Writing: LEX and flexibility.

The article presents concerns of the author regarding publishing of his article 'Clear and Mud' in the journal 'Nature.' The 'News Feature' part of the journal points out that author's second sentence begins with a brand new term, Scleraxis. The author points out that while his second sentence indeed begins with a new term, it makes the transition, just five words later, back to the content of the previous sentence. While the author agrees that science writers should strive for clarity, they must be given the same latitude as writers in other disciplines to temper traditional rules of usage with individual stylistic choices that enhance what they want to communicate. Judging papers by methods such as LEX scores, which measure the ratio of everyday words to jargon, is, in author's opinion, underestimating the capacity of science readers to creatively and flexibly handle the jargon, stylistic variations, and idiosyncrasies of interesting science writers.