Feb 15, 2026 · 20 min · 9 segments
Today we give you part 3 of our discussion with Dr. Steven Paul Woods about the scientific process in neuropsychology. For this one, we get into a few specifics on high quality scientific writing…
Steven Paul WoodsGuestRyan Van PattenHostJohn BelloneHostOne pitfall or mistake, I don't know what you want to call it, that I see often is overwriting, where someone is too verbose.
I think it was Blaise Pascal that said, if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.
But if you can say something in one sentence, use one sentence instead of two, and it takes time to do that.
But I think a lot of our scientific writing is just too verbose and could be made much more clear and concise.
And we have this culture in psychology that, you know, our neuropsychology, because there's variability among different disciplines in psychology, but like our introductions need to be four to five pages, right? Like who came up with this idea that that's the proper length to set up a hypothesis? Our medical colleagues will do it in one page oftentimes and our General clinical colleagues will do it in 10 pages sometimes.
I think that because science is also so iterative and it builds upon what's been done before, there's usually not a lot of good reasons to write more than a three-page introduction in my experience.
But culturally, we've decided that four to five pages is just the right amount, the Goldilocks amount.
It's just like P less than 0.05, you know, this arbitrary idea that gets solidified and then it becomes our North Star.
One pitfall or mistake, I don't know what you want to call it, that I see often is overwriting, where someone is too verbose.
I think it was Blaise Pascal that said, if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.
But if you can say something in one sentence, use one sentence instead of two, and it takes time to do that.
But I think a lot of our scientific writing is just too verbose and could be made much more clear and concise.
And we have this culture in psychology that, you know, our neuropsychology, because there's variability among different disciplines in psychology, but like our introductions need to be four to five pages, right? Like who came up with this idea that that's the proper length to set up a hypothesis? Our medical colleagues will do it in one page oftentimes and our General clinical colleagues will do it in 10 pages sometimes.
I think that because science is also so iterative and it builds upon what's been done before, there's usually not a lot of good reasons to write more than a three-page introduction in my experience.
But culturally, we've decided that four to five pages is just the right amount, the Goldilocks amount.
It's just like P less than 0.05, you know, this arbitrary idea that gets solidified and then it becomes our North Star.
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