Scientific writing is a step-by-step process that should be approached systematically. It is important to start by planning, then develop a structure, and finally refine the language. We also suggest to iteratively revise your work at every step. Mixing the steps does not save time, instead it leads to more mistakes that are then more difficult to fix and time-consuming. Moreover, rushing through the writing process or skipping steps can result in a poorly written text that is difficult to understand and may not accurately convey the information being presented.
Planning involves team work, getting together with the people involved and discussing the main points and content to get consensus on them.
Then, the structure and flow of ideas are just as important as the content in making the message clear. Without a clear structure and pattern, the reader can easily become lost or confused, and may not fully understand your argument. At this stage, our main suggestion is to write as little as possible, even in your own language if it makes you more comfortable. Most scientists we are not native English speakers, and mixing two complex topics, such as science and language, could be a mess. To pass from structuring to writing a paper, we suggest the powerful tool of the Sentence Outline.
Finally, you can write your draft, where language can be fine-tuned to ensure that it is straight and precise to accurately convey the information presented. To help with this, few months ago we created a series of six consecutive blog posts on different tools, starting from this one.
We also suggest you to iteratively revise your work at different steps and ask for as much external feedback as you can from early stages. This will allow you to easily correct mistakes as soon as possible and reach the maximum clarity and accuracy.