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Chapter 5: “The Motivation to Write”, plus Video: “Overcoming Barriers to Writing”

March 30, 2020   Filed under Articles, Blog, Excerpts, Featured, Writing  

“Writing can be a struggle, or it can be fun. Most likely it is both. The attitude with which we approach the writing project can determine its success. Lack of motivation and writer’s block can prevent us from beginning, continuing, completing, and enjoying writing projects. This chapter provides strategies for overcoming these obstacles to our […]

Chapter 24: Accessible Oral Presentations: Free to download

September 11, 2019   Filed under Blog, Excerpts, Featured, Presentations  

“Most of the time at conferences is spent listening to others talk. Given the over- whelming challenge for the audience to sit through, absorb, and remember mate- rial from all these presentations, a speaker must be memorable to connect with the audience. As the previous chapters focused on scientific writing, this chapter starts by distinguishing […]

Please don’t pass a review invitation onto your student or colleague

June 23, 2019   Filed under Blog, Featured, Reviewing, Reviews  

From time to time, I get reviewers who need to decline a review invitation, but instead tell me that they’ve passed on their review invitation to a student or colleague. The invitee may think that they are helping out the editor (in some cases, they are), but there are good reasons why they should not […]

How to download a reference from AMS Journals Online

June 12, 2017   Filed under Blog, Featured, Potpourri, Writing  

. 1. Go to an article, say http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/MWR-D-16-0460.1 2. On the red bar, click on the download button (third icon from left). 3. This screen appears: http://journals.ametsoc.org/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1175%2FMWR-D-16-0460.1 4. At the bottom, you can copy the text for the reference list, including the doi. Steenburgh, W.J. and L.S. Campbell, 2017: The OWLeS IOP2b Lake-Effect Snowstorm: Shoreline […]

How Bill Paxton Helped Us Understand Tornadoes in Europe

February 26, 2017   Filed under Articles, Blog, Featured, Popular, Potpourri  

Today I learned that Bill Paxton died at the age of 61. I never met him, although I knew people who had met him during the filming of Twister. He was said to be friendly and curious about the science on set. Many meteorologists of a certain age group are likely in this career because […]

“Improving Together: Better Science Writing Through Peer Learning”

August 8, 2016   Filed under Blog, Featured, Potpourri, Reviewing, Writing  

How do you motivate early-career researchers to improve their communication skills? Mathew Stiller-Reeve from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues reveal how they were able to develop their writing and communication skills through the development of the ClimateSnack project, described in this journal article in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. […]

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

October 9, 2015   Filed under Blog, Featured, Publishing, Writing  

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

August 24, 2015   Filed under Blog, Featured, Potpourri  

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

August 4, 2015   Filed under Blog, Featured, Writing  

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. […]

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