Books about Scientific Skills

• Houston, We Have a Narrative: Why Science Needs Story - Randy Olson, a scientist-turned-filmmaker, highlights why scientific communication needs narrative structure.
• Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace - Exercises for developing writing skills, by Bizup and Williams.
• Stylish Academic Writing - Advice on crafting clear, active sentences with concrete nouns and precise diction, by Helen Sword.
• The Chicago Manual of Style Online - An excellent guide to punctuation and many other writing issues.
• The Craft of Research - A comprehensive classic guide, with insights about, e.g., effective problem framing and use of flow in crafting persuasive arguments, by Booth et al.
• The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase - An excellent reference for elegant phrasing, by Mark Forsyth.
• The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21^st Century - A modern guide that challenges to rethink writing in many settings, including science, by Steven Pinker.