ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the standards for preparing technical documents and presents suggestions for helping readers acquire and use a scientific writing style. It provides information on reviewing the literature, stating research questions, writing research proposals for evaluation by others. The chapter deals with information on disseminating information from studies. The task for the investigator is not to be blinded by the prediction but to be open to all potential outcomes; thus, asking neutral research questions is simply a way to help guard against those inherent biases. Written language is a major way scientists establish a record of their work and communicate with one another and with practitioners. As in other writing forms, technical scientific writing has its own organization, style, and standards. Scientific writing is so important that Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf, and T. R. Risley, in their seminal article on applied behavior analysis, included it as a major dimension.
