The goals of communicating science and of doing science are not directly aligned. This doesn’t mean, however, that scientists have nothing to learn from the principles of science writing. In this talk I’ll pull from established science writing principles as well as my own experience as both a scientist and science communicator to demonstrate how these principles can assist in scientific thinking. This will include ideas about doing literature research, thinking about narratives, pulling together disparate concepts, and keeping the bigger picture in mind.