Reviews
DR. Jean-Pierre CHEVALLET
Associate professor,
Grenoble University, France
Director of IPAL international CNRS Research Unit, Singapore
______________________________________________________________
"One does not become scientist without a long apprenticeship of rigour. Although scientists are keeping up-to-date in their domain, and know how to conduct research, they are strangely lacking know-how when it comes to expressing their scientific contribution in a language that has its own modes, constraints, and peculiarities. Books on such know-how are notoriously scarce despite the importance of publishing in the career of any researcher.
This timely book fills a gap. It is a lively guide which should urgently be read by all scientists, at all levels of expertise! This relevant work, rich in anecdotal and sometimes humourous evidence, assembles and disassembles the workings of a scientific publication in order to activate the understanding of the reader. Isn't it the aim of all scientific communication?
You will learn how to communicate to the reader in a pleasant and engaging way, how to keep your reader attentive, how to reduce the time taken to read your paper, how to highlight your results, how to guarantee uninterrupted reading, how to use metaphors, how to use references well, how to craft your title, and more.
As an added bonus, this book has an unexpected side-effect: the reviewer will find it easier to identify the reasons for the reading difficulties that cloud the understanding in a badly written paper.
My wish is that this book becomes the bedside book of all serious scientists striving to express themselves clearly in order to communicate their ideas efficiently."
Dr. Don Norman
Professor, Northwestern University U.S.A
Cofounder, Nielsen Norman Group, U.S.A
Author "The design of everyday things"
_____________________________________________
In the design of products, we argue that one must focus upon the people who use the products, not upon the technology: Human-centered design, we call it. Well, Lebrun expands this notion to talk about the "reader interface," and therefore, reader-centered writing. This is an essential message for all who hope to get others to understand their work. No matter how brilliant a piece of work, if others cannot understand it, the work will have no impact. That's why this book, and Lebrun's wisdom, is so essential, so correct, and so badly needed.