Transcript Putting science into self-assembly

Department of Materials
WRITING SKILLS
Hazel Assender
Writing skills


You are professional writers
There is a difference between good writing and
bad writing



The difference matters
Bad writing is selfish and lazy, because you are
making the reader do work that the writer should
have done
You cannot write well without considering what
you write from the reader’s point of view
Story
•
Storytelling is important in all human
culture


•
Many have made their living by it
You will too!
If you tell a story you will:


Keep the reader’s attention and
understanding
Create a suitable structure
Plot
A story is a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence.
A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality.
‘The king died and the queen died’ is a story.
‘The king died and the queen died of grief’ is a plot. The timesequence is preserved, but there is a sense of causality.
‘The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it
was through grief at the death of the king.’ This is a plot with a
mystery in it. It suspends the time-sequence, and moves as far
away from the story as its limitations will allow.
Curiosity by itself takes us a very little way – only as far as the
story. If we would grasp the plot we must add intelligence and
memory.
Plot
“The plot maker expects us to remember, we expect him to
leave no loose ends. Every action or word in a plot ought to
count; it ought to be economical and spare; even when
complicated it should be organic and free from dead matter.
It may be difficult or easy, it may and should contain
mysteries, but it ought not to mislead.”
E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel (Edward Arnold 1927,
reprinted Penguin Classics 2000)
Semiopathy
Emotional responses to ambiguously worded statements
Drivers should be cautious when approaching cross roads and train travellers
more talkative to reserved seats.
Shopping mall notice: 65 per cent of freeze-dried coffee drinkers prefer
Nescafé
Sign outside a farm: Pick Your Own Entrance
Some conjure nasty mental images:
On the wall of a car park: Flat Residents Only
Roadside notices in Norfolk: Catseyes Removed
A computer software shop in
Middlesbrough promises a No
Sweat Exchange Policy
A news item about a farm for
endangered species:
Disappearing Goat Farm.
PAH!
This is probably a good time to introduce:
Pet Assender Hates
‘Look at’
PAH!
e.g. ‘If we were to look at the curing
behaviour of polymer coatings’
This would be like watching paint dry…..
Try: If we were to consider the curing
behaviour of polymer coatings
Structure
Say what you are going to say
- arouse interest, curiosity
- create expectations
 Say it
- communicate what you wish
- include details here, but don’t waffle
- this is not a ‘data dump’
 Say what you said
- emphasise the ‘take home message’
- make a clear ending
This structure is not an excuse for repetition!

Drawing the reader in
“Metals and alloys are unnatural. Nature has never used
them as biological parts, even though she has used metallic
atoms widely in chemical substances such as haemoglobin to
acquire special and literally vital biochemical properties. But
lumps of metal, never. The sabre-toothed tiger never enjoyed
the benefits of bronze teeth, nor the rhinoceros an iron horn.
If it is a privilege to be born with a silver spoon in one’s
mouth, why didn’t nature endow us with gold teeth? After all,
the tooth is not one of nature’s happiest inventions. Many
animals die through their teeth wearing out; and the decay of
the human tooth causes us great general misery at the dental
surgery.”
Sir Alan Cottrell, Will Anybody Ever Use Metals and Alloys Again?
in The Science of New Materials, ed Andrew Briggs (Blackwell 1992)
Paragraphs
•
•
•
Paragraphs can (and should) be neat and utilitarian. The
ideal expository graf contains a topic sentence followed
by others which explain or amplify the first.
“Topic-sentence-followed-by-support-and-description
insists that the writer organize his/her thoughts”
 this is good insurance against wandering away from
the topic.
Many scientific papers and theses are marred by
paragraphs that are unhelpfully short. The temptation is
stronger when they are typed double-spaced.
The Toolbox
Good writing consists of mastering the
fundamentals… and then filling the toolbox
with the right instruments

Vocabulary

Grammar

Style

Your own personality/experience
Vocabulary – long words
“The leathery, undeteriorative, and almost indestructable
quality was an inherent attribute of the thing’s form of
organization, and pertained to some paleogean cycle of
invertebrate evolution utterly beyond our powers of
speculation.”
H.P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
None of these words is a substitute for an equally good
short anglo-saxon word.
Vocabulary – short words
“Some of the owner men were kind because they hated
what they had to do, and some of them were angry
because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were
cold because they had long ago found that one could not
be an owner unless one were cold.”
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Of 50 words, 39 are monosyllabic, and of the remaining
eleven, three occur more than once.
PAH!
Speaking of long words: Anthropomorphisation
Associating actions with
inanimate objects
PAH!
e.g. ‘the gas diffuses through
the sample by finding paths of
least resistance’
Sentences
SENTENCE = Subject (noun) + predicate (verb)
“Make a complete thought which starts in the writer’s head and then
leaps into the reader’s.”
Verbs
Verbs come in two types, active and passive. With an active verb, the
subject of the sentence is doing something. With a passive verb,
something is being done to the subject of the sentence. The subject is
just letting it happen.
“Two pages of the passive voice – just about any business document
ever written, in other words, not to mention reams of bad fiction – make
me want to scream. It’s weak, it’s circuitous, and it’s frequently tortuous,
as well. How about this: My first kiss will always be recalled by me
as how my romance with Shayna was begun. A simpler way to
express this idea – sweeter and more forceful, as well – might be this:
My romance with Shayna began with our first kiss. I’ll never forget
it. I’m not in love with this because it uses with twice in four words, but
at least we’re out of that awful passive voice…”
Stephen King, On Writing (Hodder & Stoughton 2000) 133-4
The passive voice

Much scientific writing is in the passive
voice


Use with care
If you do not use it, think carefully about
the subject or the narrator
PAH!
Don’t change tense/voice midparagraph
Sentence Length
Long sentences can be prosaic…….
“In the heavens we discover by their light, and by their light alone, stars
so distant from each other that no material thing can ever have passed
from one to another; and yet this light, which is to us the sole evidence of
the existence of these distant worlds, tells us also that each of them is
built up of molecules of the same kinds as those which we find on earth.”
James Clark Maxwell, Discourse on Molecules (1873); in The Faber
Book of Science, ed John Carey (Faber 1995)
…….but might be confusing
Long sentances are often a refuge for cowards!
Punctuation
Punctuation is a tool of good written communication
If it is used badly (or not at all), confusion can result:
In the parking area at a supermarket, Trolleys Thank You
and above a fresh food counter, Sue Your Friendly Fishmonger.
On the subject of parking: No Parking Penalty £40
Or: Police Notice No Parking.
On a road out of Auckland, New Zealand, Extreme Care School.
But perhaps punctuation might incur a fine on the Sydney Harbour
Bridge: Full Stop To Pay Toll.
Poor use of apostrophes
PAH!
On Walton street: ‘Please keep gate’s clear’
Your/you’re, its/it’s
Adjectives
•
Should be used to ‘describe the thing more fully and
definitely’
“The operation needs considerable skill and should be
performed with proper care. Effective means of stopping the
spread of infection are under active consideration and there
is no cause for undue alarm.”
•
Cf. grateful thanks, true facts, usual habits, consequent
results, definite decisions, unexpected surprise.”
Fowler’s Modern English Usage (2nd Edn, OUP 1965)
Adjectives

Attributive:
The small sample

Predicative:
The sample was small
Confusion between attributive and predicative
adjectives induces (or follows from) confused
thinking.
“The lightly-deformed sample was measured.”

Introduce each idea carefully
Sins of laziness
Clearly
Note
It
…
that …
is interesting …
As
mentioned above …
Give £1 to charity for each occurrence!
The writer’s job is to take a multi-dimensional set of
ideas, and lay them out linearly.
The Rewrite Formula

2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%.

Read aloud
Affect/effect
PAH!
An example in a letter from my financial
advisor: “If we do not get a response from
you on this matter within 14 days, this may
effect the contract”
Conclusion
A conclusion should conclude. It should not simply
restate what you have already said.
Ideally, it should make new statements that have not
already been made, but which follow with inexorable
logic from what has been presented, so that if the
reader accepts what has come so far, they will logically
have to accept the conclusions too.
Abstract

Maximum information content

Neither a manifesto nor a table of contents
Avoid “will be presented”, “will be
considered”, “will be discussed”
 Summarize:




the facts that you present
the content of your considerations
the conclusion of your discussion
Forms of writing






Briefing report
Literature survey
Presentations
Journal Articles
Thesis
‘Popular Science’
Who is the audience in each case?
What is the purpose of the writing?
Literature survey

Be selective



Show critical judgement
Do not omit any reference that, if included,
would alter the course of your research
Construct a plot


First work out what you want to persuade the
reader of, and then bring in the references as
supporting evidence
Every aside is a chasm that your reader must
leap over
Presentations
Little writing but lots of preparation
 Write the key points, tell the story
 Use of figures

PAH!
By default, Excel uses yellow
symbols for charts for the 3rd column
of data. This does not show up on a
white background.
Journal articles
Make editor’s job easy
 Take referees’ comments seriously

– but do not take them to heart
Make very clear what you can deduce
from your data, and what you cannot
 Stick to the plot

Thesis

Your opportunity to present all your work



Structuring is very important
Introduction not for waffle but:




To show examiner you know your science
To introduce basic concepts that will be required later
3 chapters ‘at the bench’
‘DPhil research is abandoned, not completed’


Ensure it is clear what is yours
Make use of the ‘further work’ section
Make your examiners’ life easy and interesting
Analyse examples of ‘good’ and ‘poor’
scientific writing
Department of Materials
Keeping lab notebooks
Hazel Assender
Why?
•
•
•
•
Your reference document
Others’ reference document
Authentication of work
Intellectual property
Reference document
•
•
•
•
•
•
Accuracy
Communication with supervisor
Reports/Thesis
Others continuing your line of research
Could someone (possibly you!) reproduce what you have
done from your notes?
Have you recorded all that you need to?
 sample details/history
 exact conditions
 hypothesis under test
 how data have been analysed
Good practise
You may need to demonstrate this…….
 Auditing by sponsors
 Scrutiny of research practise
 Health and safety records
Claims of discovery
 you might want credit (e.g. patent)
 you might want to stop others’ taking your credit
Good training
Department of Materials
Keeping lab notebooks
Hazel Assender
Guidelines
Pages should be bound and numbered sequentially;
use books with permanent bindings.
Record dates clearly.
Make corrections by crossing out so they are visible;
e.g. no tippex.
Write in indelible ink.
Records should be consistent and continuous;
make record at the time of the experiment.
Each researcher should make a separate record.
Stick graphs etc in;
no paperclips etc.
Do not change entries at a later date;
cross reference as needed (liberally!).
The lab book should remain the property of the university;
if you want to take away your own copy, this should be a photocopy.
Guidelines
Electronic storage
record of date
format
data ‘analysis’
copy for supervisor
cataloguing
reference
I’d recommend making a hard copy
Signing entries
you and another competant scientist (not a co-inventor)
If you/your supervisor considers this might be appropriate
Why?
Take a pride in your work
Avoid frustration