Writing in the Science - Stanford University.
Taught by Dr. Kristin Sainani
- Recognize that writing is hard for everyone.
- Recognize that writing is a skill that you learn through practice.
- Practice removing clutter from writing.
- Practice writing clearly and concisely.
- Distinguish between active and passive verbs.
- Practice writing with strong, active verbs.
- Fix sentences where the subject and predicate are too far apart.
- Correct specific grammar mistakes.
- Practice using colons, dashes, parentheses, and semi-colons.
- Recognize the importance of varying sentence structure.
- Practice writing focused, organized paragraphs.
- Recognize that it is OK to repeat key words in scientific writing.
- Fix sentence parallelism.
- Practice writing clear and concise paragraphs.
- Describe the steps in the writing process.
- Recognize the importance of spending sufficient time pre-writing.
- Recognize that good writing requires extensive revision.
- Understand how to write the sections of an original scientific manuscript.
- Critique poorly formatted tables and figures.
- Practice writing strong Results and Introduction sections.
- Summarize the elements of a Discussion
- Identify and avoid plagiarism
- Understand the peer review process
- Understand criteria for authorship
- Recognize common pitfalls for new authors.
- Recognize predatory journals
- Understand how to write review articles.
- Become familiar with the grant-writing process.
- Understand how to write a strong letter of recommendation.
- Understand how to write a strong personal essay.
- Recognize the importance of communicating science with broader audiences.
- Be prepared to be interviewed by a journalist.
- Recognize the difference between writing for scientific audiences and writing for lay audiences.
- Understand the structure of a science news story.
- Learn tips for how to interview a scientist.