death. She replied immediately: "Of course; the Professor returned
then, after a long absence, and I saw him once more beside little Otto's
coffin." It was just as I had expected. I interpreted the dream as fol-
lows: "If now the other boy were to die, the same thing would happen
again. You would spend the day with your sister; the Professor would
certainly come to offer his condolences, and you would see him once
more under the same circumstances as before. The dream signifies
nothing more than this wish of yours to see him again a wish against
which you are fighting inwardly. I know that you have the ticket for
to-day's concert in your bag. Your dream is a dream of impatience;
it has anticipated by several hours the meeting which is to take place
to-day."
In order to disguise her wish she had obviously selected a situation
in which wishes of the sort are commonly suppressed a situation so
sorrowful that love is not even thought of. And yet it is entirely pos-
sible that even in the actual situation beside the coffin of the elder,
more dearly loved boy, she had not been able to suppress her tender
affection for the visitor whom she had missed for so long. 17
The case history as used in social work has been defined as "a
body of personal information conserved with a view to the three
ends of social case work, namely, (1) the immediate purpose of fur-
thering effective treatment of individual clients, (2) the ultimate pur-
pose of general social betterment, and (3) the incidental purpose of
17 Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, translated by A. A. Brill,
3rd ed., London, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1932, pp. 156-58. Used with per-
mission of the publisher.
322 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
establishing the case worker ... in critical thinking." 18 Because of
the day-to-day character of the social case worker's relationship with
the client, social case records involve a great deal of detail. Such
records are difficult to keep accurately and difficult to summarize in
narrative form.
The opening sentence of the following example of a case history
is a succinct statement of the point which the authors wish to illus-
trate through the use of the account of this case. The arrangement
here is more analytical and less chronological than that of the pre-
ceding examples. In order to give a complete background of this
child's case, it was necessary first to consider her parents as indi-
viduals, then to offer an account of their marriage. The concluding
paragraph sums up again the significance of the case this time in
specific terms and suggests a possible approach to adjustment.
The case of Anna Boone, a little girl of seven, illustrates with great
clarity how the father's attempt to give his daughter security ended in
disaster because it robbed his wife of hers. The early history of Anna's
father was unusually free from serious disturbances. As the youngest
son of a prosperous business man, Edward's childhood was comfortable
and pleasant in material ways, and essentially secure emotionally. The
elder Mr. Boone was very fond of Edward and they were companion-
able in many ways. In spite of a quick and rather violent temper Mr.
Boone was lenient with his children and particularly so with this last
child of his. Though the younger Mr. Boone returned his father's affec-
tion, he told the Bureau worker that he was fondest of his mother.
She is described as an intelligent woman, interested in club activities,
albeit at the same time a devoted mother.
All of Edward's brothers became successful business or professional
men. Edward, on the other hand, after finishing the eighth grade, re-
fused all offers of further schooling and, after a short course in busi-
ness college, entered his father's office. The entire family, while ex-
pressing a fondness for and loyalty toward this youngest brother,
nevertheless look upon his economic status as a mark of failure. Their
attitudes toward his changing jobs and business reverses have added
to his feeling of inadequacy.
Edward remained single until the age of forty. His marriage to a
girl ten years his junior was a terrific shock to his family, the more
is Ada Eliot Sheffield, The Social Case History, New York, Russell Sage
Foundation, 1920, pp. 5-6.
CASE HISTORY 323
so as they considered her of inferior stock and unworthy of becoming
one of them.
In contrast to the history of satisfying childhood experiences in
which Edward grew up, the background of his future wife was pre-
dominantly negative in value. Ruth Morse's father was an undemon-
strative, nervous but kindly man who played little part in her life.
Her mother was a delicate woman who died in childbirth when Ruth
was but five years old. Mr. Morse, finding himself with a small daugh-
ter to care for, soon remarried. The second Mrs. Morse was a vigorous
woman of much common sense, but severe and unyielding. She had
two daughters of her own by Mr. Morse and though she strove for
impartiality, Ruth says she "always felt a difference." There were never
any open breaks. Ruth was always on excellent terms with her step-
mother and half-sisters even after her marriage to Mr. Boone. Never-
theless, there is ample evidence of her childhood unhappiness. She had
frequent crying spells, cried much in her sleep, and was looked upon
as generally "queer." Mrs. Morse did not allow her to play on the
street but kept her indoors to help with the care of the children.
Ruth brought to her marriage the full measure of her depriving
experiences, great insecurity, and a deep-seated need to find a pro-
tective, understanding "parent-person" in her husband. From the first,
her immaturity and unreadiness to assume responsibility were appar-
ent. She had hated housework as a girl and her first reaction after
marriage was to let down completely and play invalid for three months.
Her untidiness, poor judgment, and constant complaints were further
evidences of her childishness. Mr. Boone was able for some time to
treat her as she wished to be treated. He had a pleasant manner, a self-
assured air in which she could rest confident, and a flattering repent-
ance after one of his outbursts of temper. As a young cousin of his
told the Bureau worker one day, "he would die to protect his wife
from injury." This devotion of his, given in such a paternal spirit,
could not but be utterly satisfying to a woman who had had almost
no demonstration of affection in her entire existence.
This condition of satisfied self-centeredness could not be permanent
however much Mrs. Boone wished it. Her pregnancy was an immediate
threat to her. She felt badly all the time, and though she talked about
wanting a baby her unconscious resistance came through at night for
she cried constantly in her sleep. Just as she reacted in former days
to responsibility thrust upon her by the death of her mother, the ad-
vent of a stepmother and baby half-sisters, so now she responded to
the necessity of giving up her dependency upon her husband in order
to be a parent to their child.
Anna did not thrive in this over-charged emotional atmosphere. As
324 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
an infant she lost weight, refused to nurse, and cried continually. Her
aunts say she was "disagreeable from infancy," that this trait was
apparent when she was only a week old. It is easy, however, to recog-
nize in the baby's fretf ulness and irritating ways an inevitable response
to the mother's resentment and the insecurity to which Anna was ex-
posed in consequence.
Mr. Boone from the beginning played quite a part in his young
daughter's life. His security and consequent ability to take the father
role towards his wife enabled him to assume it with Anna also. Had
Mrs. Boone been able to accept motherhood, Mr. Boone's attention
would have been a most satisfying and constructive experience for
Anna. As it was, it contained little of a satisfying nature because by
experiencing her father's love she aroused her mother's antagonism.
Instead of gaining security with both parents as is every child's pre-
rogative, Anna had none with her mother and was given to feel that
she had no right to any with her father.
As Mr. Boone continued to dress the baby, play with her, and be
demonstrative in his affections, Mrs. Boone found it more and more
difficult to hide her jealousy. It manifested itself at times more subtly,
at times quite crudely. She was careless about the child's sleeping
hours and diet though she exhibited anxiety over Anna's undernourish-
ment and fatigability. When Anna was difficult to manage, Mrs. Boone
threw up her hands, said she was impossible, and left the child to her
own devices. Occasionally Mrs. Boone went so far as to predict that
she would go insane because of Anna; or to blame her nervousness
and wrecked spirits on the child's behavior. Her complaints of ill-
health and bids for sympathy were of course nothing but thinly veiled
attempts to regain the center of the stage, to rebuild her lost security.
Since much of the history came from the mother, the record of her
unwise handling is rather incomplete. On the other hand, not only
from Mrs. Boone, but from all other adults as well, come full reports
of Anna's attitude toward her mother, the child's response to the
deep-lying feeling of rejection. Everyone talked of Anna's "aversion
to her mother," her hatred of being touched strong evidence that the
physical contacts of babyhood had been unsatisfying experiences her
refusal to obey unless the mother couched her requests in certain
verbal formulae, her tendency to scold Mrs. Boone like a naughty child,
and then her rare softened moments when she would say, "Call me
darling and be nice to me and then I'll stop crying."
It is easy to see that here one is deadlocked the child needs
security, so does the mother, and the only one who can give it is the
father. Yet his attention to either one of them threatens the other and
increases the family problem. One's greatest chance of success lies in
an outsider, i.e., a social worker or psychiatrist, who may relieve Mrs.
CASE HISTORY 325
Boone of some of her emotional burdens, knowing that a degree of
self-security alone will make possible her adjustment to her daughter. 19
IV. THE BOOK REVIEW
The book review as it is known in scientific journals is an adapta-
tion of a well-known literary form to the needs and interests of those
engaged in scientific work. As a literary form, the present-day book
review, usually from about four hundred to a thousand words in
length, is something of a hybrid. On the one side it traces its ancestry
to the ancient art of literary criticism. On the other, it derives from
a more recent antecedent modern journalism. The book review,
according to Joseph Wood Krutch, has three minimum tasks to de-
scribe the book, to communicate something of its quality, and to
pass a judgment upon it. 20 As journalism, the book review should
answer the questions suggested by the five W's of news writing
Who wrote the book? When? Where? What is it about? Why is it
significant? "The purpose of the honest reviewer," it has been main-
tained, "should be to tell the prospective purchaser whether the book
is, to him, worth what it costs." 21
A. The Scientific Writer and the Book Review
Scientists are often by virtue of their special knowledge asked to
review books on scientific subjects. The concern of the scientific
writer with the book review is somewhat different from that of either
the professional reviewer or the literary critic. The scientific writer's
first concern is naturally with the usefulness, interest, and merit of
new books in his field, not with the tenets of literary criticism or with
aesthetics.
Conventional book reviews, including practically all of those which
appear in scientific publications, follow the principle that a composi-
tion should have a planned beginning, middle, and end. While these
parts have no formal division in the book review, they provide a
general description and characterization of the book, a discussion
19 Porter R. Lee and Marion E. Kenworthy, Mental Hygiene and Social
Work, New York, The Commonwealth Fund, 1929, pp. 33-37.
20 Joseph Wood Krutch, "What Is a Good Review?" Nation, 144:438, April
17, 1937.
21 E. H. McClelland, "Reviewing of Technical Books the Minimum Require-
ments," Journal of Chemical Education, 25:380-82, July 1948.
326 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
of particular features, and an evaluation. The text of the review is
preceded by a formal bibliographical heading which gives the title
and author of the book and such information as the number of pages,
the publisher, the place of publication, and the price.
The opening paragraph or two of the review indicates the category
to which the book belongs anthology, handbook, biography, field
manual, or the like. The reviewer may further characterize the book
by indicating its purpose, scope, and length, and by describing the
treatment as popular, semitechnical, or technical. He may identify
the author and point out his particular qualifications or relationship
to the subject. This opening section of the review may include a pre-
liminary evaluation of the book, with reference to any notable fea-
tures such as unusual illustrations.
Following this initial characterization of the book, the reviewer
uses the next few paragraphs to discuss those aspects of the book
which, in his opinion, merit special attention and to offer evidence
for his evaluation. Quoted phrases may be woven into the review, or
longer passages may be quoted to give an idea of the author's style,
treatment, or approach.
The review ends with an evaluation of the book in terms of its
purpose. Such an evaluation is most useful when it stresses the book's
special contribution, mentioning such features as indexes and bibli-
ographies, and points out any marked limitations. The validity of
the reviewer's evaluation should be apparent from the evidence which
he has presented in the review.
Book reviews may be considered reportorial or critical, according
to whether the emphasis falls on giving information about the book
or on evaluating it. The terms critical and criticism are understood,
of course, to include both favorable and unfavorable judgments.
Reviews in general periodicals are often more impressionistic in style
than those in scientific journals. Occasionally a tangential review will
depart from the subject of the book to discuss a topic which the book
suggests to the reviewer.
B. Examples of Book Reviews
The book reviews which close this chapter illustrate the different
types of reviews. The first review is predominantly reportorial since
BOOK REVIEW 327
it gives a great deal of information about the book with a minimum
of critical comment.
A HISTORY OF MEDICINE, by Henry E. Sigerist. Vol. I: Primitive
and Archaic Medicine. Publication No. 27, Historical Library, Yale
Medical Library (Oxford University Press).
THE BOOK here reviewed is the first of a projected series of eight
volumes on the history of medicine which Henry E. Sigerist has retired
to Switzerland to prepare, on the basis of the studies of a lifetime.
It is encyclopedic in scope and specialists in particular fields may
differ with regard to the significance of, say, some special ceremony
in a particular Indian tribe. On the whole, however, there can be no
question of the soundness of the conclusions drawn, and each chapter
is provided with exhaustive references.
The first two-fifths of the volume is devoted to a broad and illuminat-
ing discussion of the basic principles involved, of the problems and
methods of medical history, of the incidence of disease in time and
space, of primitive medicine, attitudes toward the sick, and the place
of the "medicine man" in the more primitive civilizations. Sigerist
demonstrates that "there are no sharp borderlines and that in the
mind of primitive man, magic, religion, and medicine constitute an
inseparable whole." He points out that "it is an insult to the medicine
man to call him the ancestor of the modern physician. He is that, to
be sure, but he is much more, namely the ancestor of most of our
professions." And it is fascinating to see how in the primitive arts of
healing, the application of empirical science often played a part, as
in the discovery of inoculation against smallpox, introduced with the
backing of Cotton Mather in Boston in 1716, as a result of information
received from one of his Negro slaves.
The last three-fifths of the book is devoted to the development of
medicine in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Sigerist gives us a brief
but vivid description of the geographical setting of each of those two
great civilizations, of their social and economic conditions, their labor
and recreation. In Egypt the scientific element looms large in the
empirical-religious-magical art of healing. At the very dawn of history
we find two theoretical treatises dealing crudely but with considerable
acumen with the basic principles of physiology and pathology. In
Mesopotamia, the religious and magical elements were stronger. It is
understood that the next book will present a somewhat similar contrast-
ing picture of ancient medical thinking in India and Greece.
Judged from its first volume, Sigerist's work will interest a circle
much wider than the medical profession. It is about medicine; but it
328 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
is history. It is a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the
human mind and the ways in which that mind functions in the creation
of a social order. 22
C.-E. A. Winslow
The second example offers evaluation supported by evidence and
is thus a critical review. The review follows the not unusual practice
of treating together two or more books on related subjects.
From Cave Art to Contemporary Graphic Art 23
From Cave Painting to Comic Strip. Lancelot Hogben. (288 pp., 211
illus., 20 color plates. Chanticleer Press, New York, 1949.)
Profile Art. R. L. Megroz. (xii, 131 pp., 140 illus., 60 plates, Philo-
sophical Library, New York, 1949.)
Although very different in purpose, these two books are reviewed
together because they are largely picture books that cover a similar
time span, from prehistoric cave art to contemporary graphic art.
Their greatest, and only real importance for the anthropologist resides
in their 332 illustrations. In both books are frequent illustrations of
value that are not often reproduced and are difficult to find.
For those acquainted with Hogben's Mathematics for the Million
and Science for the Citizen, it should be said that his present book
is again a popular exposition, brilliantly written, of a subject of the
first importance. The sub-title, "A Kaleidoscope of Human Communi-
cation," makes clear the content of From Cave Painting to Comic Strip.
Techniques of "human communication" are traced from prehistoric
cave painting, through the invention of the calendar, alphabet, and
computation systems, to the development of printing, graphic repre-
sentation, photography, and, finally, the comic strip, movies, radio and
television. The major historical facts are usually presented accurately,
but in most cases without documentation, in keeping with Hogben's
often declared disdain of "cloistered" scholarship. Throughout this
book, in fact, there are constantly recurring minor motives made up
of his favorite convictions, such as the importance of the fight against
illiteracy and the role standardization should play in it, the necessity
for world government, so that mankind may survive, and the great
importance of visual education in bringing about a world where ideas
can be interchanged understandably. These ideas finally emerge as a
major theme in the concluding and most important chapter of the
book. No one can deny the urgency of the ideas that bear upon the
present state of the world. And no one would deny that popularization
22 New Republic, 125(13) :19, September 24, 1951.
28 American Anthropologist, 53(3) :403-04, July-September 1951.
BOOK REVIEW 329
is important, if rooted in solid scholarship. But the blending of facts,
hypotheses, and suppositions is dangerous and undesirable, even if in
support of worthy ideals.
Profile Art has, perhaps, less to recommend itself to the anthro-
pologist. It is essentially an art book in which Megroz discusses in an
interesting but discursive and generalized manner the appearance of
profiles or silhouettes or outlines in the art of various eras from that
of the cave dweller to that of contemporary man. There is no clear-cut
distinction between profile, silhouette, or outline. They are, in fact,
considered as one and the same thing. There is no real subject-matter,
aside from a consideration of a selection of examples that are un-
related in purpose or aesthetic motivation. There is furthermore no
attempt at a psychological interpretation of the preference in the art
of certain periods for strongly marked outlines. The book, however,
does bring together a miscellany of important information on the cut-
out silhouettes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In general,
the text suggests that the various sections of the book were taken from
a larger historical treatise. For example, the chapter headings list Cave
Art, Egyptian Silhouettes, Greek Pottery, Ancient and Medieval orna-
ment, and then vault to eighteenth century shadow painting. The four
chapters on shadow painting or cut-out silhouettes are certainly the
most important in the book. But the conclusions drawn do not succeed
in giving any unity or cohesiveness to the discussions. The book could
be used effectively, however, for its illustrations and for its discussion
of eighteenth and nineteenth century cut-out silhouette art.
Paul S. Wingert
The third example is also a critical review and shows how the book
review pattern may be used in reviewing a motion picture. The re-
viewer has limited himself to four paragraphs, devoting the first to
a critical characterization of the film, the second to subject matter
with comments, the third to the usefulness of the film, and the fourth
to a final evaluation. The form of documentation used in the heading
for a review of a film should be noted.
Guard Your Heart 24
Guard Your Heart. How the heart works in health and in certain
heart conditions. 16 mm. Black and white. Sound. 27 minutes. Pro-
duced for the American Heart Association by Bray Studios, 729 Seventh
Avenue, New York 19, N. Y. . . .
Like too many "educational" motion pictures, this is an illustrated
24 American Journal of Public Health, 41 (9): 1143, New York, American Pub-
lic Health Association, Inc., September 1951.
330 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
lecture. It is a good illustrated lecture, but except for brief sequences
at the beginning and end, it does not take advantage of the motion
picture technique.
In the traditional manner, we find Sam pretentiously doing all the
wrong things, an understanding wife who sends him to the doctor, and
a lecture by the doctor on the anatomy and physiology of the heart
and circulation. Briefly, all too briefly, Sam is seen reforming. The
actors play their parts well, the photography and sound are good; the
animation is especially excellent. However, well over half the running
time is used up in the doctor's talk, apparently on the assumption that
if people know what a heart looks like, where it is, and how it and its
related blood vessels operate, they will automatically know what to
do and what not to do to protect it. Since this is an assumption of
dubious validity, the full value of the film will be realized only if it is
used as a basis for discussion.
For the beginning medical student or nurse or first aid class, this
lecture is useful as any training film could be. For the layman, there
is insufficient down-to-earth demonstration of what a person should or
should not do to guard his heart. Furthermore the lecture is replete
with medical terms like "arteriosclerosis" and "coronary thrombosis,"
which confuse the layman even though the conditions are beautifully
illustrated in the animation.
In a superb and successful effort to convey information, the picture
fails to convey knowledge, especially knowledge that might affect be-
havior. Briefly, one is left with a feeling that if one has a pain in the
chest, he had better see a doctor (which is all to the good) that the
heart is a complicated organ which we ought to take care of (which
most people already know) and that we ought not to run for buses
or eat our lunches at our desks. Also, seeing the doctor seems to
improve one's golf game. It seemed to this reviewer that these simple
messages could have been driven home in much less time and that
more direct stimuli to action might have been included.
Homer N. Calver
The reviewer whose approach is more impressionistic than that of
the writer who adheres closely to conventional patterns exercises con-
siderable freedom in his choice of words and comparisons. His pur-
pose is to let the reader share his impression of the book, and he may
accomplish this end by a variety of means, including even parody,
satire, hyperbole, or the reductio ad absurdum. A review of this type
should be unified in tone. A skilled reviewer may maintain the tone
through a fairly long review, as does Clifton Fadiman in the selec-
tion included here.
BOOK REVIEW 331
Easy Lessons in Science Horrors! 25
Ernest R. Trattner's "Architects of Ideas" aims to recount "the story
of the great theories of mankind." In its way a creditable job, the book
would have seemed more original and been more useful about fifteen
years ago, when H. G. Wells, Will Durant, J. Arthur Thomson, and
others were leading us, so many innocent Daniels, into the outline's den.
Since those pleasant days we have absorbed a great deal of superficial
scientific information about profound scientific truths. A reading body
that has digested Eddington and Jeans, Hogben, and Bell, Wells and
Huxley may not be entirely satisfied with Mr. Trattner's rechauffes.
It may listen with some apathy to his hooray-for-the-scientific-spirit
cheerleading. I would guess that the furious msh for a book like
Einstein and Inf eld's "The Evolution of Physics" proves we no longer
need to have our science cut up for us by Nursie.
Specifically, Mr. Trattner's chapters on Copernicus, Darwin, Marx,
Pasteur, Freud, and Einstein have two strikes on them, simply because
the more basic doctrines of these figures have by this time become
pretty familiar to those who read at all seriously. But, to be perfectly
fair to Mr. Trattner, how much do you know about Hutton, who laid
the foundations of modern geology? How much about Count Rumford,
that Renaissance personality born out of his time, who demonstrated
heat to be a mode of motion? How much about Huygens and the
wave theory of light? How much about Schwann and the other investi-
gators of the nature of the cell? How much about Chamber lin, who,
with Moulton, figured out the planetesimal hypothesis accounting for
the origin of the earth? Caught you there, eh?
I wish that Mr. Trattner hadn't chosen such a basso-profundo title
for his book. "Architects of Ideas" makes you expect more than you
actually get. If he had called it "Simple Summaries of Part of the
Work of Fifteen Modern Scientists, Their Predecessors, and Their
Followers," everything would have been fine and dandy. (Also, he
wouldn't have sold a copy.) The fact is that "Architects of Ideas" has
only a vague unity. Nor does any principle of selection emerge clearly.
We get a chapter on Lavoisier, who analyzed the nature of burning
and respiration, but, for example, none on Newton, an incomparably
greater "architect of ideas." The chapter on Schwann contains hardly
more than a brief comment on Thomas Hunt Morgan, whose theory
of the gene will probably entitle him to rank with Einstein and Freud.
We get twenty-three pages on the classic theorists of heat without a
mention of Josiah Willard Gibbs. Sometimes, in his search for great
theories, Mr. Trattner goes quite haywire. He has a chapter entitled
2 5 Clifton Fadiman, New Yorker, 14(12) :72, May 7, 1938. Copyright 1938.
The New Yorker Magazine, Inc.
332 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
"Boas: Theory of Man." What is a theory of man? Franz Boas would
hardly claim that his refutation of the nonsense of racial dominance
permits him to set himself up as the author of a "theory of man" in
the precise sense that Pasteur was the creator of the germ theory of
disease. It's all very confusing.
Mr. Trattner can probably answer all these objections easily, but
the place to do so is his preface, where you will find little but amiable
generalizations.
Don't run off with the notion, however, that his book is bad. On the
contrary, it contains much interesting information about many scien-
tists. It's clearly written and each chapter is reasonably well organized.
It could, I think, have been a much better book if Mr. Trattner had
thought more highly of the intelligence of his potential audience.
The book review may be described as tangential when it departs
from the book itself to discuss a subject suggested by the book. The
reviewer should not offer a review of this type unless he is confident
that it will be acceptable to the publication in which the review is
to appear. Asher Byrnes' review of George Sarton's The Life of Sci-
ence is a thoughtful and informed discussion first of Sarton's life
work and then of a topic it suggests the scientist's relation to soci-
ety. But one must glance again at the heading to recall that the review
has anything to do with the 197-page volume which occasioned it.
Genesis of "Progress" 26
The Life of Science: Essays in the History of Civilization. By George
Sarton. New York: Henry Schuman. 1948. 197 pp.
Reviewed by Asher Byrnes
George Sarton is one of the few modern scholars of whom it can
be said that he is not only the biggest man in his field, but that he
also discovered it in the first place. In 1912 he began the publication
of Isis, a quarterly journal devoted to the history of science. It is still,
under his editorship, the principal periodical devoted to the subject.
Subject? Perhaps one should rather call it a movement. Since 1912
the numbers of researchers treading on his heels have increased to
such a pitch that no less than four more special journals are required
to handle their output. Dr. Sarton also edits Osiris, wherein he prints
material too lengthy and technical for Isis. Another journal, Annals of
Science, publishes papers dealing with the modern period alone ; and a
further specialization is provided for by Ambix, which is devoted to
alchemy and other early chemistry, and by the Bulletin of the Institute
The Saturday Review, 32(1) :15, January 1, 1949.
BOOK REVIEW 333
of the History of Medicine (Johns Hopkins) the title of which is self-
explanatory. This brief periodical list takes no account of the many
recent series of books on the history of the sciences, or of separate
works. Some of these are of encyclopedic dimensions.
And here again Dr. Sarton shines in the forefront. His "Introduction
to the History of Science" is the most encyclopedic compendium of all ;
its scale is so vast that anyone who looks at the volumes which have
already appeared will wonder what the history itself will be like, if
they are merely the introduction to it. We are sufficiently familiar
with cooperative projects that involve hundreds of scholars. This is
one that could take centuries of time. Dr. Sarton illustrates the scope
of his conception of the history of science by reminding his readers of
the "Acta Sanctorum," the first volume of which appeared in 1643
and which is still in progress; and of the history of French literature,
which beginning in 1733 and under the Academic des Inscriptions since
1807, has now reached the fourteenth century. Dr. Sarton's Introduction
has also just reached the fourteenth century.
These magnitudes of chronology are more mysterious to the modern
mind than our statistics of interstellar space. Perhaps Dr. Sarton's
final achievement will be that of making us aware of the dimensions
of science itself. In the nature of things it must be greater than the
enumeration of the phenomena it has enabled us to control. Science
approaches the problem of the unknown through what is already
known, and the velocity of its progress is therefore proportionate to
the knowledge mastered at any given moment. Dr. Sarton summarizes
the process beautifully.
However, there is no pressing reason why the scientist should bear
in mind the genesis of the discoveries which are now the data of his
field of experiment. His interest in that part of the story is limited
by the arduous character of the job in hand. An awareness of lines
of inquiry exhausted by similar workers keeps him from repeating
their mistakes; a familiarity with inquiries that have partially suc-
ceeded shows him, more and more accurately, where the truth lies.
But with all these aids he must in the final analysis do his prospecting
for himself. When so occupied he stands, from one point of view, upon
the shoulders of the scientist who preceded him. From another he
strides at the head of the human procession. The first is the workman-
like way of looking at scientific activity; the second is the spectator's.
Why the scientist sometimes steps out of character and, beholding his
function through both viewpoints simultaneously, fills the air with
double-talk about everything on earth and in heaven this is the par-
ticular mystery of the twentieth century.
We have reached the point where relatively small additions to our
stock of scientific knowledge may have social effects which are of
another order of value entirely. The atom bomb was an evolutionary
334 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
development in the laboratories; its social impact was, and continues
to be, revolutionary outside. Consequently the scientists who partici-
pated in that achievement are tormented by the contrast between the
humanistic conservatism of their intentions and the mechanical radi-
calism of their results. In theory nations which can move or "progress"
merely by taking thought, merely by peaceful experiment and investi-
gation, need not shoot one another down to find more room. Neverthe-
less they shoot or bomb each other with the products of the scientist.
He is caught in the middle; winners and losers of our horrible modern
wars show an increasing tendency to blame him equally.
Apparently the fundamental humanism underlying his effort, together
with his consequent claim for absolute freedom in which to carry on
his self-appointed task, has not raised him safely above the political
struggles of the hour. Whether he likes it or not he is in them, and
up to his neck. The easy way out of this dilemma is to cut his connec-
tion with the past of science and with the future projected by it. If he
is blamed as a partisan he may as well take the wages of partisanship.
He may as well join the party of mechanical revolutionaries who place
the highest current value on his research products. Where that party
is in power he can serve it as a technician. Where it is not he can
adopt its ideology.
Against this abandonment of science, Dr. Sarton, who knows more
about its history than any man alive, has raised a barrier of books.
The books say that progress in pure science became rapid because the
value of discoveries was no longer judged by crowds or determined by
those who led them, but was sifted by scientists themselves, by men
who, as scientists, were free. By men who were maintained and en-
couraged in such freedom by the rest of us because we grasped the
truth which precedes science itself; as men we are less than what we
contemplate, and we are more than what we understand. Perhaps
we have to teach this to the scientists again.
The types of papers discussed in this chapter are, with the excep-
tion of the book review, among the oldest forms used in scientific
writing. 27 Some of them long antedate modern science. Directions ap-
pear in the Bible. Case histories in the writings of Hippocrates, dating
from the fifth century B.C., describe symptoms recognizable by mod-
ern physicians and are mentioned in current medical texts. Still more
ancient accounts of surgical cases are to be found in the Edwin
Smith Egyptian papyrus, "the earliest known scientific document,"
27 Examples and analyses of engineering papers from ancient times to the
present are given in Walter J. Miller and L. E. A. Saidla, Engineers as Writers:
Growth of a Literature, New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1953.
BOOK REVIEW 335
which dates from the seventeenth century B.C. and is believed to be
a copy of an even earlier treatise. 28 The Epitome (1543) of Vesalius
was more popular than the longer work, De Humani Corporis Fab-
rica, of which it was a condensation.
These types have not, of course, survived unchanged. Patterns of
arrangement have tended to become fixed; exact terms and accurate
measurements have replaced the vaguer expressions of earlier times.
That these special forms of writing should have survived for so long
and are today more widely used than ever is a tribute to their utility.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. Consult a dictionary for the primary meaning of the word abstract
(verb). Show how this meaning is retained when the word is used as
different parts of speech (verb, noun, adjective) and in different con-
texts (science, law, real estate, art).
2. Select a scientific article of interest to you, read it carefully, and
prepare a 300-350 word informative abstract of it, including a head-
ing in the format used in one of the well-known abstracting journals.
Prepare a descriptive abstract of the same article.
3. Explain why it is difficult to abstract articles such as reviews which
are based on printed sources rather than on experimental study. Find
an abstract of a review and show how the abstracter has solved the
problem of abstracting such a paper.
4. An article expressing the author's view on a controversial subject is
also difficult to abstract. An informative abstract of such an article
may, however, be written by using an introductory sentence describ-
ing or characterizing the article as objectively as possible, then con-
tinuing with the abstract, using such phrases as "is held to be," "are
presented," "will, it is believed," to identify the opinions expressed as
those of the original author. Write the introductory descriptive sen-
tence for an abstract of a controversial article which you have read
recently.
5. Explain why it is sometimes desirable to give a history of a typical
case, sometimes of an exceptional case. Find examples of case his-
tories in as many different fields as possible. What differences do you
find among them? To what do you attribute these differences? Why
do you think each case was selected as a subject for a history?
6. Why do editors object to such expressions as "the case had a fever,"
"the case was operated on," "the case was indifferent to questions"?
28 The Edivin Smith Surgical Papyrus, published in facsimile and hiero-
glyphic transliteration with translation and commentary by James Henry
Breasted, 2 Vols., Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1930.
336 SPECIAL TYPES OF PAPERS
7. Write a complete set of directions specific enough for the reader to
follow, choosing as a subject some relatively simple task, such as re-
placing an electric light socket, taking an indoor photograph, refinish-
ing an antique chest, testing a car battery, preparing a special solu-
tion for laboratory use, using a chemical weed killer.
8. Write an essay of process, aiming at understanding rather than par-
ticipation on the reader's part and choosing a topic from a hobby or
outside interest. The following topics are suggestions: how to use a
technical dictionary, how to land an airplane, how a color reproduc-
tion of a painting is made, how to make a linoleum block print, how
to reduce the size of a drawing, how to prepare and stock a farm fish
pond, how a panel of jurors is selected, how an index is prepared.
9. Examine the book reviews in a number of scientific periodicals. How
closely do you find that they conform to the conventional reportorial
or critical review as described in the foregoing chapter? What is the
proportion of reporting to critical comment? Are the criticisms sup-
ported by adequate evidence? In what form is the evidence pre-
sented?
10. Write a review of a book, exhibit, or lecture which you have recently
read, seen, or heard.
CHAPTER 14 FORMAT OF THE
SCIENTIFIC PAPER
I. Preparing the manuscript for publication
II. Conventional standards of format
A. Manuscript
B. Title page
C. Table of contents
D. Subheadings
E. Quotations
F. Illustrations
III. The use of documentation
A. The purpose of documentation
B. The form of documentation
IV. Practices and variations in documentation
A. Humanities publications
B. Government publications
C. Scientific and industrial publications
D. Biology journals
/ had not time to lick it into form, as a bear doth her
young ones. ROBERT BURTON, Anatomy of Melan-
choly.
I. PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLICATION
The subject of this chapter begins where the creative side of scien-
tific work ends. After research has been completed and the paper re-
porting the results has been written, there remains the task of pre-
paring the manuscript for publication or for submission to an author-
ized reader. While this assignment is an exacting one, it has two
rewards : the satisfaction of seeing one's work properly presented and
the satisfaction of sharing in a tradition of craftsmanship.
The work involved in preparing a paper for publication will seem
less burdensome once the writer accepts the idea that in the editorial
office the most minute details are important. The sum of consistency
in these details gives to the better modern journals their attractive
337
338 THE FORMAT
and distinctive format, and it is the obligation of the contributor
to do what he can to maintain this standard. The student, even if
his work does not yet merit publication, will gain in the proportion
in which he applies professional standards to his own work.
The exact procedure to be followed in preparing a manuscript for
publication hinges on two questions. First, what manuscript stand-
ards apply to this paper? Second, where will guidance in meeting
these standards be found? If the paper is one of the short, informal
types, the writer need be concerned only with the usual requirements
for any manuscript. If the paper is long and formal, like a thesis
or report, it will require also a title page, table of contents, and sub-
headings; sources and references must be cited in a prescribed form.
Guidance in fulfilling these requirements is usually available in
the directions of the instructor, department, or journal to which the
paper is to be submitted. Most universities provide direction sheets
for departmental work, and most publishers issue style sheets or style
manuals which set forth in detail the manuscript form they find ac-
ceptable. In the absence of instructions the writer should choose a
format which is employed or recommended by journals and text-
books in his field. Copies of comparable theses and journal articles
are useful as models.
Style manuals vary in length and coverage. The Style Manual
of the United States Government Printing Office, 1 which runs
to 492 pages, contains 25 sections beginning with "Suggestions to
authors and editors" and ending with "Foreign languages." Simi-
larly A Manual of Style of the University of Chicago Press, widely
used in academic and professional publishing, contains 497 pages. 2
The journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry provides for con-
tributors a sheet covering such matters as "Titles," "References,"
"Drawings," and "Manuscript Copy." Other journals, such as the
British Biological Reviews, place instructions to authors on the inner
side of one of the covers. One of the most widely known science style
books is The Wistar Institute Style Brief 3 of the Wistar Institute
1 Style Manual, rev. ed., Washington, D. C., United States Government Print-
ing Office, 1953.
2 A Manual of Style, llth ed., Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1949.
3 The Wistar Institute Style Brief, Philadelphia, The Wistar Institute Press,
1934.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION 339
Press in Philadelphia, which publishes journals in the biological
sciences.
Much unnecessary confusion results from the attempt of inexperi-
enced writers to find a single rule of thumb which can be applied to
the preparation of all manuscripts for all occasions. Instead, the re-
quirements for each manuscript should be determined and the manu-
script prepared in accordance with these requirements down to the
last capital and comma.
II. CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS OF FORMAT
For the convenience of the reader, conventional standards of manu-
script format are summarized here under topical headings. Docu-
mentation, in which usage is more varied, is treated in separate sec-
tions of this chapter.
A. Manuscript
The mechanics of manuscript preparation are in general the same
for all types of papers. Copy should be typewritten and should be
sent flat, addressed to the editor. Some editors require that a carbon
as well as a first copy be submitted. In sending copy to the typesetter,
the author's name and an abbreviated form of the title of the paper
may be given on each page, preceding the page number. The follow-
ing rules should be observed:
1. Use 8% x 11 inch white paper.
2. Use one side of paper only.
3. Double space except possibly for blocked quotations and foot-
notes.
4. Number pages consecutively with Arabic numerals in the upper
right-hand corner of each page, except the first page, which is num-
bered at the bottom.
5. Allow margins of an inch and a half at the top and left of the
page and at least an inch at the bottom and right.
6. If footnotes are used (see Section IV of this chapter), follow
one of these practices: (a) place footnotes at the bottom of the page,
separating them from the text by a one-inch horizontal line or by a
line extending from left to right margin; (b) insert the footnote in
the manuscript immediately following the passage to which it refers,
340 THE FORMAT
using lines before and after the footnote to separate it from the text;
(c) place explanatory footnotes at the bottom of the page and all
others in consecutive order at the end of the chapter or article to
which they apply. If the appearance of the finished manuscript is
important, as in typed theses, the first practice is usually considered
preferable. If the manuscript is to be published, the second practice
may be preferred since it facilitates the handling of footnotes for
the typesetter. Sometimes editorial or academic instructions may rec-
ommend the third practice as being more practical for other purposes.
B. Title Page
Most university departments prescribe a form for the title page
of a thesis. Some journals also have a set form, including such items
as the academic or professional connections of the author, and per-
haps requiring that the number of figures or plates in the article be
stated immediately after the other items in the heading. In the ab-
sence of special instructions, the title page should include the com-
plete title of the paper, centered and in capitals; below it the name
of the author or authors; and at the bottom of the page the institution
at which the work was done and the date. (See Chapter 12.)
C. Table of Contents
Theses, reports, and some research papers have a table of contents
on a separate page immediately following the title page. If numerous
illustrations are used, they may be listed in a separate table. If a
paper has been prepared according to a well-planned analytical out-
line, the preparation of a table of contents presents no difficulties,
since the main headings in the outline become the main items in the
table of contents, and the subheadings in the outline the subordinate
items. The main headings in the table of contents may be numbered
with Roman numerals at the left; Arabic numerals on the right indi-
cate the page numbers. Both the Roman and Arabic numerals are
aligned on the right-hand side. Subheadings in the table of contents
are usually indicated merely by indentation, not by letters of the
alphabet. In typewritten theses the page numbers can be inserted in
the table of contents as soon as the final copy is typed, but in pub-
lished work not until the page proof is available. The following ex-
CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS 341
ample shows an extended table of contents. An example of a short
table of contents appears in Chapter 12, p. 286.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
Introduction xii
Chapter
I. Explorations and Early Settlement, 1803-1865 1
II. The General Principles of the Territorial and State Poor Laws . 6
III. Special Legislation under the Poor Law .... 14
IV. Emergency Legislation for Relief . . 25
V. Opinions of the Attorney General Regarding the Poor Laws 32
VI. Creation of a State Department and Laws Relating to Public
Welfare 40
Conclusion . . 59
Appendixes
A. Poor Law Acts ... 60
1864 Act Relating to the Support of the Poor, February 9,
1865 . . 61
1903 Act to Provide Suitable Burial for Deceased Soldiers,
February 19, 1903 . . 63
1937 The Public Welfare Act, March 4, 1937 65
B. Judicial Decisions ... .96
The Seed Grain Case, State ex rel. Cryderman, Relator v.
Wienrich et al., Respondents, 54 Montana 390 (1918) 97
Relief Outside the Almshouse, Jones, Appellant v. Cooney
et al., Respondents, 81 Montana 340 (1927) 104
C. Governors' Proclamations and Messages 111
1915 Need of Destitute Farmers . . . . 112
1918 A Proclamation 113
1933 Call for Special Session to Provide Emergency Relief 115
1933 Governor's Message Asking Relief for Taxpayers . 117
D. Opinions of the Attorney General 118
March 18, 1931 Mothers' Pension Poor Fund County
Budget Election Expenses 119
August 5, 1931 County Poor Funds and Work on the Roads 121
December 18, 1931 Poor Tax Refunds 123
June 29, 1937 Eligibility of Indians for Assistance 125
August 27, 1937 Qualifications of Local Public Welfare
Officials 127
Index 130
4 Frederic R. Veeder, The Development of the Montana Poor Law, Chicago,
The University of Chicago Press, 1938.
342 THE FORMAT
D. Subheadings
If a paper has a table of contents, headings corresponding to those
in the table of contents appear in the body of the paper. Even if a
paper has no table of contents, the divisions of a paper of any length
are usually marked by one and sometimes two or three ranks of
headings. Headings of the first rank are sometimes in capitals and
centered. Headings of the second and third ranks are often italicized,
or underscored, with the first word or the individual words capitalized
as in a title. The second rank may be centered and the third placed
at the left either above the succeeding paragraph or "run-in" with
the first sentence of the paragraph. If no third rank is used, the
second rank is sometimes placed at the left. In short papers, sections
may be separated by spaces with no topical headings, but this practice
is more usual in literary than in scientific or technical work.
E. Quotations
Most scientific papers contain very little quoted matter. In reports
of original research second-hand material is kept to a minimum,
and since emphasis is on the facts rather than on the wording, such
material is summarized rather than quoted. Sometimes a portion of
a sentence may be quoted to show another author's terminology or
phrasing of a concept. In more general types of scientific papers,
quotations are used more frequently than in research reports, al-
though much less frequently than in the humanities.
The usual double quotation marks are used for short quotations.
When a quotation of more than a sentence (or as it is sometimes
put, more than three printed lines) is used, it is blocked rather than
enclosed in quotation marks. In typed manuscript a blocked quota-
tion is indicated by single-spacing and indentation of about an inch
at both margins. In printed matter, smaller type may be used in addi-
tion to or occasionally in place of the indentation. When a quotation
is blocked and set off in this way, no quotation marks are used except
those which appear in the original. The blocked quotation has the
great advantage that any quotation marks in the original may be
retained without the awkwardness of alternating single and double
quotes. Permission must be obtained to use prose quotations of more
than fifty words or poetry quotations of more than two lines from
copyrighted material.
CONVENTIONAL STANDARDS 343
F. Illustrations
Since illustrations are important in scientific and technical work,
the style sheets of scientific journals and publishing houses include
special instructions often elaborate for their preparation. The re-
production of illustrations is expensive, and changes in the usual
procedure are not always possible; hence, the writer who plans to
use illustrations should familiarize himself with the specific require-
ments of the publisher. (See Chapter 15.) If a drawing or other illus-
tration is reproduced from any source, permission must be obtained
and the source acknowledged by a suitable credit line.
III. THE USE OF DOCUMENTATION
The term documentation refers to the means which authors employ
to cite their references and sources. While means of documentation
include the use of appendixes, bibliography, and footnotes, the prin-
cipal variations of form occur in bibliography and footnotes.
A. The Purpose of Documentation
The many variations in the handling of bibliography and footnotes
among journals and different areas of research should not be allowed
to obscure the fact that fundamentally the purpose of all documenta-
tion is the same. In essence the documentation of a paper is the pre-
senting of the documents in the case. In a court of law "documents"
in a strict legal sense: letters, statements, affidavits may be pre-
sented as evidence. In a more general sense "documents" comprise
all the sources "any writing, book, or other instrument conveying
information" 5 upon which a writer bases his conclusions or which
support his position. The very fact that scientific knowledge is cumu-
lative makes it imperative that the scientific writer in presenting new
results make clear the basis of his work. He must, through citations
of any sources used, give due credit to his predecessors.
The growing recognition of the importance of documentation is
apparent in the increasing frequency with which the word documenta-
tion is used in current writing. In a review of the book One Thousand
Americans, the importance of its documentation is discussed at some
length.
5 Webster's New International Dictionary.
344 THE FORMAT
The reader is tempted, again and again, to lay the book down to
dismiss it as just one more violent and sensational assault upon vested
interests and the status quo except for the documentation! In addition
to copious source-references in footnotes, there are more than 50 pages
of statistics at the end of the book, and they are respectable sta-
tistics. . . . Whatever one may think of Mr. Seldes as a social philos-
opher, his references cannot be laughed away. . . . We keep asking
ourselves, "Why doesn't someone sue him for criminal libel?" And
then we turn again to those references, those footnotes, those 50-odd
pages of records and we can't help wondering. 6
Without going into the merits of the question under discussion, one
must note that this contribution has won a hearing almost entirely
on the basis of its documentation.
It is not necessary, however, to provide documentation in writing
which does not purport to present research or which does not depend
upon the formal presentation of evidence for its acceptance. Journal-
istic articles and articles in periodicals of general circulation as well
as some textbooks are not documented. The scholar may write a
popular treatment of his subject without documenting it, but when
he writes for his fellow scholars he supplies the references. This
distinction is as valid outside the classroom as in it. Only the un-
informed regard documentation as a fetish of the college professor.
Briefly, the purpose of documentation in research papers is two-fold:
(1) to cite authority for initial assumptions or for statements made,
and (2) to provide the reader with sources for further investigation
of the background of the subject.
B. The Form of Documentation
Although the basic purposes of all documentation are the same,
the means of attaining these ends have not been entirely standardized.
There is, however, considerable agreement as to the form and use
of reference citations in certain fields, such as the humanities, govern-
ment publications, chemistry, and biology. In the publications of the
social sciences and in reports in many fields, including engineering,
footnotes are used for citing references, as is the practice in the
humanities. Journals in the applied sciences vary in their practice:
some use footnotes; others follow the documentary practice of gov-
6 Charles W. Morris, a review of One Thousand Americans by George Seldes,
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, March 14, 1948.
DOCUMENTATION 345
eminent publications or that preferred by many of the chemistry
journals. (See the table below.) While most journals conform to the
Documenting Research Papers
Means of accomplishment
Purpose
Humanities
publications
Government
papers
Many Many
chem istry b iology
journals journals
Listing of Bibliography
Combination
References or Literature
sources at end of
of footnotes
literature cited at end of
paper
and refer-
cited at end paper
ences at end
of paper;
of paper
items ar-
ranged alpha-
betically and
numbered
Citing of au- Footnotes
Superscript
Numerals in Name of author
thorities or
numerals re-
parentheses and date of ar-
sources in
ferring to
on level of tide in paren-
text of paper
references at
the line which theses
end of paper
refer to items
in literature
cited
Giving addi- Footnotes
Footnotes
Footnotes Footnotes
tional infor-
used spar-
used spar- used spar-
mation or ex-
ingly
ingly ingly
planation
This table sums up what is said in this chapter concerning the common
purposes of documentation and the variant means of accomplishing these
purposes in different fields. The humanities system is widely used in the so-
cial sciences; in journal articles, footnotes are usually used for references,
and no separate bibliography is given. Practice varies among journals in the
applied sciences: some such journals use the government system of docu-
mentation, some the humanities system, and many the system favored by
chemistry journals.
practices customary in their fields, the final editorial authority rests
with the individual journal or press.
Some of the variations in the form of documentation in different
fields are undoubtedly due to custom; many such variations, how-
ever, are functional differences which have come about because of
special needs. Documentation in the humanities, with its extensive
346 THE FORMAT
footnotes and bibliographies, is well adapted to a field in which a
long period of time and many variant readings and editions must
be covered. The system of documentation widely used in government
publications is serviceable and easily handled but is somewhat less
flexible. The system favored by many chemistry journals combines
a maximum of essential information with a minimum expenditure
of space and time. The system of the biological journals gives a
characteristic emphasis to the date by placing it in references im-
mediately after the author's name, an emphasis which serves to recall
that the date is often the key to the concepts underlying a paper.
Once a pattern of documentation has been chosen, it must be
followed consistently. For example, though either a colon or a comma
following the place of publication in a humanities bibliographical
entry is correct, it is not permissible to vary the usage in documenting
a single article.
IV. PRACTICES AND VARIATIONS IN DOCUMENTATION
Although complete familiarity with prevailing practices in docu-
mentation can come only through examination of papers and expe-
rience in preparing them, a description of the predominant varia-
tions is offered here as a guide to the student's observation and
practice in documentation.
A. Humanities Publications
The system of documentation accepted in the humanities is well
known through its use in scholarly books and articles and in theses
in English, foreign languages, philosophy and the arts, and in history
and the social sciences. This system is characterized by the use of
footnotes for both citations of sources and explanatory notes, by
the extensive use of bibliographies, by such abbreviations as ibid.
and op. cit., and by adherence to traditional practices in punctua-
tion and capitalization. The items in long bibliographies, especially
those in theses or books, may be classified as primary or secondary
sources, or as books, periodicals, newspapers, etc.
The following examples of entries for a bibliography are typical
of those used in the humanities.
ANDREWS, EDMUND, A History of Scientific English. New York, Rich-
ard R. Smith, 1947. 342 pp.
DOCUMENTATION 347
Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution,
1951. Washington, D. C., United States Government Printing Office,
1952. 580 pp.
KLAPPER, JOSEPH T. and CHARLES Y. CLOCK, "Trial by Newspaper,"
Scientific American, 180:16-21, February 1949.
New York Times, March 25, 1949.
SPRY, WILLIAM, "Homestead and Exemption Laws," Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 14th edition, XI, 704-05.
These are examples of footnotes:
1 Edmund Andrews, A History of Scientific English, New York,
Richard R. Smith, 1947, p. 116.
2 Ibid., p. 107.
3 Joseph T. Klapper and Charles Y. Clock, "Trial by Newspaper,"
Scientific American, 180:17, February 1949.
4 Andrews, op. cit., p. 106.
5 Loc. cit.
6 Editorial in the New York Times, March 25, 1949.
These are points to note:
1. Hanging indentation is used for the bibliography, paragraph
indentation for footnotes.
2. In a bibliographical entry for a book or article by a group of
authors, the name of the first author is inverted and the others are
in normal order. The bibliography is arranged in alphabetical order
according to the authors' last names; if there is no author, the item
is alphabetized according to the first word of the entry, except for
a, a/i, or the. In footnotes the names of authors appear in normal
order.
3. Titles of articles in footnotes and bibliographies are placed in
quotation marks; titles of books, journals, and newspapers are
italicized. (In manuscript, italics are shown by underlining.)
4. In footnotes the abbreviation ibid, (ibidem in the same place)
is used to refer to another page of the immediately preceding ref-
erence. After other references have intervened, the abbreviation op.
cit. (opere citato in the work cited) is used to refer again to an
author and work already cited. The abbreviation loc. cit. (loco citato
in the place cited) is used for a second consecutive reference to
the same author, same work, and same page.
Although the humanities system of documentation is not common
in the sciences, a number of scientific publications use variations
348 THE FORMAT
of it. Among these publications are some physics journals which cite
references entirely through footnotes as the following examples
illustrate:
1 E. E. Motta and G. E. Boyd, Phys. Rev. 73, 1470 (1948).
2 D. N. Kundu and M. L. Pool, Phys. Rev. 74, 1775 (1948).
3 Medicus, Preiswerk, and Scherrer, Helv. Phys. Acta. 23, 299
(1950).
4 E. Fermi, Nuclear Physics (University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
1950), p. 7.
5 L. G. Mann and P. Axel, Phys. Rev. 80, 759 (1950).
6 Rose, Goertzel, and Perry, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Report
1023 (unpublished).
7 M. Goldhaber and A. W. Sunyar, Phys. Rev. 83, 906 (1951).
(From Harry T. Easterday and Heinrich A. Medicus, "Isomeric Transi-
tions in Tc 93 and Tc 96 ," Physical Review, 89(4):752-753, February 15,
1953.)
B. Government Publications
In a system of documentation much used in government publica-
tions and in journals of the applied sciences, all citations of sources
are combined in "References" at the end of the article and cited in
the text by superscript numerals (numerals placed above the line
of type). The references appear in the order in which they are cited,
not alphabetically; in this respect they resemble footnotes although
they serve as a bibliography as well. In this system, as in most
scientific documentation, footnotes are given at the bottom of the
page only as explanatory notes, not for citation of sources. If the
same reference is cited more than once in the text of a paper, the
numeral first used is repeated for all citations of this reference, and
the reference is listed only once at the end of the paper. Thus the
citations refer to articles as a whole, not to specific pages. In this
system capitalization and punctuation are reduced to a minimum;
in titles of articles only the first word and proper nouns and ad-
jectives are capitalized. Italics and quotation marks are not used for
titles. The points will be observed in the following example:
References
(I) Altenderfer, Marion E.: Relationship between per capita income
and mortality, in the cities of 100,000 or more population. Pub.
Health Rep. 62:1681-1691 (1947).
DOCUMENTATION 349
(2) Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census: Sixteenth Cen-
sus of the United States: 1940, Population, Vol. II. U. S. Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington, 1943.
(3) Survey of buying power, 1940. Sales Management 48:84-283
(1941).
(4) Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census: Sixteenth Cen-
sus of the United States: 1940, Population, Vol. I. U. S. Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington, 1942.
(5) Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census: Vital Statistics
of the United States: 1940, Part II. U. S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, 1943.
(6) Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census: Vital Statistics
of the United States, Supplement 1939-1940, Part III. U. S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1943.
(From Marion E. Altenderfer and Beatrice Crowther, "Relationship
between Infant Mortality and Socioeconomic Factors in Urban Areas,"
Public Health Reports, 64:331-337, March 18, 1949.)
C. Scientific and Industrial Publications
The system of documentation favored by many chemistry, scien-
tific, and industrial journals uses numerals in the text of the paper
to refer to a list of references at the end. However, in journals using
this system, references are arranged in alphabetical order by the
last name of the author; the items in this list are then numbered
consecutively. These numerals are inserted in parentheses in the text
of the paper to cite the references which they identify. Obviously the
numerals in the text will not be in consecutive order, since the number
of each article referred to is determined by the author's place in the
alphabetical list. When several authorities are cited for a single
statement, the designative numerals are in the same parentheses, for
example (7, 3, 2, 5). Exact page references are seldom given in these
parenthetical citations since the sources listed at the end of the article
are usually short.
Though details of documentation differ among chemistry journals,
in general certain practices are characteristic. In the list of references,
journals are designated by the abbreviations given them in the
Decennial Index of Chemical Abstracts and their titles are italicized.
Titles of articles are usually not included, but when given they are
placed in quotation marks, as are the titles of books. Reference to
350 THE FORMAT
journal articles is by volume (in boldface type) and page, with a
comma between the two; the year follows in parentheses.
The following examples illustrate these points:
(1) Grosse, A. V., Hindin, S. G. and Kirshenbaum, A. D., /. Am. Chem.
Soc. 9 68, 2119 (1946).
(2) Grosse, A. V., Kirshenbaum, A. D. and Hindin, S. G., Science,
105, 101 (1947).
(3) Hevesy, G. V., and Paneth, F., "Lehrbuch der Radioaktivitat,"
2nd ed., Chap. 17, pp. 164-73, Leipzig, Germany, 1931.
(7) Rev. Sci. Instruments, 19, 124 (1948).
(From Analytical Chemistry, 21:390, March 1949. Copyright, American
Chemical Society.)
(1) Barren, H., British Plastics, 11, 467 (1940).
(2) Bennett, H., ed., "Emulsion Technology," Brooklyn, Chemical
Publishing Co., 1946.
(6) Cupples, H. L., U. S. Dept. Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology
and Plant Quarantine, E-607 (1943).
(From Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 41:796, April 1949. Re-
printed by permission.)
D. Biology Journals
Among biology journals the prevailing style of documentation is
the one described in the style brief of the Wistar Institute Press.
Sources are listed in the Literature Cited or References at the end
of the article. The items are arranged alphabetically by the last names
of the authors, with the year of publication next, followed by the
article title, and other publication data. If an article has more than
one author, the name of only the first author is inverted, the others
appearing in normal order. Only the first word of article titles is
capitalized, and titles are not put in quotation marks. Titles of
journals are abbreviated in accordance with standard abbreviations
given in the Wistar Institute Style Brief, the catalogue of the Army
Medical (Surgeon-General's) Library, Washington, D. C., the Quar-
terly Cumulative Index Medicus, and the World List of Scientific
Periodicals.
LITERATURE CITED
ADLER, A. 1939 Melanin pigment in the central nervous system of ver-
tebrates. J. Comp. Neur., 70: 315-329.
DOCUMENTATION 351
BARDEN, R. B. 1942 The origin and development of the chromatophores
of the amphibian eye. J. Exp. Zool., 90: 479-519.
BISHOP, S. C. 1943 Handbook of salamanders. Comstock Publishing
Company, Ithaca.
DETWILER, S. R. 1917 On the use of Nile Blue Sulphate in embryonic
tissue transplantation. J. Exp. Zool., 13: 493-497.
1937 Observations upon the migration of neural crest cells,
and upon the development of the spinal ganglia and verte-
bral arches in Amblystoma. Am. J. Anat., 67:63-94.
DETWILER, S. R., AND K. KEHOE 1939 Further observations on the ori-
gin of the sheath cells of Schwann. J. Exp. Zool., 81 : 415-
435.
DuSHANE, G. P. 1938 Neural fold derivatives in the Amphibia. Pigment
cells, spinal ganglia and Rohon-Beard cells. J. Exp. Zool.,
78: 485-503.
1943 The embryology of vertebrate pigment cells. Part I.
Amphibia. Quart. Rev. Biol., 18: 109-127.
FARIS, H. S. 1924 A study of pigment in embryos of Amblystoma. Anat.
Rec., 27: 63-76.
(From Jean Piatt, "Transplantation Experiments between Pigmentless
and Pigmented Eggs of Amblystoma punctatum," Journal of Experi-
mental Zoology, 118: 126, October 1951.)
In citing sources in the text of the paper, the last name of the
author and the date of the article are given in parentheses when the
work is first referred to, for example, (Brown, '47). If the author's
name has already been mentioned in the text, only the date is in
parentheses, for example, according to Brown ('47). When additional
articles by the same author in the same year are cited, they are
distinguished by small letters, a, b, etc., for example, '47a, '47b.
Though page references are seldom necessary in textual citations,
they may be given either following the date (Brown, '47, p. 119) or
in separate parentheses, as in one of the examples given later.
References in the text and the Literature Cited should correspond;
no article is referred to in the text which is not listed at the close
of the paper, and no article is listed which has not been referred to.
The following examples of textual citations illustrate the practices
which have been described.
. . . Weed ('32, p. 625, and earlier papers) presents evidence . . .
. . . described by Gushing and Weed ('15) . . .
352 THE FORMAT
... by Globus ('37). ... He includes (p. 243) . . .
... by Globus ('37, fig. 95A) is similar . . .
(From William M. Shanklin, "The Development and Histology of Pi-
tuitary Concretions in Man," Anatomical Record, 94:598, 606, April
1946.)
The following examples of footnotes show how such notes, though
not used for citing sources in scientific documentation, are used for
necessary explanation.
1 This investigation has been aided by grants from the Rockefeller
Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the Carnegie Institution of
Washington, in the last named of which the author has enjoyed the
status of Research Associate.
10 The terms ventricular and non-ventricular have been chosen rather
than ependymal and non-ependymal since it leaves open the question of
what becomes of the cells located next to the ventricular cavity which
His termed "Keimzellen" and which may give rise to neuroblasts as
well as ependyma.
(From Ross G. Harrison, "Wound Healing and Reconstitution of the
Central Nervous System of the Amphibian Embryo after Removal of
Parts of the Neural Plate," Journal of Experimental Zoology, 106:27,
67, October 1947.)
Since form in scientific articles is almost entirely functional, it is
subject to change as new needs arise. For this reason the writer
should never become so fixed in the use of one form that he is unable
to adapt himself to another. The advantages of some degree of stand-
ardization in documentation are obvious, and the further standardiza-
tion of literature citations is among the editorial problems given
consideration at recent scientific meetings. 7 However, since some of
the differences in the form of documentation in different fields have
remained because the documentary needs of those fields differ, com-
plete standardization is unlikely.
In conclusion, it must be emphasized that this review of docu-
mentary practice is by no means intended as a substitute for the study
of the journals and their style sheets. Rather it is intended to give
the student an idea of what to look for and to sharpen his observation.
A trained eye is instantly aware of punctuation and capitals, of
7 Science, 119:529, April 23, 1954.
DOCUMENTATION 353
sequence, of whether hanging or paragraph indentation is used. When
the student attains this proficiency, format need no longer be confus-
ing to him and can be kept in its rightful place as secondary to
content.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. According to Soule's Library Guide for the Chemist (pp. 40-41), "All
references should invariably answer three questions: Who did the
work? When was it published? Where can it be found?" Show how
the different systems of documentation fulfill this requirement.
2. Examine the documentation in a representative group of scientific
periodicals. How much variation do you find among periodicals in the
same field? In different fields? Are the variations in details of punctu-
ation and capitalization or in content and arrangement?
3. Explain why no one type of documentation is suitable for all purposes.
In your opinion would it be possible to reduce the variations among
different forms of documentation without impairing their usefulness?
4. Conway Zirkle in Science, 120:189-90, July 30, 1954, points out several
instances in which fraudulent data have been cited successively in
different articles. How do such accumulations of eiror come about?
How can they be avoided?
5. When should documentary sources be included verbatim in an ap-
pendix and when is it sufficient to cite them in footnotes or other
references?
6. Arrange the following items as a correct bibliography or list of ref-
erences for each of the four principal types of documentation de-
scribed in this chapter, assuming that the order given here represents
the order in which the sources were referred to in the paper to be
documented.
Author Willard C. Brinton; Title Graphic Methods for Present-
ing Facts; Place of publication New York, The Engineering Maga-
zine Company; Date of publication 1919.
Author None indicated; Title Telling lines some notes on
graphs; Place of publication Scope, Volume 3, No. 11, pages 7-11;
Date of publication Spring 1953.
Author C. C. Wylie; Title Astronomy, Maps and Weather; Place
of publication New York, Harper & Brothers; Date of publication
1942.
Author Ruth C. Christman ; Title Illustrations for scientific publi-
cations; Place of publication Science, Volume 119, pages 534-538;
Date of publication April 23, 1954.
354 THE FORMAT
Author David Diringer; Title The Hand-Produced Book; Place
of publication New York, Philosophical Library; Date of publication
1953.
Author Don Livingston; Title Film and the Director; Place of
publication New York, The Macmillan Company; Date of publica-
tion 1953.
CHAPTER 15
GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL
ILLUSTRATION
I. Nonverbal illustration
II. Types of illustrations
A. Drawings
B. Diagrams, maps, and charts
C. Tables
D. Graphs
E. Photographs
III. Handling of illustrations
A. Treatment as evidence
B. Preparation for publication
And ye who wish to represent by words the form of
man and all the aspects of his rnernbrification, get
away from that idea. For the more minutely you de-
scribe, the more you will confuse the mind of the
reader and the more you will prevent him from a
knowledge of the thing described. And so it is neces-
sary to draw and describe. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Note-
books, translation by J. PLAYFAIR McMuRRiCH.
I. NONVERBAL ILLUSTRATION
From the time of the earliest drawings which recorded the knowl-
edge of primitive peoples, illustration has shared with words the task
of factual communication. Illustration, to readers generally, implies
embellishment or adornment. While the aesthetic value and pictorial
interest of scientific illustrations are at times notable, their established
place in scientific writing is due to the clarity they contribute, the
recorded evidence of observations which they sometimes afford, and
the conciseness and efficiency with which they may express compli-
cated data.
It is axiomatic that an illustration may contribute more to clarity
than hundreds of words of description or explanation. Photographs
taken directly or with the aid of the microscope or telescope may
offer evidence of the geological fault, of abnormal cell structure, of
355
356 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
the effects of erosion, and of the eclipse. Through the use of tables
and graphs the scientific writer can bring out a meaning which would
otherwise be lost in a maze of figures.
The growing use of visual means of expression is due in part to
modern technical developments. The present-day writer has at his
command techniques far beyond those of the comparatively simple
wood cuts and drawings to which the very early writer was largely
limited. The relatively new field of photography has expanded to
include at one extreme the electron micrograph with a magnification
of more than 100,000 times and at the other the photographs of stars
millions of light years away. The slow-motion picture, the X-ray,
and the devices for photographing interior surfaces of the body have
all extended the range of man's visual observations.
Graphic devices linear, geometrical, and symbolic for express-
ing data have similarly undergone a long and recently rapid develop-
ment. While some of these graphic devices are intelligible only to
the person with advanced mathematical training, others are used
in writing intended for the general reader.
II. TYPES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Among the types of scientific illustrations the scientific writer may
choose those best suited to his needs: "Photographs and drawings
are especially important in the descriptive phases of science. Diagrams
of apparatus and graphs of data are mainly required in the experi-
mental and quantitative phases." * The illustrations discussed in the
present sections have been classified somewhat informally according
to function and usage rather than according to methods of reproduc-
tion, which are discussed in Section III of this chapter.
A. Drawings
Of the many types of illustrations both graphic and pictorial
drawings are incomparably the oldest. Picture writing, from which
the pictograph, or picture writing, as used in modern advertising is
descended, is in fact the most primitive form of writing.
The ideas of writing and drawing were identical in prehistoric Egypt
and in early Greece, as it is shown by the Egyptian word s-sh and by
1 Sam F. Trelease, The Scientific Paper, 2nd ed., Baltimore, The Williams
and Wilkins Company, 1951, p. 112.
TYPES 357
the Greek graphein, which mean both "writing" and "drawing." The
word graphein gave us the main component of many words connected
with writing, such as pictography, calligraphy, stenography, iconog-
raphy, and so forth. 2
Though drawing as a method is used in preparing many types of
illustrations, it is convenient when thinking in terms of function and
purpose to restrict the term drawings to those figures done with pencil,
\
c
7 \
Carl B Bover, "The Invention of Analytic Gk'onu-tiy," Scientific American 180(1) :45,
Januaiy 1949.
This tenth-century graph charts by co-ordinates the paths of the sun,
moon, and known planets, shown by symbols at the left.
pen, crayon, or brush which represent fairly closely the outward
appearance of the object or structure depicted. Because of their many
advantages drawings remain today one of the most useful types of
scientific illustrations.
The art of drawing is supremely adaptable. Crude sketches are
often resorted to even in conversation when words are inadequate
to explain or describe fully the subject of discussion. Yet the line
drawing so much used in the biological sciences is capable of convey-
ing delicate detail which is lost in the photograph, and it often has
high analytical as well as pictorial value. The drawing may be done
from direct observation with or without the use of the microscope,
or, when necessary, from documentary evidence or museum recon-
2 David Diringer, The Alphabet, New York, Philosophical Library, 1948, p. 25.
358 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
structions. Finally, drawings may be entirely freehand or may be
done according to rigid specifications with the aid of measurements
and instruments, as in mechanical drawing. Successful scientific illus-
trating involves not only drawing skill but the ability to handle
instruments and materials, to letter, and to represent shape and size
accurately.
The professional artist in the sciences may have standards of objec-
tivity and exactitude comparable to those of the scientist himself.
The late Max Brodel, Professor of Art as Applied to Medicine in The
Johns Hopkins University, exemplified the scientific attitude at its
best.
The essential point, aside from his technical skill as an artist, was
his refusal to accept anybody else's words, drawings or impressions,
unpublished or published, as authoritative. He insisted, instead, on see-
ing for himself the structures to be portrayed. He believed, and on
numerous occasions propounded the thesis with vigor, that the advance
of knowledge in many fields has been seriously retarded by copying
from others. One of his favorite expressions was "the perpetuation of
errors." 3
The visual appeal as well as the instructional and informative value
of drawings leads to their widespread use in a great variety of
publications.
B. Diagrams, Maps, and Charts
Technically, diagrams are drawings; nevertheless there is a valid
functional distinction between the two. The diagram is relatively a
more abstract representation of reality, and considerable freedom is
exercised in selecting and arranging its parts to suit the purpose of
the writer. Features not central to the immediate purpose are ignored,
and devices to show time, space, and other relationships are freely
used. Schematic representation, schematic drawing, and symbolic
representation are other terms sometimes used to denote abstract as
opposed to realistic representations.
Maps are likewise conventionalized representations of reality, but
their function is to represent areas of land, sea, or sky. Numerous
types of maps are used in factual and technical writing, among them
8 Three Unpublished Drawings of the Anatomy of the Human Ear, Philadel-
phia, W. B. Saunders Company, 1946.
B
D
0. T. Bonnett, "The Infloiescences of Maize," Science, 120 78, July 16, 1954.
The diagrammatic sketches at the right show the structural details of the
plant drawings on the left.
360 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
contour, profile, historical, linguistic, political, route, and weather
maps. The informative value and pictorial appeal of maps may be
enhanced by the use of color or shading, by the addition of pictures,
uncoiled threads
of chromosomes
resting stage
late prophase
early prophase
metaphase
E. T. Smith, Exploring Biology, 4th ed., Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953.
A complex process can be demonstrated by diagrammatic drawings. This
series illustrates the stages of mitosis in the fertilized egg.
lines, or figures, or by superimposing one map on another to show
area relationships. A map should have a title indicating its subject
and the area covered. A key or legend should give explanations of
symbols or lines to enable the reader to interpret the map. The scale
to which the map is drawn should accompany it.
F. E. Giesecke, A Mitchell, and H. C. Spencer, Technical Drawing, The Macnnllan Com-
pany, 1949, by permission of the publisher.
By means of a diagrammatic drawing, three sides of a rectangular cube
and their relationships can be represented on a two-dimensional plane.
1 1/5" 9|0 /\5
AVERAGE NUMBER OF CLOUDY DAYS
:\,rr*VA*i .
Under 40 40-80 80-120 120-160 Qverl60
This map demonstrates a scientific fact of weather observation. The aver-
age number of cloudy days per year is indicated by the different shading.
362 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
The term chart is sometimes used interchangeably with map or
graph. However, the word chart may be reserved for presentations
designed to show procedure or process, such as flow charts, or to
show organization.
Huclilis and Lemon, Kxploriny Physics. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 19. r )2.
This example of a flow chart shows a sectional view of a jet engine. The
reaction of hot expanding gases rushing out the nozzle kicks the engine-
forward.
A. E. Burns, A. C. Neal, and D. S. Watson, Modern Economics, 2nd ed., Harcourt, Brace
and Company, 1953.
A flow chart often shows a complete cycle in this instance, the circular
floiv of national output and income in billions of dollars. The complexity
of the material charted here reveals the possibilities of this type of illus-
tration.
TYPES 363
C. Tables
A table is a means of arranging data in columns, usually three or
more, so that it may be easily read and comprehended. Tables may
be used to present either observed data which record the immediate
results of experiment or observation, or derived data obtained from
the original data by calculation. Tables in which the data are arranged
to bring out certain trends or correlations are sometimes called
special-purpose tables. In tables of this type the figures may be
rounded off, but observed data should be recorded exactly. 4
Each table should have a number and a title which answers the
questions what, where, when, for example, Coal Production in West
Virginia, 1940-50. The title should be clear, concise, and direct.
The second of the following titles 5 is better than the first.
Table 8. Total amount of lumber in board feet consumed in all mines
in the United States in the 5-year period 1940 to 1944, inclusive
Table 8. Lumber used by mines in the United States, 1940-44
The stub in a table is the first column at the left, which identifies the
horizontal lines of figures. The boxhead, at the top of the table above
the columns, provides space for the column headings. Sometimes a
second tier of boxes is used to present a subclassification. The unit of
measurement and the source of the data should be given. The classifi-
cation, which of course varies with the purpose of the table, may be
chronological, geographical, or categorical.
The arrangement of the table should be as clear and uncluttered
as possible. Footnotes should be used for necessary explanation to
avoid complicating the title or mixing words and figures in the table
itself. It may be desirable to use symbols such as asterisks and
daggers to indicate footnotes since numerals used for this purpose
may be confused with tabular data. Double lines or heavier lines may
be used to indicate divisions within the table. Totals may be placed
at the bottom and right or at the top and left. Proper organization
of tabular material to present information in the clearest manner
4 Herbert Arkin and Raymond R. Colton, Graphs: How to Make and Use
Them, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1940, p. 224.
6 E. vH. Larson, Tables for Technical Writers, United States Department of
Agriculture Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Station
Paper No. 3, May 1947.
364 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
possible is not an easy task. Visual and logical organization must be
undertaken by the author and not left to the ordinary printer. An
experienced publisher, on the other hand, is usually able to carry
the author's intentions one step further through his experience with
visual techniques.
APPENDIX VI 6
Estimated Research and Development Expenditures
in the United States, 1 94 1 -52
[In millions of dollars]
Source of funds Use of fund by type of institution
Year
Total
Other
Federal
Indus-
trial
Univer-
sity
Federal
1941
800
560
240
520
80
200
1942
930
590
340
600
90
240
1943
1,050
420
630
650
100
300
1944
1,200
430
770
700
110
390
1945
1,300
420
880
750
120
430
1946
1,490
830
660
890
130
470
1947
1,810
1,020
790
1,120
170
520
1948
2,060
1,140
920
1,290
200
570
1949
2,080
1,030
1,050
1,310
220
550
1950
2,240
1,200
1,040
1,430
240
570
1951
2,590
1,280
1,310
1,630
260
700
1952
2,930
1,290
1,640
1,820
280
830
Source: Research and Development Board, Department of Defense.
D. Graphs
The term graph is sometimes extended to include a variety of
symbolic representations, but the usage followed here is the stricter
one of applying the term graph only to visual presentations of
numerical data. Since graphs are not intended to show details, they
are often accompanied by tables presenting numerical data on which
the graphs are based. According to Worthing and Geffner :
6 The First Annual Report of the National Science Foundation, 1950-51,
Washington, D. C., United States Government Printing Office.
Finances and fatherhood
AND
OVER
less than $3.000
E. Havemann and P. S. West, They Went to College, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.
A bar graph shows relationships. Here, three elements represented by
degrees of shading are compared. This type of graphic presentation will
be readily understood by the general reader.
The graphical method of presenting data is an adaptation of the
principles of Descartes' analytic geometry, whereby numerical values
are represented in geometrical form by the length of a line, the area
of a surface, the volume of a solid, or the rotation described by an
angle. The fact that all measurable quantities may be given such rep-
resentation does not mean that all data should be plotted. For certain
data a graph means little more than wasted time and labor. For other
366 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
data, failure to graph results not only in a loss of time and energy,
but also in a failure to perceive significant relations. A decision as to
whether or not to plot must be trusted to one's common sense. 7
Graphs are used in scientific work for two purposes: (1) as a
means of presenting data and indicating trends, and (2) as a tool in
making computations. 8 While the same graph may serve both pur-
poses, one purpose usually predominates.
uo.
2000
100 1000 10000
FREQUENCY IN CYCLES PER SECOND
.0002 fc
00002
H. F. Olson, Musical Engineering, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc , 1952, by pei mission
of the publisher.
This variation of the simple line graph projects frequency and volume
ranges of speech and music against a two-dimensional grid. The nature
of the material necessitates mapping out the curves and showing the
areas included within their bounds. The solid line encloses the area of
normal hearing.
Among the types of graphs in general use for the presentation of
data are the bar graph, the line graph, the pie graph, and the picture
graph with their numerous adaptations and variations.
The bar graph is extensively used to show relative quantities or
amounts with no implication of causal relationship.
The line graph is to be preferred when the purpose is to show
comparative trends or values over a long period of time. In a line
graph a vertical axis (the ordinate) and a horizontal axis (the
abscissa) are used to represent the two variables to be plotted. When
7 Archie G. Worthing and Joseph Geffner, Treatment of Experimental Data,
New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1943, p. 29. Reprinted with permission.
8 For extended discussions of the types of graphs used for computations see
Ibid., pp. 36-55, and Arkin and Colton, op. cit., pp. 173-96.
TYPES 367
one of the variables is time, it should be represented by the horizontal
axis. The background on which the lines are drawn is known as the
grid.
The pie or circle graph is an excellent device to represent partition
or classification. One merit of the well-done picture graph is its eye
NOW
Range of Expected Receipts
Ds
P Ranges of
' \ Expected
B' Profits
Aj
Range of Expected
Costs or Outlays
2 3
Years in Fufure
M
N
NOW
Range of Expected
Receipts
Range of Expected
Costs or Outlays
1
I
Ranges of
A Expected
Profits
j
1
Years m Future
A E Bums, A. C Neal and D. S. Watson, Modern Economics, 2nd ed., Hai court, Brace
and Company, 1953.
These two line graphs show long-term business expectations for two dif-
ferent firms over a period of five years the top a rise in receipts, the
bottom a decline in receipts. The letters in the graph indicate only relative
numerical values. Note that the time variables are represented on the
horizontal axes.
R. C. Moore, C. G. Lahcker, A. G. Fischer, Invertebrate Fossils, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, Inc., 1952, by permission of the publisher.
This is a three-dimensional line graph time, frequency, and structure
that makes a statistical comparison of an evolving strain in successive
populations. Populations are represented by the frequency curves, which
show the structural overlap pings and variations.
Forestry and Paper, 2nd ed., P H. Glatfelter
Company, Spring Grove, Pennsylvania.
This pie, or circle, graph is composed of
three individual pie graphs each of which
represents a tree diameter in inches. As
the graph reveals, a higher percentage Q/
profit is realized as the size of the tree
increases.
Foreign Trade in Europe
imports from
extra - eoropean countries
trad* within Europe
exports to
extra - europeon countries
1929
imports from
extra european countries
trade within Europe
exports to
extra - european countries
1935
Each line represents 1000 million dollars of 1929 ISOTYPE*
O. Neurath, Modern Man in the Making, Alfred A. Knopf, 1939, by permission of the
publisher.
Abstract symbols, rather than representational pictures, can be effectively
used in a picture graph.
fcf
o 1200
800-
Z 400-
TODAY INSECTS AND DISEASE DESTROY MORE TIMBER THAN FIRE
3 1910 1929 1936 1944
"The Nation's Wood Supply," American Forest Pioducts Industries, Inc., 1319 Eighteenth
Street, Northwest, Washington 6, D C.
The picture graph is a dramatic means of statistical representation and
facilitates comprehension.
369
370 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
appeal. It is, therefore, much used in journalistic, social science, and
business writing. Where a direct visual connection can be set up
between the measure and the thing measured, speed of comprehension
and memory are often greatly aided. When the help of specialists in
visual presentation is available, it can often greatly enhance the com-
prehension of material that is otherwise difficult to present. For
example, several medical house organs have in recent years taken
advantage of newer visual techniques in the presentation of difficult
material.
Graphs, like other illustrations, may be misleading if not offered
in good faith and in accordance with accepted procedure. 9 The writer
should guard against practices which lead to errors in interpretation.
A partial listing of such possible sources of error follows:
1. Omission of essential facts. Each graph should have a title
stating the subject, time, and place covered. Whether graphs are used
in place of or as a supplement to tables showing the same data
depends on the nature of the material, the purpose of the presentation,
and editorial preference. In either case such pertinent facts as dates
and sources of information should be included.
2. Omission of the zero base line. In a line graph showing com-
parison it may be desirable or even necessary to omit the zero base
line in order to avoid an excess of waste space at the bottom of the
graph. If such an omission must be made, the numerical point at
which the base of the graph begins should be made perfectly clear.
3. Misleading proportions. In line graphs a reasonable proportion
should be maintained between horizontal and vertical dimensions.
An extreme extension in either direction may give a false picture.
For example, if the points on the horizontal axis representing time
are spaced far apart in relation to the points on the vertical axis
representing the second value, the fluctuation will appear to be re-
duced. If the points on the vertical axis are far apart, the fluctuation
will appear to be increased.
4. It may be necessary to indicate amounts on the vertical axis
of a line graph in thousands or millions. This value should be indi-
cated clearly in the scale caption which is printed at the top or side
9 The manual of the American Standards Association, Engineering and
Scientific Graphs for Publication, Z 15.3-1943, is a valuable reference in this
connection and may be obtained at small cost from the Association, 70 East
Forty-fifth Street, New York 17, N. Y.
TYPES 371
to indicate what the values represent, for example, thousands of tons
of coal, millions of kilowatt hours.
E. Photographs
The ordinary photographic print has long been useful in scientific
writing. Later technical developments such as the motion picture,
the X-ray photograph, the color photograph, and the aerial photo-
graph, as well as the photograph taken through the telescope, the
photomicrograph, and the electron micrograph, have amply proved
their value in scientific and technical fields. Even the long-known
principle of the stereoscope has recently been utilized in scientific
illustrations to produce three-dimensional effects. Indeed, so conse-
quential is photography in science that some knowledge of photo-
graphic technique is virtually a prerequisite for work in many scien-
tific fields. 10
III. HANDLING OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Accuracy and objectivity are as imperative in handling illustrations
as in any other phase of scientific writing. When relied on as sources
of information they must be examined critically. When the writer
prepares such graphic and pictorial materials for his paper, he must
be schooled in the principles and techniques involved.
A. Treatment as Evidence
Illustrations may be misleading if precautions are not observed in
offering and interpreting them. The apparent resemblance between a
close-range photograph of a drop of milk falling into a saucer and
a photograph of an atomic explosion taken at a distance shows,
for example, that one cannot always believe one's own eyes. Photo-
graphs and other illustrations have on occasion been faked or forged,
and visual media are well known to the propagandist.
Graphs, tables, and charts can be no more accurate than the data
which they depict. An imposing and elaborate illustration offers in
itself no assurance that the information upon which it is based is
up-to-date, authoritative, and unbiased. The writer is obligated to
supply the reader with details, when applicable, as to the sources
10 Numerous useful suggestions concerning photography in connection with
scientific writing are given in Trelease, op. cit., pp. 123-43.
372 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
of the statistics or measurements on which graphs, drawings, or
models are based, the conditions under which photographs were
taken, and the extent of reduction, enlargement, or magnification,
if any.
B. Preparation for Publication
The importance of illustrations in scientific writing is affirmed by
the careful directions which editors usually give for their preparation.
The scientific writer, therefore, should keep editorial requirements
in mind when planning and preparing illustrations. No final drawing
or labeling should be undertaken without first consulting the pub-
lisher.
Clearness and cost are the controlling factors for consideration in
preparing illustrations for publication. Before preparing original
drawings or photographs, the method by which they are to be repro-
duced should be carefully determined. Unsatisfactory reproductions
are frequently attributed to lack of ability on the part of the engraver,
when the cause is due chiefly to copy. 11
Whatever categories may be used to group illustrations according
to function and purpose, as in Section II of this chapter, the originals
from which illustrations are made are usually classified, from an
editorial viewpoint, as drawings or photographic prints. Line draw-
ings are the least expensive to reproduce. Wash drawings 32 and
photographs must be reproduced by halftone engraving processes.
The use of the more expensive color processes is limited by their
greater cost, but when available, color processes have great analytical,
as well as aesthetic, possibilities.
The following quotation from a style sheet issued by the editors
of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry is a useful statement of
points they consider important in preparing illustrations for pub-
lication.
Illustrations. Submit original drawings (or sharp prints) of graphs
and diagrams and clear glossy photographs. Prepare original drawings
on tracing cloth or high quality paper; use black India ink and a
lettering set. Choose graph papers with blue cross-sectional lines ; other
11 The Wistar Institute Style Brief, Philadelphia, The Wistar Institute Press,
1934, p. 44.
12 A wash drawing is a line drawing with tones of gray added and hence
must be reproduced by halftone processes.
HANDLING 373
colors interfere with good reproduction. Label ordinates and abscissae
of graphs along the axes and outside the graph proper. Figure captions
and legends are set in type and need not be lettered on the drawing.
Number all illustrations consecutively. Supply typed captions and
legends (plus courtesy lines for photos) on a separate page. 13
In the publishing processes, illustrations are handled separately
from the text; for this reason they should always be on separate
sheets of paper. Most illustrations are accompanied by explanatory
captions. According to editorial preference, these captions may be
(1) typed individually on small sheets of paper and attached to
illustrations, (2) typed on separate sheets of paper and numbered
to correspond to the illustrations, (3) typed in numerical order on
a separate sheet headed Explanation of Figures.
If a drawing or other illustration is reproduced from any source,
the same obligations must be recognized as in reproducing printed
matter. Permission must be obtained and the source acknowledged.
If an illustration is altered in any way, it should be designated as
"adapted from . . . ," "redrawn from . . . ," or "after . . . ," with
the original source indicated.
Figures and tables are usually numbered separately. Their place
in copy is indicated by a citation in parentheses giving the figure
or table number.
In concluding this discussion of graphic and pictorial illustration
in scientific writing, four points should be stressed.
1. Some of the most promising possibilities in illustration lie in
new combinations and adaptations of the basic types discussed in
this chapter.
2. While the amateur can appreciate and within limits utilize
graphic and pictorial illustration, professional scientific illustration
is developing rapidly as a specialty for which extended training is
required.
3. Visual illustrations, despite their unquestioned value, have cer-
tain limitations. Since the particulars to be represented are selected
by the writer, illustrations cannot be completely objective. Moreover,
illustrations often do not have the precision of complete verbal
descriptions and are not to be thought of as a replacement for verbal
communication.
13 "Guide for Authors," following the Index, Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry, December 1953. Reprinted by permission.
374 GRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATION
4. A consideration of the relation of visual expression to scientific
writing must necessarily be incomplete. The study of this chapter
should be supplemented by continued critical observation of the
multiple uses of graphic and pictorial illustration.
STUDY SUGGESTIONS
1. One advantage of the photographic record, either still or moving, is
that it catches details which may escape the observer while his atten-
tention is directed elsewhere. Cite situations in which this advantage
is particularly important.
2. Prepare a table to present data which you have accumulated in the
course of a research project. If you have no numerical data available,
find a report or newspaper article which includes information which
could in your opinion be advantageously presented in a table and pre-
pare a table to present these data.
3. Study the tables in a number of representative scientific textbooks
or factual articles. Do you find that the titles and arrangement are in
conformity with the practices recommended in the foregoing chapter?
4. Prepare an appropriate graph for each of the groups of data given
here:
Sources of the income of University A: Endowment 40%; Tuition
30%; Tax support 20%; Special gifts 5%; Miscellaneous re-
ceipts 5%.
Changes in the enrollment of University B from 1945-54: 1945
1,000; 19461,500; 19472,100; 19482,750; 19492,500; 1950
2,250; 19512,000; 19522,000; 19532,200; 19542,300.
5. Examine the illustrations in a group of representative periodicals.
What relationships do you find between the subject matter and the
types of illustrations? Do you find any illustrations which represent
new or unusual combinations of types?
6. A common fault in illustrations, particularly graphs and tables, is
that the person preparing the illustration attempts to include too
much in a single illustration. Find in a report or other publication an
illustration which suffers from this fault. Suggest means of simplifying
the illustration or of dividing the subject matter between two or more
illustrations.
7. Suggest means of using picture graphs for presenting data on the
following subjects: imports of tea, 1945-55; consumption of tea, 1945-
55; housing projects in a given area; automobile production 1950-55;
circulation of library books during the twelve months of 1954; bank
deposits in savings and checking accounts on the first day of each of
the past five years.
APPENDIX A
READINGS AND WORD LISTS
The selections which make up this Appendix afford oppor-
tunity for additional reading and study in the theory, prac-
tices, and types of scientific writing. In content the readings
range from the individual scientist's somewhat subjective
comments on his work to the altogether impersonal report of
a research agency. It is hoped that the selections in the Ap-
pendix will stimulate the student to read further in the litera-
ture of technology and the sciences.
The selections appear in the order in which the text refers
to them. The relevant chapter numbers and titles are indi-
cated at the beginning of each group of selections.
Chapter 2 The Problem Concept
CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING
Claude Bernard, An Introduction to the Study of Experimental
Medicine, translated by Henry Copley Greene, New York,
Abelard-Schuman, Inc., 1949, pp. 159-62
About 1846, I wished to make experiments on the cause of poisoning
with carbon monoxide. I knew that this gas had been described as toxic,
but I knew literally nothing about the mechanism of its poisoning; I
therefore could not have a preconceived opinion. What, then, was to be
done? I must bring to birth an idea by making a fact appear, i.e., make
another experiment to see. In fact I poisoned a dog by making him
breathe carbon monoxide and after death I at once opened his body.
I looked at the state of the organs and fluids. What caught my attention
at once was that its blood was scarlet in all the vessels, in the veins as
well as the arteries, in the right heart as well as in the left. I repeated
the experiment on rabbits, birds and frogs, and everywhere I found the
same scarlet coloring of the blood. But I was diverted from continuing
this investigation, and I kept this observation a long time unused except
for quoting it in my course a propos of the coloring of blood.
In 1856, no one had carried the experimental question further, and
in my course at the College de France on toxic and medicinal substances,
I again took up the study of poisoning by carbon monoxide which I had
begun in 1846. I found myself then in a confused situation, for at this
time I already knew that poisoning with carbon monoxide makes the
blood scarlet in the whole circulatory system. I had to make hypotheses,
and establish a preconceived idea about my first observation so as to go
ahead. Now, reflecting on the fact of scarlet blood, I tried to interpret
it by my earlier knowledge as to the cause of the color of blood. Where-
upon all the following reflections presented themselves to my mind. The
scarlet color, said I, is peculiar to arterial blood and connected with the
presence of a large proportion of oxygen, while dark coloring belongs
with absence of oxygen and presence of a larger proportion of carbonic
acid; so the idea occurred to me that carbon monoxide, by keeping
venous blood scarlet, might perhaps have prevented the oxygen from
changing into carbonic acid in the capillaries. Yet it seemed hard to
understand how that could be the cause of death. But still keeping on
with my inner preconceived reasoning, I added: If that is true, blood
taken from the veins of animals poisoned with carbon monoxide should
APPENDIX A 377
be like arterial blood in containing oxygen; we must see if that is the
fact.
Following this reasoning, based on interpretation of my observation,
I tried an experiment to verify my hypothesis as to the persistence of
oxygen in the venous blood. I passed a current of hydrogen through scar-
let venous blood taken frem an animal poisoned with carbon monoxide,
but I could not liberate the oxygen as usual. I tried to do the same with
arterial blood; I had no greater success. My preconceived idea was
therefore false. But the impossibility of getting oxygen from the blood
of a dog poisoned with carbon monoxide was a second observation which
suggested a fresh hypothesis. What could have become of the oxygen in
the blood? It had not changed into carbonic acid, because I had not set
free large quantities of that gas in passing a current of hydrogen through
the blood of the poisoned animals. Moreover, that hypothesis was contrary
to the color of the blood. I exhausted myself in conjectures about how
carbon monoxide could cause the oxygen to disappear from the blood;
and as gases displace one another I naturally thought that the carbon
monoxide might have displaced the oxygen and driven it out of the
blood. To learn this, I decided to vary my experimentation by putting
the blood in artificial conditions that would allow me to recover the
displaced oxygen. So I studied the action of carbon monoxide on blood
experimentally. For this purpose I took a certain amount of arterial
blood from a healthy animal; I put this blood on the mercury in an
inverted test tube containing carbon monoxide; I then shook the whole
thing so as to poison the blood sheltered from contact with the outer air.
Then, after an interval, I examined whether the air in the test-tube in
contact with the poisoned blood had been changed, and I noted that the
air thus in contact with the blood had been remarkably enriched with
oxygen, while the proportion of carbon monoxide was lessened. Repeated
in the same conditions, these experiments taught me that what had oc-
curred was an exchange, volume by volume, between the carbon monoxide
and the oxygen of the blood. But the carbon monoxide, in displacing the
oxygen that it had expelled from the blood, remained chemically com-
bined in the blood and could no longer be displaced either by oxygen or
by other gases. So that death came through death of the molecules of
blood, or in other words by stopping their exercise of a physiological
property essential to life.
This last example, which I have very briefly described, is complete;
it shows from one end to the other, how we proceed with the experi-
mental method and succeeded in learning the immediate cause of phe-
nomena. To begin with I knew literally nothing about the mechanism of
the phenomenon of poisoning with carbon monoxide. I undertook an
experiment to see, i.e., to observe. I made a preliminary observation of
a special change in the coloring of blood. I interpreted this observation,
and I made an hypothesis which proved false. But the experiment pro-
378 APPENDIX A
vided me with a second observation about which I reasoned anew, using
it as a starting point for making a new hypothesis as to the mechanism,
by which the oxygen in the blood was removed. By building up hy-
potheses, one by one, about the facts as I observed them, I finally suc-
ceeded in showing that carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in a molecule
of blood, by combining with the substance of tke molecule. Experimental
analysis, here, has reached its goal. This is one of the cases, rare in
physiology, which I am happy to be able to quote. Here the immediate
cause of the phenomenon of poisoning is found and is translated into a
theory which accounts for all the facts and at the same time includes
all the observations and experiments. Formulated as follows, the theory
posits the main facts from which all the rest are deduced: Carbon monox-
ide combines more intimately than oxygen with the hemoglobin in a
molecule of blood. It has quite recently been proved that carbon monox-
ide forms a definite combination with hemoglobin. So that the molecule
of blood, as if petrified by the stability of the combination, loses its vital
properties. Hence everything is logically deduced: because of its property
of more intimate combination, carbon monoxide drives out of the blood
the oxygen essential to life; the molecules of blood become inert, and the
animal dies, with symptoms of hemorrhage, from true paralysis of the
molecules.
But when a theory is sound and indeed shows the real and definite
physico-chemical cause of phenomena, it not only includes the observed
facts but predicts others and leads to rational applications that are
logical consequences of the theory. Here again we meet this criterion.
In fact, if carbon monoxide has the property of driving out oxygen by
taking its place in combining with a molecule of blood, we should be
able to use the gas to analyze the gases in blood, and especially for de-
termining oxygen. From my experiments I deduced this application which
has been generally adopted to-day. Applications of this property of car-
bon monoxide have been made in legal medicine for finding the coloring
matter of blood; and from the physiological facts described above we
may also already deduce results connected with hygiene, experimental
pathology, and notably with the mechanism of certain forms of anemia.
As in every other case, all the deductions from the theory doubtless
still require experimental verification; and logic does not suffice. But
this is because the conditions in which carbon monoxide acts on the
blood may present other complex circumstances and any number of de-
tails which the theory cannot yet predict. Otherwise, as we have often
said, we could reach conclusions by logic alone, without any need of
experimental verifications. Because of possible unforeseen and variable
new elements in the conditions of a phenomenon, logic alone can in ex-
perimental science never suffice. Even when we have a theory that seems
sound, it is never more than relatively sound, and it always includes a
certain proportion of the unknown.
APPENDIX A 379
THE USEFULNESS OF USELESS KNOWLEDGE
Abraham Flexner, "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge,"
Harper's Magazine, 179:544-50, October 1939
Is it not a curious fact that in a world steeped in irrational hatreds
which threaten civilization itself, men and women old and young
detach themselves wholly or partly from the angry current of daily life
to devote themselves to the cultivation of beauty, to the extension of
knowledge, to the cure of disease, to the amelioration of suffering, just
as though fanatics were not simultaneously engaged in spreading pain,
ugliness, and suffering? The world has always been a sorry and con-
fused sort of place yet poets and artists and scientists have ignored the
factors that would, if attended to, paralyze them. From a practical point
of view, intellectual and spiritual life is, on the surface, a useless form
of activity, in which men indulge because they procure for themselves
greater satisfactions than are otherwise obtainable. In this paper I shall
concern myself with the question of the extent to which the pursuit of
these useless satisfactions proves unexpectedly the source from which
undreamed-of utility is derived.
We hear it said with tiresome iteration that ours is a materialistic age,
the main concern of which should be the wider distribution of material
goods and worldly opportunities. The justified outcry of those who
through no fault of their own are deprived of opportunity and a fair
share of worldly goods therefore diverts an increasing number of stu-
dents from the studies which their fathers pursued to the equally impor-
tant and no less urgent study of social, economic, and governmental
problems. I have no quarrel with this tendency. The world in which we
live is the only world about which our senses can testify. Unless it is
made a better world, a fairer world, millions will continue to go to their
graves silent, saddened, and embittered. I have myself spent many years
pleading that our schools should become more acutely aware of the
world in which their pupils and students are destined to pass their lives.
Now I sometimes wonder whether that current has not become too strong
and whether there would be sufficient opportunity for a full life if the
world were emptied of some of the useless things that give it spiritual
significance; in other words, whether our conception of what is useful
may not have become too narrow to be adequate to the roaming and
capricious possibilities of the human spirit.
We may look at this question from two points of view: the scientific
and the humanistic or spiritual. Let us take the scientific first. I recall
a conversation which I had some years ago with Mr. George Eastman
on the subject of use. Mr. Eastman, a wise and gentle farseeing man.
380 APPENDIX A
gifted with taste in music and art, had been saying to me that he meant
to devote his vast fortune to the promotion of education in useful subjects.
I ventured to ask him whom he regarded as the most useful worker in
science in the world. He replied instantaneously: "Marconi." I surprised
him by saying, "Whatever pleasure we derive from the radio or however
wireless and the radio may have added to human life, Marconi's share
was practically negligible."
I shall not forget his astonishment on this occasion. He asked me to
explain. I replied to him somewhat as follows:
"Mr. Eastman, Marconi was inevitable. The real credit for everything
that has been done in the field of wireless belongs, as far as such funda-
mental credit can be definitely assigned to anyone, to Professor Clerk
Maxwell, who in 1865 carried out certain abstruse and remote calcula-
tions in the field of magnetism and electricity. Maxwell reproduced his
abstract equations in a treatise published in 1873. At the next meeting
of the British Association Professor H. J. S. Smith of Oxford declared
that 'no mathematician can turn over the pages of these volumes without
realizing that they contain a theory which has already added largely
to the methods and resources of pure mathematics.' Other discoveries
supplemented Maxwell's theoretical work during the next fifteen years.
Finally in 1887 and 1888 the scientific problem still remaining the de-
tection and demonstration of the electromagnetic waves which are the
carriers of wireless signals was solved by Heinrich Hertz, a worker in
Helmholtz's laboratory in Berlin. Neither Maxwell nor Hertz had any
concern about the utility of their work; no such thought ever entered
their minds. They had no practical objective. The inventor in the legal
sense was of course Marconi, but what did Marconi invent? Merely the
last technical detail, mainly the now obsolete receiving device called
coherer, almost universally discarded."
Hertz and Maxwell could invent nothing, but it was their useless
theoretical work which was seized upon by a clever technician and which
has created new means for communication, utility, and amusement by
which men whose merits are relatively slight have obtained fame and
earned millions. Who were the useful men? Not Marconi, but Clerk
Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. Hertz and Maxwell were geniuses without
thought of use. Marconi was a clever inventor with no thought but use.
The mention of Hertz's name recalled to Mr. Eastman the Hertzian
waves, and I suggested that he might ask the physicists of the University
of Rochester precisely what Hertz and Maxwell had done; but one thing
I said he could be sure of, namely, that they had done their work with-
out thought of use and that throughout the whole history of science most
of the really great discoveries which had ultimately proved to be bene-
ficial to mankind had been made by men and women who were driven
not by the desire to be useful but merely the desire to satisfy their
curiosity.
APPENDIX A 381
"Curiosity?" asked Mr. Eastman.
"Yes," I replied, "curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in some-
thing useful, is probably the outstanding characteristic of modern think-
ing. It is not new. It goes back to Galileo, Bacon, and to Sir Isaac Newton,
and it must be absolutely unhampered. Institutions of learning should
be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity and the less they are deflected
by considerations of immediacy of application, the more likely they are
to contribute not only to human welfare but to the equally important
satisfaction of intellectual interest which may indeed be said to have
become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times."
II
What is true of Heinrich Hertz working quietly and unnoticed in a
corner of Helmholtz's laboratory in the later years of the nineteenth cen-
tury may be said of scientists and mathematicians the world over for
several centuries past. We live in a world that would be helpless without
electricity. Called upon to mention a discovery of the most immediate
and far-reaching practical use we might well agree upon electricity. But
who made the fundamental discoveries out of which the entire electrical
development of more than one hundred years has come?
The answer is interesting. Michael Faraday's father was a blacksmith;
Michael himself was apprenticed to a bookbinder. In 1812, when he was
already twenty-one years of age, a friend took him to the Royal Institu-
tion where he heard Sir Humphry Davy deliver four lectures on chemical
subjects. He kept notes and sent a copy of them to Davy. The very next
year, 1813, he became an assistant in Davy's laboratory, working on
chemical problems. Two years later he accompanied Davy on a trip to
the Continent. In 1825, when he was thirty-four years of age, he became
Director of the Laboratory of the Royal Institution where he spent fifty-
four years of his life.
Faraday's interest soon shifted from chemistry to electricity and mag-
netism, to which he devoted the rest of his active life. Important but
puzzling work in this field had been previously accomplished by Oersted,
Ampere, and Wollaston. Faraday cleared away the difficulties which
they had left unsolved and by 1841 had succeeded in the task of induc-
tion of the electric current. Four years later a second and equally bril-
liant epoch in his career opened when he discovered the effect of mag-
netism on polarized light. His earlier discoveries have led to the infinite
number of practical applications by means of which electricity has
lightened the burdens and increased the opportunities of modern life.
His later discoveries have thus far been less prolific of practical results.
What difference did this make to Faraday? Not the least. At no period of
his unmatched career was he interested in utility. He was absorbed in
disentangling the riddles of the universe, at first chemical riddles, in
382 APPENDIX A
later periods, physical riddles. As far as he cared, the question of utility
was never raised. Any suspicion of utility would have restricted his rest-
less curiosity. In the end, utility resulted, but it was never a criterion to
which his ceaseless experimentation could be subjected.
In the atmosphere which envelops the world to-day it is perhaps
timely to emphasize the fact that the part played by science in making
war more destructive and more horrible was an unconscious and un-
intended by-product of scientific activity. Lord Rayleigh, president of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, in a recent address
points out in detail how the folly of man, not the intention of the scien-
tists, is responsible for the destructive use of the agents employed in
modern warfare. The innocent study of the chemistry of carbon com-
pounds, which has led to infinite beneficial results, showed that the action
of nitric acid on substances like benzene, glycerine, cellulose, etc., re-
sulted not only in the beneficent aniline dye industry but in the creation
of nitroglycerine, which has uses good and bad. Somewhat later Alfred
Nobel, turning to the same subject, showed that by mixing nitroglycerine
with other substances, solid explosives which could be safely handled
could be produced among others, dynamite. It is to dynamite that we
owe our progress in mining, in the making of such railroad tunnels as
those which now pierce the Alps and other mountain ranges; but of
course dynamite has been abused by politicians and soldiers. Scientists
are, however, no more to blame than they are to blame for an earth-
quake or a flood. The same thing can be said of poison gas. Pliny was
killed by breathing sulphur dioxide in the eruption of Vesuvius almost
two thousand years ago. Chlorine was not isolated by scientists for war-
like purposes, and the same is true of mustard gas. These substances
could be limited to beneficent use, but when the airplane was perfected,
men whose hearts were poisoned and whose brains were addled perceived
that the airplane, an innocent invention, the result of long disinterested
and scientific effort, could be made an instrument of destruction, of which
no one had ever dreamed and at which no one had ever deliberately
aimed.
In the domain of higher mathematics almost innumerable instances can
be cited. For example, the most abstruse mathematical work of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the "Non-Euclidian Geometry."
Its inventor, Gauss, though recognized by his contemporaries as a dis-
tinguished mathematician, did not dare to publish his work on "Non-
Euclidian Geometry" for a quarter of a century. As a matter of fact, the
theory of relativity itself with all its infinite practical bearings would
have been utterly impossible without the work which Gauss did at
Gottingen.
Again, what is known now as "group theory" was an abstract and in-
applicable mathematical theory. It was developed by men who were
curious and whose curiosity and puttering led them into strange paths;
APPENDIX A 383
but "group theory" is to-day the basis of the quantum theory of spectros-
copy, which is in daily use by people who have no idea as to how it
came about.
The whole calculus of probability was discovered by mathematicians
whose real interest was the rationalization of gambling. It has failed of
the practical purpose at which they aimed, but it has furnished a scien-
tific basis for all types of insurance, and vast stretches of nineteenth
century physics are based upon it. ...
Let us look in another direction. In the domain of medicine and public
health the science of bacteriology has played for half a century the
leading role. What is its story? Following the Franco-Prussian War of
1870, the German Government founded the great University of Stras-
bourg. Its first professor of anatomy was Wilhelm von Waldeyer, subse-
quently professor of anatomy in Berlin. In his Reminiscences he relates
that among the students who went with him to Strasbourg during his
first semester there was a small, inconspicuous, self-contained youngster
of seventeen by name Paul Ehrlich. The usual course in anatomy then
consisted of dissection and microscopic examination of tissues. Ehrlich
paid little or no attention to dissection, but, as Waldeyer remarks in his
Reminiscences :
"I noticed quite early that Ehrlich would work long hours at his desk,
completely absorbed in microscopic observation. Moreover, his desk grad-
ually became covered with colored spots of every description. As I saw
him sitting at work one day, I went up to him and asked what he was
doing with all his rainbow array of colors on his table. Thereupon this
young student in his first semester supposedly pursuing the regular course
in anatomy looked up at me and blandly remarked, 'Ich probiereJ This
might be freely translated, 'I am trying' or 'I am just fooling.' I replied
to him, 'Very well. Go on with your fooling.' Soon I saw that without
any teaching or direction whatsoever on my part I possessed in Ehrlich
a student of unusual quality."
Waldeyer wisely left him alone. Ehrlich made his way precariously
through the medical curriculum and ultimately procured his degree
mainly because it was obvious to his teachers that he had no intention of
ever putting his medical degree to practical use. He went subsequently
to Breslau where he worked under Professor Cohnheim, the teacher of
our own Dr. Welch, founder and maker of the Johns Hopkins MedicaJ
School. I do not suppose that the idea of use ever crossed Ehrlich's mind.
He was interested. He was curious; he kept on fooling. Of course his
fooling was guided by a deep instinct, but it was a purely scientific, not
an utilitarian motivation. What resulted? Koch and his associates estab-
lished a new science, the science of bacteriology. Ehrlich's experiments
were now applied by a fellow student, Weigert, to staining bacteria and
thereby assisting in their differentiation. Ehrlich himself developed the
384 APPENDIX A
staining of the blood film with the dyes on which our modern knowledge
of the morphology of the blood corpuscles, red and white, is based. Not
a. day passes but that in thousands of hospitals the world over Ehrlich's
technic is employed in the examination of the blood. Thus the appar-
ently aimless fooling in Waldeyer's dissecting room in Strasbourg has
become a main factor in the daily practice of medicine.
I shall give one example from industry, one selected at random; for
there are scores besides. Professor Berl, of the Carnegie Institute of
Technology (Pittsburgh) writes as follows:
"The founder of the modern rayon industry was the French Count
Chardonnet. It is known that he used a solution of nitro cotton in ether-
alcohol, and that he pressed this viscous solution through capillaries into
water which served to coagulate the cellulose nitrate filament. After the
coagulation, this filament entered the air and was wound up on bobbins.
One day Chardonnet inspected his French factory at Besangon. By an
accident the water which should coagulate the cellulose nitrate filament
was stopped. The workmen found that the spinning operation went much
better without water than with water. This was the birthday of the very
important process of dry spinning, which is actually carried out on the
greatest scale."
ill
I am not for a moment suggesting that everything that goes on in
laboratories will ultimately turn to some unexpected practical use or that
an ultimate practical use is its actual justification. Much more am I
pleading for the abolition of the word "use," and for the freeing of the
human spirit. To be sure, we shall thus free some harmless cranks. To be
sure, we shall thus waste some precious dollars. But what is infinitely
more important is that we shall be striking the shackles off the human
mind and setting it free for the adventures which in our own day have, on
the one hand, taken Hale and Rutherford and Einstein and their peers
millions upon millions of miles into the uttermost realms of space and, on
the other, loosed the boundless energy imprisoned in the atom. What
Rutherford and others like Bohr and Millikan have done out of sheer
curiosity in the effort to understand the construction of the atom has re-
leased forces which may transform human life; but this ultimate and un-
foreseen and unpredictable practical result is not offered as a justification
for Rutherford or Einstein or Millikan or Bohr or any of their peers. Let
them alone. No educational administrator can possibly direct the channels
in which these or other men shall work. The waste, I admit again, looks
prodigious. It is not really so. All the waste that could be summed up in
developing the science of bacteriology is as nothing compared to the ad-
vantages which have accrued from the discoveries of Pasteur, Koch, Ehr-
lich, Theobald Smith, and scores of others advantages that could never
APPENDIX A 385
have accrued if the idea of possible use had permeated their minds.
These great artists for such are scientists and bacteriologists dissemi-
nated the spirit which prevailed in laboratories in which they were simply
following the line of their own natural curiosity.
I am not criticising institutions like schools of engineering or law in
which the usefulness motive necessarily predominates. Not infrequently
the tables are turned, and practical difficulties encountered in industry
or in laboratories stimulate theoretical inquiries which may or may not
solve the problems by which they were suggested, but may also open
up new vistas, useless at the moment, but pregnant with future achieve-
ments, practical and theoretical.
With the rapid accumulation of "useless" or theoretic knowledge a
situation has been created in which it has become increasingly possible
to attack practical problems in a scientific spirit. Not only inventors, but
"pure" scientists have indulged in this sport. I have mentioned Marconi,
an inventor, who, while a benefactor to the human race, as a matter of
fact merely "picked other men's brains." Edison belongs to the same
category. Pasteur was different. He was a great scientist; but he was not
averse to attacking practical problems such as the condition of French
grapevines or the problems of beer-brewing and not only solving the
immediate difficulty, but also wresting from the practical problem some
far-reaching theoretic conclusion, "useless" at the moment, but likely in
some unforeseen manner to be "useful" later. Ehrlich, fundamentally
speculative in his curiosity, turned fiercely upon the problem of syphilis
and doggedly pursued it until a solution of immediate practical use
the discovery of salvarsan was found. The discoveries of insulin by
Banting for use in diabetes and of liver extract by Minot and Whipple
for use in pernicious anemia belong in the same category: both were
made by thoroughly scientific men, who realized that much "useless"
knowledge had been piled up by men unconcerned with its practical
bearings, but that the time was now ripe to raise practical questions in a
scientific manner.
Thus it becomes obvious that one must be wary in attributing scien-
tific discovery wholly to any one person. Almost every discovery has a
long and precarious history. Someone finds a bit here, another a bit
there. A third step succeeds later and thus onward till a genius pieces
the bits together and makes the decisive contribution. Science, like the
Mississippi, begins in a tiny rivulet in the distant forest. Gradually other
streams swell its volume. And the roaring river that bursts the dikes is
formed from countless sources.
I cannot deal with this aspect exhaustively, but I may in passing say
this: over a period of one or two hundred years the contributions of pro-
fessional schools to their respective activities will probably be found to
lie, not so much in the training of men who may to-morrow become prac-
tical engineers or practical lawyers or practical doctors, but rather in
386 APPENDIX A
the fact that even in the pursuit of strictly practical aims an enormous
amount of apparently useless activity goes on. Out of this useless activity
there come discoveries which may well prove of infinitely more impor-
tance to the human mind and to the human spirit than the accomplish-
ment of the useful ends for which the schools were founded.
The considerations upon which I have touched emphasize if emphasis
were needed the overwhelming importance of spiritual and intellectual
freedom. I have spoken of experimental science; I have spoken of mathe-
matics; but what I say is equally true of music and art and of every
other expression of the untrammeled human spirit. The mere fact that
they bring satisfaction to an individual soul bent upon its own purifica-
tion and elevation is all the justification that they need. And in justify-
ing these without any reference whatsoever, implied or actual, to useful-
ness we justify colleges, universities, and institutes of research. An insti-
tution which sets free successive generations of human souls is amply
justified whether or not this graduate or that makes a so-called useful
contribution to human knowledge. A poem, a symphony, a painting, a
mathematical truth, a new scientific fact, all bear in themselves all the
justification that universities, colleges, and institutes of research need or
require.
The subject which I am discussing has at this moment a peculiar
poignancy. In certain large areas Germany and Italy especially the
effort is now being made to clamp down the freedom of the human spirit.
Universities have been so reorganized that they have become tools of
those who believe in a special political, economic, or racial creed. Now
and then a thoughtless individual in one of the few democracies left in
this world will even question the fundamental importance of absolutely
untrammeled academic freedom. The real enemy of the human race is
not the fearless and irresponsible thinker, be he right or wrong. The
real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will
not dare to spread its wings, as its wings were once spread in Italy and
Germany, as well as in Great Britain and the United States.
This is not a new idea. It was the idea which animated von Humboldt
when, in the hour of Germany's conquest by Napoleon, he conceived and
founded the University of Berlin. It is the idea which animated President
Gilman in the founding of the Johns Hopkins University, after which
every university in this country has sought in greater or less degree to
remake itself. It is the idea to which every individual who values his
immortal soul will be true whatever the personal consequences to him-
self. Justification of spiritual freedom goes, however, much farther than
originality whether in the realm of science or humanism, for it implies
tolerance throughout the range of human dissimilarities. In the face of
the history of the human race what can be more silly or ridiculous than
likes or dislikes founded upon race or religion? Does humanity want
symphonies and paintings and profound scientific truth, or does it want
APPENDIX A 387
Christian symphonies, Christian paintings, Christian science, or Jewish
symphonies, Jewish paintings, Jewish science, or Mohammedan or Egyp-
tian or Japanese or Chinese or American or German or Russian or Com-
munist or Conservative contributions to and expressions of the infinite
richness of the human soul?
DISCOVERIES WITH THE NEW FORMULA FOR SILVER
IMPREGNATION
Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Recollections of My Life,
translated by E. Home Craigie,
Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society,
Vol. VIII, Philadelphia, 1937, Part II, pp. 526-27
It is a commonplace fact that scientific discoveries are a function of
the methods used. A strictly differential technique having appeared, there
follow immediately, in a logical series and in an almost automatic fashion,
unlooked for clarifications of problems formerly insoluble or incompletely
settled. And if this is true in respect of all the natural sciences, it is so
most conspicuously in the realms of histology. For the histologist, every
advance in staining technique is something like the acquisition of a new
sense directed towards the unknown. As if nature had determined to hide
from our eyes the marvellous structure of its organization, the cell, the
mysterious protagonist of life, is hidden obstinately in the double in-
visibility of smallness and homogeneity. Structures of formidable com-
plexity appear under the microscope with the colourlessness, the uniform-
ity of refractive index, and the simplicity of architecture of a mass of
jelly. The other natural sciences are more fortunate in that they work
with objects of study which are directly accessible to the senses. Only
histology and bacteriology are obliged to fulfil the preliminary and diffi-
cult task of making visible their special objects of study before they can
commence the work of analysis. And in such a severe campaign they
have to struggle, as I have already said, with two adversaries; smallness
and transparency. The histologist can advance in the knowledge of the
tissues only by impregnating or tinting them selectively with various hues
which are capable of making the cells stand out energetically from an
uncoloured background. In this way, the bee-hive of the cells is revealed
to us unveiled; it might be said that the swarm of transparent and in-
visible infusorians is transformed into a flock of painted butterflies.
388 APPENDIX A
Chapter 3 Definition and Terminology
1. Prefixes of Greek and Latin Origin
A prefix is one or more syllables, usually an adverb or a preposition,
placed before a word or root to modify its meaning. Adding the prefix
may result in a different spelling of the prefix or of the root or stem be-
cause of the demands of euphony. For example, addict, affix, and assimi-
late all come from Latin words originally formed by use of the prefix ad.
Prefix
From
Meaning
Examples
a, ab
L.
away, from
abduct
aberration
abnormal
ad
L.
to, toward
adhesion
addict
affix
assimilate
ambi
L.
both
ambidextrous
a, an
G.
not, without
anarchy
anemia
anhydrous
atypical
ana
G.
back, up, apart
anachronism
analysis
ante
L.
before
antecedent
anterior (comparative)
am phi
G.
around, both
amphibian
amphitheater
bi
L.
two, twice
bicycle
biped
bisect
cata, cath, cat
G.
down, in accordance with
cataclinal
catalysis
cataclysm
cataract
catarrh
catastrophe
contra
L.
against
contradict
contraindicate
contravene
cum, co, cog, col,
L.
with, together
coincide
com, con, cor
collect
congenital
correlate
compound
APPENDIX A 389
Prefix
From
Meaning
Examples
de
L.
down, from, away
decompose
dehydrate
decline
detoxify
di, dis
G.
twice
diacid
dibasic
dimorphism
dia
G.
through, across
diagram
diameter
diaphragm
diaphragmatic
dys
G.
bad, hard, ill
dyspepsia
e, ef, ex
L.
out of, away from
eject
evolve
exclude
exhaust
ec, ex
G.
out of
eccentric
eczema
ecto
G.
outside, without
ectoblast
ectoderm
endo
G.
within
endoblast
endoderm
eu
G.
well, good
eulogy
euphemism
euphony
extra
L.
beyond, outside of
extralateral
extraneous
extraordinary
extroversion
hyper
G.
over
hyperacidity
hyperbole
hypo
G.
under
hypodermic
hypotenuse
hypothesis
hypothyroid
in
L.
in, into
incision
incline
indigenous
induce
influx
infra
L.
below
infracostal
infrared
inter
L.
between
intercostal
interfere
intra, intro
L.
within
intracellular
intravenous
ISO
G.
equal, same
isosceles
isotherm
macro
G.
large
macrocosm
macrocyte
390 APPENDIX A
Prefix
From
Meaning
Examples
meso
G.
middle
mesoblast
mesoderm
meta
G.
after, beyond, with
metamorphosis
metaphor
metaphysical
non
L.
not
nonconductor
nondescript
para
G.
beside, against
parable
paragraph
parallel
per
L.
through (intensive)
perdurable
perforate
permanent
peri
G.
around
perimeter
periosteal
periscope
poly
G.
many
polygamy
polyhedron
post
L.
after
posterior (comparative)
postmortem
pre
L.
before
premonitory
prefix
preface
prenatal
pro
G.
before
proboscis
prodromal
program
re
L.
again, back
reaction
refract
restore
retro
L.
behind, backward
retroactive
retrogression
retrospective f
sub
L.
under
subdivision
subdiaphragmatic
subnormal
submerge
substructure
super, supra
L.
over, above
superimpose
supernatural
superstructure
suprarenal
sur
L.
above, over
surtax
surrealistic
survey
trans
L.
across, through
translucent
transparent
transfuse
transverse
ultra
L.
beyond, excessively
ultramicroscopic
2. Prefixes Indicating Number
APPENDIX A 391
Number
Latin
Greek
half
semi (semicircle)
hemi (hemisphere)
one
uni (unilateral)
mono (monopoly)
two
bi (bisect)
di (dioxide)
three
tri (triangle)
tri (tricycle)
four
quadr (quadrangle)
tetra (tetrachloride)
five
penta (pentameter)
penta (pentagon)
six
sex (sexpartite)
hexa (hexagon)
seven
sept (septuplet)
hept (heptagon)
eight
oct (octave)
oct (octagon)
nine
nona (nonary)
ennea (ennead)
ten
dec (decennial)
dec (decalogue)
one hundred
centi (centimeter)
hecto (hectogram)
thousand
rnilli (millimeter)
kilo (kilogram)
3. Suffixes of Greek and Latin Origin
A suffix is one or more syllables added after a word or root to modify
its meaning.
Suffix
From Meaning
Examples
ant, ent
L. in adjectives, with the force of the pres-
errant
ent participle; in nouns, one who or
defiant
that which
claimant
quadrant
radiant
servant
solvent
arium
L. place for
aquarium
solarium
ate
L. from past participle of first Latin con-
temperate
jugation; used in forming adjectives,
fascinate
nouns, and causative verbs
perforate
precipitate
sulphate
ation, tion
L. act, state, or quality of; that which
fermentation
formation
stagnation
suffocation
cle, cule
L. small
particle
molecule
pedicel
pedicle
esce, escent
L. becoming
adolescent
effervescent
obsolescent
392 APPENDIX A
Suffix
From
Meaning
Examples
ectomy
G.
cutting out
tonsillectomy
fy
L.
make
mortify
pacify
solidify
qualify
ia
G.
noun ending
phobia
neuralgia
ic
G.
of the nature of, pertaining to
dramatic
rhetoric
ine
L.
pertaining to
alkaline
bovine
canine
ism
G.
act, condition, characteristic or doc-
colloquialism
trine of
Darwinism
stoicism
ist
G.
one who
atheist
botanist
physicist
itis
G.
inflammation of
bronchitis
neuritis
ize
G.
make like, subject to
dramatize
plagiarize
old
G.
like, in the form of
asteroid
anthropoid
ology
G.
theory or science of
anthropology
entomology
etymology
pathology
psychology
or
L.
state or quality of, one who, that which
error
actor
survivor
doctor
elevator
osis
G.
condition or process; medical, often ab-
metamorphosis
normal
toxicosis
tuberculosis
4. Combining Forms
A combining form is a word or word element (root or stem) used with
one or more other words or elements to form a compound. Unlike prefixes
and suffixes, combining forms are not restricted to the beginning or the
end of the completed word. They are usually nouns or adjectives, and
each one contributes a concrete or specific idea to the compound. For
example, autohemotherapy is made up of three elements auto, self;
hemo, blood; therapy, treatment; the term means treatment by the injec-
tion of the patient's own blood.
APPENDIX A 393
Form
From Meaning
Examples of Use
agon
G.
combat
agony
antagonist
protagonist
anthro
G.
man
anthropogenesis
anthropoid
anthropology
anthropomorphic
algia
G.
pain
analgesic
neuralgia
archa
G.
ancient
archaic
archaeology
bibl
G.
book
Bible
bibliography
bio
G.
life
biology
symbiosis
blast
G.
shoot, germ
blastocyte
blastoderm
blastoma
ectoblast
cardi
G.
heart
cardiograph
endocarditis
caud
L.
tail
caudad
caudate
caudal
cephal
G.
head
cephalad
cephalic
encephalitis
h y drocephalic
chrom
G.
color
chromatic
chronos
G.
time
chronology
anachronism
chronic
chronograph
cosm
G.
universe
cosmic
cosmopolite
cosmos
crit
G.
judge
critic
criterion
cyt
G.
originally hollow
cytology
cytoblast
jar, urn; cell
dent
L.
tooth
dental
dentate
derm
G.
skin
dermal
epidermis
dermatitis
ectoderm
ego
L.
I
ego
egotist
egocentric
esthesia
G.
sensation
anesthesia
aesthetic
paresthesia
gam
G.
marriage
monogamy
polygamy
gen
G.
birth, descent
genealogy
parthenogenesis
(cf. Parthenon)
glossa
G.
tongue
glossal
glossalgia
glossitis
glossary
(through Latin,
glossa a diffi-
cult word)
graph
G.
write
geography
telegraph
hemo
G.
blood
hemoglobin
hemolytic
hemophilia
hemorrhage
hetero
G.
different
heterodox
heterogeneous
heterogony
heterogenous
homo
G.
the same
homogeneous
homology
(cf. hetero)
homogeny
homozygote
hydr
G.
water
hydrogen
hydrophobia
hydrant
hydrate
hydraulic
iatr
G.
healing, medical
psychiatry
pediatrics
care
394 APPENDIX A
Form
From Meaning
Examples of Use
idio
G.
one's own,
idiosyncrasy
idiopathic
peculiar
kine
G.
motion
kinetic
kinesthesia
cinema
micro
G.
small
microscope
microcosm
morpho
G.
form
morphology
amorphous
morphogenesis
anthropomorphic
necr
G.
death, dead
necrology
necropolis
necrosis
necrotic
neo
G.
new
neoclassic
neolithic
neoplasm
neur
G.
nerve
neuralgia
neuritis
neurosis
neural
odont
G.
tooth
orthodontist
orthodontia
ophthalm
G.
eye
ophthalmology
ornith
G.
bird
ornithology
ortho
G.
correct, straight
orthodox
orthography
orthodontia
orthopedic
pan
G.
all
panacea
pathos
G.
suffering, disease
pathognomonic
pathology
pathos
ped
L.
foot
pedal
biped
(pes, pedis
foot)
ped
G.
child
pediatrics
pedagogue
(pais child)
phil
G.
love
philosophy
eosinophil
phobia
G.
fear, often im-
hydrophobia
plying dislike
or aversion
phon
G.
sound, voice
phonetic
telephone
proto
G.
first
protoplasm
protozoa
prototype
pneu (pnea)
G.
air
pneumatic
pseudo
G.
false
pseudopod
pseudonym
pyo
G.
pus
pyogenic
pyosis
py
G.
fire
pyromaniac
pyrotechnic
pyretic
schi
G.
split
schism
schizoid
tax
G.
order
taxonomy
syntax
therm
G.
heat
thermal
thermometer
torn
G.
cut (ectomy
anatomy
microtome
cutting out)
zo
G.
animal
zoology
5. Plural Forms
A number of English words borrowed from Greek and Latin retain the
plural forms of their original declensions. Writers of science have been
somewhat more conservative than writers in general about adopting Eng-
APPENDIX A 395
lish plurals even when they are acceptable. Usage varies in different
fields, but the writer should know the plural forms commonly used. This
list of plurals is not intended to be inclusive but represents a number of
Greek and Latin declensions.
Singular
alga
alumna
alumnus
analysis
apparatus
appendix
automaton
bacterium
cortex
criterion
curriculum
datum
differentia
focus
index
medium
memorandum
nucleus
phenomenon
radius
stigma
stimulus
synthesis
thesis
vortex
Plural
algae
alumnae
alumni
analyses
apparatus, apparatuses
appendixes, appendices
automatons, automata
bacteria
cortices
criteria
curricula
data
differentiae
focuses, foci
indexes, indices
media
memoranda
nuclei
phenomena
radii, radiuses
stigmata, stigmas
stimuli
syntheses
theses
vortexes, vortices
6. Words and Terms Derived from Greek and latin
Proper Names
A number of scientific terms and words frequently used in scientific
writing are derived from the names of characters in Greek and Latin
myths. Most of these words have come down to us from the days when
every scientist was learned in the classics.
Name
Derivative
Arachne
Atlas
Chaos
arachnid
arachnoid
atlas
chaos
chaotic
3% APPENDIX A
Name
Derivative
Chronos (Cronus)
chronic
chronicle
chronological
chronometer
Echo
echo
Eros
erotic
Fauna
fauna
Flora
flora
Gaea
geode
geology
geometry
Helios
heliograph
heliotrope
heliotropism
helium
Hercules
herculean
Hyacinth
hyacinth
Hymen
hymeneal
Janus
January
Mercury
mercury
Morpheus
morphine
Narcissus
narcissus
the narcissus complex
Nemesis
nemesis
Oedipus
the Oedipus complex
Pluto
Plutonic
Plutus
plutocracy
Proteus
protean
Psyche*
psychiatry
psychic
psychology
Tantalus
tantalize
tantalum
Terminus
terminus
Uranus
Uranus
uranium
Vulcan
vulcanite
vulcanize
APPENDIX A 397
Chapter 4 Collecting Data
IN WHAT FORM DO YOU LIKE TO FIND LITERATURE
CITATIONS?
The American Institute of Biological Sciences,
The A.I.B.S. Bulletin, 1(5) :21, October 1951
Most biologists agree that uniformity in citations is preferable to the
great variations now encountered from one publication to another. Based
on the short vote taken in connection with the A.I.B.S. Columbus meet-
ing of last year, and a more recent sample vote among certain editors
and librarians, the A.I.B.S. Publications Committee is preparing a guide
for literature citations. To approach more nearly what readers desire,
the Committee is sending out this ballot to secure a vote on the more
critical items.
Probably no one system will meet the needs of all groups. The results
of this vote, however, will indicate how most people feel about certain
critical points.
Will you please help by marking the appropriate places to indicate
your preferences.
I. In which sequence do you prefer citations to literature? [Please
check preferences]
A. Alphabetical order according to authorship
B. Numbered in the order of appearance in text
II. Authorship
A. Do you like the initials of second and subsequent au-
thors to be reversed or in natural order? Examples:
Smith, R. E., Jones, A. J., and 'Brown, E. F.
Smith, R. E., A. J. Jones, and E. F. Brown
B. Do you prefer "and" or "&"? Examples:
Smith, R. E., and A. J. Jones
Smith, R. E., & A. J. Jones
C. Do you prefer a woman's name spelled out or merely
with an initial? Examples:
Johnson, Barbara
Johnson, B. ___
D. Shall names appear exactly as on the publication or be
abbreviated to initials? Examples:
398 APPENDIX A
Moore, George W., and Howard L. Hansen
Moore, G. W., and H. L. Hansen
E. With more than two names, should all be given or only
the first name followed by et at.? Examples:
Smith, R. E,, A. J. Jones, and E. F. Brown
Smith, R. E., et al.
III. Titles of articles or books
A. Do you want titles included? Yes No_
B. If you mark A "y es >" should long titles be
shortened? Yes No_
IV. Abbreviations of journals
Which list of abbreviations do you prefer?
A. Chemical Abstracts
B. Index of American Botanical Literature
C. International Catalog
D. U. S. Department of Agriculture
E. World List
F. Other List (please name it)
V. Position of date
Where should the date appear?
A. At the end. Example:
Cook, M. T. The diseases of tropical plants. 317 p.
London, 1913
B. Following the authorship. Example:
Cook, M. T. 1913. The diseases of tropical plants.
317 p. London
VI. Illustrations
Shall the illustrations be indicated?
A. No mention of illustrations
B. The simple abbreviation "illus."
C. Details, such as "2 pi., 5 figs."
VII. Publisher of a book and his location
Shall the publisher be included as well as the place of pub-
lication? Examples:
A. McGraw-Hill, New York
B. New York
Please indicate any special interest you may have in these questions,
and add your further comments.
Please tear out this ballot and mail before November 15 to A. J.
Riker, Chairman, A.I.B.S. Publications Committee, Dept. Plant
Pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 6, Wisconsin.
APPENDIX A 399
GETTING AT THE TRUTH
Marchette Chute, "Getting at the Truth,"
The Saturday Review, 36(38) :1M2, September 19, 1953
This is a rather presumptuous title for a biographer to use, since truth
is a very large word. In the sense that it means the reality about a human
being it is probably impossible for a biographer to achieve. In the sense
that it means a reasonable presentation of all the available facts it is
more nearly possible, but even this limited goal is harder to reach than
it appears to be. A biographer needs to be both humble and cautious
when he remembers the nature of the material he is working with, for a
historical fact is rather like the flamingo that Alice in Wonderland tried
to use as a croquet mallet. As soon as she got its neck nicely straightened
out and was ready to hit the ball, it would turn and look at her with a
puzzled expression, and any biographer knows that what is called a "fact"
has a way of doing the same.
Here is a small example. When I was writing my forthcoming biog-
raphy, "Ben Jonson of Westminster," I wanted to give a paragraph or two
to Sir Philip Sidney, who had a great influence on Jonson. No one thinks
of Sidney without thinking of chivalry, and to underline the point I in-
tended to use a story that Sir Fulke Greville told of him. Sidney died of
gangrene, from a musket shot that shattered his thigh, and Greville says
that Sidney failed to put on his leg armor while preparing for battle be-
cause the marshal of the camp was not wearing leg armor and Sidney
was unwilling to do anything that would give him a special advantage.
The story is so characteristic both of Sidney himself and of the mis-
placed high-mindedness of late Renaissance chivalry that I wanted to use
it, and since Sir Fulke Greville was one of Sidney's closest friends the
information seemed to be reliable enough. But it is always well to check
each piece of information as thoroughly as possible and so I consulted
another account of Sidney written by a contemporary, this time a doctor
who knew the family fairly well. The doctor, Thomas Moffet, mentioned
the episode but he said that Sidney left off his leg armor because he was
in a hurry.
The information was beginning to twist in my hand and could no
longer be trusted. So I consulted still another contemporary who had
mentioned the episode, to see which of the two he agreed with. This was
Sir John Smythe, a military expert who brought out his book a few
years after Sidney's death. Sir John was an old-fashioned conservative
who advocated the use of heavy armor even on horseback, and he de-
plored the current craze for leaving off leg protection, "the imitating of
400 APPENDIX A
which . . . cost that noble and worthy gentleman Sir Philip Sidney his
life."
So here I was with three entirely different reasons why Sidney left off
his leg armor, all advanced by careful writers who were contemporaries
of his. The flamingo had a legitimate reason for looking around with a
puzzled expression.
The only thing to do in a case like this is to examine the point of view
of the three men who are supplying the conflicting evidence. Sir Fulke
Greville was trying to prove a thesis: that his beloved friend had an ex-
tremely chivalric nature. Sir John Smythe also was trying to prove a
thesis: that the advocates of light arming followed a theory that could
lead to disaster. Only the doctor, Thomas Moffet, was not trying to prove
a thesis. He was not using his own explanation to reinforce some point
he wanted to make. He did not want anything except to set down on
paper what he believed to be the facts ; and since we do not have Sidney's
own explanation of why he 'did not put on leg armor, the chances are
that Dr. Moffet is the safest man to trust.
For Moffet was without desire. Nothing can so quickly blur and dis-
tort the facts as desire the wish to use the facts for some purpose of
your own and nothing can so surely destroy the truth. As soon as the
witness wants to prove something he is no longer impartial and his evi-
dence is no longer to be trusted.
Chapter 5 Analysis: Methods and Applications
Reprinted by permission of the publishers from
George Howard Parker, The World Expands, pp. 34-37,
Cambridge, Harvard University Press. Copyright 1946,
by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Thus I became a part of the family at the Academy of Natural Sci-
ences. My duties were to clean, order, and arrange the collection of
butterflies, not a very large one, belonging to the institution and to help
any visitor who might wish special information about insects. . . .
As a member of the Academy's family, I was thrown with an interesting
group of men. I was by far the youngest of them all, but I was invariably
treated most kindly. . . . The younger members of this group commonly
brought their luncheons with them to the Academy. At the midday hour
we retired to a basement room where we ate our repast around a table
which served in several ways as our center of interest. At about this
APPENDIX A 401
period two books had appeared that made a special appeal to young
zoologists. One of these was Mivart's Cat, and the other was Flower's
Osteology of the Mammalia. These books were eagerly read by us and
kept within easy reach for reference. As a result of studying them we
had all indulged freely in making skeletons cats, turtles, dogs, birds,
snakes, frogs, and even fishes, in part or as wholes fell into the boiling
pot and came out clean bones. Many of these thus prepared, mostly as
separate specimens, found their way into a large wooden box that stood
by our lunch table. During the time of our repast it was usual for one
of us to reach a hand into the bone-box, bring out as chance would have
it a single bone and put it in the middle of the table for identification.
Was it from a bird or from a mammal or from some other creature? If
a vertebra, which face was front, which back, which above and which
below? Woe be to him who did not know the law of the zygapophyses !
Do prezygapophyses face upward or down? And so on through the
luncheon which thus became food for the soul as well as for the body.
The end of the meal was usually followed by a brief trip to the hall of
the museum where a disputed point could be settled by reference to a
mounted skeleton. By this kind of exercise we came to know bones as
we did our alphabet.
When I went to Harvard I took a course in my second year on cat
anatomy under Dr. Walter Faxon and in a joking way our instructor put
a cat bone on a laboratory table, around which half a dozen of us had
gathered, and asked what bone it was. The query was put to us in a chal-
lenging spirit. Most of the group gave up, but by the mere accident of
my early training I felt at home with such a question. When the query
was put to me I declared for the left navicular of the cat. We took the
loose bone for final identification to a mounted cat skeleton and there
the bone was in the cat's instep on the left side. Dr. Faxon looked at me
in surprise, in fact he seemed almost appalled, till I told him of the
training that I had been through. He then quickly saw that my kind of
genius was all perspiration and no inspiration. Nevertheless, he was
always thereafter more considerate of me and took a special interest in
showing me the historical New England countryside in the neighborhood
of Cambridge and Boston, for he was a born antiquarian.
Beside the younger men in the Academy's family, there were also
scientific worthies of greater maturity but no less friendliness. The old-
est of these was Titian Peale, whose artistic instincts led him to prepare
beautiful illustrations of the American butterflies and moths which un-
fortunately never saw the light. Then there was the anatomist, Dr. Harri-
son Allen, a student of bats, who gave me my first lesson in anatomy
by showing me how to dissect a snapping turtle. Of equal interest were
the two notable students of American beetles, Dr. G. H. Horn and Dr.
John L. LeConte, both much concerned with the collections of the Ameri-
402 APPENDIX A
can Entomological Society then stored in rooms at the Academy. We saw
every week or so the Reverend H. C. McCook, who was at that time in
the midst of his studies on the habits of American ants; and George W.
Tryon, Jr., the curator of the Academy's collection of shells, was well
started at this period on his colossal monograph of the shells of the
world. These men and many others were among those who might be
called the zoologically inclined members of the Academy's household,
but beside them this institution found place for numerous botanists,
geologists, mineralogists, and other natural historians whose total inter-
ests seemed to cover every aspect of Nature.
Perhaps possessed of wider interests than any of those already men-
tioned, and certainly most widely known of all in the world of Science,
was Dr. Joseph Leidy. When I first came to the Academy, he was chair-
man of its board of curators and before I left that institution he had
become its revered president. As Jessup students we came directly under
Dr. Leidy's supervision. It was his habit to come to the Academy about
once a week during daytime hours, and at such times we were always
free to bring to him any difficulties that had arisen in our work. These
matters he talked over with us with kindly consideration and interest.
He knew us well enough to call us by our given names, which empha-
sized our apprentice to master relationship.
As I look back on those brief but not infrequent meetings with Dr.
Leidy, I am impressed with what they really meant for me. Though a
most distinguished scholar in the broad field of natural history, his re-
marks on any subject were in language so simple that anyone could
understand, and though he often used technical terms he used them with
a word of explanation which made them at once plain and clear. I have
elsewhere described how he once spoke to a group of schoolchildren, on
the form of the human skull; a strange subject to introduce to children,
and yet he did it in such a direct and simple manner that in a few min-
utes he had all the youngsters fully aroused and eager to grasp all that
he described to them. His talk was especially instructive to me, as I
listened from the outskirts of the group, to see how he used technical
terms. He remarked when he came to the foramen magnum that this was
the largest opening in the skull and that it was the aperture for the con-
nection between the brain and the spinal cord. He then went on to say
that to call it by its technical name seemed very learned, but to a Roman
the words foramen magnum meant merely a big hole. Pedantry never
found a place with Dr. Leidy.
APPENDIX A 403
Warren Weaver, "Science and Complexity,"
American Scientist, 36:537-38, October 1948
Subsequent to 1900 and actually earlier, if one includes heroic pioneers
such as Josiah Willard Gibbs, the physical sciences developed an attack
on nature of an essentially and dramatically new kind. Rather than study
problems which involved two variables or at most three or four, some
imaginative minds went to the other extreme, and said: "Let us develop
analytical methods which can deal with two billion variables." That is
to say, the physical scientist, with the mathematicians often in the van-
guard, developed powerful techniques of probability theory and of statis-
tical mechanics to deal with what may be called problems of disorganized
complexity.
This last phrase calls for explanation. Consider first a simple illustra-
tion in order to get the flavor of the idea. The classical dynamics of the
nineteenth century was well suited for analyzing and predicting the
motion of a single ivory ball as it moves about on a billiard table. In fact,
the relationship between positions of the ball and the times at which it
reaches these positions forms a typical nineteenth-century problem of
simplicity. One can, but with a surprising increase in difficulty, analyze
the motion of two or even of three balls on a billiard table. There has
been, in fact, considerable study of the mechanics of the standard game
of billiards. But, as soon as one tries to analyze the motion of ten or
fifteen balls on the table at once, as in pool, the problem becomes un-
manageable, not because there is any theoretical difficulty, but just be-
cause the actual labor of dealing in specific detail with so many variables
turns out to be impractical.
Imagine, however, a large billiard table with millions of balls rolling
over its surface, colliding with one another and with the side rails. The
great surprise is that the problem now becomes easier, for the methods
of statistical mechanics are applicable. To be sure the detailed history of
one special ball can not be traced, but certain important questions can
be answered with useful precision, such as: On the average how many
balls per second hit a given stretch of rail? On the average how far does
a ball move before it is hit by some other ball? On the average how
many impacts per second does a ball experience?
Earlier it was stated that the new statistical methods were applicable
to problems of disorganized complexity. How does the word "disorgan-
ized" apply to the large billiard table with the many balls? It applies
because the methods of statistical mechanics are valid only when the balls
are distributed, in their positions and motions, in a helter-skelter, that is
to say a disorganized, way. For example, the statistical methods would
404 APPENDIX A
not apply if someone were to arrange the balls in a row parallel to one
side rail of the table, and then start them all moving in precisely parallel
paths perpendicular to the two in which they stand. Then the balls would
never collide with each other nor with two of the rails, and one would not
have a situation of disorganized complexity.
From this illustration it is clear what is meant by a problem of dis-
organized complexity. It is a problem in which the number of variables
is very large, and one in which each of the many variables has a behavior
which is individually erratic, or perhaps totally unknown. However, in
spite of this helter-skelter, or unknown, behavior of all the individual
variables, the system as a whole possesses certain orderly and analyzable
average properties.
A wide range of experience comes under the label of disorganized
complexity. The method applies with increasing precision when the num-
ber of variables increases. It applies with entirely useful precision to the
experience of a large telephone exchange, in predicting the average fre-
quency of calls, the probability of overlapping calls of the same number,
etc. It makes possible the financial stability of a life insurance company.
Although the company can have no knowledge whatsoever concerning the
approaching death of any one individual, it has dependable knowledge
of the average frequency with which deaths will occur.
This last point is interesting and important. Statistical techniques are
not restricted to situations where the scientific theory of the individual
events is very well known, as in the billiard example where there is a
beautifully precise theory for the impact of one ball on another. This
technique can also be applied to situations, like the insurance example,
where the individual event is as shrouded in mystery as is the chain of
complicated and unpredictable events associated with the accidental
death of a healthy man.
The examples of the telephone and insurance companies suggest a
whole array of practical applications of statistical techniques based on
disorganized complexity. In a sense they are unfortunate examples, for
they tend to draw attention away from the more fundamental use which
science makes of these new techniques. The motions of the atoms which
form all matter, as well as the motions of the stars which form the uni-
verse, come under the range of these new techniques. The fundamental
laws of heredity are analyzed by them. The laws of thermodynamics,
which describe basic and inevitable tendencies of all physical systems,
are derived from statistical considerations. The entire structure of modern
physics, our present concept of the nature of the physical universe, and
of the accessible experimental facts concerning it rest on these statistical
concepts. Indeed, the whole question of evidence and the way in which
knowledge can be inferred from evidence are now recognized to depend
on these same statistical ideas, so that probability notions are essential
to any theory of knowledge itself.
APPENDIX A 405
Chapter 6 Interpretation: Applying the Principles of Logic
Francis Darwin, editor, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,
New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1925, Vol. I, pp. 67-68
From September 1854 I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge
pile of notes, to observing, and to experimenting in relation to the trans-
mutation of species. During the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply
impressed by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil animals
covered with armour like that on the existing armadillos; secondly, by
the manner in which closely allied animals replace one another in pro-
ceeding southwards over the Continent; and thirdly, by the South Ameri-
can character of most of the productions of the Galapagos archipelago,
and more especially by the manner in which they differ slightly on each
island of the group ; none of the islands appearing to be very ancient in a
geological sense.
It was evident that such facts as these, as well as many others, could
only be explained on the supposition that species gradually become modi-
fied; and the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that neither
the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the organisms
(especially in the case of plants) could account for the innumerable
cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully adapted to their
habits of life for instance, a woodpecker or a tree-frog to climb trees,
or a seed for dispersal by hooks or plumes. I had always been much
struck by such adaptations, and until these could be explained it seemed
to me almost useless to endeavour to prove by indirect evidence that
species have been modified.
After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the
example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in
any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and
nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject. My
first note-book was opened in July 1837. I worked on true Baconian prin-
ciples, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale, more
especially with respect to domesticated productions, by printed enquiries,
by conversation with skilful breeders and gardeners, and by extensive
reading. When I see the list of books of all kinds which I read and ab-
stracted, including whole series of Journals and Transactions, I am sur-
prised at my industry. I soon perceived that selection was the keystone
of man's success in making useful races of animals and plants. But how
selection could be applied to organisms living in a state of nature re-
mained for some time a mystery to me.
406 APPENDIX A
Julian S. Huxley, Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, New York,
Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 13-14. Copyright 1942
by Julian S. Huxley
Biology at the present time is embarking upon a phase of synthesis
after a period in which new disciplines were taken up in turn and worked
out in comparative isolation. Nowhere is this movement towards unifica-
tion more likely to be valuable than in this many-sided topic of evolution ;
and already we are seeing the first-fruits in the re-animation of Dar-
winism.
By Darwinism I imply that blend of induction and deduction which
Darwin was the first to apply to the study of evolution. He was concerned
both to establish the fact of evolution and to discover the mechanism by
which it operated; and it was precisely because he attacked both aspects
of the problem simultaneously, that he was so successful. On the one
hand he amassed enormous quantities of facts from which inductions
concerning the evolutionary process could be drawn; and on the other,
starting from a few general principles, he deduced the further principle
of natural selection.
It is as well to remember the strong deductive element in Darwinism.
Darwin based his theory of natural selection on three observable facts of
nature and two deductions from them. The first fact is the tendency of
all organisms to increase in a geometrical ratio. The tendency of all
organisms to increase is due to the fact that offspring, in the early stages
of their existence, are always more numerous than their parents; this
holds good whether reproduction is sexual or asexual, by fission or by
budding, by means of seeds, spores, or eggs.* The second fact is that,
in spite of this tendency to progressive increase, the numbers of a given
species actually remain more or less constant.
The first deduction follows. From these two facts he deduced the
struggle for existence. For since more young are produced than can
survive, there must be competition for survival. In amplifying his theory,
he extended the concept of the struggle for existence to cover reproduc-
tion. The struggle is in point of fact for survival of the stock; if its sur-
vival is aided by greater fertility, an earlier breeding season, or other
reproductive function, these should be included under the same head.
Darwin's third fact of nature was variation: all organisms vary ap-
preciably. And the second and final deduction, which he deduced from
the first deduction and the third fact, was Natural Selection. Since there
is a struggle for existence among individuals, and since these individuals
* The only exception, so far as I am aware, is to be found in certain human
populations which fall far short of replacing themselves.
APPENDIX A 407
are not all alike, some of the variations among them will be advantageous
in the struggle for survival, others unfavourable. Consequently, a higher
proportion of individuals with favourable variations will on the average
survive, a higher proportion of those with unfavourable variations will
die or fail to reproduce themselves. And since a great deal of variation
is transmitted by heredity, these effects of differential survival will in
large measure accumulate from generation to generation. Thus natural
selection will act constantly to improve and to maintain the adjustment
of animals and plants to their surroundings and their way of life.
"FIGURES CAN LIE"
Margaret Knight, "Figures Can Lie,"
Science Digest, 30(3) :52-53, September 1951.
As condensed by Science Digest from The Listener, London
When a statistician says that there is a correlation between two things,
what he means is simply that the two things tend to go together, or to
vary together. For example, there is a correlation between the age of
children and their height. If you take a hundred children and arrange
them in order of age, and then arrange them again in order of height, you
will find that the two orders are not so very different. Again, there is a
correlation between the intelligence of children and their progress in
school; between income and the amount spent on food and so on.
When two things are correlated in this way, it often is the case that the
variations in one directly cause the variations in the other. For example,
if, in an agricultural research station, there was found to be a correlation
between the amount of cod-liver oil given to young pigs and the rate at
which they grow, then if other conditions had been kept the same it
would be a pretty safe assumption that it was the extra cod-liver oil that
had caused some of the pigs to grow faster than others.
But not every correlation implies a direct causal relation of this type.
Here is an example: In any large school, one would certainly find a cor-
relation between the size of the pupils' feet and the speed of their hand-
writing.
This is a typical case where two things are related through a common
third factor, and the third factor in this case is obviously age. It is the
oldest children who have the biggest feet, and the oldest children who
are the quickest writers.
That sort of mistake, in a less obvious form, is very easy to make.
For example, it was shown some time ago that there is a correlation be-
tween the intelligence of children and the age of their fathers when the
children were born. In other words, middle-aged and elderly men tend
408 APPENDIX A
to produce children who are more intelligent than the children of younger
men.
It looked at first sight as though some new, and very unexpected, bio-
logical principle had been found.
But here again we are not dealing with a direct cause-and-effect rela-
tionship. This odd fact, that older fathers tend to have more intelligent
children, depends for its explanation on three other facts. These facts
are, first, that intelligence is strongly hereditary ; secondly, that the most
intelligent class in the community, by and large, is the professional class ;
and thirdly, that (by and large again) it is the professional class who
are least given to early marriages.
Later marriages mean older fathers, so the fact that older fathers tend
to have more intelligent children is just a by-product, so to speak, of the
fact that older fathers are more often members of the professions.
The same sort of mistake is liable to be made with many other types
of statistical data. The death-rate from cancer provides a good example.
Statisticians tell us that for many years the death-rate from cancer has
been slowly but steadily rising: and not unnaturally, many people con-
clude from this that for some reason or other we are becoming more
susceptible to cancer.
Actually, that conclusion does not follow at all. The rise in the cancer
death-rate is probably due entirely to the fact that other causes of death
have been reduced. Numbers of people who, if they had been born a
century earlier, would have died in their twenties of typhoid or smallpox,
say, are now living on into their seventies and dying of cancer.
In a Dublin hospital, many years ago, it was noticed that the death-rate
was markedly higher in the ground-floor wards than it was in the wards
upstairs. This fact was commented on in an official report, and marked
down as requiring investigation. Then it was discovered that, when new
patients came in, the porter of the hospital was in the habit of putting
them upstairs if they could walk by themselves, and downstairs if they
could not.
APPENDIX A 409
Chapter 7 Directing the Paper to the Reader
Reprinted from Gods, Graves, and Scholars
by C. W. Ceram, translated from the German by E. B. Garside,
pp. 177-84, by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Copyright 1951 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Carnarvon and Carter looked down upon the Valley of the Kings.
Dozens of others had dug there before them, but not one of these many
predecessors had left behind any exact drawings or even rough plans
for the guidance of future explorers. Great heaps of rubble towered on
all sides, giving the valley floor a lunar aspect. Among the heaps, like
pit-heads, were the entrances to already exploited tombs. The only pos-
sible mode of attack was to dig systematically down to the rocky floor.
Carter proposed to excavate in a triangular area bounded by the tombs
of Ramses II, Merneptah, and Ramses VI. "At the risk of being accused
of post actum prescience," he says, "I will state that we had definite hopes
of finding the tomb of one particular king, and that king Tut.ank.-
Amen." . . .
Once Carnarvon and Carter had begun the actual digging, in one
winter's work they cleared away from within their triangular area of
operation a large part of the upper layers of piled rubble and reached
the foot of the tomb of Ramses VI. "Here we came on a series of work-
men's huts, built over masses of flint boulders, the latter usually indi-
cating in The Valley the near proximity of a tomb."
What now unfolded was extremely exciting, viewed within the context
of the whole Tutankhamen drama. Since further attempts to enlarge
the excavation in the projected direction would have blocked off the
entrance to the tomb of Ramses, a very popular site with tourists, work
was stopped until the work could proceed unhampered. Excavation was
resumed in the winter of 1919-20, and at the entrance to the tomb of
Ramses VI a small, but archaeologically important deposit of funerary
materials was unearthed. "This was the nearest approach to a real find
that we had yet made in The Valley," Carter remarks. . . .
On November 3, 1922 Lord Carnarvon was away in England at the
time Carter began to tear down the workmen's huts. The next morning
a stone step cut into the rock was discovered beneath the first hut. By
the afternoon of November 5 enough rubbish had been cleared away to
410 APPENDIX A
establish beyond doubt the fact that the entrance to the tomb had indeed
been found.
But it might very well have been an unfinished tomb, one that, perhaps,
had never been used. And if the tomb did contain a mummy, it might,
like so many others, have already been plundered. And perhaps, to com-
plete the list of pessimistic possibilities, the mummy was there, but might
be nothing but that of some high official or of a priest.
The work was pressed feverishly, Carter's excitement mounting as the
day wore on. Step after step appeared out of the rubble, and as the
sudden Egyptian night closed in, the level of the twelfth step came to
light, disclosing "The upper part of a doorway, blocked, plastered, and
sealed. A sealed doorway it was actually true, then! ... It was a
thrilling moment for an excavator."
Carter examined the seal and found it to be that of the royal necropolis.
A royal seal was clear proof that a person of very high standing was
interred within. Since the workmen's huts had lain directly above the
opening, it was obvious that at least since the Twentieth Dynasty the
tomb had never been plundered. And when Carter, shaking with agitation,
bored a peephole in the door "just large enough to insert an electric
torch," he discovered that the corridor behind the door was filled to the
brim with stones and rubble further reassurance that elaborate protec-
tive measures had been taken with the tomb.
On the morning of November 6 Carter sent the following telegram to
Lord Carnarvon: "At last have made wonderful discovery in valley; a
magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival;
congratulations." On November 8 two replies from Carnarvon were re-
ceived: "Possibly come soon"; and "Propose arrive Alexandria 20th."
On November 23 Lord Carnarvon, accompanied by his daughter, ar-
rived in Luxor. For more than two weeks Carter had been waiting,
consumed by impatience, on guard at the carefully covered tomb en-
trance. Two days after the discovery of the steps he had been flooded
with messages of congratulation. But congratulations for exactly what?
What was in the tomb? At this time Carter could not have said. Had he
dug only a few inches lower down, he would have come upon the un-
mistakable seal of Tutankhamen himself. "Had I but known ... I
would have cleared on," says Carter, "and had a much better night's rest
in consequence, and saved myself nearly three weeks of uncertainty."
On the afternoon of November 24 the workers shoveled the last of the
flight of steps free of rubbish. Carter went down the sixteen steps and
stood before the sealed door. Now he could get a clear impression of the
seal of Tutankhamen. And now, too, he became aware the Egyptologist's
typical experience that others had been there before him. Here, too,
robbers had done their work.
"Now that the whole door was exposed to light," Carter says, "it was
possible to discern a fact that had hitherto escaped notice that there
APPENDIX A 411
had been two successive openings and re-closings of a part of its surface:
furthermore, that the sealing originally discovered, the jackal and nine
captives (the necropolis seal), had been applied to the reclosed portions,
whereas the sealings of Tut.ankh.Amen covered the untouched part of
the doorway, and were therefore those with which the tomb had been
originally secured. The tomb then was not absolutely intact, as we had
hoped. Plunderers had entered it, and entered it more than once from
the evidence of the huts above, plunderers of a date not later than the
reign of Rameses IV but that they had not rifled it completely was evi-
dent from the fact that it had been re-sealed."
But more revelations were in store for Carter. His confusion and un-
certainty increased. When he had had the last of the rubbish blocking
the stairs shoveled away, he found potsherds and boxes, the latter with
the names of Ikhnaton, Sakeres, and Tutankhamen on them, also a scarab
belonging to Thotmes III, and a piece of another, this one with the name
of Amenophis III inscribed on it. Could all these names mean, against
all expectation, a jointly shared rather than a single tomb?
Certainty could be achieved only by opening the door of the tomb.
The next days were spent preparing for this move. Carter had seen the
first time he looked through the peephole that the interior passage was
clogged with rubble. This filling consisted of two clearly distinguishable
kinds of stone. The shoulder-wide entrance cut by the robbers had itself
been replugged with a kind of dark flint.
After several days of hard work the excavators, having penetrated
thirty-two feet into the passage, found themselves hard up against a
second door. The impressions of the royal seal of Tutankhamen and of
the necropolis seal were also on this door, but there were signs, too,
that intruders must have broken past this second obstruction.
Basing their reasoning on the resemblance of the whole layout to a
cache of Ikhnaton that had been found near by, at this state Carnarvon
and Carter, with good reason, were tempted to believe that they were
dealing with a common tomb, and not the original grave of an Egyptian
king. And was there much to expect in a cache, especially one that had
already been visited by robbers?
Their hopes, in short, for a time were dashed. The tension increased
once more, however, when rubble was taken away from the second door.
"The decisive moment had arrived," Carter says. "With trembling hands
I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner."
Taking an iron testing-rod, Carter poked it through the door and
found an emptiness on the other side. He lit candles to ensure against
poisonous gases. Then the hole was enlarged.
Everyone interested in the project now crowded about. Lord Car-
narvon, his daughter, Lady Evelyn, and Callender, the Egyptologist, who
had rushed to offer his help upon first receiving news of the find all
looked on. Nervously Carter lit a match, touched it to the candle, and
412 APPENDIX A
held it toward the hole. As his head neared the opening he was literally
trembling with expectation and curiosity the warm air escaping from
the chamber beyond the door made the candle flare up. For a moment
Carter, his eye fixed to the hole and the candle burning within, could
make out nothing. Then, as his eyes became gradually accustomed to the
flickering light, he distinguished shapes, then their shadows, then the first
colors. Not a sound escaped his lips; he had been stricken dumb. The
others waited for what seemed to them like an eternity. Finally Carnarvon
could no longer contain his impatience. "Can you see anything?" he
inquired.
Carter, slowly turning his head, said shakily: "Yes, wonderful things."
OUT OF THE NIGHT
H. J. Muller, Out of the Night,
New York, The Vanguard Press, Inc., 1935, pp. 24-28
Now this peculiar creature, man, has as yet had only a very short
probationary period. Recent findings in radioactive rocks have given
testimony that the entire process of organic evolution on the earth has
taken something like a thousand million years, at least possibly even
several times as long. Only by comparisons can we grasp such immensi-
ties, so let us imagine this period symbolized by a distance along a cord,
each yard of which stands for 10,000 years, and which ends, in the pres-
ent time, at some established point of reference say the center of the
private desk of J. P. Morgan in his office in Wall Street, New York City.
To represent the beginning of organic evolution we should have to start
the string many miles away probably at least as far off as New Haven,
possibly as far as Boston.
It is of interest to note that, on this scale, a human generation (from
one birth to the next) would occupy somewhat less than an eighth of
an inch, and that, if our symbolic cord were taken as about three-eighths
of an inch wide (a small rope), the portion included within one genera-
tion would then be a disc-shaped cross-section having the approximate
dimensions of an ordinary aspirin tablet. Now this is just equal to the
volume of hereditary material which actually is contained in one gen-
eration of mankind, and which is to be passed on to the next generation.
Hence our cord now acquires a further symbolic significance, in that it
may be taken as representing in a certain real physical sense the evolving
germ plasm of ourselves and our ancestors though it would not every-
where be of equal width, as the numbers of the population change. Within
this cord the fine fibers represent the chromosomes themselves, which are
in fact filamentous bodies that intertwine, separate, and reunite in diverse
APPENDIX A 413
ways as they pass along from generation to generation in the varying
combinations resulting from sexual reproduction. In this cord, then, there
would be material which, from the beginning, has continued to make
generation after generation of progressing forms. Their bodies (or soma),
which constituted a vastly greater volume, may be considered as a series
of excrescences about the cord, formed under the influences emanating
from the by-products of the cord's chemical activity. The evolutionary
changes manifested in their multitudinous characteristics are but re-
flections of primary changes occurring within the potent particles (genes)
composing the tiny filaments of the cord itself. While the cord in question
shows our particular line of ancestry, the lines of the millions of other
living species would be shown by other, parallel cords some thin, some
thick, some branching as time goes on and as species diverge from one
another, and many coming to an early end as species become extinct;
but practically all the "higher" forms, at any rate, tracing back their
origin to one original cord in the beginning. At any given place there
is but a single one, out of all the mass of cords, which has led on so as
finally to issue in our branch ; this may be distinguished, in our figurative
representation, by giving it a red color. It is this red cord which may be
regarded as the red "thread of destiny," in a rather literal sense. Its free
end is even now being spun further, being transfigured by mutation, being
twined and interwoven, to give a new sort of living world, dependent on
its new properties.
Let us now start at the beginning of the mass of life cords say at
New Haven and follow along them on their long way towards their
present destination in New York City, observing what forms are assumed
by their bodily outgrowths (soma) as we travel forward. Except to the
trained biologist, it will prove a dreary trip for much the greater part
of the distance. For in this whole journey there will be no actual "beasts"
as we ordinarily think of them (four-footed land animals) until we are
well within the limits of New York City. Not until we are passing through
Harlem shall we see any creatures with fur or feathers i.e., mammals
or birds. And note that even at that stage in our journey tremendous
reptiles dinosaurs are still crashing over the earth; they long remain
dominant over the few little warm-blooded pioneers, and they do not
disappear until after we cross Forty-second Street. Not far below that
point monkeys make their first appearance; but from that point south-
ward the records show nothing higher than an ape until, having turned
the corner of Wall Street, we actually confront our terminal building.
There, about 100 feet from the end of the cord, are found the relics of
the famous "missing link" Pithecanthropus not yet a man, but passed
beyond the ape. Well within the building, and only about 15 feet from
the desk in question, stands that stoop-shouldered lowbrow, the Neander-
thal man, whom we do not dignify by classification in our species the
species self-styled Homo sapiens, "man the wise."
414 APPENDIX A
Our own Homo sapiens leaves his first known remains within the private
office, only seven and a half feet from the desk. The earliest known
"civilization" (not over 14,000 years ago, according to maximum esti-
mates) leaves its crockery a yard and a half from the desk. On the
desk, one foot from the center, stands old King Tut. Five and a half
inches from the center we mark the Fall of Rome and the beginning of
the Dark Ages. Only one and a half inches from the present end of the
cord come the discovery of America and the promulgation of the Coperni-
can theory through which man opens his eyes for the first time to the
vastness of the world in which he lives and to his own relative insig-
nificance. Half an inch from the end of the cord there start the first faint
reverberations of the Industrial Revolution, which set this desk here and
which is now completely transforming man's mode of existence. A quarter
of an inch from the end Darwin speaks, and man awakes to the transitory
character of his shape and his institutions.
Chapter 8 Scientific Style
Alfred North Whitehead,
The Aims of Education and Other Essays,
New York, The Macmillan Company, 1929, pp. 19-20.
Used with permission of The Macmillan Company
Finally, there should grow the most austere of all mental qualities; I
mean the sense for style. It is an aesthetic sense, based on admiration for
the direct attainment of a foreseen end, simply and without waste. Style
in art, style in literature, style in science, style in logic, style in practical
execution have fundamentally the same aesthetic qualities, namely, attain-
ment and restraint. The love of a subject in itself and for itself, where
it is not the sleepy pleasure of pacing a mental quarter-deck, is the love
of style as manifested in that study.
Here we are brought back to the position from which we started, the
utility of education. Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of
the educated mind; it is also the most useful. It pervades the whole
being. The administrator with a sense for style hates waste; the engineer
with a sense for style economises his material; the artisan with a sense
for style prefers good work. Style is the ultimate morality of mind.
But above style, and above knowledge, there is something, a vague
shape like fate above the Greek gods. That something is Power. Style
is the fashioning of power, the restraining of power. But, after all, the
power of attainment of the desired end is fundamental. The first thing
APPENDIX A 415
is to get there. Do not bother about your style, but solve your problem,
justify the ways of God to man, administer your province, or do what-
ever else is set before you.
Where, then, does style help? In this, with style the end is attained
without side issues, without raising undesirable inflammations. With style
you attain your end and nothing but your end. With style the effect of
your activity is calculable, and foresight is the last gift of gods to men.
With style your power is increased, for your mind is not distracted with
irrelevances, and you are more likely to attain your object. Now style is
the exclusive privilege of the expert. Whoever heard of the style of an
amateur painter, of the style of an amateur poet? Style is always the
product of specialist study, the peculiar contribution of specialism to
culture.
Words Frequently Misspelled by Students of Science
abscissas
controlled
indispensable
precede
accelerator
co-ordinate
laboratory
preparation
accommodate
definite
lesion
primitive
accumulate
dental
lining
principal
affect
dentistry
liquefy
principle
alcohol
descend
longitudinal
proceed
align
description
maintenance
psychiatry
analysis
develop
manageable
psychology
archaeology
development
mathematics
pyramidal
arranged
diaphragm
necessary
quantity
auxiliary
differentiation
nickel
recurrence
benefited
dissection
ninety
relative
boundaries
distill
noticeable
rhythm
boundary
effect
nucleus
secretory
briefly
eighth
occasion
separate
caliber
environment
occurred
similar
cartilage
equipped
occurrence
stratified
category
exhaust
ophthalmology
supersede
cavities
existence
origin
surfaces
cavity
foreign
parallel
symmetry
circumference
forty
peripheral
temperature
committee
fundamental
periphery
vacuum
comparative
fusion
permanent
variety
consciousness
height
physiology
vein
continuous
homogeneous
practically
X-ray
LITERATURE BY SLIDE RULE
Stephen E. Fitzgerald, "Literature by Slide Rule,"
The Saturday Review, 36(7) :15 if., February 14, 1953
Anyone who writes for a living these days can hardly escape the read-
ability boys and their word-counting machines. They remind us from
every rostrum that our prose especially our business prose fails to
416 APPENDIX A
communicate. Something must be done to "clear away the roadblocks
from our channels of mutual understanding." Only yesterday the read-
ability movement was hardly more than an art; today it is an industry.
Dozens of corporations retain readability experts to tell their executives
how to write memoranda to each other; there is a spate of books on the
capacity of words to get themselves understood; public relations coun-
sellors who found themselves caught short a few years ago by the rise of
so dramatic and salable a specialty are now equipped to discuss the
problem learnedly with their clients. Readability science, art, or in-
dustry has arrived.
As one who must produce some form of business prose almost every
day, I rise to protest : the movement has gone too far. No one familiar with
the problem would deny that the readability proponents have a point; a
lot of our workaday prose is dreadful. But is the alternative to bad writ-
ing a retreat to the style of a mail-order catalogue clear but dull? Must
our sentences always be short and staccato because we lack the skill or
patience to write longer, better ones? Must we distribute punctuation
marks in accordance with a formula, instead of according to rhythm and
style? Must we always abandon the colorful, complex word in favor of
a shorter, plainer one? Must we be mechanical in order to be clear?
I can already hear the shouts of anguish from some of my colleagues:
I am overstating the case. But I venture to doubt it. For years I have
believed in the principles of readability and, within reason, have tried
to practise it. I have even been so rash as to write about it with some
enthusiasm. And why not? Surely the virtues of clarity are obvious. No
one argues with Elton Mayo's comment that "social study should begin
with careful observation of what may be described as communication;
that is, the capacity of groups to communicate effectively and intimately
with each other." And yet, Mayo or no Mayo, I still think the read-
ability boys are going too far. They threaten to put our words into a
literary strait jacket, leaving us only the solace of an illusion that, by
shortening our sentences, we have somehow clarified our thought. Let
me try to demonstrate.
One of our first lessons is to avoid the long sentence, to chop our
thoughts up into less ponderous sections. This leads in practice if not
in theory to an especially bumpy kind of short-winded prose, empha-
sizing unduly the importance of the period key on the typewriter. No
first-rate writer has ever neglected the short sentence, and even the read-
ability advocates are at some pains to point out that some interlarding
of short and long sentences makes for variety. But one can hardly expect
the tycoon to be also a stylist; and it is brevity as such brevity as a
formula which has caught the businessman's imagination and encour-
ages so Spartan a corporate style.
In their zeal for brevity of form in the sentence, the clause, the
word the readability disciples are sometimes likely to forget that brevity
APPENDIX A 417
does not necessarily equate with clarity. In fact, one often encounters
the implication that brevity does make for clarity. We are constantly
reminded, for example, that important business executives like to have
even the most complex and lengthy reports reduced to no more than
one page for their use. This alleged attribute of executive skill has been
laid to men so diverse as Winston Churchill, the late William Knudsen,
and the late E. R. Stettinius, Jr. I happen to have known and worked
with Knudsen and Stettinius, and I can report that both of them, like
dozens of other industrialists I know, were quite capable of dealing with
ideas which took more than one page to express. As for Mr. Churchill,
his own prose is everywhere a vivid demonstration of disdain for brevity.
I would like to suggest the following twin thesis: a clear idea may be
expressed in a rather long form; a thought capable of brief expression
may yet be (a) unclear and (b) incorrect. As someone else has said, a
short word can be as vague as a long one, and a short sentence more
misleading than a book.
A close second to the insistence on brief sentences is the plea for
colloquialism. Just "talk as you write." When we talk among ourselves,
we are advised, we talk naturally and in short bursts. But when we
write, especially if we are not writers, we tend to tighten up, to indulge
in circumlocutions. So the solution is to "write naturally," informally,
in a shirt-sleeves kind of prose.
This comes very close to the edge of nonsense. Talking and writing
are quite different forms of communication, and the fact that both em-
ploy words is as irrelevant as the fact that brain surgeons and butchers
both employ knives. The reason we communicate effectively while talk-
ing to one another is because we use a lot of tools besides words. We
use our eyes and our hands and gestures to supplement the words; we
veer and tack and change course in accordance with the immediate re-
actions of the audience; we inject footnotes and oral parentheses as we
go along. These are a few of the reasons why the psychologists all agree
that face-to-face speech is still the most effective single means of com-
munication we have. But it is a total non sequitur to assume that the
same words, shorn of their physical, face-to-face orientation, can com-
municate as well from the printed page.
I have had a good deal of personal and painful experience with the
so-called advantages of colloquial, "natural" talk. An example which
conies to mind is the vocal style of Mr. Knudsen, the production genius
who headed the Office of Production Management during the early days
of World War II, when I was an information officer for that agency.
During his press conferences, which I had to attend as a matter of duty,
Knudsen got his general ideas across very well. He was not a facile
speaker, and he was often hampered by his accent. But the reporters
who were there during the whole performance usually left with the idea
that they had got his drift. Quite the opposite was the case with those
418 APPENDIX A
journalists who had to depend on the transcript. For Knudsen's tran-
scripts were often unintelligible, largely made up of incoherent sentences
without beginnings, middles, or ends. Heavy editing was essential. The
travail involved formed in me an unquenchable conviction that to write
as you talk is to ignore this major fact: an advantage of formal prose
is that it permits us to write better than we talk.
We are also advised to take a dim view of foreign and complex words.
We should prefer the Anglo-Saxon monosyllable. It is easy to be per-
suasive with this argument: one can always cite some example of Gov-
ernment "bafflegab" "increasing disutility" for example. But when such
advice is taken literally, and businessmen are often quite literal, it can
lead to some absurd results. Labor and management negotiators should
presumably forego such words as "negotiations" and report to their prin-
cipals that they are engaged in "treating with one another with a view
to coming to terms." A word like "bonus" is obviously out of order
(though I suspect that most employes understand it), and the word
"vacation" is similarly inept. If the corporate president gives a speech,
let him not say anything about "patriotism": it would be better to say
"love of country."
Again I can hear the wails: this is carrying things close to the point of
absurdity. Well, I knew someone was being absurd, but I thought it was
the readability boys with their counting machines. If we are to avoid
long words, foreign words, and complex words, then I can only assume
that we are to avoid them and thus avoid some of the best known words
in the language. Of course, says the readability man (a little testily), we
should use some common sense. But does this mean that we must abandon
the formulas and the word counts? Since we are advised to avoid words
with prefixes, affixes, and suffixes, this means that we should avoid such
words as "prefix," "affix," and "suffix." And it means as well that such
common words as "postpone," "prearrange," and "improbable" should
be eschewed (so, for that matter, should be the word "eschewed"),
because they do not test out well on the counting machine.
I for one have no confidence in formulas that have to be modified at
every turn by common sense: that is a negation of the meaning of the
word formula. On the other hand, if common sense is to have the upper
hand, then what is all this talk about formulas for? Salesmanship?
The readability men seem to forget that foreign and complex words
yes, even long words can have qualities of zest and color and impact
totally lacking in their plainer equivalents. Lincoln, for example, might
have said: "Eighty-seven years ago, the people who were here before we
were started a new country. They had two main ideas. One of these was
the idea that it is good to be free. The other idea was that everybody
ought to be thought of as being just as good as everybody else." This may
or may not be clearer than Lincoln's original very conceptual language
clearer, perhaps, to a readability expert but I doubt that we would have
remembered it so well. Another example: a man who says "good clear
APPENDIX A 419
writing is better than unclear writing" does not appear to be saying much
that has not already been said for a good many centuries; but a man
who says "I am a readability expert" has got something he can sell.
Perhaps you think I exaggerate this preoccupation of the readability
boys with numbers, formulas, and yardsticks. Well, hear this: while con-
sulting one recent and well-known volume on the subject, I found that if
I wanted to test my own prose I would have to obtain a straight-edge so
that, after making a detailed count of such things as personal words and
personal sentences, and words per sentence, and syllables per 100 words,
I could then, with the straight-edge, connect four columns of "counting"
figures with two columns of "scoring" figures, and thus discover both how
"interesting" and how "easy" my prose was. My own judgment and
even that of my reader does not have a place in the formula. In still
another test, I am advised to make sure that my copy does not have too
high a "fog index." How is "fog index" by way of a cloudy phrase? If
I may be permitted a short comment, free of long words and with pre-
sumably a low fog index, I would like to say: all this strikes me as being
very silly.
In their very vocal support for their counting machines, the readability
scholars have been curiously silent about three communication facts
which seem to me relevant.
1.) Why has some of the most efficient and communicative language in
the world in terms of its impact been so complex according to the
scales, while some of the simplest possible prose in terms of its word
counts and sentence lengths fails so miserably? Any standard list of
"most influential books" confronts the reader with an array of authors
whose fog index was undeniably high, and whose readability scores are
low, such men as Hobbes, Milton, Locke, Adam Smith, Malthus, J. S.
Mill, Darwin, Freud, Veblen, Dewey, and all the rest of them. But they
managed to communicate, and they continue to do so. Could it be because
they had something to say? I think so. And I am afraid that as much
cannot be said for some of the millions of propaganda pieces now being
written in a kind of Pidgin English in an effort to entrap one more
reader into more clearly comprehending an idea which is not necessarily
either interesting or true to start with.
2.) Writing is essentially a two-way proposition. The existence of
writers implies the existence of readers, and both readers and writers
must make some effort. Mortimer Adler, for instance, has advised us
that we must read a book three times, or at least from three different
points of view, if we expect to extract its full content. It was Adler who
also remarked that in the writing-reading relationship, as in baseball,
catching the ball is just as important as hitting it. The readability advo-
cates will retort that we should not ignore a reader simply because he
has no reading skills ; there are, after all, a great many unwilling readers
whom "we" wish to reach. This seems to me irrelevant. There are a great
many ways to communicate with people who cannot or will not read
420 APPENDIX A
pictures, movies, meetings, comic books, perhaps even a little more pay
in the old envelope. Simply because these problems exist we need not
reduce all our daily prose to a see-the-man-what-is-the-man-doing level.
Writing is not the only method of human communication. To insist on
stripping it down to the lowest levels of understanding is as though we
were to insist on reducing all music to the primitive rhythm of a jungle
beat, thus hoping to widen our audience.
3.) At times one gets the impression (though this is not entirely so)
that the readability boys have ignored the difference between words and
ideas that, in effect, they assume that words alone can do the job. All
recent psychological experiments in communications indicate, if they do
not prove, that people's receptivity to communications symbols and sig-
nals depends on a very wide variety of stimuli: the personal interest they
may have in the fact or idea; their preconceptions about it; whether
they think the thought is significant or noteworthy; whether it is pre-
sented with authority; whether it affects their immediate welfare. In
short, the research would imply that it is usually more important to
sharpen the ideas than to sharpen the words. The readability boys, of
course, can retort that they cannot do everything: they must take the
ideas as they find them and try to express them more simply. My coun-
ter retort is that this often does not help: reliance on four-letter words
can lead to a quite false impression that something good has been ac-
complished when, in fact, no such attainment has been reached.
Let me repeat my belief in the basic theory of readability. These days
all of us must write to some extent, and as the world grows more com-
plex the number of people who must write in order to communicate
grows larger. Anybody who knows how to improve that process gets my
vote. What I am complaining about is that the readability concept, bas-
ically sound, has somehow got off the track. That deviation can perhaps
be traced to the possibility that the disciples have studied at two fonts of
wisdom and have misunderstood both of them. One of these sources of
inspiration is that of Ogden and Richards, whose investigations led to
what we now know as "Basic English." The other source was without
much question the pioneer work of the late Count Korzybski, who was
more than anyone else responsible for the theories of general semantics.
It is a sad fact that neither Ogden and Richards nor Korzybski were
primarily interested in what most people today believe they were.
Ogden and Richards, for example, never thought of Basic English as
a substitute for everyday English. They were more interested in the pos-
sibility of inventing a new international tongue, more acceptable and
more realistic than such novelties as Esperanto. They were more inter-
ested in the idea that, in English-speaking countries, Basic might become
a great teaching aid for foreigners. This idea of Basic with only sixteen
verbs and about 850 words altogether, in which you can describe any-
thing arose from a rather philosophical investigation into the relation-
ship between things and the words we must use to describe things.
APPENDIX A 421
Ogden and Richards were primarily interested in language forms, and
in the possibility of inventing a simplified form of English for very spe-
cial use. Basic was always intended as an auxiliary for ordinary literary
English, not as a substitute. Richards, who has written widely on the
subject, has been at great pains to make this point. Anyone who thinks
that Ogden and Richards felt that Pidgin English is the answer to our
problems should consult their monumental work "The Meaning of Mean-
ing," which contains some of the toughest literary going on record.
The confusion over the work of Korzybski is even more general. The
word "semantics" is tossed about these days in any learned barroom con-
versation as though it concerned only the ease with which language can
be understood. But Korzybski, as anyone can see who troubles to read his
works, was only incidentally interested in the simplicity of language.
You can write in one-syllable words and still, according to Korzybski, be
as opaque as ever. Korzybski gets into such areas as anthropology,
biology, botany, conditioned reflexes, education, entomology, genetics,
mathematics, logic, mathematical physics, neurology, ophthalmology,
physics, physiology, and psychiatry. Korzybski was concerned not so
much with the complexity of individual words but rather with the inter-
relationship between words and things they represent or seem to repre-
sent. Korzybski was not primarily concerned with whether a word was
long or short, foreign or domestic, complex or simple: he was much more
concerned with whether it had any meaning in the context in which it
was used. The writers of annual reports could learn much from Korzyb-
ski. Does the writer say: "We made a great deal of progress during the
year?" This might be clear to the readability boys. Short, simple. But
Korzybski would ask: "What do you mean by 'We'? What do you mean
by 'made'? What do you mean by 'progress'?"
In the great mainstream of people's efforts to communicate with one
another there are dozens of currents and eddies. The mechanical tools
represented by what we call readability techniques useful as they are
represent and can represent only a very small part of the equipment we
need. At the same time, the fact that these techniques are mechanical,
and therefore capable of being readily grasped, tends to give them a
popularity out of proportion to their net worth, just as their use will
surely tend to create an often false sense of accomplishment. On this
general subject, Lord Dunsany had something appropriate to say: "There
is a great tendency nowadays to place technique above inspiration, and,
if the notion spreads, we shall have the diamond cutters valuing their
tools more highly than the diamonds, with the result that, as long as they
cut them in accordance with the rules of the craft, they will cease to care
whether they cut diamonds or glass, and then will cease to know."
This is a sentence of sixty-five words, complex in form, containing
foreign words, long words. Anybody who does not understand, raise his
hand.
422 APPENDIX A
Chapter 12- The Report, Continued
Report on Site for Plant No. 3 for Tampa Electric Company,
Tampa, Florida, Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation
REPORT
ON
SITE FOR PLANT NO. 3
FOR
TAMPA ELECTRIC COMPANY
TAMPA, FLORIDA
Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation
APPENDIX A 423
October 11, 1951
Mr. F. J. Gannon,
President,
Tampa Electric Company,
P. 0. Box 111,
Tampa 1, Florida.
Dear Sir:
In accordance with your authorization, we have made a
survey of available sites for additional power generating
facilities to supply the Tampa Electric Company system.
Our study included consideration of future developments
on present sites as a result of which we recommend that
no part of the present Hookers Point site should be sold,
if sale can be avoided. Should it prove necessary to
give up any part of the present holdings, every effort
should be made to retain sufficient land for the installa-
tion of a fifth generating unit on this site, and to
receive water-borne coal in the future.
We recommend early acquisition of a site on the east
shore of Hillsborough Bay, south of Delaney Creek, desig-
nated Site C. The area and location of the property
recommended for purchase are described in detail in the
following pages of this report.
For long range planning, a site adjacent to Port
Tampa should be considered, but present indications are
that the fourth generating plant on the system should be
constructed at an inland site where ample water is avail-
able, at least for cooling tower make-up. This plant
could be supplied with oil fuel delivered at the recom-
mended site south of Delaney Creek, and pumped to the
inland station.
For further details, we refer you to the following
pages.
Yours very truly,
(signed)
W. F. Ryan,
Engineering Manager.
424 APPENDIX A
TABLE OF CONTENTS'
PURPOSE 1
SYSTEM DEMAND 1
PRESENT CAPABILITY 2
HOOKERS POINT SITE 3
AVAILABLE NEW SITES 4
SITE A 5
SITE B 5
SITE C 6
Description 7
Foundation Conditions 9
Development of Site for Power Generation 10
SITE D 13
CONCLUSIONS 15
Table
LOAD FORECASTS 1
(3 sheets)
NET GENERATING REQUIREMENTS 2
Plate
AREA LOAD DIAGRAM I
MINIMUM AREA REQUIRED FOR ECONOMICAL DEVELOP-
MENT OF HOOKERS POINT SITE II
DISTRIBUTION AREAS AND SITES FOR GENERATING
FACILITIES III
INITIAL DEVELOPMENT - SITE C IV
BORING LOCATION PLAN AND RECORD - SITE C
Sheet 1 V
Sheet 2 VI
* The page numbers, table numbers, and plate numbers are reproduced here
as they appeared in the original report and therefore do not correspond to those
of this book.
APPENDIX A 425
PURPOSE
Growth of the demand for electric power on the Tampa
Electric Company system indicates the need for additional
generating facilities. Limitations on the sites now
occupied by generating plant dictate the desirability of
obtaining additional property for this purpose. While
existing sites may take care of the load growth for a
limited period, an additional site or additional sites
will be required at an early date.
SYSTEM DEMAND
The combined noncoincident demand on the principal
system load centers in January, 1951 was 157,000 kw.
Estimates made by the engineers of Tampa Electric Company
indicate a demand of 285,000 kw during the winter of
1955-56. Allowing for diversity and losses, these demands
would require a net generating capacity of 148,000 kw and
268,000 kw, respectively. Table 1, attached, shows a
breakdown of the existing demand by districts and the
expected demand in 1955-56 for the same areas. No effort
has been made to estimate demands beyond the winter of
1955-56 but, as indicated by Table 2, it is unlikely that
the net generating capacity required in the winter of
1960-61 will be less than about 400,000 kw, and it might
exceed 500,000 kw.
The breakdown of load by districts shows that the
present load and the expected load growth are more pro-
nounced east of the present generating stations and that,
while future load growth will be considerable in the City
of Tampa itself and in the area to the north and west,
the greater demand is to the east. Plate I shows the
1950-51, 1955-56, and 1960-61 loads by areas with respect
to the power stations.
PRESENT CAPABILITY
The present net generating capability of the system
is 175,000 kw, of which 65,000 kw is installed at the
Peter 0. Knight Station on the west side of Seddon
Channel, and 110,000 kw in the Hookers Point Station on
the east side of Sparkman Channel. No material expansion
of capacity would be economical at the Peter 0. Knight
Station. An additional unit is now being installed at
the Hookers Point Station with an estimated net capability
of about 46,000 kw. If Tampa Electric Company retains
ownership of all land now owned at this site, two addi-
tional units of like capability could be installed, rais-
426 APPENDIX A
ing the net generating capability of the station to
248,000 kw, and the net generating capability of the
system to 313,000 kw. This is a winter time capability,
when the peak occurs, with all units available and in
prime operating condition. With the largest unit out,
the net generating capability would be approximately
267,000 kw.
While the feasible developments at Hookers Point will
provide sufficient capacity for the expected load in the
winter of 1955-56, provided no substantial part of the
land now owned is sold, adequate provision for subsequent
growth requires installation of facilities on another
site.
HOOKERS POINT SITE
The present Hookers Point plant contains three 30,000 kw
generating units. The fourth unit, now being installed,
has a name plate rating of 40,000 kw. The land now owned
by Tampa Electric Company, shown on Plate II, is adequate
for the future installation of two additional 40,000 kw
units which would provide an ultimate plant with six units
having a total name plate rating of 210,000-231,000 kw
and a net capability of 248,000 kw.
In the past, a part of this site, including the south
half of the slip, has been leased for shipbuilding opera-
tions. It is understood that the United States Navy
wishes to acquire this part of the site by outright pur-
chase. The rapidly growing load on the Tampa Electric
Company system indicates that no part of this site should
be sold, unless government pressure or demonstrated need
for the property for national defense makes the sale ad-
visable as a matter of policy. If it becomes necessary in
the future to utilize coal received by water, the coal
should be unloaded from the south side of the slip. While
equipment could be installed to unload at the harbor line
and convey the coal to storage in the rear of the station,
such equipment would be awkward, unsightly, and expensive,
and would create a cleanliness problem throughout the
plant. Coal dust would be particularly objectionable with
so much equipment installed out of doors on the harbor
side of the plant.
Should it become necessary to dispose of part of the
land, then every effort should be made to retain the
entire harbor frontage, and also at least 320 ft of slip
frontage, to permit the installation of six units and
reasonable facilities for future delivery of *coal by
water, if the use of coal should ever become economical.
An easement must be retained to permit discharge of cir-
culating water to the slip.
APPENDIX A 427
Plate II shows what is considered the minimum area
which should be retained, if it becomes necessary to sell
any part of the present site.
AVAILABLE NEW SITES
Three sites were examined on Tampa Bay, designated as
Site A, Site B and Site C on Plate III, attached. A
survey of the entire waterfront indicated no other areas
of much promise, but consideration has been given to an
inland site which may be developed at some future time.
Such an inland site would be located strategically with
respect to water supply and load center, but no par-
ticular place is suggested at this time. For purposes of
discussion, however, the inland site is designated as
Site D.
SITE A
There is an adequate area of land which the U. S.
Phosphoric Company is willing to sell on the south bank
of the mouth of the Alafia River. The land is low and
swampy, there is no present railroad access; a railroad
siding would require bridging the Alafia River. Highway
access, at present, is poor and the site is remote from
the deep ship channel. The existing channel, originally
17 ft deep, would require extensive dredging to permit
access by ocean going tankers. Circulating water may be
contaminated by the adjacent chemical plant. This site
has so little to commend it that it is given no further
consideration in this report.
SITE B
A site could be developed adjacent to the ship channel
at Point Tampa if authorization could be obtained to fill
land south of the peninsula on which Port Tampa is located
and embracing a small island, which at present appears to
be unoccupied. This site would have the advantage of
location on deep water for circulating water purposes
and for fuel oil deliveries. Fuel oil, moreover, might
be obtained from a supplier who would supply storage in
a tank farm at the Port receiving a supply at the ship
channel, and making deliveries as required to service
tanks on the power station site. This site is not favor-
able with respect to the load under present conditions,
since practically all of the capacity generated there
would have to be transmitted to the north and east. For
future load growth, a development at this site might con-
ceivably take care of the load within the city and to the
north and west of the present generating stations; the
total demand in these areas may exceed 150,000 kw by the
428 APPENDIX A
winter of 1960-61. In view of the necessity of making
land at this point, the possible delay in obtaining
authorization for the same, and the distribution of the
load, this site is not regarded as desirable for immedi-
ate use, but only as a long range possibility.
SITE C
Site C is a peninsula of filled land on the east side
of Hillsborough Bay, an arm of Tampa Bay, immediately
south of Delaney Creek. This site has the advantages of
adequate area, reasonable proximity to deep water for cir-
culating water purposes and for delivery of fuel, rela-
tively high ground level, reasonable subsoil conditions,
and strategic location with respect to future load growth
and existing transmission systems. This site would also
provide an excellent receiving point for oil fuel, if an
inland site should be developed later. In view of all
these factors, this area is considered the most desirable
site for a power generating plant in the Tampa area.
Description
Site C consists of the northerly halves of sections
4 and 5, and a portion of the northerly half of section 6,
Township 30-S, Range 19E. The location and extent of the
property are shown on Plate IV. Highway access to the
site is by way of Highway US 541 which abuts the property
on the east. The distance by road from the City of Tampa
is approximately 5 miles. Railroad connections to the
site may be made with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad,
which runs southward from Tampa and is located 1/4 mile
east of the property, or with the Seaboard Airline Rail-
road which runs eastward from Tampa and is located about
3 1/2 miles north of the property.
An existing ship approach channel about 220 ft wide,
which was originally dredged in 1929 to a depth of 27 ft
below mean low tide, extends about 3,500 ft from the main
Government ship channel to a bulkhead at the outer end
of a point of land on the property. No recent soundings
have been made in this channel, but redredging would prob-
ably be necessary to restore the original depth. By addi-
tional dredging to 32 ft below mean low water, an approach
channel as deep as the main ship channel could be pro-
vided.
The bulkhead was constructed in 1929 of steel sheet
piling and hydraulic fill. Study of the design shown on
the drawings from which the bulkhead was presumably con-
structed indicates that the original design contemplated
a water depth of 27 ft below mean low tide. The design
is not considered adequate for greater water depths at the
bulkhead. At the present time, the steel sheeting is cor-
APPENDIX A 429
roded above the mean water level to such an extent that
this portion of the bulkhead has no appreciable remaining
strength and would require replacement with some form of
new construction. The condition of the portion of the
bulkhead below mean water level, which includes the sheet
piling below this level, and the tie-back and anchor
system will require complete inspection of its condition
and investigation of its remaining strength before being
used for its intended purpose. Pending results of the
complete inspection, the existing construction must be
considered as having doubtful value.
The hydraulic fill in the point of land extending from
shore to the dock has been subjected to considerable
erosion since it was placed in 1929. A large area, ade-
quate for the initial power station facilities, on the
outer end of the point is approximately 9 ft above mean
low water, but a section of the causeway connecting this
area to the shore is only a few feet above mean low water
and would require filling for road and rail access.
The mainland portion of the site rises from less than
2 ft above mean low water at the shore line to about 5 ft
above mean water level along Highway US 541. The higher
portions of the site are covered with vegetation con-
sisting principally of palmetto, with a few palm and
pine trees. The lower portions are sandy areas with man-
grove swamps and are submerged to a depth of approxi-
mately 1 ft at high tides.
The total area of the site within the property lines
is 717.38 acres. Of this amount, approximately 260 acres
are natural ground above high tide between the shore line
and Highway US 541, less than 94 acres are above mean
low water on the point, and more than 363 acres between
the Government channel and the shore line are below mean
low water.
Foundation Conditions
To determine the depth to rock and the character of the
soils underlying the site, 24 soil borings were made to
Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation specifications by
Raymond Concrete Pile Company. All borings were driven to
rock and alternate borings were cored at least 10 ft into
rock to determine the continuity of the rock formation.
Location of the borings and the classification of the
materials by the driller and also by Stone & Webster Soils
Laboratory are shown on Plates V and VI.
The depth to the rock surface varies from about 22 ft
to about 35 ft below mean low water over all of the site
except the 1,500 ft at the outer end of the point where
the depth to rock surface increases rapidly to about
55 ft below mean low water. The soil underlying the site
430 APPENDIX A
consists principally of sand, silt and clay strata of
varying firmness.
Foundations for all heavy or important structures
would require the use of piles to rock. For lighter and
unimportant structures located in the area between the
shore line and Highway US 541 which would not be damaged
by some settlement, soil bearing foundations could be
used.
Development of Site for Power Generation
Tho arrangement of facilities for generation of power
has been studied on the basis of installing one 60,000-
66,000 kw unit initially, as shown on Plate IV, and the
subsequent addition of five similar units providing a
name plate capacity of 360,000-396,000 kw. The future
capacity, however, is not limited to this figure by the
physical characteristics of the site, but will be deter-
mined by future load demands.
Suggested boundaries of the land considered desirable
for the power plant have been shown on Plate IV. These
include approximately 128 acres, partially submerged,
east of the existing bulkhead and 93 acres submerged
between the bulkhead and the main ship channel.
The existing point of land has been selected as most
suitable for the location of power generating facilities
because of its proximity to deep water for fuel deliveries
and condensing water supply. The existing land area of
the point would provide sufficient space for initial
development of the power plant at a minimum expenditure
for land development. Strengthening the major portion of
length of the existing bulkhead would be required for the
initial development. Some erosion of the shore has taken
place since 1929 when the point was filled. However, it
is believed that no substantial investment in shore pro-
tection would be required for the initial power station
development although some occasional expense for main-
tenance should be expected. For the future development,
additional fill and some shore protection would be re-
quired. A proposed arrangement for the initial develop-
ment and its relationship to the existing land area is
shown on Plate IV.
The location of the power house on the point was deter-
mined by foundation conditions revealed by the test bor-
ings. Shorter piles could be used at this location with
consequent lower foundation costs than at any point
nearer to the present bulkhead. The lower foundation cost
and shorter transmission lines would more than offset the
extra cost of the longer condensing water supply piping
requi red .
The circulating water intakes are shown located in
APPENDIX A 431
the reentrant corner formed by the existing sheet pile
bulkhead in order to permit inflow of cooler condensing
water from the deeper channel level and also to provide
protection from shipping. It is contemplated that the
intake pipes from the screen well to the power station
could be aboveground most of the way. The condensing
water discharge could flow from pipes into an open ditch
or flume discharging into the bay until such time as
future construction on the adjacent property might require
extending the discharge to the west end of the point.
Space between the end of the point and the power station
would provide for future coal storage and the fuel oil
tanks could be located initially in this space. In the
event of future conversion to coal, the oil tanks could
be relocated east of the power station. Provision could
be made to unload either oil or coal from ships at the
end of the bulkhead initially as shown on Plate IV, or
from a position at a slip to be constructed at a later
date.
A 400 ft wide strip of land for transmission lines has
been indicated along the north property line to permit
transporting power away from the site. This location
would be advantageous for the transmission lines and
would also provide maximum use of the remaining portion
of the site for industrial facilities. A 400 ft wide
right-of-way for transmission lines extending south has
been indicated adjacent to Highway US 541.
SITE D
If no waterfront site were available, it would be
feasible to build an inland station to which fuel oil
would be delivered by pipe line from a receiving and
storage station on Tampa Bay. As previously stated,
Site C would make an excellent location for such an
operation. Under present conditions, the probable cost
of power generation for Site D, including capital cost
and operating expense, would be about the same as for a
site on salt water. Since there are many suitable inland
sites available, no action is necessary at this time, but
the economics of this possibility make it possible to
provide for future demands of any foreseeable magnitude.
For a future plant containing six 60,000-66,000 kw
turbine generators, the comparative costs for an inland
site and a deep water site are summarized as follows:
432 APPENDIX A
Additional First Cost and Power Cost of
Inland Station over Tampa Bay Station
(Basis of Six 60,000 Kw Units)
First Costs
Additional first cost fuel oil
system $2,500,000
Additional first cost cooling
tower system 3,300,000
Credit for circulating water in-
take structures 2,000,000
Credit for electrical transmis-
sion line 4,500,000
Net credit first cost of inland
station $700,000
Capacity Charges
Additional capacity charge for
auxiliaries at $150 per kw 900,000
Credit for capacity charge for
transmission line at $150 per kw 1,200,000
Net capacity credit 300,000
Net capital credit 1,000,000
Power Costs
Additional power required by
auxiliaries by inland station at
$.004 per kwhr 190,000
Credit for power loss in trans-
mission line 45,000
Net annual power cost $145,000
Net annual power cost capitalized
at 15% 965,000
Total capital difference in favor
of inland plant $35,000
While one or more units might be operated at some
inland sites without a cooling tower, it is considered
conservative to assume a limited supply of cooling water
for this preliminary comparison. Considering the inade-
quate data for the estimates, the indicated advantage of
$35,000 for an inland plant, on a total plant cost in
excess of $50,000,000, is of no significance. More de-
tailed estimates would be required to determine whether
there is any decisive advantage for either location.
APPENDIX A 433
CONCLUSIONS
The most suitable site for immediate acquisition is
Site C, south of Delaney Creek. Early acquisition of this
site is recommended, particularly if there is any doubt
about retaining all of the land now owned at Hookers
Point. More detailed studies and estimates might reveal
a slight advantage for an inland site but, in view of the
fact that there are many inland sites available, and only
one or two on the waterfront, it is recommended that the
Site C should be secured now, as none may be available
later.
Assuming a future net demand in excess of 700,000 kw,
which may be experienced in 12 to 15 years, the load may
be carried by generating capacity of 65,000 kw net capa-
bility at Peter 0. Knight Station, 248,000 kw at Hookers
Point Station, 350,000 kw (net capability with largest
unit out) at a new station at Site C, with the excess
being carried at an inland station, on a site to be
selected later. As a matter of convenience in construc-
tion and operation of the transmission and distribution
systems, the inland generating plant may be desirable
some years before Site C is fully developed and the latter
might be started before a sixth unit is installed at
Hookers Point.
It is understood that a sufficient area with right-of-
way for transmission lines may be secured from the present
owners of Site C, but that the owners do not wish to dis-
pose of the entire tract for power generation and have
requested a study of the possible development of their
holdings for the use of other industries. This possi-
bility has been covered in a separate report. Such a
project is found to be feasible, and might result in
attracting important power customers to the Tampa area.
Retention of the entire site at Hookers Point is
strongly recommended. Should it be necessary to sell any
part of it, every effort should be made to retain suffi-
cient waterfront to provide for the installation of at
least one unit in addition to the one now under construc-
tion, and to permit the future handling of water-borne
coal.
434 APPENDIX A
LOAD FORECASTS*
TAMPA ELECTRIC COMPANY
DISTRIBUTION AREAS
1 - Northwest
Granville
Turner's Dairy
Lake Fern
Pinellas Water Co.
Oldsmar Race Track
Oldsmar
McFarland
Florida
2 - West Central
Hyde Park
Laurel
Plant Field
Gray Street
Drew Field
Ivy
Habana
5 - Interbay
Matanzas
Lois
West Shore
Port Tampa
MacDill
Wyoming
Bay Court
Winter
Jan. 1955-56
Present 1951 Estimated
Kva Demand, Demand,
Capacity Kw Kw
2,000
45
300
600
150
300
1,000
1,000
5,395
750
000
500
000
750
3,000
2,500
17,500
3,750
3,750
300
1,000
C.O.
1,500
3,000
13,300
2,224
6,000
25
Est. 50
320
900
513
800
96
200
208
600
688
1,600
880
2,000
4,954
12,150
4,016
7,500
2,416
4,000
1,832
2,500
400
3,000
744
2,500
1,216
3,000
2,256
5,000
12,880
27,500
4,496
7,500
3,888
7,500
200
2,500
520
1,200
2,058
4,000
1,136
3,000
4,512
7,500
16,810
33,200
*By Engineering Department of Tampa Electric Company.
APPENDIX A 435
Winter
Jan. 1955-56
Present 1951 Estimated
Kva Demand, Demand.
Capacity Kw Kw
4 - Tampa City East of River
Plymouth
Fern
14th Street
2nd Avenue
Polk
Washington
Florida Portland Cement
American Can
Gulf Florida Terminal
Davis Islands
McCloskey
Tampa Shipbuilding
Curtis & Nebraska (1951)
5 - East Central
Yukon
Temple Terrace
Temple Terrace Junction
Thonotosassa
Water Works
Belmont Heights
Diana (1951)
49th Street
Lykes Packing
Causeway Boulevard
Alafia River
Uceta
Orient Park
Herman
U. S. Phosphoric
6 - Plant City Division
Seffner
Kingsgrove
Kingsway
Plant City
West Plant City (1951)
Hampton - 8 Kv
Sydney
Hopewell
Keysville
5,500
4,832
9,000
6,500
6,704
10,000
5,250
4,176
7,500
6,000
6,160
10,000
9,000
6,592
9,000
7,500
4,688
12,500
3,500
3,120
3,500
2,200
1,392
2,500
450
312
400
1,500
1,408
2,500
1,500
536
2,000
C.O.
17
1,000
48,900
39,937
69,900
3,000
2,288
3,500
450
528
1,500
100
56
200
600
252
600
450
160
600
3,750
3,008
3,600
2,000
1,216
2,500
1,100
554
600
1,000
608
2,000
1,000
880
2,400
600
395
500
1,000
1,120
1,700
600
256
300
3,750
3,829
4,000
19,400
15,150
24,000
3,000
1,132
1,500
1,450
492
1,000
450
488
1,000
3,600
3,960
6,000
-
1,500
1,000
744
1,200
C.O.
4,680
5,000
7,500
5,220
600
288
500
17,600
17,004
17,700
436 APPENDIX A
Winter
Jan. 1955-56
Present 1951 Estimated
Kva Demand, Demand,
Capacity Kw Kw
7 - Phosphate
Nichols
Achan
Drymill
Brewster
Saddle Creek
Oak Ridge Sand Pits
A. A. C. -Pierce
Mulberry Town
Ridgewood
New Pauway No. 4
Pauway No. 4
Clarke-James (New)
Tenoroc
I. M. & C. (New)
Armour
8 - Winter Haven
Eagle Lake
Winter Haven
Florence Villa
Auburndale
Adams
Lake Alfred
East Lake Alfred
Continental Can
Polk Packing
8,500
7,680
10,000
4,500
3,000
3,000
C.O.
3,096
3,000
3,000
2,775
3,000
7,000
5,820
6,000
750
245
500
C.O.
15,000
2,000
816
2,000
C.O.
5,670
3,000
C.O.
1,380
C.O.
3,720
_
C.O.
-
8,000
5,000
480
6,000
C.O.
7,000
1,500
1,080
2,500
32,250
35,762
69,000
4,200
2,468
5,000
3,000
3,744
6,000
3,750
2,880
6,000
3,000
2,896
5,000
1,500
1,056
3,750
1,000
416
600
1,500
224
500
1,500
48
1,500
2,500
432
2,500
21,950
14, 164
30,850
Note: C.O. denotes Customer Owned.
NET GENERATING REQUIREMENTS
TAMPA ELECTRIC COMPANY
Actual*
Demand
Winter
1950-51
Esti-
mated*
Demand
Winter
1955-56
Possible
Demand
Winter
1960-61
Demand at Load Centers,
Kw
West of Peter 0.
Knight Station
Inside City Limits,
East of Hillsborough
River
East of Hookers Point
Station
Allowance for Losses
and Diversity
Required Capability
(a)
(b)
35,000 73,000 111,000 153,000
40,000 70,000 100,000 123,000
82,000 142,000 202,000 246,000
157,000 285,000 413,000 522,000
9,000 17,000 25,000 31,000
148,000
Present Net Generating
Capability 175,000
Net Generating
Capability with:
One Additional Unit at
Hookers Point
Two Additional Units
at Hookers Point
Three Additional Units
at Hookers Point -
Present Generating
Capability, Largest
Unit Out 138,000
Deficiency - Largest
Unit Out
No Additional Units 10,000
One Additional Unit
Two Additional Units -
Three Additional Units -
268,000 388,000 491,000
221,000 221,000 221,000
267,000 267,000 267,000
313,000 313,000 313,000
93,000
47,000 167,000 270,000
1,000 121,000 224,000
Specific future dates are used only for con-
venience. The figures listed for 1955-56 and
1960-61 should be interpreted to mean loads
expected after the passage of 5 and 10 reason-
ably normal years, free from extraordinary
government restrictions or business recessions.
* Engineering Department - Tampa Electric Company
(a) Same total increase from 1955 to 1960 as from
1950 to 1955
(b) Same percentage increase from 1955 to 1960 as
from 1950 to 1955
Ofl-ffcOOO O HI IU.OOO O44M
I I I I
AREA LOAD DIAGRAM
STIMATED OSS 1956 AND POSSIBLE I960 1961
MINIMUM AREA REQUIRED
ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT OF HOOKERS POINT SIT
438
SECTION "AA*
INITIAL DEVELOPMENT- SITE C
TAMPA ELECTRIC COMPANY
STONE fr WEBSTER ENGINEERING CORPORATION
SEPTEMBER 1951
PLAN
BORING LOCATION AND RECORD-SHEET t
SITE C
TAMPA ELECTRIC COMPANY
SEPTEMBER
440
APPENDIX B
BUSINESS LETTERS
The various forms of the report the outline, memorandum,
letter, short-form and long-form report have been treated in
Chapters 11 and 12. The more important types of letters used
in industrial and scientific organizations and in educational
and scientific institutions will be discussed and illustrated by
examples in this appendix. These types are inquiries and re-
plies, letters of application, informative and explanatory let-
ters, and letters designed to further good public relations.
Good Business Letter Writing
Many people have the mistaken idea that business English is a highly
specialized kind of English. Actually good business writing represents the
effective application of the basic principles of composition to the trans-
action of business. Before beginning any business letter, the writer should
consider the purpose of the letter and the person or persons to whom it
is addressed, and then formulate a plan to achieve that purpose. Form
letters, reproduced by a mimeographing or multilithing process, although
usually impersonal in style, should not be permitted to become perfunc-
tory or stereotyped.
The individual paragraphs are the building blocks of the business
letter. The opening and closing paragraphs, as in other written composi-
tions, are in the key positions. The first paragraph may either take up
the essential business of the letter or establish pleasant relations with
the reader before going on to that business. While the ending should
round out the letter pleasantly, it should not be wasted on inconsequential
matters. If some action or reply is desired from the reader, it should be
stressed at the close of the letter. Intervening paragraphs present details,
develop points, and offer subsidiary explanations. Except for very routine
matters, such as making travel or hotel reservations, letters of less than
two paragraphs are unusual.
The form of the business letter has become well established. Except
for a few specialized types of letters, the following parts are standard:
(1) the heading, which includes the letterhead or the sender's address
and the date, (2) the inside address of the recipient, (3) the salutation,
(4) the body of the letter, (5) the complimentary close, (6) the signa-
ture, which includes always the written signature and usually a type-
written signature beneath it, (7) the reference line, which gives the
initials of the person dictating the letter followed by a colon or bar and
those of the person typing it. When a letterhead is used, the date may be
centered below it or placed at the right, whichever position gives the
more balanced effect.
Since the letter represents the sender, appearance is important. The
letter should be attractively framed on the page, with the side and bottom
margins approximately equal. In a letter requiring more than one page,
the second and later pages begin one to two inches from the top of the
sheet, with the same side margins as on the first page. The second and
later pages are, of course, numbered consecutively at the top, and the
name of the addressee is often placed in the upper left-hand corner fol-
lowed by the page number, as illustrated in the example on page 450.
Most letters are single spaced with double spacing between paragraphs.
The letter styles most favored for general, moderately conservative cor-
respondence are the block style, in which all lines except the date, com-
442
APPENDIX B 443
plimentary close, and the signature are flush with the left margin, and
the modified block style, which differs only in that the first line of each
paragraph is indented. 1
An important consideration in effective correspondence is tone, that is,
the impact of the writer's underlying attitudes on the reader, the im-
pression the reader receives from the letter. A letter may "sound'* cordial,
friendly, cold, peremptory, distant, or even captious or contentious. The
practiced letter writer achieves a desirable tone by understanding the
reader's point of view, by anticipating his reactions, and by choosing
words and phrases wisely. Trite expressions, business jargon, unneces-
sarily negative phrases, misplaced slang or colloquialisms all mar the
tone of a letter because they convey the impression that the writer is in-
different to the reader or lacking in taste. While the language of a letter
should not be stuffy or pretentious, letters dealing with matters of conse-
quence should be dignified in tone. In general, however, the style of the
business letter should be natural, simple, and direct.
Inquiries and Replies
A good letter of inquiry clearly, explicitly, and courteously requests the
information desired. The letter on page 446 and the accompanying reply
have the short paragraphs characteristic of business letters which deal
with scattered details rather than with points requiring elaboration. It
should be noted that the inquiry follows the modified block style with the
date to the right, while the reply is the block style with the date centered.
A letter making a more technical inquiry would call for a correspond-
ingly technical reply. The reply (see p. 448) to such an inquiry is an
excellent example because of its pleasing opening, concise style, and
effective handling of paragraph structure.
The example on page 449 was addressed to a correspondent who raised
two questions in connection with a booklet, The ABC's of Aluminum:
1. If heat reflectivity has no relation to light reflectivity, as stated in
the booklet, why does the condition of the surface of the aluminum affect
its ability to reflect radiant heat?
2. Is the surface condition really important in the matter of reflecting
radiant heat, or is the apparent decrease in the reflectivity of radiant heat
which comes with weathered surfaces not really a decrease in the reflec-
tion of light waves, especially those near the red end of the visible
spectrum?
1 Among the references helpful in business letter writing are Robert R.
Aurner, Effective Communication in Business, 3rd ed., Cincinnati, South-West-
ern Publishing Company, 1950; A. Charles Babenroth and Charles Chandler
Parkhurst, Modern Business English, 5th ed., New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1955; L. E. Frailey and Edith L. Schnell, Practical Business Writing, New York,
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1952; Cecil B. Williams and John Ball, Effective Business
Writing, 2nd ed., New York, The Ronald Press Company, 1953.
444 APPENDIX B
The friendly tone of the reply and the careful attention given to the
inquiry are in marked contrast to the perfunctory replies which inquiries
sometimes elicit.
The last example among the letters of inquiry and reply (see p. 451)
shows an effective handling of a request which could not be complied with
immediately. The writer of the reply has neatly avoided a negative open-
ing, and the third and fourth paragraphs tend to leave the reader antici-
pating pleasantly the later fulfillment of his request.
Letters of Application
The purpose of a letter of application is to present the qualifications of
the applicant for a position or appointment. Such a letter should indicate
definitely the applicant's candidacy for the appointment.
Many personnel directors advise including with the letter of applica-
tion a personal data sheet giving detailed information about the appli-
cant. Nevertheless it is the function of the letter of application to select
and emphasize the qualifications which particularly fit the applicant for
the position in question, and the letter of application should never be
permitted to become merely a covering letter for the data sheet. Though
the letter frequently closes with a request for an interview it should not
make a direct request for the position, since such a request would be
both presumptuous and premature.
Since the letter of application is of great consequence to the writer, he
should examine thoughtfully his training and experience with the object
of selecting evidence of his fitness for the position. The tone of the letter
of application should be confident but not aggressive. Facts stated simply
and directly are far more convincing than extravagant claims to merit.
In the letter of application on page 452 the first paragraph is used
to establish contact with the position, the second to indicate the appli-
cant's candidacy for it. Though a complete data sheet accompanies the
letter, the letter itself is sufficiently inclusive to establish the qualifica-
tions of the applicant. The original letter was accompanied by a tran-
script of university courses and credits ; otherwise such information would
have been included in the data sheet under the heading Education.
Informative and Explanatory Letters
A large number of the letters which scientists and technologists have
occasion to write convey information or offer explanations. The examples
on pages 456, 457, and 458 belong to this group.
The first one, in the form of a memorandum, presents in the first para-
graph information which forms the basis for the second paragraph which
requests appropriate action and explains the procedure to be followed.
The second example, also a memorandum, gives instructions for the
filing of an annual report on work covered by a research grant. The use
APPENDIX B 445
of indented and numbered lists to emphasize specific points should be
noted.
The third example opens with an informative statement which leads
into the ensuing paragraphs of explanation.
Public Relations
The activities of scientific and industrial organizations frequently call
for letters to establish and maintain good public relations. Such letters
include announcements, invitations, letters of appreciation, congratula-
tory letters, and letters of thanks.
The example on page 459 is an announcement.
The next letter (see p. 460) extends an invitation to become a member
of a professional society and defines the nature and aims of the organi-
zation.
The concluding example (see p. 461) is a letter of thanks.
While business letters are of immediate concern to the individual cor-
respondent, they are perhaps of still greater importance in linking the
work of the scientist in his laboratory with organized science and with a
highly industrialized society. Many scientific enterprises have become big
business in terms of the investment involved; the consequences of scien-
tific work now in progress are potentially even greater. It is the obliga-
tion of society to provide an environment in which the scientist can work
effectively; the scientist in turn can hardly escape the social implications
of his work. In fulfilling the needs and resolving the difficulties of the
groups associated in this social complex, the business letter and other
types of business communications have a significant place.
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
LOUISVILLE 8, KENTUCKY
January 6, 19
The Bureau of Educational
Research and Service
Extension Division
State University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Gentlemen:
Please give me information concerning the films and the
booklets of selections which have been prepared by the State
University of Iowa for use in developmental reading programs.
During a speeded-reading course at SUI last summer, one
of the instructors told me that the films could be either pur-
chased or rented, and he was quite sure that the booklets are
priced at fifty cents per copy.
We are considering using the SUI material next fall, but
we must make provision for it in the budget now,
Sincerely,
(signed)
Instructor
446
STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
EXTENSION DIVISION
URCAU or AUOIO-VIIUAL INSTRUCTION IOWA CITY, IOWA to. 0511 EXT. se?i
January 11, 19__
Instructor
Department of English
Speed Scientific School
University of Louisville
Louisville 8, Kentucky
Dear :
In reply to your letter of January 6, under separate cover I am
sending you a Manual of Instructions and Supplementary Reading
material produced by Dr. Stroud of the University of Iowa.
The Supplementary Reading material is the manual that sells for
50^ for one to five copies and 1*0$! for all over five copies.
We do not reproduce the tests here at the University as most
schools prefer to have their own tests duplicated from our sample
set. Feel free to duplicate any that you vould like.
The llf reading films rent for $50.00 for a six -week period and
the purchase price is $125.00.
If there is anything further that we can do for you, do not
hesitate to call on us.
Sincerely,
(signed)
John R. Hedges
Associate Director
Bureau of Visual Instruction
447
LIBBER OWENS 'FORD GLASS COMPANY
TOLEDO 3, OHIO
October 25,
10 OHIO
STON W VA
PORT LA
Mr. Robert D. Povler
Department of Chemistry
The Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
Dear Mr. Fovler:
Thank you for your inquiry of October 21, concerning a sight glass .for
use in a pressure tank in which the maximum pressure on the glass will
be 150 p. s.i. The exposed diameter of the glass window is 8'
Based on our calculations, a lamination of two pieces of 1/2" thick
polished plate glass will provide a factor of safety of approximately
6 under the above conditions. This lamination should be satisfactory
unless there would be hazard to personnel or valuable equipment in the
event of glass failure. We assume that the lamination would not be
subjected to temperatures in excess of 15CPF.
Tuf-flex heat tempered plate glass in l" thickness would provide a
factor of safety of approximately 10*
Our authorized Baltimore distributors will be glad to give you delivery
and price information. You will find their names listed in the clas-
sified section of your telephone directory;
We are herewith returning the sketch attached to your letter.
Very truly yours,
LIBBEY. OWENS. FORD GLASS COMPANY
(signed)
Manager Sales Technical Service
O.F.Wenzlertk
448
REYNOLDS METALS COMPANY
OZHXBAL OrriCZSi BICBMOND, YIHGIKU
ADDRESS REPLY TO
GENERAL SALES OFFICE
2600 SOUTH THIRD STREET
LOUISVILLE 1, KENTUCKY
July 7, 19_
Pavtucket, Rhode Island
Dear Mr, :
Replying to your letter received here June 18 and referring
to statements in our booklet, THE ABC'S OP ALUMINUM, perhaps I can
clarify your understanding a little bit, as it is evident you have
a misconception of heat versus light reflectivity.
The reflectivity of any material varies with the color of
the light striking it. Pure white light will give one reflectivity
figure, blue light will give another, red light will give another.
As you know, all light waves are made up of energy vibra-
tions at a certain frequency. If you increase the frequency and go
outside the visible spectrum to the ultra-violet range, you will meet
yet another figure.
Likewise, if you will decrease the frequency below the
visible spectrum range, you will get into the infra-red region and
get still another value.
Now when we are talking about heat reflectivity we are talk-
ing about reflectivity of energy in the infra-red region, which may
or may not have any relation whatever to reflectivity in the visible
spectrum. That is your first difficulty you are failing to realize
that the difference in frequency of the energy you are talking about
can give different reflectivity values.
The remainder of your difficulty comes from the fact that
you are confusing the condition of the metal surface with reflec-
tivity.
449
Mr. - 2 July ?, 19_
You know from personal experience that the condition of
the surface greatly affects the ability of the surface to reflect
light in the visible spectrum. What you fail to understand is that
the condition of the surface also influences the reflectivity in
the infra-red (heat region), but the point is that this condition
of the surface does not have as much influence on reflectivity of
heat as it does on reflectivity of light.
So, you can see your difficulty stems from the fact you
are assuming that the condition of the surface has nothing to do with
heat reflection; when, actually, it does have a great deal to do with
heat reflection. You see, surface conditions are important because
heat is nothing more than a wave, just like light is -- the only dif-
ference being that it is a slightly different wave length.
I hope this explains to you what may have been bothering
you.
Cordially yours,
(signed)
G. W. Birdsall, Director
Editorial Services
OWSrsp
450
ESTABLISHED 1867
MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS
FINE CHEMICALS FOR MEDICINAL, PHOTOGRAPHIC
ANALYTICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES
. ST LOUIS 7. MO
March 20, 19__
Dear Professor
We wish to thank you for your recent request for the
Mallinckrodt "Outline of the History of Chemistry."
The heavy demand for this chart has exhausted our ori-
ginal supply of 150,000 copies. While we look upon this
as a compliment to our efforts, we regret that at this
time we are unable to fill your request promptly.
We are now making a second printing and expect to be
able to supply these charts again some time during the
month of April. Your request will be kept on file un-
til additional copies are received, at which time your
chart will be forwarded.
We appreciate your interest in Mallinckrodt Fine Chemicals
in general our more than 1*00 Analytical Reagents, and
the "Outline of the History of Chemistry" in particular.
Yours very truly,
MALLINCKRODT CHEMICAL WORKS
(signed)
Divisional Sales Manager
Laboratory Chemicals
WFMichener
akg
3JA North Second Street
, Minnesota
March 13, 19_
Department of English
Speed Scientific School
University of Louisville
Louisville 8, Kentucky
Dear Dr,
The National Teacher Placement Service of Chattanooga,
Tennessee, has informed me that you will have this fall an open-
ing in the English Department of Speed Scientific School, the
engineering college of the University of Louisville.
Because I feel that my training and experience fill
rather well the requirements you set forth, I am sending for
your consideration a detailed description of them.
Briefly, I have B. A. and M. A. degrees from The State
University of Iowa and have almost ninety resident semester
hours of credit in the graduate school there.
My teaching experience should be especially interesting
to you. The first two years were as a graduate assistant in
the College of Engineering of The State University of Iowa.
The course, Technical Writing, was a combination of speaking
and writing with emphasis on preparing technical articles for
publication in the school's magazine (edited by students).
Subsequent experience is comprised of two years as full-
time instructor in English at Brainerd Junior College, Brainerd,
Minnesota. Here my teaching assignment has included two sections
of traditional freshman English and one section of "Communications. 1
The latter course has been a combination of reading, writing, and
speaking.
Besides my regular teaching load, I have been faculty
adviser to the student newspaper and annual, and I was in large
part responsible for the publication of an illustrated publicity
brochure for the Junior college. I also taught a night school
class in public speaking for local business men.
452
Dr. , 2 March 13, 19_
My high school and college debating provide a good back-
ground for coaching of a debate club, and, if you should feel
that I otherwise have the qualifications you want, I could
easily include in my summer school schedule at the State Uni-
versity of Iowa a course in Advanced Argumentation and Debate,
which is offered "for teachers of speech and directors of debate
in secondary schools and colleges with special study of the high
school and college debate questions for the forthcoming year."
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
Encs.
PERSONAL DATA
Age: 29
Height: 5 '8J"
Weight: 165
Physical Condition: Good
Marital Status: Married
Wife:
Children: , years
> yeare
Education
Parsons Junior College, Parsons, Kansas; Kansas State
Teachers' College, Pittsburg, Kansas; The State University
of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, B. A., W; M. A., 19^9.
Armed Service Experience
Army Air Forces for 39 months. Administrative and clerical
work as Medical Administrative Non-Commissioned Officer.
Held grade of Technical Sergeant at time of honorable dis-
charge.
Status today: Because of age, length of service, and de-
pendents, I expect to be exempt from further military ser-
vice. I am not now and have never been in any reserve
classification.
Extra-curricular Experience
Editor of junior college newspaper. Editor of teachers'
college paper. Baritone in church choirs, glee clubs,
quartets, and a cappella choir. Leading parts in operettas
in high school and junior college. Member of college English
club and YMCA. Member of junior college debate team. Member
of Married Students' Organization at State University of Iowa
--was village representative for two terms. Member of
Methodist Church. Teach Sunday School class of young people.
454
Work I
General reporter for the Parsons Daily Sun, Parsons, Kansas
for nine months. Left to return to college,
Clerk, Inventory Department of Business Office, State Uni-
versity of Iowa, for eight months. Left to take Job as car-
penter.
Apprentice carpenter in Ames, Iowa, and Iowa City, for
five months. Left to become Graduate Assistant in English
Department at State University of Iowa.
Clerk-typist and library assistant in Foreign Languages Lib-
rary, State University of Iowa, for twelve months. Left to
take teaching position in Junior College, ,
Minnesota.
Delivery man for Meyer Laundry, , Minnesota, dur-
ing summer of 1950.
Wrote advertising copy for KHZ, radio station in ,
Minnesota.
Teaching Experience
Practice teaching, High School of University Experimental
Schools, The State University of Iowa, one semester.
Graduate Assistant in English Department, State University
of Iowa. Taught three semesters (five classes in an) of
Technical Writing to Junior and senior students in the
College of Engineering.
Full-time Instructor in English at Junior Col-
lege, , Minnesota, for two years.
Two courses in traditional Freshman English.
One course in "communication" writing and speaking,
with emphasis on grammar and letter writing. Course
is of the terminal education program.
Faculty sponsor of school newspaper and anuual.
Taught night-school class in speech for local business
men.
Supervised ticket sales for athletic department.
455
? rm - ^,,,1 HAYKHC.N.CH.U.H
r """" ' NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Prolurioiui
2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE, WASHINGTON 25, D. C. ;
ALLAN KBNYON -
T L iTii? v EittblUhed In 191 1 by the Ntlonal Academy of Science* under ll
i W Ai WM OnittB <>' nd orjniie4 ^th the cooperation of th. N.Uoial Scientife
EUWNK P PINOWWAM <> Technical Sodftto of the United St*t
C. P RROAM ,
fw'siNNm 1 "' DIVISION OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
DotrauaH SWJNT
II A.Tuvi
SKID,* WM COMMITTEE ON GROVTH
AlHOUtD WlLCH
POUOLAI WHITAKH Acting for
THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
18 August 19_
MEMORANDUM TO: Grantees of the American Cancer Society
FROM: Hayden C. Nicholson, M.D.
The Engineers' Joint Council, a committee of the professional
engineering societies representing chemical, civil, electrical,
mechanical, mining and metallurgical engineers have Indicated their
interest in medical research and their desire to assist in its ad-
vancement. The Committee of Engineers Cooperating in Medical Research
has been established in order to facilitate the application of the
knowledge and techniques of engineering science to the solution of
medical and biological problems. This group have shovn a particular
Interest in contributing to the cancer research effort. The American
Cancer Society of course welcomes the assistance of the Committee and
wishes to do anything it can to help provide this engineering aid to
cancer investigators.
It may be that in your own research project a problem has con-
fronted you toward the solution of which engineering science can con-
tribute effectively. If this is the case, will you please write to
Mr. M. R. Runyon, Executive Vice President, American Cancer Society,
kl Beaver Street, New York, describing the problem in as much detail
as you feel win be helpful to the engineering group. It may be that
such problems have not arisen in your own investigations, but that
there occur to you areas in cancer research or in medical research in
general to which you feel engineering knowledge or techniques may be
applied advantageously. Please follow the same procedure in this
instance.
456
MEMBERS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF STAFF
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
K"f P : Co t JST" NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL ^sX
HTN IiNi ClllJl ' DIVISION OF MEDICAL SCIENCES
Kov HERTZ EUGIKE Coru.MD
HMMANiThKO 11 ' * 1W CONSTITUTION AVENUE, WASHINGTON 25, D. C Profcmoiw) Auocute
C C LITTII
JOHN M RUSSELL
I. II SCHMIDT
A K SOIOMON
I Dtii W STKWAUT Acting (or
Komi S STONK
HARIY 1! VAN DVKE
OWM H WANCENMUM
AUNOLD D. WELCH
M.C.WiNmNiT^
COMMITTEE ON GROWTH
Acting for
THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
5 June 19_
MEMORANDUM
To: Grantees of the American Cancer Society
From: 0. M. Ray
Subject: Annual Report and Summary
As the end of the grant year approaches, I am writing to
remind you of the requirement of a comprehensive Annual Report covering
the work done under your Grant in Cancer Research during the past year.
This report should not be more than 2,000 words in length. Although the
report will be accepted up to 1 September, it would be greatly appre-
ciated if it could be received as early as possible. Many investigators
are away from their laboratories during much of August and a part of
September and unless the report is prepared during July, it is often re-
ceived too late to serve the needs of the Committee on Growth. In
preparing this report, it would be helpful if you would follow the out-
line below.
1. Title of investigation
2. Name(s) of responsible investigator(s)
3. Name of institution
i. Text (not more than 2,000 words)
5, List of publications for the year 1 July
191*9 - 30 June 1950 based on work done
under this grant
With the comprehensive Annual Report, and in addition to it,
will you please forward a brief summary (100 to 200 words) suitable for
inclusion in the Annual Report of the Committee on Growth to the American
Cancer Society. The Fourth Annual Report of the Committee, which was sent
to you in March, contains summaries of all grants in effect during 19^-
19^9 and might be of some assistance to you in this regard. In preparing
tola summary, will you please adhere to the following form:
1. Title of investigation
2. Name(s) of responsible investigator (e), degrees,
academic title, institution and location
3. Text (100 to 200 words)
1*. List of publications for the year 1 July 19^9-
30 June 19^0 based on work done under this grant
457
Deportment of HEALTH; EDUCATION, AND WELFARE - Public Health Service
National Institutes o( Health * Bethesda 1 4, Md.
AUG6 1954
in reply refer
to our H-1503(C)
Doctor
School of Medicine
University of Louisville
101 West Chestnut Street
Louisville 2, Kentucky
Dear :
We are pleased to report that upon recommendation of the National
Advisory Heart Council at its meeting on June lU-16, 195^, the Surgeon
General has approved your application for a research grant.
The number, amount, period, budget categories, and recommendation
in reference to additional years of support are specifically stated for
this grant on the attached Statement of Research Grant Avard. You may
obligate these funds at any time after the beginning date shown on the
Avard Statement even though check in payment of the grant may be delayed
several weeks.
A second attachment (INFORMATION REGARDING REQUESTS FOR CONTINUA-
TION OF PHS RESEARCH GRANTS) pertains to requests for continuation of
support of this project in succeeding years.
When you applied for this support you were asked to describe your
research project in order that study section and council would have an
adequate basis for review and recommendation of your request; but it is
recognized that investigators must be free to follow promising leads.
I wish to emphasize that, under Public Health Service Policy, you are
permitted to deviate from your described plan and to pursue freely any
leads which, in your opinion, are likely to be more productive than the
plan described in your application.
Please let us know if you have any questions regarding these matters.
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
James Watt, M,D.
Director, National Heart Institute
Enclosures
cc: Dr. Mr.
458
MIDWEST FOIL GOMPAXT
SCO E MAIN STREET
LOUISVILLE 2, KY.
December 17, 19_
Gentlemen:
We are happy to announce that Cochran Foil Company,
of which Midwest Foil has been a division for nearly three
years, has just acquired the Keller-Dorian Corporation of
Fairlawn, New Jersey.
Keller-Dorian has long been manufacturing foil products
similar to those produced by Midwest Foil. This means that
the expanded facilities and strategically located plants of
both Keller-Dorian and Midwest Foil are available to you.
It is planned to combine the knowledge and experience of
both companies into producing the best possible foil prod-
ucts. We feel confident that. these pooled and diversified
facilities will be of great advantage to you,
No changes in relations with any of our customers are
contemplated. Just as in the past we shall always strive
to make it easy to do business with Midwest.
Yours very truly,
MIDWEST FOIL COMPM
(signed)
C. W. Huflage,
Vice President
459
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
PRESIDENT VICE-PRESIDENTS
W. R. Woolrkh M. M. Boring
Unlvonity of Tttt Th. G.n.r.l El.dric Company
Au.tin 12, Ti SekmcUdy S, N.Y.
SECRETARIES W. C. Whit,
A.B.Bronw,ll,S.cy, Northern Univ,r,iy
Northwt,rn Un,v,riy OFF , CE OF THE PRESIDENT *"**"' "'"'
Ev.niton, Illmoit ^^ ^ ECAC
C. E. Whon, At. Sy. ' J. H. Lamp,
Northw,,t,, B Univ,r*ify North Carolina State College
Evmton, Illinofi *Mfa N.C.
TREASURER ECRC
C L Sk.ll.y E. A. WIUr
Th Mecmillan Company Panniylvania State Coll.j*
60 Fifth Avanu, $hh Collega, P..
N.wYofkll,N.Y.
March 16, 19
Professor
Speed Scientific School
Louisville, Kentucky
Dear Professor
A close associate of yours has highly recommended you for membership
in The American Society for Engineering Education. I have the pleasure
of extending to you this cordial invitation to Join the Society.
The ASEE is an association of faculty members and administrators in
engineering colleges throughout the country as well as industrial leaders
who are interested in engineering education. Practically every accredited
engineering college is an institutional member of this Society. Through
its meetings and its publications, it provides a national forum for "the
advancement of education in all its functions which pertain to engineering
and allied branches of science and technology."
You will be interested in looking over the enclosed booklet describ-
ing the Society. The ASEE has 21 Divisions and numerous Committees which
study every conceivable phase of engineering education, including the
related fields of mathematics, physics, the social sciences and humanities.
There is also a Division of Relations With Industry which maintains a
close liaison between the engineering colleges and industry for the mutual
benefit of both.
Membership in the Society includes a subscription to the Journal of
Engineering Education. It entitles you to attend the Section Meetings of
the Society as well as the Annual Meeting. Above all, it entitles you
to enjoy tne stimulating and challenging contacts with others of your
profession throughout the country and to contribute your efforts to the
growth and development of your profession.
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
President
WRW:ms
460
LOUISVILLE
MISS EMMA KEATS CRUTCHER
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
f
TELEPHONE JACKSON 0407
HEART ASSOCIATION, INC.
COLUMBIA BUILDING 401 W MAIN STREET
LOUISVILLE 2. KY
KXICUTIVC COMMITTU
JOHN S LLEWELLYN M D
December 20, 19_
MRS R ARNOLD GRISWOLO
DCROY SCOTT
WILLIAM F FRANKET
J MURRAY KINSMAN M D
WOODFORD B TROUTMAN, M D
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MRS GEORGE GARVIN BROWN
JACKCHUMLEY M D
LEONARD T DAVIDSON M D
W BURFORD DAVIS, M D
RALPH M DENHAM, M D
JOSEPH J EGAN
WILLIAM F FRANKET
WILLIAM W GAUNT JR
WILLIAM R GHAY, M D
MRS R ARNOLD GRISWOLD
RALPH GROOMS
ROBERT F HANSEN M D
CHARLES W HILL
JOSEPH P HOLT, M 0.
HUNT B JONES M D
MRS LEWIS G KAYE
J MURRAY KINSMAN, M D
JOSEPH A LITTLE, M D
JOHN S LLEWELLYN, M D
EDWIN A MALL
ROBERT L McCLENDON, M D
HARRISON M ROBERTSON
GRADIE R ROWNTREE, M D
DEROY SCOTT
VERNON L SHALLCROSS
VICTOR A SHOLIS
WILLIAM G SIMPSON
MRS HENRY J STITES
MRS MILTON S TROST
WOODFORD B TROUTMAN, M D
MORRIS M. WEISS, M,
WILSON W WYATT
Dr.
Medical School
101 W. Chestnut St.
Louisville, Kentucky
Dear Dr.
On behalf of the Louisville Heart Association, I wish
to thank you and those of your staff who cooperated
so generously by holding "Open House" in your lab on
Thursday, December 16 for the Boards of Directors of
the Louisville and Kentucky Heart Associations.
The Research Tour vas a most interesting and enlighten-
ing experience to the laymen. I heard a great many
very enthusiastic comments.
Thank you again for being willing to interrupt your
schedule for our behalf.
Sincerely,
(signed)
Emma Keats Crutcher
Executive Secretary
As Affilitti of tbt Amtfiun Hurt Auocuuion tnd th Ktntucky Hurt Aisocittion
461
INDEX
Abstract, the; definition and ex-
amples of, 301-06; in the long-
form report, 286-88
Air Pollution, 197
Allee, W. C, 11, 62, 151
Allen, R. G. D, 125
Allport, Gordon W., 97
Altick, Richard D., 74
American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science, The, 130,
131
American Cancer Society, 456, 457
American Dental Association, 132
American Institute of Biological
Sciences, 397
American Medical Association, 130
American Society for Engineering
Education, The, 460
American Standards Association,
370
Amos Tuck School of Administra-
tion and Finance, Dartmouth Col-
lege, 125
Analogy: examples of, 148, 149,
412-13 ; fallacies in reasoning from,
114-15; as a rhetorical device, 147;
use in science, 115
Analysis: applications of, 103-06; as
a means of definition, 54; as a
means of paragraph development,
196-97; methods of, 88-94; presen-
tation of, 94-98
Anatomy, 141
Anatomy of Graft, The, 151
Andrews, Edmund, 58
Appendix, in the long-form report,
288-89
Argumentation, 189
Arkin, Herbert, 363, 366
Art of Scientific Investigation, The,
4, 116
Aspects of Science, 139
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
Railway System, 269-71
Authorization, letter of, 282-83
Baker. Ray Palmer, 256
Baldwin, Ralph B., 51
Bar graph, 365, 366
Barksdale, Jelks, 103
Barnett, Lincoln, 142
Bates, Marston, 130, 131
Becker, Carl L., 13
Beecher, William J., 235
Bell Telephone System, 286
Bennett, Burney B., 252, 253
Bernard, Claude, 11, 18, 22, 376-78
Bevendge, W. I. B., 4, 116
Bias: detection of, 72-75; reflection
of in definition, 48
Bibliography: entries in, 346-47; in
the long-form report, 288; as re-
search aid, 66-67
Bibliography card, 76-80
Biology and Language, 155
Birdsall, G. W., 450
Block style, in the business letter,
442-43
Book review, the, 326-34
Borg, S. F., 293
Boxhead, in a table, 363
Boyd, William C., 147
Bridges and Their Builders, 27
Bridgman, P. W., 50
Brooks, Cleanth, 12
Burchard, John E., 195
Bush, Douglas, 35
Business letter, the, 442-45
Byrnes, Asher, 232
Calver, Homer N., 330
Campbell, William Giles, 158, 215
Carnap, Rudolf, 115
Carson, Rachel L., 53, 134
Case history, the, 316-23
Case method, 32
Cause and effect, as a moans of para-
' : ' >ment, 199
' :' . ' and Pharmacology,
45
Ceram, C. W., 145, 409-12
Chandler, William R., 304
Charts, 358, 362
Chase, Stuart, 17, 44, 64
Chemical Abstracts, 85, 302-03
Chute, Marchette, 399-400
Clarity, in scientific style, 156-57
Clark, Sam Lillard, 318
Classification, 90-94
Clausen, Roy E., 137
Cliche, the, 172-73
Cohen, I. Bernard, 7, 17, 95
462
Cohen, Morris R., 9
Coherence, 202-03
Colloquialisms, avoidance of in for-
mal style, 158
Colton, Raymond R., 363, 366
Combat Scientists, 195
Combining forms, 59, 392-94
Combustion Chamber Deposition
and Power Loss, 288
Comparison : as means of paragraph
development, 197; use of in for-
mulating a problem, 31
Conant, James B , 17, 29, 317
Concept, the: definition of, 44-45;
place of in social science, 15
Conciseness, in scientific style, 157-
58
Conclusion, the: in the report, 263-
64, 293-94; in the research paper,
225-26, 227
Conklin, E. G., 164
Conrad, Joseph, 190, 211
Contents, table of : examples of, 340,
341; in the long-form report, 285-
86
Context, 41, 42
Control, the, 10-11
Cook, Albert S , 105
Cook, Stuart W., 112
Coonfield, B R , 169
Co-ordination and subordination,
faulty, 165
Corner, George W , 14, 25, 141
Courier- Journal, The (Louisville),
134, 344
Cover page, 279, 280
Creese, Walter L., 262
Crrighton, James Edwin, 115
Criteria, use of in evaluation, 24
Crouch, W. George, 140, 158
Crumley, Thomas, 90
Dangling modifiers, 166
Danielli, J. F, 45, 54
Darrow, Karl K , 144
Darwin, Charles, 115, 170, 405
Data: distinguished from inference
and opinion, 110-11; recording of,
74-83 ; sources of, 65-66
Data sheet: example of, 454-55;
with letter of application, 444
Date: importance of in evaluating
source, 75; position of in business
letter, 442
Davis, D. Dwight, 41, 47, 207
Deductive reasoning, 7-8, 116-121,
406-07
Definition: adaptation to purpose,
45-46; connotative or impression-
istic, 49; extended, 51-58; formal,
INDEX 463
46-49; informal, 50-51; as means
of paragraph development, 196;
methods of developing, 54-58;
operational, 49-50
Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, 458
Derivation of terms, 58-62, 63 388-
96
Description: of device, 306-12; dis-
tinguished from exposition, 190:
scientific, 190-91
Deutsrh, Morton, 112
Development of Rolled Tapered
Sheet of Aluminum Alloys, The
288
Device and process, papers of, 306-
16
Devoe & Raynolds Co., Inc., 268-69
Dewey, John, 21-22
Diagrams, 358-61
Diction, 170-73, 184-85, 187
Dictionary, use of, 173
Differentia, in formal definition, 46
Dinneen, Joseph F., 151
Directions, 308-09, 312-13
Directness, in scientific style, 157
Diringer, David, 357
Documentation: in journals and
publications, 343-53; in the long-
form report, 288-89
Douglas Aircraft Company, 291-92
Drinker, Cecil K., 51
Drawings, 356-58
Drucker, Peter F., 297
Dubos, Rene J., 4, 199
Du Pont New Products Bulletin
258-62
Eddington, Sir Arthur, 106, 111
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Com-
pany, 280, 281
Elements of Symbolic Logic, 110
Emotional content of words, 42-43
Emphasis, 162, 203
Engineering Reports, 252
Engineering and Scientific Graphs
for Publication, 370
Engineers as Writers: Growth of a
Literature, 334
English, J. B., 288
Eponyms, 60-62
Evidence to conclusion, as a means
of paragraph development, 198
Evolution: The Modern Synthesis,
406
Example, as a means of paragraph
development, 195-96
Exposition: definition of, 189; rela-
tion to other forms of prose writ-
ing, 189-93
464 INDEX
Fact, problems of, 23-24
Fadiman, Clifton, 330-31
Fallacies, classification of, 113-16,
118-21
Fichter, George S., 140
Field Book of American Trees and
Shrubs, 191
Field Book of Snakes of the United
States and Canada, 41, 47, 207
Figurative language, restricted use
of, 160
Figures Can Lie, 407
First person, 158, 159
Fishbein, Morris, 61, 167, 317
Fitzgerald, Stephen E., 415
Flesch, Rudolf, 176
Flexner, Abraham, 379-87
Flow chart, 362
Footnotes, 80-81, 347-48
Foreword, 279, 284-85
Formal definition, the, 46-49
Formal style in scientific writing,
158
Format, standards of, 339-40
Fowler, H. W., 161
Freud, Sigmund, 320-21
Friedlander, Gerhart, 200
Fulton, John F., 128
Gamow, George, 147
Gee, Wilson, 14, 16, 68
GerTner, Joseph, 365-66
Goiger counter, the, 310-12
General Biology, 96
General reader, writing for the, 130-
37
Generalization, from inadequate
data, 113-14
Getting at the Truth, 399-400
Gibbs, Josiah Willard, 106
Gibson, H. J., 288
Gildersleeve, Virginia C., 42
Gill, Robert S., 2
Gobbledygook, 175
Goddard, Henry N., 96
Gods, Graves, and Scholars, 145,
409-12
Gottschalk, Louis, 192, 196
Grammar of Science, The, 2
Graphs, 364-71
Graphs: How to Make and Use
Them, 363
Gray, Dwight E., 186
Gray, George W., 142
Great Piltdown Hoax, The, 177-83
Greek elements in scientific terms,
59-60, 388-96
Greenough, James B., 62
Gridgeman, N. T., 24
Guide to Technical Writing, A, 140,
158
Gummere, Francis B., 211
Gunning, Robert, 176
Gurley, F. G., 269-72
Hall, C. A., 288
Harrison, George R., 310
Harrison, Ross G., 352
Harvey, William, 9-10, 74
Hawkins, Reginald Robert, 84
Hawley, Gessner G., 90, 94
Hayakawa, S. I., 44, 293
Hayt, Emanuel, 54
Hayt, Lillian R., 54
Headings, run-in, 342
Heater, Elmer F., 252
Hedges, John R., 447
Higher Education for American De-
mocracy, 282
Hinchman, Walter S., 211
Hinshelwood, C. N., 17
Historian and the Historical Docu-
ment, The, 192, 196
History of Magic and Experimental
Science, A, 56, 126
History of Science, A, 198
History of Scientific English, A, 58
Hoagland, Hudson, 51
Hodgins, Eric, 150
Hogben, Lancelot, 144, 193
Holton, Gerald, 2, 5
How Newton Discovered the Law
of Gravitation, 152-53
How to Be an Employee, 297
Howell, Almonte Charles, 256
Huffman, A. E., 288
Huskins, C. Leonard, 7
Huxley, Julian, 162, 164, 406-07
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 3, 140
Hypothesis, 9, 18, 22
Idiom, 171-72
Illustrations: in the long-form re-
port, 295; preparation and uses,
355-74
Indexes, 66-67
Inductive reasoning, 7-9, 112-16
Industrial and Engineering Chem-
istry, 338, 373
Inference, 110-11
Informal definition. See Definition
Informative abstract, 301
Inquiry into Meaning and Truth,
An, 110
Interpretation, 110-12
Interpretation of Dreams, The, 321
Interrogations, use of, 169
Interview, the, 68-70
Introduction: examples of, 219-21,
222-25; in the long-form report,
288; in the research paper, 217-18
INDEX 465
Introduction to Logic and Scientific
Method, An, 9
Introduction to Science, 191
Introduction to Scientific Research,
An, 133, 214
Introduction to the Study of Experi-
mental Medicine, An, 11, 18, 22,
376-78
Introductory Logic, An, 115
Jahoda, Marie, 112
James, William, 52, 53, 148
Jargon, 174-75
Jeans, Sir James, 148-49, 171, 200
Johnson, Herbert Fisk, 252, 294
Jones, Richard F., 129
Jordan, R. E., 288
Rabat, Elvin A., 51
Kellogg, Charles E., 92
Kennedy, Joseph W., 200
Kenoyer, Leslie A., 96
Kenworthy, Marion E., 325
Kerekes, Frank, 70
Keyes, D. B., 298
Kimball, George E., 105
Kittredge, George L., 62
Knight, Frank, 14
Knight, Mjir^in':. 407-08
Krutch, Joseph Wood, 325
Kubie, Lawrence S., 231
Kurfees Paint Company, 265, 266
Laboratory, place of in science, 18,
65
Langewiesche, Wolfgang, 190
Larson, E. vH., 363
Latin elements in scientific terms,
59-60, 388-96
Lawrence, David, 148
Lee, Porter R., 325
Letter of transmittal, 279, 282, 283-
84
Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Com-
pany, 448
Library research, 65-68, 84-85
Line graph, 366-67
Link, H. B., 287
Literature citations, 397-98
Literature by Slide Rule, 415-21
Logic: applying the principles of,
108-10; in the long-form report,
296-97
Logic: The Theory of Inquiry, 21
Logic of the Sciences and the Hu-
manities, The, 8
Long-form report, the, arrangement
of, 278-98
Loofbourow, John R., 310
Long scientific paper, analysis of a,
235-48
Lord, Richard C., 310
Louisville Heart Association, Inc.,
461
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 120
McCabe, L. C., 197
McCartney, Eugene S., 170
McClelland, E. H., 325
Major, William S., 294
Malenock, P. R., 187
Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, 451
Mandel, J., 316
Mangelsdorf, Paul C., 136
Manual of Research and Reports,
125
Manual of Style, A, 338
Manuals, laboratory, 306
Manuscript, preparation for publica-
tion, 337-43
Maps, 358-61
Mathematics for the Million, 193
Mathews, F. Schuyler, 191
Means, problems of, 25-28
Measurement of Treadwear of Com-
mercial Tires, 316
Medical Etymology, 60, 61
Medical Radiography and Photog-
raphy, 194
Medical Writing, 61, 167, 317
Mellon, M. G., 84
Memorandum, 444, 456-57
Memorandum report, 267-69
Mental Hygiene and Social Work,
324
Metaphor: mixed, 173; restricted
use, 160
Method in Social Science, 14, 15, 123
Microbe Hunters, 145
Midwest Foil Company, 459
Miller, James E., 152
Miller, Walter J., 334
Mineralogical A.bstracts, 85
Misplaced modifiers, 166
Modified block style, in the business
letter, 442-43
M'-ri IT: M. F. Ashley, 43
Morris, Charles W., 344
Morse, Philip M., 105
Muller, H. J., 17, 149, 412-14
Mumford, Lewis, 55
Nagel, Ernest, 9
Narration, in exposition, 189-90
National Institutes of Health, 458
National Research Council, 284-85,
456, 457
National Science Foundation, 364
Natural History and the American
Mind, 6, 27
Natural History of Disease, The,
320
466 INDEX
Nature of the Mineral Phase of
Bone, The, 224-26
Naval reports, 251, 289-90
Needham, Joseph, 160
Nelson, J. Raleigh, 251, 253, 295
Neuman, M. W., 224
Neuman, W. F, 224
New Background of Science, The,
149
Nomenclature, 38
Northrop, F. S. C., 8
Note card, 76, 80-83
Notes, recording of, 81-83
Nuclear Science Abstracts, 306
Objectivity, 12, 158-61
Observation, 7, 28-30
Office of Naval Research, 289
On the Duality and Growth of
Physical Science, 2, 5
On Improving Natural Knowledge,
3
On Understanding Science, 17, 317
One two three . . . infinity: Facts
& Speculations of Science, 147
Opening of an article, the : examples
of, 140-44 ; as indicating the reader
group appealed to, 135-37; pos-
sible variations in, 140
Operational definition, the, 49-50
Operations research, 105-06
Opinion, as distinguished from infer-
ence, 110-11
Oppenheimer, Jane M , 130, 145
Ourselves Unborn, 14, 25
Out of the Night, 412-14
Outline: as a means of presenting
analysis, 95-98; in the research
paper, 226-30
Outline reports, 264-66
Palmer, Archie M., 284
Paper, the: long scientific, 213-48;
short expository, 200-10
Paragraph, the: in the business
letter, 442; structure and use, 193-
200
Parallelism, faulty, 168-69
Parker, George Howard, 400-02
Partition: definition of, 88-89;
physical and theoretical, 89
Passive voice, 159-60
Patten, Bradley M., 143
Pearson, Karl, 2
Pegram, George B., 285
Peirce, Charles S., 17
Pepper, 0. H. Perry, 60, 61
Periodicals, analysis of, 137-39
Person, shift in, 158-59
Personification of a type, as a
rhetorical device, 149-51
Perspective, importance of in inter-
pretation, 125
Persuasion: as distinct from exposi-
tion, 191-93; in the long report,
253
Philbrick, Frederick A., 172-73
Philosophy of Physical Science, The,
106, 111
Photographs, 371
Picture graph, 366, 369
Pie graph, 366, 368
Piel, Gerard, 135, 143
Plain style, the: early favored by
scientific writers, 129-30; survival
in English prose style, 175-76
Plough, Harold H., 74
Plural forms, 394-95
Popularization: historical back-
ground of, 131-32; inherent diffi-
culties in, 132-33; process of, 139-
51
Postell, W. D., 84
Power Plant Engineering, 312
Power of Words, 17, 44
Practical Spectroscopy, 310
Precision, in scientific style, 156-57
Prefixes, 388-91
Primary sources, 71-72, 86
Probability, range in degree of, 116
Problem, the: formulating, 28-35;
as a guide in analysis, 99; nature
of, 23-28; in the research paper,
217; statement of, 217-18
Process, explanation of, 306-09, 312-
16
Progress report, the, 254
Pronouns, faulty reference of, 165-
66
Proof, in relation to evidence, 7
Prospecting for Uranium, 114
Public relations, 130-31, 132-33, 445,
459, 460, 461
Punctuation, 163
Purpose, controlling, 201
Quantitative methods in science, 12,
17, 204-07
Questionnaire, the, 68-69, 86, 397-98
Quotations, form of, 81-83, 342
Ramon y Cajal, Santiago, 27, 387
Ranson, Stephen Walter, 318
Rapoport, Anatol, 50
Rattle, The, 207-09
Rautenstrawh, Walter, 207
Readability, 175-76, 415-21
Recollections of My Life, 387
Recommendation report, the, 254
Recommendations, in the report,
262-64
Record reports, 254-56
Reference paper, as distinguished
from research paper, 20, 216, 217
Reference works in library research,
84-85
Reichenbach, Hans, 110, 196
Replies to inquiries, 443-44, 447, 448,
449-50, 451
Report, the : in the armed forces,
251; definition of, 250-52; forms
of, 264; functions of, 254-64;
initiation of, 252-53; for promo-
tional purposes, 253; style in, 296
Research paper, the: definition of,
215-16; evaluation of, 233-35;
steps in writing, 216-17
Review, the, 214-15
Reynolds Metals Company, 288, 449
Rhetorical devices, 146-51
Rhodes, Fred H., 252, 294
Rhythm, in prose style, 161
Rice, Stuart A., 14, 15
Richey, G. G., 316
Richmond, Mary E., 73, 317
Rider, Fremont, 26
Robinson, Francis P., 309
Robinson, James Harvey, 53, 125
Romer, Alfred Sherwood, 51
Rose, Lisle A., 252, 253
Royal Society of London, the, 7,
129, 130
Russell, Bertrand, 110
Ryle, John A., 320
Salvador!, Mario G., 63
Sampling techniques, 113-14
Sarton, George, 198, 332-335
Schmidt, Karl P., 41, 47, 207
Science, 130, 352
Science, definitions of, 1, 17
Science Abstracts, 85
Science and Common Sense, 29, 317
Science and Complexity, 403-04
Science and Music, 200
Science and Religion, 152
Science, Servant of Man, 17, 95
Science writing, 131-32
Scientific American, 36, 51, 132
Scientific Attitude, The, 17
Scientific method : characteristic fea-
tures of, 1-12; in relation to style,
154-61 ; in the social sciences, 12-
16
Scientific Method in Human Affairs,
The, 207
Scientific Monthly, The, 130
Scientific paper, analysis of the
style of a, 176-86
Scientific Report Writing, 289
Scientific writing, definition of, 2,
129-31
Sea Around Us, The, 53, 134
INDEX 467
Secondary sources, 71-72
Seens, W. B., 287
Semantics, 40-44
Sentence structure, 163-69
Sentences : revision of, 169-70 ; types
of, 163-64
Sheffield, Ada Eliot, 322
Shift, illogical, 167-68
Shirner, H. W., 211
Shoptalk, 174
Short-form reports, 272-77
Sigma Xi, the Society of the, 143
Skinkle, John H,, 95, 313
Slosson, Edwin E., 88
Small Industrial Plants Can Abate
Smoke and Dust, 294
Small Wonder, 90, 94
Smallwood, William Martin, 6 27
Smith, G. V., 287
Smith, Roger C., 84
Social Case History, The, 322
Social sciences, the, 12-16
Social work, evaluation of sources
of information in, 72-73
Soule, Byron A., 84
Sources: coverage of, 68; evaluation
of, 70-75
Speed Scientific School, 446, 452
Spelling, 174
Split construction, 168
Square "D" Company, 257
Standards, in evaluation, 24
Statement of problem, 217-18
Statistical unit, the, 121-23
Statistics, 121-24
Stedfeld, Robert L., 222
Steinbeck, John, 212
Steinman, David B , 27
Stevenson, Ian, 63
Stiehler, R. D., 316
Stone & Webster, report of, 422-40
Straus, William L., Jr., 176, 177
Stub, m a table, 363
Style: analysis of in a scientific pa-
per, 178-86; in the business letter,
443; definition of, 414-15; elements
of, 163-74; in the report, 296; in
scientific writing, 158-61
Style Manual of the United States
Government Printing Office, 338
Style manuals, 338-39
^ .'' : : v.i-. form of, 342
Sullivan, J. W. N, 139
Summary, in the long-form report,
286-87
Svirsky, Leon, 51
Syllogism, the, 116-17
Synthesis, 88
Szent-Gyorgyi, A., 57, 126
468 INDEX
Tables: arrangement of, 363-64; in
presenting analysis, 94
Tampa Gas and Electric Company,
422
Tautology, 172
Technical writing: definition of,
131-32; formal style in, 158
Technique of Clear Writing, The,
176
Temkin, Owsei, 160
Tense, choice of, 166-67
Terminology, importance to the sci-
entist, 38-39
Textile Testing, 95, 313
Thesis, the, 215
Thiesmeyer, Lincoln R., 195
Thomson, Elizabeth H., 128
Thomson, J. Arthur, 191
Thorndike, Lynn, 56, 126
Titanium, 103
Titanium: the New Metal, 101
Title: of a paper, 135; of a table,
363
Title page, 340-41
Tone: in the business letter, 443; in
the report, 296
Transition, in the long paper, 231-33
Transmittal, letter of. See Letter of
transmittal
Treatment of Experimental Data,
365-66
Trelease, Sam F., 356, 371
Trewartha, Glenn T., 57
Truesdell, Leon E., 123
Ulman, Joseph N., Jr., 158
Unexplained Direction Sense of
Vertebrates, The, 235-48
Unit of measurement, in a table, 363
United States Government Monthly
Publications Catalog, 84
Unity, 202-03, 296
Usefulness of Useless Knowledge,
The, 379-87
Value, problems of, 24-25
Veeder, Frederic R., 341
Vogt, Evon Z., 219-22
Warren, Robert Penn, 12
Water Quality and Treatment, 96
Water Witching: an Interpretation
of a Ritual Pattern in a Rural
American <";/,-. , ' ./. 219-22
Watson, Sara Rutn, 27
Weaver, Warren, 51, 303-04
Weil, B. H., 294
Westinghouse Electric & Manufac-
turing Company, 273
Whaley, W. Gordon, 137
Whitehead, Alfred North, 414-15
W.iM ;.,,,. William P. D, 106
II -../. Blow Straight Up, 190
Wingert, Paul S., 329
Wmslow, C.-E. A., 328
Wilks, S. S, 121
Wilmerding, Lucius, Jr., 232
Wilson, E. Bright, Jr., 133, 214
Winfrey, Robley, 70
Wistar Institute Style Brief, The,
158, 161, 338, 372
Woodger, J. H., 155
Wordiness, 158, 172, 175
Words: as symbols, 42-44; in rela-
tion to terms, 44-45
World Expands, The, 400-02
World List of Scientific Periodicals.
66, 85, 138
Worthing, Archie G., 365-66
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 163
Yeoman 1 and Chief, 251
Zetler, Robert L., 140, 158
Zisman, W. A., 197
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