Learning to write: can books help?

A distinguished group of writers, editors, and teachers have published at least seven books on scientific writing in the past three years. These authors lament the poor quality of writing in scientific manuscripts and argue that many papers are unclear, verbose, confusing, and abusive to the reader. Several of these works are practical, how-to manuals, while others emphasize the art more than the craft of writing. Authors in academic centers often ignore elementary devices such as how-to books because of misplaced pride plus an assumption of natural writing ability. This article reviews these recent books and suggests that medical authors who have something to say may at least learn to say it clearly.