Past or Present Tense?
Which is correct? A. Wetzel et al. (2004) show a negative correlation between snow density and air temperature that explains 52% of the variance. B. Wetzel et al. (2004) showed a negative correlation between snow density and air temperature that explains 52% of the variance. The difference is that A uses the present tense “show”, … read more
Rejected for publication: What now?
March 19, 2012 Filed under Blog, Featured, Popular, Publishing, Reviewing
So, your manuscript was rejected? Before you start firebombing the editor’s place of work and writing screeds on your blog, consider the following. Put yourself in the reviewer’s shoes. It may be hard to do so, but it is often the best way to understand what the reviewer is trying to communicate. If the reviewer … read more
Thermodynamic diagrams for free
Upon packing up my house in Oklahoma, I discovered a small stash of Skew T–logp thermodynamic diagrams that I had saved when Charlie Crisp cleaned out his office at NSSL. (I also have a huge stash of blank U.S. surface maps, in case anyone is interested in them.) Geraint Vaughan at Manchester had been lamenting … read more
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 … read more
Do you end with a ‘thank you’ or ‘questions?’ slide?
February 9, 2011 Filed under Blog, Featured, Popular, Presentations
If you do, you are wasting a valuable opportunity to leave your audience with your take-home message. Of course, you should express your appreciation to your audience by thanking them for their attention, but I am not impressed by a speaker who thinks that a slide is the way to express such sincerity. Likewise, everyone … read more
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)
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? 10,000 Hours
Slate.com has had an interesting series of articles (two of them are here and here) about the creativity originating from working in pairs: think Lennon and McCartney, Joel and Ethan Cohen, Richards and Jagger. In the second installment, Joshua Wolf Shenk said about the two Beatles: The nature of John and Paul’s intimacy evolved over … read more
How to Research and Write Effective Case Studies in Meteorology
If you write or review case studies, this open-access article at the Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology provides 16 tips about how to research and write an effective case study. Schultz, D. M., 2010: How to research and write effective case studies in meteorology. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 5 (2), 1-18.
Bob The Angry Flower: It’s vs Its
Whether to use colons in titles
March 30, 2010 Filed under Blog, Popular, Presentations, Writing
In Eloquent Science, I discuss my thoughts about colons in titles of scientific articles on pp. 24-25, but only briefly. Dave Mechem (University of Kansas) emailed me to express concern about their overuse in some disciplines like geography, humanities, and some of the social sciences. For an example, take a look at this issue of … read more
