Is your “Outline” slide really needed?
February 18, 2011 Filed under Blog, Featured, Presentations, Uncategorized
If you are giving a scientific talk at a conference (e.g., one that lasts 10 minutes), do you really need an outline slide? Do you really think the audience needs to know what the basic content of your scientific presentation is going to be? Even in longer talks, is such a slide really needed? When […]
Proof that a poster can be attractive to an audience
By designing an interesting, interactive poster and selling it to the audience, look at the people I was able to attract to my poster. (Photo by the AMS official photographer)
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 […]
Rethinking Poster Sessions as Second-Class
At first, I was furious. It’s the best research I’ve done in a while, and I wanted to present it publicly at the AMS Annual Meeting for all to see. Instead, the program committee gave me a poster.
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. […]
The most prestigious journal in the world
Caleb Emmons, Professor of Mathematics at Pacific University, is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Universal Rejection. The Web site of the journal promotes the advantages of the journal. You can send your manuscript here without suffering waves of anxiety regarding the eventual fate of your submission. You know with 100% certainty that […]
Giving proper credit to Monin and Obukhov
Often in the literature, you will hear about the Monin-Obukhov length (30,400 results in google today) and Monin-Obukhov similarity theory (9520 results in google today). Monin-Obukhov similarity theory is the correct term. But, the length L should only be referred to as the Obkhov Obukhov length, as correctly stated in the AMS Glossary and on […]
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)
Take the Poll: Color Schemes in Presentations
December 28, 2010 Filed under Blog, Featured, Presentations
In Eloquent Science (p. 279), I made the argument that light-colored text on dark-colored backgrounds was preferable to dark-colored text on light-colored backgrounds for three reasons. 1. Red lasers (especially if the laser light is weak) may not show up well on white backgrounds. 2. Slides with white backgrounds lose contrast if the room is […]
