Take the Pledge: I Won’t Use Map-room Jargon!

If you regularly attend discussions in the weather-map room, subscribe to weather or storm-chaser discussion lists, or have reviewed articles for Weather, Monthly Weather Review, National Weather Digest, or Weather and Forecasting, then you have been exposed to it. Map-room jargon. Often the speakers of map-room jargon don’t even know what they are doing. (I […]

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 […]

Review in Weather

In the March 2011 issue of Weather, Bob Prichard, Editor, wrote a nice review of Eloquent Science, calling it “highly commendable.” That review can be read here. The issue with commas that Bob raised is referred to as the serial comma. The style of many American publishers is to use the serial comma, whereas the […]

When should you script your talk?

For people with little experience in giving public talks, I recommend two things. First, practice, practice, practice. The more you rehearse your talk, the more confident you will be and the more likely you will give a good presentation. How many times is enough? That depends, but if you are giving your first conference-style presentation […]

When should you cite a paper?

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 […]

Is your “Outline” slide really needed?

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 […]

Do you end with a ‘thank you’ or ‘questions?’ slide?

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 […]

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