Book review: Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English

When I wrote Eloquent Science, the most difficult chapter to write was the one for non-native English speakers. Growing up a native English speaker, I felt that I couldn’t offer much about how to help non-native speakers write better. But, I strongly felt that the book needed to say something to this audience. The books […]

Book review: Designing Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More

Here is another in my series of reviews for books that I read a while ago and were sitting on my desk waiting for the time to write the review. This review is of Matt Carter’s Designing Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More. Outside of my own book, I’ve […]

Book Review: Science Communication: A Practical Guide for Scientists

Bowater and Yeoman’s Science Communication: A Practical Guide for Scientists provides a nice overview of the topic. If you’re starting out with public engagement or outreach to the public through the media, schools, or science festivals – or if you are planning your own event – I would recommend this book. The book was written […]

Book Review: Trees, maps, and theorems: Effective communication for rational minds by Jean-luc Duomont

I got a copy of Jean-luc Doumont’s Trees, Maps, and Theorems Effective Communication for Rational Minds a long time ago, and read it almost immediately. I’ve been meaning to write a review for a long time. With the annual office clean before the new semester starts, this gives me a perfect opportunity to do so. […]

Book Review: Just My Type by Simon Garfield

I had bought Just My Type: A Book About Fonts while waiting in Kings Cross waiting to get home. It’s a book that I’d been wanting to read for a while. I’ve been fascinated with fonts ever since the early Macs got me trying out new fonts. Now, I find myself mostly stuck in my […]

Responding to Reviewers: It’s the way you say it

Nature Methods has a few nice links over on their page about responding to criticism before and after publication. The way you say it The dos and don’ts of communicating with editors and reviewers Here are some of the choice quotes from the first link that I related to, from my experience as an author […]

Minute Earth and Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer) Get Clouds Wrong (NOW FIXED AT MINUTE EARTH!)

I like both Minute Earth and Phil Plait’s column at slate.com. They are both great ways to communicate science to the public. That’s why writing this post is upsetting to me. At about 0:50 into the video, it says this about a rising bubble of air: “In fact, the more water vapor it collects before […]

Errata from Eloquent Science

Here is a list of typos identified by the compositor of the book. These changes were not implemented at the time.   p. 53, 1st graph: OK to change “formating” to “formatting”? p. 53, 3rd graph: OK to change “conciousness” to “consciousness”? p. 86, 3rd graph of section 9.8: OK to change “parenthethical” to “parenthetical”? […]

Why the first letter of your last name matters

Sent from frequent reader and commenter Jon Zeitler: https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/06/why-the-first-letter-of-your-surname-matters/ When individuals make choices from lists, does the list ordering matter? There may be a ‘primacy effect’, where individuals are biased towards selecting items earlier in the list. Conversely, there may be a ‘recency effect’, i.e. a tendency to select items towards the end of the […]

Step by Step from Writing to Publishing

I will be offering online training in scientific publishing through the Virtual Medical Academy. Called “Step by Step from Writing to Publishing”, the course will last for four two-hour sessions starting on 24 August. To sign up, visit the Virtual Medical Academy here. If you cannot make this session, I will likely conduct more in […]

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