Transcript peer-reviewed

Lecture 3 – Communication
Three points to be made in this
lecture:
• Science is a public enterprise. There is no
science without communication.
• Writing is self-presentation
• Good writing follows from some simple
guidelines.
Science is a public enterprise
• Communication is important for two reasons:
A.Pollination
A.Improving efficiency by avoiding wasted effort
A. Pollination
• We all need to talk to other
people, and read about
their ideas.
• We make progress faster
when we test our ideas
against other people’s
understanding of a problem
– and the more people the
better.
A. Pollination
• To maximize the
• Science brings together
number of people we
people of different
talk to, we need to talk
cultures, having
to people all over the
different perspectives
world.
on most non-scientific
questions.
• An important
characteristic of science • Write for them all.
is that it is international.
B. Avoiding wasted effort
• Taxpayers want more
research results for their
hard-earned dollars.
• Anything we can do to avoid
wasted effort makes it
easier to attract more
money to research.
• Communication increases
efficiency.
Writing is self-presentation
• Practice good writing in
your emails to professors
and others.
– Avoid spelling and grammar
errors
– Include all relevant
information, such as course
number and your name
– Be clear about your question
or concern
Writing is self-presentation
• You will be judged on
the basis of what you
write. Publishing leads
to…
• Credit for your work
• Access to the Invisible
College
• Jobs, research grants,
and influence.
Writing is self-presentation
• Neatness indicates care
– It suggests the project was
worth your best effort.
• Don’t give busy people a
reason to ignore you.
– If you do, they’ll take it.
• You care about how you
appear in person. Care also
about how you appear in
writing.
Effective writing guidelines
• Know your audience
• Identify your purpose
for the reader
• Write clearly
• Be interesting
• Be concise
• Be grammatically
correct
• Be precise in your
choice of words (say
what you mean!)
• Write fairly – be careful
in your choice of words
Be careful in your choice of words
• Avoid local slang
specific to your culture
• Avoid emotion-laden
words
Be careful in your choice of words
• Avoid words that
inappropriately exclude
segments of the
population (e.g., use
human race instead of
man)
• Respect group
preferences in naming
(e.g., Asian, not
Oriental)
Three ways to present your work
• Written reports
• Posters
• Spoken presentations
Three ways to present your work
1. Written reports
–
–
peer-reviewed, thus
the official record of
what we know.
written reports are
archival
– considerable delay
before available
– use APA format (see
course website for some
relevant links).
APA Format – purpose of each section
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Method
– Participants
– Materials
– Apparatus
•
•
•
•
Design
Results
Discussion
References & Figures
Three ways to present your work
1. Written reports
2. Posters
•
•
Combine oral and
written forms
Prepared text
presented on poster;
scientist stands by
poster to talk with
anyone interested in
the work.
Three ways to present your work
1. Written reports
2. Posters
3. Spoken presentations
• Fast propagation of
results
• Less competition than
with poster
Review
1.
Science is a public, cooperative enterprise.
Communication is
essential.
2. Writing is selfpresentation. If you take
care over your appearance
(or even if you don’t!) take
care over your writing.
3. Write carefully,
grammatically, clearly. Say
what you mean.