Technical Writing and Presentation Margaret J. Kupferle, PhD, PE

AY-REU

October 11, 2013

Think of your research as part of a world-wide conversation among scientific peers ...

Your reports, peer-reviewed

journal manuscripts, oral presentations and posters are your

turn to contribute to the conversation!

Preplanning

• Who?

• What?

• Where?

• When?

• Why?

• How?

• Audience?

• Purpose of author/speaker?

• Venue?

• Deadlines? Placement?

• Gain to audience?

• Format? Length?

Spend more time prewriting and rewriting

• Collect, synthesize, organize info • Brainstorm take home messages • Work out ideas away from computer

• Write complete sentences in order at computer

• Read your work out loud • Get rid of clutter • Do a verb check • Get feedback from others

Adapted from ideas at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related, accessed June 11, 2012

[1]

[2]

[3]

The 4-S Formula

•Short

•Simple

•Strong

•Sincere

Technical Writing Basics

• Be clear by using precise language

• Avoid long sentences

• Keep verb tenses consistent

• Define terms

• Present facts or inferences, not feelings

• Maintain a professional tone

Sentence-level tips

• Use active voice

• Choose strong (and specific) verbs

• Avoid turning verbs into nouns

• Do not bury the main verb

• Cut unnecessary words

• Avoid jargon and abbreviations

Use active voice*

PASSIVE

• The apple was pierced by the arrow.

• Mistakes were made.

• Data quality was improved by the new technique.

ACTIVE

• The arrow pierced the apple.

• The technician made mistakes.

• The new technique improved data quality.

Use strong and specific verbs ...

• I went to the store.

• The house was on fire.

• Goliath was much taller than David.

• He did not pass the math exam.

• She did not remember to lock the door.

• I drove to the store

• Flames erupted from the kitchen window.

• Goliath towered over David.

• He failed the math exam.

• She forgot to lock the door.

Avoid turning verbs into nouns

• Carbon capacity reductions for phenol adsorption occur when natural organic matter is in competition with it.

• Natural organic matter may compete with phenol and reduce carbon capacity for adsorbing phenol.

Do not bury the main verb

Because of the great diversity of pathogenic microorganisms transmitted by contaminated water and the difficulty and cost of directly measuring all microbial pathogens in environmental samples, organisms that may indicate the presence of sewage and fecal contamination (indicator organisms) are often used for monitoring and regulation of recreational and drinking waters.

Can your team do better?

Cut unnecessary words

Cut unnecessary words

“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of cancer biology study design, using as examples studies that illustrate the methodologic challenges or that demonstrate successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological research.” Adapted from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related, accessed June 11, 2012

Can your team do better?

Avoid jargon and acronyms

COIK

Paragraph-scale tips

• Communicate one central idea per paragraph

• Tell the reader the “punch line” early

• Improve paragraph flow with:

• Logical flow of ideas

• Parallel sentence structure

• Transition words (when absolutely necessary)

Try Sorting It Out ...

See what your team can do with the following paragraph:

“Enormous mining companies are both continuing operations at old gold mines, such as the case of the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, which has operated continuously since 1877 and is continuing to increase its operations [Hinds and Trautman, 1983], and opening new gold mines, often in very disturbing locations, such as the proposed, and for now, postponed, New World Mine, whose proposed location was about 2.5 miles from the border of Yellowstone National Park, near Cooke City, Montana.”

#7 at http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handbook/exercises/exercise1.html, Accessed June 5, 2012

Be consistent in your use of capitals, captions, units, and scale of graphs.

Fig. 1 – CV for 0.04 mM NaCl + Phenol Figure 2. CV for phenol at 0.05 mM NaCl

How many things can you find to fix?

Cite your sources in the text carefully and use quotes when appropriate – avoid plagiarism*.

* See http://www.plagiarism.org/ for complete discussion of plagarism

Rathbun (1936) and Hechtman and Johnston (1947) suggest ... Kishi and Chen (1986, 1987a, 1987b) found ... There are a number of finite element models (Kishi and Chen 1998, Desai 1990, Desai et al. 1995, Zaman et al. 1998) suggested in the literature.

- adapted from your handout

General page format :

1 “ borders around text

Single Line Spacing for All Titles

Use double line spacing for text. This makes it easier to read and edit.

page number in footer center 9

Specific formatting requirements for your reports are spelled out in your guidelines handout.

Title Slide

Project Title, Team

Members & Affiliations,

Date

Introduction

One or more slides introducing

problem and stating project

goals

Tasks

A few slides describing the tasks

you plan to accomplish

Methods

A few slides explaining basics of

experimental methods

General Presentation Format

Results

Slides of data;

graphical or embedded

video format preferred

Conclusions

One or more slides concisely summarizing

important conclusions

Relevance

One slide summarizing relevance of findings to audience

Timeline

One slide with a chart

showing schedule for tasks

Assertion-evidence slides are more effective than bullet lists for making key points* ...

Bullet List Assertion-Evidence

Example from http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides_body.html, accessed June 6, 2012

*especially for intro, background and results slides

Providing Access to Clean Water in Urban Centers Relying on Water Reuse

Martha Jones, Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati

Cindy Smith, Civil Engineering, University of Cincinnati

Amy Turner, Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati

June 20, 2012

Project Timeline

Task/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Learn methods

Prepare samples

Analyze samples

Prepare reports

Resources (other than handouts)

Effective Scientific Writing -- Manuscripts and Grantshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=rh-NHu5yOYc&feature=endscreen Write Well and Prosper - Science Writing Tips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related

Americal Chemical Society ACS Webinars™

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=18107

http://www.plagiarism.org/