Why I don’t make copies of my slides available

As I describe in the Preface to Eloquent Science, the book arose out of a workshop that I taught to undergraduates in Oklahoma. The workshop arose over six years, with what were essentially my lecture notes on PowerPoint slides. The slides were wordy and boring. During the talk, the students had paper copies of my […]

10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly

I was recently in Norman, Oklahoma, to present an Eloquent Science workshop, hosted by J.J. Gourley of the NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory. It was a lively and enthusiastic group in attendance, and I thank everyone who participated, bought books, and talked to me afterward. It’s great to know that there’s such interest. Yesterday, J.J. sent […]

National Weather Center Eloquent Science Workshop

NORMAN, OKLAHOMA (27 August 2010): J.J. Gourley of the NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma, hosted me for an all-day Eloquent Science workshop at the National Weather Center as part of the NSSL Colloquium Series.

Important advice from an editor for responding to reviewers

Occasionally as an editor I see an author respond to a reviewer, let’s say Reviewer 1, in the following manner. “Response to Reviewer 1’s comment that we should rerun the model: Reviewer 2 didn’t see a problem with our method, so we choose not to rerun the model.” It may well be that Reviewer 2 […]

CHOICE Reviews Online

Reprinted with permission from CHOICE http://www.cro2.org/, copyright by the American Library Association. 47-6207 Q223 2009-39865 CIP Science & Technology \ General Schultz, David M. Eloquent science: a practical guide to becoming a better writer, speaker, and atmospheric scientist. American Meteorological Society, 2009. 412p bibl index; ISBN 9781878220912 pbk, $45.00. Reviewed in 2010jul CHOICE. Scientists often […]

Who are “the experts”?

One of the features of Eloquent Science is the “Ask the Experts” columns. (The idea for these sections came from a discussion with Prof. Tracey Holloway, University of Wisconsin.) I don’t say much about who these people are in the book, but you may be interested to know a little more. Y. Hancock is a […]

Reference list style guides

As an author, creating and double-checking reference lists in your manuscript are a hassle. Chances are if you make a mistake, a reader will go looking for that source and be stymied by a wrong year or incorrect page number. On top of the problems of accuracy, different journals require different formats for their reference […]

Writing is Like Forecasting

This section is published in the June 2010 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Volume 91, p. 791.

Where to publish case studies in meteorology

Dr. Alexander Keul of Salzburg University asked me whether any journals were publishing case studies in meteorology. What was interesting was that I had received another question or two along these lines recently. Seemed like an opportunity to blog. I would argue that there are two extremes of what one might call “case studies.” On […]

What are your pet peeves?

Appendix B: Commonly Misused Scientific Words and Expressions of Eloquent Science was inspired by a list of incorrect science expressions and annoyances maintained by Chuck Doswell. Many of Chuck’s pet peeves are included in Appendix B. I also surveyed my friends and colleagues about their pet peeves and included many of them in Appendix B. […]

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