The Science of Scientific Writing

A few principles [rather than hard rules] provided in The Science of Scientific Writing, George D. Gopen and Judith A. Swan (1990):

1. Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb;
2. Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize;
3. Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position;
4. Place appropriate "old information" (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward;
5. Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb;
6. In general, provide context for your reader before asking that reader to consider anything new;
7. In general, try to ensure that the relative emphases of the substance coincide with the relative expectations for emphasis raised by the structure