The Importance of Thinking Before Writing
March 21, 2015 Filed under Blog, Featured, Publishing, Writing
I was helping a student with a paper he was writing. He said a lot of interesting things, just not being very effective at what he was trying to convey. Here was my advice to him. If you can write down 1–3 bulleted sentences that convey your principal results or points that you want to […]
Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism Policy
March 5, 2015 Filed under Blog, Featured, Publishing
Recently, I had the opportunity to help develop a policy for plagiarism and self-plagiarism for the journals of the American Meteorological Society. That policy was published in the February 2015 issues of the various journals. Although the policy for plagiarism was perhaps not too surprising, the policy on self-plagiarism is, as far as I can […]
Is the university seminar dying?
March 5, 2015 Filed under Blog, Featured, Presentations
When I reminisce about the educational experiences that most prepared me for a career in academia, attending the weekly seminar series was one of the more important influences. I had the opportunity to be exposed to such seminars at a number of different universities and research laboratories throughout my career, and they served similar purposes. […]
Cleveland Abbe’s “The Teacher and the Student” (1909)
This short essay was published in Monthly Weather Review in January 1909, as part of the Summary of 1908 (p. 453). The text is copied verbatim, including what we would now recognize as non-gender-neutral language and grammatical errors. THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT The good work that is done in meteorology is often accomplished by […]
Godwin’s Law for Emails to Journal Editors
January 30, 2015 Filed under Blog, Featured, Publishing
“…there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress.” – Wikipedia entry for Godwin’s Law I am proposing a corollary: Godwin’s Law for Emails to Journal Editors. If […]
Advice to writers: Treat it like teaching
While helping a student write a particularly challenging chapter in his dissertation, it occurred to me that one piece of advice that may help him is to treat his writing like teaching. Imagine, if instead of communicating your science through a written report, you had to teach your ideas to students who had not seen […]
Why you need to read your page proofs carefully…
From http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/nov/12/scientific-schadenfreude:
Damn the tildes and full speed ahead!
Reader Matt Bunkers raised the issue of the tilde (~) in scientific writing. Some use it for “proportional to”. Others use it for “order of magnitude”. Still others use it for “approximately”. Given the wide variety of uses for the tilde, why not just write out what you mean? Doing so will make your writing […]
Announcing: Publiscize
Calling All Scientists! From Dr. Robert Seigel: In my “spare” time, I have been working on an exciting project that can revolutionize our science communication. I am starting a new initiative called Publiscize (www.publiscize.com) and its purpose is to increase scientists’ research visibility, encourage cross-field collaboration, educate the public, and showcase university departments, schools, and […]
Jim Steenburgh’s “Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth”
Hi friends, If you like winter weather, skiing, or just damn good writing, check out this book by my friend and colleague Prof. Jim Steenburgh. Jim is one of just a handful of the most conscientious and careful writers that I have worked with. Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth: Weather, Climate Change, and […]
