SCIENTIFIC WRITING - 2013cwalker/SciWrite2.pdf · SCIENTIFIC WRITING Because scientific writing is an important professional skill in which most of us have not been trained, I am

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_____________________________________________________TUNL Summer Lecture Series

A NECESSARY

PROFESSIONAL

SKILL

(second class)Constance Kalbach Walker _

SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Because scientific writing is an important professional skill in which most of us have not been trained, I am trying to cover some of the most basic considerations in these two classes. You will not be able to remember all of it –maybe not any of it – but hopefully the notes-pages will help you. They are posted online, and I’ll give you the address at the end.

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Themes for These Lectures

We are writing for our readers“Reader expectation theory”

Proceed from the known to the newWhat is “known” to the reader

Here is a reminder of my two recurrent themes

First, we are writing for our readers. We need to keep in mind who we are writing for, what we want to convey, the interests of our readers, and their familiarity with the subject of our work. Because something is clear or interesting to us, we tend to assume that same is true for our readers, but often this is not the case.

The second theme follows from the first. When we give new information to our readers, they need to be able to put it into a context. The context may be clear to you because you are working with the topic, day in and day out, but will it be clear to your readers? If not, the material will be difficult to understand. We have to start from where they are and what they know; then we can relate the new facts back to that. That king of logical progression is needed in yourdocument as a whole and even individual sections or paragraphs.

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Main Points from PART 1 (It’s not about you!)

Writing for your readers determinesContent selection

You need to includeThe information they need and want, In the detail they need, In a terminology they understand.

The first theme, determines the content selection for your document.

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Main Points from PART 1 (It’s not about you!)

Moving from the known to the newdetermines Content organization

Start with the reader’s interestsProgress logically The purpose or goalHow you worked to meet the goalResults obtained

The second theme determines how you organize that content. You want to progress logically, relating new material back to what the reader already knows and linking the sections of your document together in the kind of logical order your reader expects. Generally, you want to follow a thematic rather than chronological order.

You want to start with your purpose or goal, then discuss how you worked to meet the goal, and finally present your results.

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PART 2:Making it Clear

and Easy

(Writing to be understood)

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SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Now I am ready to start on Part 2: Making it clear and easy. This will deal with the smaller scale units of your document:

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Topics for PART 2(Making it clear and easy)

Content CommunicationWriting clear sentences and paragraphsAvoiding grammatical errors

Content IllustrationDesigning clear and convincing figures

It’s not enough to have the right content organized in logical units; we need to make the material within those units clear and easy to understand. The two topics I will cover are:

How to communicate the content you have organized in clear sentences and paragraphs, while avoiding confusing grammatical errors, and

How to illustrate your content with effective, easy-to-read drawings and graphs.

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WRITING FOR YOUR READERS:

CONTENT COMMUNICATION

MAKING IT CLEAR AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND

So let’s begin with content communication. As I said, getting your content selected and organized in different sections is just the beginning. The writing itself must be clear… as clear as you can make it. We don’t want our readers to have to stop and figure out how to untangle our complicated and perhaps misleading prose.

To return to Poincaré’s analogy, we need to take the “bricks” and follow the floor plan to build them into a “house!” though still without windows. The bricks need to be in nice, even rows!

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Context Before Content

Go from the known to the newReaders expect a context in whichto place new material.

Context is at the beginningof a section, paragraph, or sentence

Content is at the end,in the “stress position”

As was the case in structuring your overall document, so also in the smaller units, readers expect to find information in a certain order. Before getting new material, they expect a context in which to put it.

We want proceed from what they know based on what we have already told them and relate the next bit of information back to that. In other words, we have to give them a context for the new material before giving them the content of the material. Otherwise they don’t know what to do with the new information. We are forming links in a logical chain.

This means that context should come at the beginning of whatever unit of the document we are working on, whether that is

a section, a paragraph, or simply a sentence.

Then we put the new information at the end of the section or paragraph or sentence. This is what is called the “stress position.” It is what the reader will remember.

As we form a chain of logic, this content will become the “known” or context for the next bit of information we want to convey.

This is just plain logic. We use logic every day in our work, and we need to learn to apply it to our writing.

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A Simple Example

Time (min) Temperature (oC)

0 25

3 27

6 29

9 31

12 32

15 32

Here is a simple, even trivial example of this principle:

Suppose you are measuring the temperature of a water bath as a function of time and that you take your readings at three minute intervals. Then you want to convey the results in a table.

This is the table the way most of us would naturally construct it. The known or context information for the set of measurements is the time of each temperature reading. Because we read from left to right in English, this information goes on the left, at the beginning of each row of the table. The new or contentinformation is the temperature that was measured. It goes on the right in the “stress” position, the place of emphasis.

But look what happens if you try to reverse the columns.

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Temperature (oC) Time (min)

25 0

27 3

29 6

31 9

32 12

32 15

Here is the same table, but with the two columns reversed. It is much harder to read and interpret. It gives the temperature first and then the time at which it was measured. It unsettles my nerves just to look at it. We look on the left and see what looks like a random set of numbers, and we don’t know what to do with them!

I hope this is obvious to all of us, because the same principle applies to the construction of a sentence. Consider two sentences that might describe the measurement of these data.

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Example Sentence

“The temperature was found to rise more rapidly at first and then level off at 32o C,

when we measured the behavior of our water bath at three minute intervals.”

This version corresponds to the second table. READ IT. It is completely factual and accurate. All the information is there, and it is grammatically correct. BUT it is confusing.

It tells us the results – what the temperature did – before we have any context to place it in. The temperature of what? When was it measured?

We are left metaphorically “holding our breath,” waiting to see what to do with the new information. The context we are looking for – “we measured the behavior of our water bath at three minute intervals” – comes at the end.

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“We measured the temperature of our water bath at three minute intervals

and found that the temperature rose more rapidly at first and then leveled off at 32o C.”

If we reverse the order, the sentence is much easier to understand. We get the context of what was done at the beginning, so we know what to do with the new information, the results. The results are also now in the place of emphasis.

This is a very simple illustration of a very important principle.

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“Material was acquired from four different suppliers in addition to the material used in previous measurements.”

“In addition to the material used in previous measurements, material was acquired from four different suppliers.”

Here is a real-life example from the TUNL progress report in the form it came to me in the original submission. [READ FIRST VERSION]

The main problem is that the emphatic, new material comes at the beginning of the sentence, while the context is at the end. “Material was acquired,” but why? What for? Only later are we given the context of supplementing previously used material.

The sentence is grammatically (almost) correct, but it is awkward. So HOW would you go about fixing it? [Elicit suggestions]

[*] The simplest way to fix this problem, is simply to rearrange this sentence the way we did the last one, moving the context phrase to the beginning. This is much better, and as editor, I might have left it this way, but is still not optimal.

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“In addition to the material used in previous measurements, material was acquired from four different suppliers.”

“To supplement the material used in previous measurements, new material was acquired from four additionalsuppliers.”

The questions that remain are, “How does the new material relate to the old?” and “Was the original supplier include in the four mentioned?”

The word “addition” already implies that the new material supplements rather than replaces the old, but we can make that clearer by using the word “supplement” in the first part of the sentence [*] “To supplement the material used in the previous measurement” – and by adding the word “new” in the last part.

However, we are still left with the question of whether the supplier of the old material has also supplied any of the new material. Having read the full contribution, I know that the old supplier did not provide any of the new material so I have changed “different suppliers” to “additional suppliers.” They are not only different from one another but also different from the supplier of the original material.

Both the ordering of the sentence and the choice of words are important!

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What is it Describing?(The “Faulty Antecedent” Error)

“Currently this equipment is being used for the high voltage test at Los Alamos, which is another important step in the project.”

“Currently this equipment is being used at Los Alamos to conduct the high voltage test, which is another important step in the project.”

The next problem has a fancy grammatical name: the “faulty antecedent” error. It is fairly common in the TUNL progress report, and sometimes it can be humorous. It actually occurred in the previous example but is much easier to see in other cases.

A modifying phrase is normally assumed to come immediately after the noun it is modifying. When other words come between them, the phrase can appear to be modifying the wrong word. The reader has to stop and think hard about what is meant, and the natural flow of the reading is interrupted. OR the reader may simply make a wrong assumption about what the writer meant!

[*] Here is a simplified example from the progress report.

The modifying phrase is given in green: “which is another important step in the project.” But what does it modify? It immediately follows the noun “Los Alamos,” so the reader would normally expect it to modify “Los Alamos.” In other words, “Los Alamos, which is another step in the project.” BUT Los Alamos is a place, not a step in the execution of a project! Finally, the reader figures it out. Ah, ha! The phrase must be modifying the word “test!”

So how could you rearrange the sentence to get the green phrase next to the word “test”? [Elicit}

[*] The simplest way is to move the intervening words “at Los Alamos.” In this case, they fit nicely into the first line of the sentence.

That’s really all that is needed, but if we want to be a little more definite, we can make one additional change. [*] Here I have also replaced “used for” with the more explicit, “used to conduct.”

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What is it Describing?

“The flow rate is limited by an aperture connecting the source to its vacuum box which measures 0.06 cm in length and 0.05 cm in diameter.”

“The flow rate is limited by an aperture that measures 0.06 cm in length and 0.05 cm in diameter and connects the source to its vacuum box.”

Here is an example where the reader might really be confused. Do you see the problem? [Pause]

The modifying phrase in green begins with “which measures….” Taken in its usual sense, the sentence implies that this phrase modifies “vacuum box.” Thus what the sentence says is that the vacuum box is a cylinder that is about half a mm long and half a mm in diameter. Think about that for a second! How big is half a mm?!? This statement is possible but highly unlikely for TUNL experiments! Because we are familiar with the scale of TUNL apparatus, we can quickly guess that these are the dimensions not of the box but of the aperture. But the reader should not have to stop and guess!

To make the intention immediately obvious, we need to rearrange the sentence so that the modifying phrase in green comes immediately after the word “aperture”. There are a couple ways to do this, depending on how important the dimensions are, because we want the important information at the end, in the “stress position.” So which is more important, the aperture’s dimensions or its location? Hard to tell.

Let’s assume that the location is more important. The simplest solution then is to move the intervening phrase, just as we did in the last example, and change it slightly [*] as shown.

How would you change the sentence if the size of the aperture is what you want to emphasize?

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What is it Describing?

“The flow rate is limited by an aperture connecting the source to its vacuum box which measures 0.06 cm in length and 0.05 cm in diameter.”

“The flow rate is limited by an aperture that connects the source to its vacuum box. The aperture has a length of 0.06 cm and a diameter of 0.05 cm.”

If the size of the aperture is what you want to emphasize, then you need to leave that information at the end but make it clear that it modifies aperture. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

[*] I would make two sentences.

There is one other thing I noted about this sentence, which brings me to the next point: avoiding unnecessary detail. As a former experimentalist, I am guessing that the length of the aperture is fairly irrelevant, [*] and could be eliminated.

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Keeping Things Simple

Avoid unnecessary detail (“clutter”)

- Model number of electronic modules

- Physical dimensions of each pieceof apparatus

- Avoid unnecessary repetition

Unnecessary detail is what I call “clutter.”

We want to provide the information the reader is looking for but NOT a lot of unnecessary detail, which will only distract from what we are trying to say. The appropriate amount of detail depends on the purpose of the document and on the reader’s interests. We mentioned this relative to content selection for the document as a whole, but it also applies at the scale of individual sentences and paragraphs.

For the TUNL progress report, you generally don’t need to include things like [*] the model numbers of electronic modules or photo-multipliers. Those go into your lab notebook and maybe your thesis, but not the progress report and typically not into journal articles.

Similarly [*] you usually do not need to include the precise dimensions of each piece of your apparatus, though it is good to give the reader a concept of scale.

You should also avoid unnecessary repetition.

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“The natA target was 5.35 cm x 5.35 cm x 3.21 mm and a mass of 50 g. It was set with one face towards the beam and then rotated 30o. The 316Bx target was 5.35 cm x 5.35 cm x 2.79 mm and was also rotated 30o. It had a mass of 48 g. The natDtarget was 5.35 cm x 5.35 cm x 4.98 mm and a mass of 62 g. It was also rotated by 30o.”

Here is a disguised, real-life example of both repetition and excessive detail. [READ]

I think the repetition is pretty obvious. The targets all have the same surface area, have comparable thicknesses, and were all rotated in the same way.

In addition, does the reader of our progress report really need to know all that? Is it important to include the precise masses of the targets?

Now let’s consider how to improve the situation.

The first job is to eliminate repetition and give the information just once.

Beyond that, does the reader need both the thicknesses and the masses of the targets? Which is more important? It is hard to tell with the sentence as it was written. Being a former experimentalist, I would guess that the thickness is more important, so, as editor, I would rearrange the sentence accordingly. I would simply summarize the mass information. So here is my suggestion:

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“The three targets were 5.35 cm square, with masses of 48 to 62 grams. Each was rotated 30o with respect to the beam. The natA 316Bx, and natD targets had thicknesses of 3.2 mm, 2.8 mm, and 5.0 mm, respectively.”

Here I know from reading the full contribution that the three target nuclides have already identified. I am taking that to be the “known” or context for the detailed information about the targets.

The point is to:

(1) Determine the important information and

(2) Omit or summarize the rest.

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Maintaining the Flow

Avoid lots of parentheses that

- Interrupt the flow of the text and/or- Add unnecessary information

Now I come to a few smaller issues, but ones that make your text more awkward to read.

I have discovered that physicists like to use parentheses… lots of parentheses... too many parentheses! This often either

Interrupts the flow of the text or

Adds unnecessary information

There are appropriate uses of parentheses, but we tend to overuse them, and I find I tend to do this when writing emails, though I am getting better about it. Let’s consider some examples.

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“The latest design (August 2015, Name, Institution) has two voltage configurations: one with …”

“The latest design has two voltage configurations: one with …”

“The latest design dates from August 2015 and is due to Name at Institution. It has two voltage configurations: one with …”

One problem is where the material in the parentheses is new information. [FIRST VERSION].

Because the material is in parentheses the reader will assume that this information isn’t very important.

My first inclination, as editor, would be to eliminate all of the material in parentheses or to leave just the date. [*] In the progress report or even in a journal article, we don’t normally say who did what, particularly if they are collaborators on the work.

If, on the other hand, the information in the parentheses IS important, it should be brought out, into the main flow of the text. In this case, I would use two sentences in the revision. [*] [READ]

An intermediate option is to include the date and leave out the names of the designer and their institution.

As editor, I can’t tell how important the information is, so I don’t know which alternative is better.

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“… in the low-energy (< 3 MeV) regime.”

“… in the energy regime below 3 MeV.”

or

“… in the low-energy regime.”

or

“… in the low-energy regime, below 3 MeV.”

STOP

Another problem that I see VERY often in the progress report is where the parentheses expand on material in the text. [FIRST VERSION]. This is awkward to read. As editor, I find this VERY annoying. The parentheses form a kind of road-block or stop sign to the reader. They are an obstacle to get around. It’s not wrong; it’s just awkward.

The question again is, “How important is the information in parentheses?” As an editor, I can’t tell, unless it is clear from the rest of the article.

If the specific energy is important, then the term “low-energy” can probably be eliminated, [*] as in the second example [READ]. The fact that we are specifying an upper limit on the energies already suggests the idea of “low.”

On the other hand, if what is meant by “low-energy” was defined earlier in the document, then we can eliminate the material in parentheses, [*] as in the third example.

Finally, if you want to use this sentence to define what you mean by “low energy,” you could include all the information without the parentheses, [*] as in the last example

Any of these options makes the text easier to read.

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Spell It Out

Avoid lots of “~”Use mainly in tables and equations

“This experiment will require background levels that are a factor of ~100 lower than have been achieved so far.”

“This experiment will require background levels about a factor of a hundred lower than have been achieved so far.”

Another small issue (like parentheses!) is the use of the tilde or “approximately” sign. It is sometimes appropriate in tables and equations, but is less useful in the main text. It just interrupts text with mathematics in an unnecessary way, making the sentence flow less smoothly.

Consider this example: [*] [FIRST VERSION] The reader is left to translate the tilde and the number into words as the text is read. By replacing the math part with words, there is more continuity. [*]

An additional point here is that most writing manuals also recommend or even require that small numbers and simple numbers, such as one hundred or one thousand, occurring in the text be spelled out. Thus I have used “a hundred” instead of “100.” The exception to this rule is if the number has units associated with it, such as “100 MeV.” In that case, you leave it written in numerals.

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Building Bridges

Conjunctions help relate what you have just told the reader to the new information you are about to present.

Words or phrases: “Similarly…” “But…” “Therefore…” “On the other hand…”

Sentences: “To achieve these goals,we used the technique of…”

“Using this equipment, we were ableto measure…”

We have been talking about removing barriers that interrupt the flow of the text. But there are also positive things we can do to help guide the reader through the text. I call it building bridges, and the previous sentence is one of them!

Bridges or, more formally, conjunctions are words or phrases or sentences that link one unit of your document to another. They relate what you have just said to the new information you are about to present. We are not just going from the known to the new; we are providing an explicit link between them.

The connection is usually clear and obvious to you but may be less obvious to the reader.

[*] Conjunctions linking one sentence or paragraph to another are phrases like

Similarly… On the other hand...But… Based on this information...Therefore… For example... In addition…

Conjunctions can also be entire sentences. Often the first sentence in a new section of your document will relate back to the previous sections, [*] as in the example given above.

Adding bridges is not essential, but it does make your document easier and pleasanter to read. They are like road signs guiding the reader. . . and Remember, they are the ones we writing for!

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The Mysterious Hyphen

“ particle” or “-particle”?“ ray” or “-ray”?

“We used 2 MeV particles to measure...”

BUT

“The experiment used -particle beamswith energies of...”

One last detail, and this is one that puzzled me for years. Should terms like “ particle” and “ ray” be hyphenated or not? The answer is, It depends!

[*] If the phrase is used by itself, then there is no hyphen. In this case “particles” is the noun and “” is the adjective that modifies it.

BUT

[*] If the whole phrase is used to describe another word, as in the second case, then the entire term “-particle” becomes the adjective, and it has a hyphen to tie its two parts together.

This is logical, but until someone explains the logic, it isn’t obvious to most of us. At least it wasn’t obvious to me.

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CONTENT ILLUSTRATION

DESIGNING CLEAR AND

CONVINCING FIGURES

The last few points have dealt with relatively minor technicalities. Now, for the last main part of the lecture I would like to focus on something that is a MAJOR problem every year when we are producing the TUNL progress report. I am referring to the graphs and drawings in your contributions or documents. In the Poincaré analogy, this is like putting the windows in the house. The figures make things visible. These are what illustrate the content and display your results. They should be clear, persuasive, and easy to read.

Friends, this is not rocket science. This is common sense. Yet every year I spend perhaps fifteen percent of my editing time trying to get authors to redo their figures so that they will be clear! And I don’t always succeed!!

I said earlier that the important material should come toward the end, and I am following that principle here. The subject of figures is in the “stress position” in these lectures.

Before discussing how to design good figures, let me emphasize that the requirements we use for figures in the TUNL progress report are the same requirements that the journal Physical Review uses. They are not arbitrary, but are based on long experience.

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Problem Summary

Lettering that is too small

Relying on color(figures not clear in black & white)

Putting boxes around legends

Using titles (in or out of boxes)

Too much use of color

Figures that are too complicated

Here is a list of the problems I see every year, over and over again. It is frustrating! The problems are listed roughly in order of decreasing importance.

Every year, the biggest two problems are:

- Lettering that is too small to be clearly visible when the figure is reduced in size enough to fit in the report or in a journal article, and

- Relying on color to distinguish between different curves or sets of data points. Relying on color means that if the document is printed in black and white, the distinction will likely be lost.

The other problems are listed, and I will touch on them briefly.

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Lettering and Symbols

THINK BIG !

Physical Review: the smallest lettersand symbols should be at least1.5 mm high at figure’s final size.

If they look big enough on your screen,make them BIGGER.

Print the figure at final size to check

First, consider the problem of letters and symbols that are too small. You really need to THINK BIG!

Physical Review says that the smallest lettering and the smallest symbols in your graph should be at least 1.5 mm high when the figure is reduced to its final size for printing. That may be a bit excessive, but that is the standard. Why is this so hard?

I think the answer is that for the lettering to be that big in print, it has to lookridiculously large on your computer screen. In addition, if you let your graphics program choose the lettering or symbol size, it will make a choice that is appropriate for your computer screen, not for a journal article So… [*] when you are sure the lettering and symbols are big enough… make them BIGGER.

To be certain, however, [*] you need to print your figure at its final size and measure the size of the letters and symbols with a ruler. Again, this is not rocket science!

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Lettering and Symbols

This figure from an earlier report will show you what I mean. The lettering and symbols look quite large. BUT the data points and the lower-case “e” in MeV barely meet the requirements… maybe. And this was one of my figures!

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Use of Color

Limited use of color can lend interestBUT

Figures should be clear in B&W,not just in color

Sometimes color can be a distractionIt should enhance your figure,not dominate it.

The other big problem is the use (or abuse) of color.

In earlier years, before the days of personal computers and graphics software, color just wasn’t used in technical graphs. Now it can be used in talks and can be viewed when articles are posted on the internet, but color is still typically not included in printed journals. The policy for the TUNL progress report is evolving, and I’m not sure whether we will print any copies in black-and-white this year.

A limited use of color can lend interest to your graph or diagram, BUT

[*] The figures must be clear when printed in black and white. You cannot relyon color to convey important information.

[*] In addition, if you use too much color, it can be a distraction. A little color may be nice, but don’t overdo it.

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Use of Color

[MeV]nE2 3 4 5 6

-1 g

-1C

ou

nts

h

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45U parallel yield235

U perpendicular yield235

U parallel yield238


Here is an example of a figure that relies on color to convey its message. The trouble is that when the figure is printed in black and white, the red and black curves are difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish from one another. A simple way to fix that would simply be to use four different line types. In some cases that might work, but in this case it would obscure the point the figure is trying to make.

So what is point of the figure? The text says the important information is that the two black curves, which show the results for U-235, are nearly identical, whereas the corresponding red curves, which are for U-238, are quite different. O.K., how could that emphasis be better communicated without relying on color?

DOES ANYONE HAVE SUGGESTIONS?

- You could try a color other than red, but the way a color appears in black-and-white printing depends on the type of file (eps or pdf, for instance), the software doing the printing, and on the printer settings.

- Therefore, my preference...

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Use of Color

[MeV]nE2 3 4 5 6

-1 g

-1C

ou

nts

h

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40



U parallel yield238


[MeV]nE2 3 4 5 6

-1 g

-1C

ou

nts

h

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40



U parallel yield238


238U

235U

- Therefore, my preference would be to divide the figure into two panels or sub-figures, one for each target nuclide. Since the original figure is much wider than it is tall, I would place one panel above the other. And I would force the graphics program to use the same y-axis for both panels.

I had to do this in PowerPoint, so the results are not pretty. However, I think you can see that the point of the figure is now much clearer.

The identification of the solid and dashed curves could now go either in the figure caption or as a legend in the upper panel of the figure, but not both.

Now the color is no longer needed. If the author wanted to use color, I would use one color for the solid curves and another for the dashed curves, but I would use the same colors in both panels. And you would still need to use solid and dashed histograms in each panel for the figure to be clear in B&W.

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No Titles

Titles go in the caption, not in the figure

(,p) Angular Distributions

The next issue is that neither the TUNL progress report nor Physical Review uses titles on figures. The titles go in the figure caption, not in the figure itself.

Many of you will be preparing your figures using graphics programs that also help analyze your data. Many of those will, by default, include a title on your graph. Often that title will be enclosed in a box, as is shown. Sometimes it is placed inside the axes of the graph. Wherever they are located, you should remove the title and its box.

Here is the figure I showed before, but now with a title box. This adds no information that is not in the caption and should be removed. [*]

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No Boxes on Legends

We do NOT put boxes around legends

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 8000

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08Raw Asymmetry

Fit to v/c curve withconstant A parameter

We also do not use boxes around legends. Legends are very useful, but they need to be entered without a box in the main part of the graph. Again, your graphics software will often put a box around the legend unless you specifically tell it not to. Please remove the box.

Here is a graph that was submitted but not used. It has a number of problems, but the one I want to point out here is the box around the legend in the upper left part of the figure. It should be removed as in the next slide.

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No Boxes on Legends

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 8000

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08Raw Asymmetry

Fit to v/c curve withconstant A parameter

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Main Points of this Class

Content communication:We are writing for our readers. Therefore, in sentences and paragraphs. . .

– Move from context to content (known to new) – Descriptive phrases follow what they describe– Avoid things that interrupt the flow of the text– Link major sections with bridging sentences

Now it’s time to summarize what I have been saying this afternoon.

First Content communication.

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Main Points of this Class

Content illustration:We are writing for our readers. Therefore design simple, clear figures, that are easy to understand

Use LARGE lettering and symbols

Use color only to enhance; don’t rely on it

No boxes or titles

And then Content illustration.

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CONTENT FINALIZATION

PUTTING YOURSELFIN THE READER’S PLACE

But we are still not quite done! I want to slip in one extra point: Content Finalization. This is like the building inspector’s visit to certify that the house has been properly built and is fit for occupancy.

We have now considered all the different aspects of your document, whether it is a doctoral thesis, a journal article, or a contribution to the TUNL progress report. But you are not quite ready to submit it yet. You need to step back and carefully check what you have written.

This is the time to take off your author’s hat and put on your reader’s hat!

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Print Your Document in Final Form

Can verify length

Check for LaTeX formatting errors

Spot punctuation errors more easily

Check figure quality

If English is not your primary language,get someone else to correct your writing

In my experience, the best way to check your document is to print it in its final form. This has a number of advantages.

You can verify that you meet any length restrictions, such as the two-page limit for progress report contributions.

You can check for any formatting errors in your LaTeX coding.

Punctuation errors are often easier to spot in print than on your computer screen.

You can verify figure quality, such as lettering size and clarity in black and white.

If English is not your primary language, get a native English speaker to correct your writing. I have translated six books from French to English, but I still cannot write a totally grammatical email in French! It is extremely hard to write well in a second or third language.

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Themes for These Lectures

We are writing for our readers

Proceed from the known to the new

Then, as you read over your document, please REMEMBER the two basic themes for these lectures. If you remember nothing else, please remember these two principles!

WE ARE NOT WRITING FOR OURSELVES FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE; WE ARE WRITING TO CONVEY INFORMATION OR IDEAS TO OUR READERS.

THEN WE NEED TO START WITH WHAT THEY KNOW AND RELATE THE NEW INFORMATION back to that.

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Things to Check

Content selectionIs the information what the reader needs?Is the level of detail appropriate?

Content organizationAre the sections organized logically?“Tell them what you’re going to tell them.“Tell them.“Tell them what you told them.”

The first thing to keep in mind is Content Selection.

Have you included the information the reader needs? Hopefully this will reflect the purpose of the document.

Is the level of detail appropriate? Do you have the detail the reader needs… but not more?

Then think about Content Organization.

Are the sections of your document organized logically, in the order the reader would expect to find them?

This is where you follow Aristotle’s advice!

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Things to Check

Content communicationAre your sentences & paragraphs logical?Do you link them together clearly?

Content illustrationAre symbols & lettering large enough?Are your figures clear in black & white?

You should also focus your attention on individual sentences and paragraphs and think about Content Communication. Are they clear and logical? Do they put context (the known) ahead of content (the new)? Do you link them together clearly and logically? Are you building appropriate bridges?

Finally, look carefully and critically at your figures. This involves Content Illustration. Are all your symbols and lettering large enough to be read easily? Are you using color appropriately so that it enhances and doesn’t distract from the purpose of the figure? And very importantly, are your figures clear when printed in black & white?

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Progress Report Items

Start from the edited version of lastyear’s contribution. PLEASE!

Follow the instructions.

Compare a printed version of your draftwith the final version of a previousprogress report.

With regard to the TUNL progress report:

PLEASE, PLEASE start with the edited version of your contribution from last year’s report. If the subject is a new one, then start with the edited version of a contribution on a closely related subject. I know that it’s easier to start with the file that is already in your computer, but then you will force me to make the same corrections over again.

In doing your writing, PLEASE follow the directions. Mohammad makes an instruction document available online for downloading. Please read it and do what it says. This is the best way to get a unified looking report.

When in doubt about how to format something, please compare what you are doing with the final version of a previous progress report. This is especially important for things like the author and institution fields. Again, we want a consistently formatted document.

I am also willing to offer advice on how to design figures, and Alex is available to help with LaTeX issues.

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SCIENTIFIC WRITING

http://www.tunl.duke.edu/~cwalker

or

http://www.tunl.duke.edu/documents/public/REU2014/

Look for the files SciWrite1.pdf and SciWrite2.pdf

I have thrown a lot of information at you at once, and you won’t remember it all. That’s why the notes pages are available online. Here are the addresses for my website and the TUNL documents site.

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Good scientific writing is WORK!

It is a necessary professional SKILL

But it can also be FUN!

SCIENTIFIC WRITING

In concluding, I want to admit that . . .

Good scientific writing isn’t easy. It is work! Not force-times-distance work, but still work.

It is also a necessary professional skill. Your work as a scientist isn’t complete until you have communicated your results in a way people can understand.

But, in my experience, good scientific writing can also be fun. It is fun when you can take complicated technical material and explain it in a way that makes it easier for others to grasp and to use.

So ENJOY!

Documents

SCIENTIFIC WRITING - 2013cwalker/SciWrite2.pdf · SCIENTIFIC WRITING Because scientific writing is an important professional skill in which most of us have not been trained, I am