Science-terrific Writing

1. Science-terrific Writing

2. Swim against the current • In direct opposition to everything your high school teacher and probably your college English professor taught you… • We’re conveying information not painting a picture • Shorter is better! • Overall and sentences

3. Before You Write • Be completely familiar with problem, possible solutions, methods, analyses and implications • Know your ….. • Know the “story” (plan what you will write) • Where does it begin (problem, possible solution) • What goes on in the middle (try out the solution) • How does it end (did the solution work) • Know who your audience will be

4. Start Writing – Kind of… • Detailed outline to the level of each paragraph • List topic sentences for each paragraph • Topic sentences should summarize an idea and content of paragraph • Include Goal and List of Objectives • Review topic sentences for logical structure • Do the topic sentences follow the story line Reality – Often, this after you’ve written But, IT MUST BE DONE!!!

5. Write like you’ve never written before! • Be “clear, simple, concise, and organized” (JWM guidelines: Ratti and Smith 1998:7) • Rules • 1. Never tell me anything I don’t need to know • 2. Never fail to tell me anything I need to know • To repeat the study • To understand the study/results • 3. Never tell me something more than once (except maybe in discussion for emphasis)

6. Introduction • No heading • “Set up” problem • Summarize current knowledge and state any gaps (this is what you will be addressing) • Have an obvious “knock me over the head with it” problem statement • State Goal (general statement) • Should directly address problem statement • State specific objectives • Numbered objectives are always good • Answers/results from objectives should achieve goal

7. Study Area • Present information about study area in past tense (e.g., precip., temp.) • Figure showing study area at the state level is always good.

8. Methods • Organize in order of objectives • For each objective have an obvious method. “To determine density I (we) …” “To estimate survival I(we)…” • Be sure to cite those responsible for or describe a particular method/analysis • 2 Parts – 1. Data collection 2. Data analyses • Data collection • Who, WHY, when, where, how • Do not describe anything that is not used in an analysis • Data analyses • Should be clear (from data collection section) where data for each analysis came from

9. Separate “second level” headingData Analysis • State analyses explicitly do not leave anything open to interpretation • Important for repeatability • Again follow order of objectives • Make sure there is an analysis for each objective • Make sure there is not an analysis that is not presented as an objective

10. Results • Present sample sizes • Arrange according to objectives • These can be very short at times (don’t worry) • Use tables and figures to present information more concisely • Highlight pertinent information from table in text • Reference Tables/Figures correctly (see guidelines) • Do not include extraneous information • Extraneous – not needed for replication or understanding

11. Discussion • Do not repeat information in results section • Use this section to convince me whether you solved the problem (or not!) • What have/would others say about your results • This section should contain quite a few citations • Should we do anything else to clarify the problem • Did the results create any new/interesting questions?

12. Literature Cited Check! Journal! Guidelines!!

13. Assignment for Next Week • Use information in this presentation • Write an outline with major sections of final paper • Within each section, list topic sentences • Check for logical structure (it might be good to have someone unfamiliar with your study read and check for logical structure)