tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post8515402528489081662..comments2023-10-23T08:56:50.127-06:00Comments on Angry by Choice: On scientific writingThe Loraxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-17806701764253814852011-08-25T19:15:38.190-06:002011-08-25T19:15:38.190-06:00@anon I like Olsen, but I do have some issues with...@anon I like Olsen, but I do have some issues with the whole 'dont be a scientist' meme. Might be worth a post in the future.<br /><br />@Nate<br />A thought on lab reports. Lab reports are almost uniformly a waste of time in my opinion. You are writing about some method or activity that 47,000 other students have written about for no other reason than you are supposed to. You can learn about the parts of a lab report, but generally there is no context or rationale for why the specific activity is important or useful. I mean face it, no one that I am aware of has ever written a lab report outside of a lab class. I have never written a lab report as a professor, not as a post-doc, not even as a graduate student. I think its important to have students do some actual discovery during the labs (even if the ultimate information has been known since Newton) then it's a much simpler process to get students intellectually involved and enthusiastic.<br /><br />If you want to feel comfortable with science writing do two things. <br /><br />1. Read lots of science. Read reviews, read articles, read science blogs, read science books. Check out the journal Science online each week with your U account, at first the articles are impossible, but there are perspectives and science news articles that are good to start reading. Read Bioessays, Current Biology, PLoS Biology check out the review series like Nature Reviews. Find stuff and read it. If you are reading a few things every week you'll be doing yourself a world of good. (Also, read everything else, make sure you are reading something completely for fun, comic books count.)<br /><br />2. Write! Write now write often. When your 30 days are up, keep posting on a semi-regular basis. Write about your thoughts on whatever you are reading, write about your classes and what you are learning. I realize that these writings are not the same as research paper writing, but so what. Find/invent an audience, your parents, the blogosphere, that cute student you'ld like to impress, whoever. Write to them, teach them the cool things you've read about or learned. Convince them that science is awesome and scientists are rock stars. The point is to communicate and you don't improve if you don't practice.The Loraxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-40124016375347018832011-08-24T12:37:16.144-06:002011-08-24T12:37:16.144-06:00As a student I can tell you that I would love to f...As a student I can tell you that I would love to feel more comfortable with scientific writing, because as far as experience goes, my Organic Chemistry lab reports aren't going to cut it. Because it is not just a valuable skill, but for a student that will graduate with a Bachelor of Sciences degree, I would think it should be more of a requisite skill. I can also attest to the fact that English dept. writing instruction is vastly different from even BIOL2002 (Foundations) writing. <br /><br />I'm looking forward to future posts on this (hope the series continues) because it is something I feel is important for undergrads. Let me know if there's anything I can do that might help get CBS going on this, I may not be on the student board, but I can make some noise and be annoying if I have a reason. <br /><br />I also think there should be some focus on communicating scientific findings and theories etc. to the general public. Sometimes I think there are important ideas or concepts that get lost in that exchange.Natenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-17056913693074015652011-08-22T08:49:53.413-06:002011-08-22T08:49:53.413-06:00Check out Randy Olsen, "Don't be Such a S...Check out Randy Olsen, "Don't be Such a Scientist".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-4700993332362550232011-08-20T11:54:56.645-06:002011-08-20T11:54:56.645-06:00@connor That sounds like an interesting class. Fro...@connor That sounds like an interesting class. From an instruction point of view, developing tools for assessment and feedback that is somewhat efficient is important.<br /><br />@Leslie Sadly you missed the "getting faculty to"/"herding cats" joke. Therefore, you get to be the black and white cat in the front left. Ill keep you in the loop an anything we do writing-wise.The Loraxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13361004494346338824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-38768095838403871162011-08-20T10:08:52.444-06:002011-08-20T10:08:52.444-06:00Who am I in that picture of the sheep on the range...Who am I in that picture of the sheep on the range? I'm psyched to hear about what you do this year in your class. Slow change....from the bottom up...the only way it's going to work. One Dana at a time......Lesliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03013049727966223644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8448663046375322498.post-79499263042007968722011-08-20T08:56:15.074-06:002011-08-20T08:56:15.074-06:00What we had was basically a day long class where w...What we had was basically a day long class where we would look at recently published work, like that in Nature and see how we could improve it. We also watched TED talks to see how they do it. Pretty fun and useful, and easy to teach.Connorhttp://ruleof6ix.fieldofscience.com/noreply@blogger.com