Why is scientific writing so hard?

Writing scientific manuscripts is frequently associated with a painful experience. It is easy to find a thousand reasons why we should not be doing it, and this just drags the manuscript to being completed tomorrow. But why is it so?

Apparently the main reason for the writing experience being so difficult is that there is a lot going on when researchers try to write their manuscripts. To name a few factors, they have to be concerned with focusing on their main topic, grammar, vocabulary, getting the facts right, convincing their audience, citing others where appropriate, following guidelines of a specific journal, and the list keeps going. With so much going on, it's no surprise that writing carries a huge burden, more specifically the cognitive burden of having to manage multiple tasks at once. But can anything be done?

In the research coaching program we have developed a platform called Manuscript Templates that is specifically designed to alleviate this burden. Put simply, researchers are given simple and straightforward steps that allow them to start writing the manuscript from day one in the project. At each step of the manuscript, they have very clear guidelines on how each section should include or not include, examples of well-written manuscripts similar in structure to theirs, and a constant feedback from more experienced researchers that keeps guiding them into a manuscript that will be considered well-written by reviewers and peers.

If this sounds of interest, you might want to check further details on the Research Coaching Program at [http://www.researchonresearch.org/?q=node/107]