My response to 3monththesis’s “Why some perfectionism is a good thing”
The original post is here, and the post starts: One of the most common pieces of writing advice is to “just get words down on the page; don’t worry about detail, and don’t think too much”. This is often given as a way of overcoming writers block, or the “fear of the blank page”. Perfectionism […]
Oh…snap! 1895-style.
March 6, 2014 Filed under Blog, Featured, Humor, Publishing, Uncategorized
From the mini-Annals of Improbable Research (“mini-AIR”) “Pitted Pebbles in the Bunter Conglomerate of Cannock Chase.” T. Mellard Reade, Geological Magazine, vol. 2, no. 8, August 1895, pp. 341-5. LINK: The author instructs: “Mr. W. S. Gresley criticizes the summing-up of my views… It would have been more satisfactory if Mr. Gresley could have read […]
Polarimetric radar terminology
My colleague Joey Picca from the Upton NWS Forecast Office tells me that the term “dual-polarimetric” is redundant because “polarimetric” already implies the use of a radar with multiple polarizations. Thus, “polarimetric” or “dual-polarization” are more proper. Image from http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~schuur/radar.html
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Dan Keyser’s Edward Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award Speech: Words of Wisdom for Teachers
Daniel Keyser’s Acceptance Speech for the 2014 Edward N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award I never expected to receive an award for teaching, let alone an award named after Ed Lorenz. I offer my heartfelt thanks to my former and current students who nominated me for the Lorenz Award and to the Selection Committee for conferring […]
A tribute to the teacher without whom Eloquent Science would not have been written
Yesterday I found out that Professor Dan Keyser of the State University of New York at Albany won the 2014 Edward N. Lorenz Teaching Excellence Award, given by the American Meteorological Society. The citation stipulates: “For meticulous and inspiring lectures, for a demanding yet compassionate demeanor, for his individualized mentoring and unwavering commitment to his […]
Want quick publicity? Send out a press release on your unpublished manuscript!
January 24, 2014 Filed under Blog, Featured, Potpourri, Publishing
As this article from slate.com describes, yet again someone has received a lot of media attention for their unpublished research. This time the study was on the eventual decline of Facebook. The slate article does a fine job of undermining the premises of the paper and showing them not to be valid (particularly the one […]
Lee Grenci is mad as hell about the use of “polar vortex” in the media.
He’s not taking it anymore. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/worldofweather/node/2098
Sell no manuscript before its time
January 18, 2014 Filed under Blog, Featured, Publishing, Writing
This classic TV advertisement from the late 1970s features Orson Welles proclaiming that Paul Masson winery will not sell its wine until it is ready. Unfortunately, many authors “sell” their manuscript to journals before they are ready to enter peer review. The manuscripts are often sloppy, lacking careful proofreading. References are not in the proper […]
More on plain writing in the government
Regular reader Brian Curran sends us this link on the Plain Writing Act and the results thereof, following up on earlier discussions of clear language in government writing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/11/19/plain-writing-in-government-agencies-plainly-speaking-arent-there-yet/ As the report card from the Center for Plain Language shows, NOAA gets a D for “Plain Writing”, although which documents were used was not stated […]
