Lessons for scientific writers from Leonard Cohen and Tony Bennett
I’ve been laid up with the flu for the past few days, so I’ve been watching more TV and DVDs than I normally do. One DVD that I’ve had for some time, but only got around to watching the other day was Leonard Cohen: Live In London. The concert was recorded just a few months […]
When should you cite a paper?
March 12, 2011 Filed under Blog, Featured, Resources, Uncategorized, Writing
3 month thesis by James Hayton has a free guide that you can sign up to receive called “The Short Guide to Writing Fast.” Inside I found this concise quote about when you should cite a paper (p. 20): You should only cite a paper… • To support one of your arguments • To provide […]
Are first-person pronouns acceptable in scientific writing?
One of the most common questions I get is whether it is acceptable to use “we” or “I” in a scientific paper. “We” or “I” are first-person pronouns. Many professors tell their students not to use first-person pronouns in their writing, instead preferring a more passive tone. Instead of “We speculate that…”, these professors prefer […]
Writing more concisely
Why do scientists write the things in the first column when the second column is shorter and easier to understand? VERBOSE ……… CONCISE it is likely that likely it is apparent that apparently due to the fact that because in the vicinity of near in the state of New Mexico in New Mexico was found […]
English Communication for Scientists
The journal Nature has on its Scitable page a link to an online book English Communication for Scientists by Dr. Jean-luc Doumont (that’s him on the right). I haven’t read through it all, but it seems to have mostly good advice, albeit a bit short. The online book has six units: Communicating as a Scientist […]
Guidelines for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers
This statement was adopted by the Council of the American Meteorological Society on 22 September 2010. It was largely derived from guidelines that were published by the American Chemical Society and were also adopted by the American Geophysical Union. Publications Commissioner David Jorgensen deserves a lot of credit for bringing these guidelines to the Council. […]
One space or two?
January 16, 2011 Filed under Blog, Featured, Uncategorized, Writing
Russ Schumacher and I have been discussing the current online battle between those who advocate one space between sentences and two spaces. The debate started with Slate’s Farhad Manjoo, then was picked up by The Atlantic, citing Tom Lee. I have to admit that my typing instructor in seventh grade taught us to use two […]
For Those About To Punctuate (Correctly), We Salute You: The Best Links If You Need Help With Punctuation
Punctuation Made Simple (Gary Olson, Illinois State Unversity) National Punctuation Day Guide to Punctuation (Larry Trask, University of Sussex) The Tongue and Quill [PDF] (U.S. Air Force)
One of the most challenging (and satisfying) articles I’ve written
I recently coauthored a paper that has now been accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Schultz, D. M., and G. Vaughan, 2011: Occluded fronts and the occlusion process: A fresh look at conventional wisdom. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 92, doi: 10.1175/2010BAMS3057.1. This paper is the first one I’ve written solely […]
Upsidence?
Dave Mechem (University of Kansas) and my Manchester colleagues have been telling me about a new term that has been adopted from geology into atmospheric science: upsidence. My understanding of upsidence is that the term means ascent in an environment with otherwise large-scale descent. The term is used to refer to an “upsidence wave”, a […]
