Good Writing Skills for Scientists

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Good Writing Skills for Scientists

• Dr. David Schultz
• Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale
  Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma,
  and NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory,
  Norman, Oklahoma
• http//www.cimms.ou.edu/schultz/communication.htm
  l
• david.schultz_at_noaa.gov

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Caveats

• There are many ways to write a paper. I am
  providing some generalities that appear to work.
• My opinion is just that. Others may have other
  approaches that work for them. Feel free to
  comment.
• My primary qualifications?

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The Importance of Good Scientific Communication

• Too frequently, published papers contain
  fundamental errors.
• The presentation in many papers is careless.
• Some papers abound in unsupported claims stated
  as facts.
• The unnamed papers. . . are not obscure articles.
  . . . Both editors and authors have told me that
  some of these articles have sailed through the
  review process. Ron Errico (2000)
  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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The Importance of Good Scientific Communication

• The truth is that badly written papers are most
  often written by people who are not clear in
  their own minds what they want to say . . . .
  John Maddox (1990)

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The Importance of Good Scientific Communication

• Papers of poor quality do more than waste
  printing and publishing resources they mislead
  and confuse inexperienced readers, they waste and
  distract the attention of experienced scientists,
  and by their existence they lead future authors
  to be content with second rate work. G.
  K. Batchelor (1981)

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The Importance of Good Scientific Communication

• Being a good scientist means being a good
  communicator.
• Even if you dont choose a traditional career
  path, you will still need to write and speak well
  in nearly any kind of job.

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Concise Writing

• Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should
  contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no
  unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a
  drawing should contain no unnecessary lines and a
  machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not
  that a writer make all his sentences short, or
  that he avoid all detail and treat his subject
  only in outline, but that every word tell.
  Strunk and White The Elements of
  Style

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How Do You Attract an Audience?

• Title
• Informative, accurate, clear, concise, and
  attention commanding
• What are the minimum number of words that
  describe what youre doing?
• Abstract
• Principal objectives and scope of research
• Methodology, summarize results
• Principal conclusions
• Introduction and/or Conclusions
• Body of paper

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Title-Writing Exercise

• The Use and Misuse of Conditional Symmetric
  Instability

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Title-Writing Exercise

• Polar Low Dynamics

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Title-Writing Exercise

• Is the Tropical Atmosphere Conditionally Unstable?

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Title-Writing Exercise

• A Double-Moment Multiple-Phase Four-Class Bulk
  Ice Scheme Part II Simulations of Convective
  Storms in Different Large-Scale Environments and
  Comparisons with Other Bulk Parameterizations

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Title-Writing Exercise

• Evaluation of Fractional Cloudiness
  Parameterizations for Use in a Mesoscale Model

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Title-Writing Exercise

• The Structure and Evolution of a Continental
  Winter Cyclone. Part I Frontal Structure and
  the Classical Occlusion Process

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Title-Writing Exercise

• Diagnostic Verification of Temperature Forecasts

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Parts and Organization of a Scientific Paper

• See the handout.
• Introduction hook to grab readers attention
  (paradox, lack of knowledge of subject, debate
  among experts, etc.)
• Discussion section
• Conclusion/Conclusion(s)/Summary

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Figures and Tables

• Dont skimp on the figure. Clearly define as
  much as possible on the figure so that the figure
  is self-explanatory.
• Dont skimp on the captions. Take care to write
  them clearly. Dont leave them until the end
  when you are exhausted and nearing completion of
  the paper.

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Figures

• In these days of electronic figure preparation,
  limit the number of figures to the minimum
  necessary to make your point in the paper.
• Dont leave excessive white space around edges.
• Make all axes uniform in size and scale, wherever
  possible.
• Reducing multiple figures to a multipaneled
  figure can aid in comparing results.
• Make lines thick---avoid dotted lines, which may
  not survive reproduction.

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References

• How to Cite Skillfully and Avoid Plagiarizing
  (John Rogers)
• Most of the cost of copy-editing journals is in
  correctly formatting the reference list.
• References and Unreferences (Duncan Blanchard)

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Writing TechniquesThe Science of Science Writing

• Readers expect a grammatical subject to be
  followed immediately by the verb.
• Every unit of discourse, no matter the size,
  should serve a single function or make a single
  point.
• The information that begins a sentence
  establishes for the reader a perspective for
  viewing the sentence as a unit. (topic position)

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Writing TechniquesThe Science of Science Writing

• It is a linguistic commonplace that readers
  naturally emphasize the material that arrives at
  the end. We refer to that location as a stress
  position.
• Readers also expect the material occupying the
  topic position to provide them with linkage
  (looking backward) and context (looking
  forward).
• Articulate the action of every clause or
  sentence in its verb.

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Writing TechniquesThe Science of Science Writing

• By following our knowledge of reader
  expectations, we have been able to spot
  discontinuities, to suggest strategies for
  bridging gaps, and to rearrange the structure of
  the prose, thereby increasing the accessibility
  of the scientific content.

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Concise Writing

• Words and Expressions to Avoid (Day)
• despite the fact that although
• it is apparent that apparently
• in order to to
• it may be that I think
• it should be noted that (omit)
• with respect to about
• smaller in size smaller
• the period 19771999 19771999
• thunderstorm activity thunderstorms
• acts to dry out dries out
• over the Mongolia region over Mongolia

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Concise Writing

• Meteorological terms requiring care (e.g.,
  http//www.cimms.ou.edu/doswell/peeves/peeves.htm
  l)
• propagate
• movement advection propagation
• correlate vs. relate
• utilize vs. use
• Time evolution is redundant.

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Getting Started

• Begin writing before the research is finished.
  Writing should force you to strengthen your
  arguments. Also, sections like the literature
  review and methodology are best written while
  thinking about that material.
• Outline the text, know the goals/purpose of
  paper, list of figures you need to show.
• Allow the development of the paper to flesh out
  weaknesses in your argument that suggest further
  sections or figures.

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In the Midst of Writing

• If you start to get bogged down, step back and
  take a look at the big picture. What is the
  logical progression of ideas (modeling studies,
  then obs synoptic to mesoscale)? Classify your
  statements, then look for common themes to group
  together.
• Observations -gtconclusions-gtimplication-gt speculat
  ion
• Make sure you have proper transition.
• Follow good style (AMS Authors Guide).
• Avoid colloquialisms, jargon, and abbreviations.

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In the Midst of Writing

• Redundancy in your terminology will help the
  reader follow your train of thought.
• Describe the science, not the figures. Figure
  5 shows. . . . vs. . . . (Fig. 5).
• Spell out acronyms on first usage.

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In the Midst of Writing

• When injecting opinion/speculation, be clear to
  your audience that it is not fact. Do not expect
  the paper to stand on speculation alone.
• Avoid motherhood statements calling for more
  research/data/etc. If you wish to make such
  statements, offer specific objectives, tests of
  your theory, etc.

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Finishing Up

• Always perform near-final edits on paper.
• Begin to recognize your weaknesses and search
  them out systematically throughout the
  manuscript.
• Perform near-final edits when you are fresh and
  undistracted (e.g., morning).
• Read your paper out loud. Does it make sense?
• Send it out informally to friends, experts, and
  enemies for their comments.

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The Advantages of Short Papers

• Everyone likes to read shorter papers.
• Shorter papers usually garner more favorable
  reviews.
• Shorter papers keep your name in the spotlight.
• Funding agencies are happy because their money
  leads to nuggets of information reaching the
  public.
• It is easier to get small bits of published
  research right.
• Shorter papers prevent you from overgeneralizing
  your research.

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13 Deadly Sins in Manuscripts

• See handout.
• Statements in text contradict data/tables
• Unclear/imprecise/incorrect statements
• Inconsistencies in terminology
• Literature citations missing or incorrect format
• Methodology not described adequately

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The Two Most Common Writing Problems That Inhibit
Communication

• Organization
• Transition (handouts on Sentence
  Variety, Transitional Devices, Writing Effective
  Transitions)

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What You Can Do To Improve

• Learn from positive and negative role models.
• A severe critic is your best friend in learning
  how to write well. - Chuck Doswell
• Reading, reviewing, and critiquing others
  articles is good practice.
• Form an informal reading group.
• The more you write, the less writers block
  becomes a problem.
• First efforts do not need to be perfect.
  Revise, revise, revise!