Scientific Writing

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Scientific Writing

• Research Experiences for Undergraduates

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Schedule for July 6

• Effective Scientific Writing
• REU Report Format
• AIP Guidelines
• Peer Review of Intro

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Schedule for July 13

• Q A on REU Reports
• Writing Effective Graduate School Essays
• Writing Effective Resumes and Letters

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Guidelines for Effective Writing in Physics

• Be clear
• Be concise
• Be complete
• Put yourself in the readers place

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Good Scientific Writing

• Use active voice
• Be economical/concise
• Provide forward momentum
• Order
• Transitions
• Sentence paragraph length

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• It was thought that magnetoresistance could
  provide an answer.
• McCray believed that magnetoresistance could
  provide an answer.

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• due to the fact that BECAUSE

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• There are clear advantages to our mapping
  regarding the strong-coupling regime.
• Clear advantages to our mapping exist regarding
  the strong-coupling regime.

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• The development of nanofabrication techniques for
  thin metallic wires has renewed interest in
  one-dimensional electron systems. Such systems
  differ fundamentally from those in three
  dimensions, where electron-electron interactions
  can be absorbed into a local Fermi-liquid
  description of weakly interacting quasiparticles.
• (hook and eye construction)

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Silicon wafers coated in Shipley 1813 Photoresist
(PR) were cleaved in acetone for five minutes.
This process ensured that any particles generated
by the cleaving did not remain on the silicon
surface.  
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Using Transitions

• Use the appropriate transitions to show the
  relationships between ideas within paragraphs and
  between paragraphs
• Use a variety of transitional words and phrases

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Achieving coherence in your writing

• Use transitions carefully
• Use hook and eye construction within a
  paragraph
• Use coordination and subordination to show the
  relationship between 2 ideas

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Coordination Subordination

• Putting 2 ideas together with a coordinating
  conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
  shows equality.
• Putting 2 ideas together with a subordinating
  conjuction (because, when, if, although, since,
  while, etc.) shows inequality.

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• Before a particle gets to any chamber in CMS, it
  will have to make it through the detectors
  absorbers that form the calorimeter system
  (energy measurements). These absorbers will stop
  just about any particle except muons. Hundreds
  of different particles will spray from the
  collision point, but they are mostly hadrons
  (particles composed of quarks). Because hadrons
  interact strongly with matter, they cannot
  penetrate very far into the absorbers.

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Major parts of the report

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Body of the paper
• Acknowledgments
• References

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Considerations

• Use graphics purposefully and correctly
• Use topical headings to guide the reader
• Keep your reader in mind (undergrad physics major
  with no specialist knowledge of your topic)

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Major AIP Rules

• Keep verb tense consistent, especially within a
  passage
• Use variety in words and sentences
• Treat the word data as plural
• Use the number rule
• General rule 0-9, use the word 10 and above,
  use the numeral
• Use the serial comma

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• These final data are displayed in Tables IX, X,
  and XII.

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Writing Effective Graduate School Essays,
Resumes, and Application Letters
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General format for grad school essays

• Brief intro that makes your purpose clear
• Paragraph about background
• Academic qualifications
• Research and volunteer experience
• Paragraph about professional goals
• Paragraph that ties your background and goals to
  program you are applying to
• Brief conclusion which reinforces your confidence
  in your ability and the choice you have made

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Application Letters

• Introduction
• Purpose of letter
• Overall qualification for job/program
• Body paragraphs
• Key qualifications be selective and detailed
• Conclusion
• Thanks the reader for consideration
• Indicates interest in position
• Provides contact info

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Resumes

• Vital stats Name, address, phone, email
• Education
• Experience
• References (optional)