Stream of consciousness writing vs Structured writing
There is a provocative post over on 3monththesis.com called “The worst thesis writing advice ever”. That advice? “Just get words down on the page, because you can always sort it out later.“ The rationale? Because the process of “sorting it out”, or editing, is 99% of the whole exercise! If you leave clarifying your thoughts … read more
The importance of proper punctuation
From Steven Colbert’s Twitter feed @StephenAtHome and #igotthetweetslikegrassley.
How not to write about complexity in science
Having graded over 130 student essays this past fall, I saw a certain word pop up again and again: complex. “Earthquakes are a complex problem.” “Titan has a complex methane distribution over the Tropics.” “To pin down the many complexities and feedbacks involved in jet stream blocking may prove to be difficult.” “Governments and international … read more
New Review of Eloquent Science in Elements
Elements, an international magazine of mineralology, geochemistry, and petrology, with a circulation of over 15,000 scientists has just published a full-age review of Eloquent Science by Pierrette Tremblay, Managing Editor. Among the writing guides I have read (and there have been several), I would rate this book at the top. It would be well suited … read more
How to choose a scientific problem and nurturing young scientists
April 1, 2012 Filed under Blog, Featured, Resources, Uncategorized
I discovered the following article a while ago, yet only have gotten around to writing about it now. Alon, U., 2009: How to choose a good scientific problem. Molecular Cell, 35, 726-728. [PDF] [HTML] Why the paper resonated with me is that it brought me back to choosing my research topic for my PhD. I … read more
