The WikiDoc Manual of Style

Use the present or past tense, avoid the passive tense

Do not use of the passive tense with words ending in "ing". Use the present or past tense.

Avoid the words causes and predicts

Biology is largely phenomenology and it is hard to verify causal pathways.

Do not use the phrase ___"causes" ____ unless a causal pathway is firmly established.

Instead use the phrase “ ___ was associated with ___”.

Do not use the word “predictor” unless causality has been established and the observation has been validated in both an exploratory and validation cohort.

Avoid using the words I and we

            Normal   0               false   false   false      EN-US   X-NONE   X-NONE                                                     MicrosoftInternetExplorer4                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Do not use the word “I” or “we”. These are too conversational and casual. Insert instead “This study examined …” not “We examined …”  

Table to translate conversational / casual styel to WikiDoc / Scientific style

caption

Casual Style	Science Style
in patients	among patients
cell	cell

Use simple sentence structure, not long run on sentences. Do not use the word “in” (overworked) use the word “among patients”