Reasoned Writing

Welcome to Reasoned Writing. 

Reasoned Writing (RW) seeks to make scientific writing easier by focusing on three main areas (the "Three Ss," if you will): STRUCTURE, SIMPLICITY, and SPECIFICITY. The first (and most important) area is STRUCTURE. RW seeks to help writers think about the conceptual FRAMEWORKS that structure arguments (National Academies of Science, 2000). Creating straightforward, reasoned frameworks for papers, paragraphs, and sentences can make the writing process systematic and smooth. The second objective of RW is to encourage clear reasoning through SIMPLE presentation. Simple presentations limit the amount of information that audiences must consider at any one time. Finally, RW provides suggestions for communicating more SPECIFICALLY. Specific communication is self-contained, unambiguous, and truthful.

To continue, follow the links to each area, or use the pop-up navigation sidebar at the upper-left of the screen, or the text-based table of contents below.

TABLE OF CONTENTS (text version)

REASONED WRITING

• PREFACE

• TOPIC OUTLINE

• FRAMEWORKS

  • CHRONOLOGIES

  • LISTS

  • REASONED FRAMEWORKS

    • WHY REASONING

      • HEURISTICS

      • RHETORICAL TRICKS

    • ELEMENTS OF REASONING

      • CONCLUSIONS

      • PREMISES

        • ASSUMPTIONS

        • FACTS

          • FACTS FROM YOUR DATA

          • FACTS FROM OTHERS' DATA

          • STRONG OR SOUND CONCLUSIONS AS FACTS

        • CLARIFICATIONS

      • TRANSITIONS

        • CONJUNCTIONS

          • AND

          • HIERARCHICAL CONJUNCTIONS

          • BUT

        • DISJUNCTIONS

        • INDICATING CONCLUSIONS

    • TYPES OF REASONING

      • DEDUCTIVE REASONING

        • SYLLOGISMS

        • GRAPHICAL FRAMEWORKS

        • DEDUCTIVE FALLACIES

      • INDUCTIVE REASONING

        • INDUCTIVE FALLACIES

      • HIERARCHIES

        • TREE FRAMEWORKS

        • OUTLINES

        • LITERATURE GRIDS

• SIMPLICITY

  • PRINCIPLES OF SIMPLICITY

    • THE RULE OF THREE

    • REPETITION

    • ONE IDEA PER ELEMENT

  • SIMPLIFYING WRITING

    • PAPERS

      • EFFECTIVE SUBHEADINGS

      • REVERSE ENGINEERING

    • PARAGRAPHS

    • SENTENCES

• SPECIFICITY

  • PRINCIPLES OF SPECIFICITY

  • WRITING SPECIFICALLY

    • PAPERS

    • PARAGRAPHS

    • SENTENCES

SOME ACTIVITIES FOR REASONED WRITING

Reasoned Writing / A Framework for Scientific Papers

A free website for scientific writing.

© 2018, Devin Jindrich

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