For many scientists, writing clear and concise manuscripts is a major hurdle to professional success. This overarching challenge can be split into two issues: writing initial drafts and effective revision. Both require considerable investments of time and energy; yet, even with endless supplies of both, making it to the “end” can be difficult, because the “end” is undefined. it is a “you know it when you see it” point that requires considerable experience to identify. Getting to that endpoint—a clear and concise finished work—is often particularly difficult for early career researchers.

This essay's motivation stems from a common editorial refrain: “this needs to be tighter.” I have given and received this advice dozens of times. I can also attest to how vague it can feel when received, and how desirable specific steps to remedy the issue would be. Ultimately, your reader is telling you to be more concise. They want you to give the same information in fewer words. By spending the necessary time to craft your manuscript with conciseness in mind, you will build goodwill with your audience. However, before getting to the rules below, a note of caution: it is important not to take your pursuit of conciseness too far. It is easy to condense into unclarity. By cutting too many words and losing key information, you will create one problem while fixing another. The key is to tighten your writing while keeping the core ideas intact.

Below, I provide a practical guide to writing more concise scientific manuscripts structured as 10 rules that range from big picture, philosophical ideas to specific, practical concepts. Like any good rule, most can be broken under the right circumstances, so I encourage the reader to treat them more as guidelines than laws. However, I have book‐ended the essay with two rules that should not be broken. To succeed in writing concisely you must take writing seriously (Rule 1) and embrace feedback (Rule 10). Finally, I must acknowledge the inherent irony that the published version of this essay will represent. Like every bit of writing that has or ever will be drafted, this essay could be more concise. This is unavoidable. Writing concisely is not a binary of success or failure. Rather, it is a question of degree. You should strive to do it well while recognizing that you must eventually stop somewhere.

对于许多科学家而言，编写清晰简洁的手稿是获得专业成功的主要障碍。这一总体挑战可以分为两个问题：撰写初稿和有效修订。两者都需要大量的时间和精力投入；然而，即使两者都有无休止的供应，也很难达到“终点”，因为“终点”是不确定的。这是“当您看到它时便知道的”点，需要大量经验来识别。对于早期职业研究人员而言，要达到目标（清晰，简洁的完成工作）通常特别困难。

本文的动机源于普遍的社论限制：“这需要更加严格。” 我已经给予和接受过数十次此建议。我还可以证明收到该邮件后会有多模糊，以及解决该问题的具体步骤将是多么理想。最终，您的读者告诉您要更加简洁。他们希望您用更少的单词给出相同的信息。通过花费必要的时间来精简手稿，您将与听众建立良好的信誉。但是，在遵循以下规则之前，请注意以下事项：重要的是，不要过于追求简洁。容易弄清不确定性。通过减少过多的单词并丢失关键信息，您将在解决另一个问题的同时创建一个问题。关键是在保持核心思想不变的同时，加紧写作。

在下文中，我提供了实用指南，用于编写更简洁的科学手稿，该手稿由10条规则构成，从大图，哲学思想到具体的实用概念不等。像任何好的规则一样，大多数规则都可以在适当的情况下被打破，因此我鼓励读者将它们更多地视为准则，而不是法律。但是，我已经用不应该打破的两个规则对论文进行了结尾。为了使写作简洁明了，您必须认真对待写作（规则1）并接受反馈（规则10）。最后，我必须承认这篇文章的出版版本将表现出内在的讽刺意味。就像已经或将要起草的每一篇文章一样，这篇文章可能会更加简洁。这是不可避免的。简洁地写作不是成功或失败的二进制文件。相反，这是程度的问题。