Writing And Scientific Communication

WRITING AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION

This course,439L Laboratory in Ecology, is designated by the University as a Writing Intensive (WI) course. Your main responsibility in this course, aside from carrying out the work in the laboratory exercises, is the writing of your reports. Your grade is based (Aside from the expected attendance at labs and participation in the work) entirely on your written reports. There are nine (9!!) of these labs due during the semester. Note that the first two lab reports will require a first draft which will be worked on by the instructor and the TA and returned to you and a final draft which will incorporate the comments you received. Thus there will be a total of 11 writing assignments handed in. Note also there is a short time line for the first set of labs as we will need to turn them around for you quickly. Finally note that, because some of the labs will take weeks or months to complete, many of the due dates are at the end of the semester. PLAN ACCORDINGLY! You should be able to work on writing the introduction, the methods, and any literature review in the weeks between when the lab exercise started and when the results start coming in later in the semester. The length of the report is not of importance but the effort you put into the report and the quality of the product is. Most reports run from 6 to 10 pages exclusive of any data – which are included only as an appendix. We will do everything we can to get the reports back to you as soon as possible so that you can incorporate the comments, corrections etc. into your future reports. As we progress through the semester, the expectations for the quality of the lab reports will increase since it is expected that you will incorporate what you have learned into the later labs. Also the emphasis for grading purposes will change somewhat from a focus on writing skills to a focus on your scientific and analytical skills. This is assuming the quality of your writing remains high of course.

While you might think, that because this is a science course and a laboratory course at that, that writing is a secondary consideration. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Unless you can clearly and concisely transmit your ideas to others the effort you spend on carrying out your research is wasted. Clarity in writing generally is evidence of clarity in thinking while sloppy unclear writing can be evidence of thinking of the same sort.

We realize that this kind of course is not only different from what you may have been used to, but also the time and work required of you is no small commitment. We will do all we can to make available to you the tools, advice and suggestions that will repay your effort. Basics of scientific writing: We will have two workshops in the first part of the course. The first will deal with writing per se, while the second will concentrate more on handling and analyzing data as well as reporting on data. You have already learned from other lab courses you have taken that in general scientific papers are arranged into sections.

 Title  Abstract  Introduction  Materials and Methods  Results  Discussion  Summary  Literature cited

While different journals have slightly different templates this is a basic version. Each section is the place for specific types of information. Misplacing these items leads to confusion. In the writing workshop we will go into detail about each of these sections, what each one contributes to the whole paper, and how you go about getting your writing into the proper form for the different sections.

While you will hear about many ‘rules’, conventions, guidelines etc., the basic goal of your writing is clarity. In scientific writing simple declarative sentences is usually the easiest way to convey your information. Avoid trying to write ‘scientifically’, eschew jargon and obfustification. Grading:

Each lab will be worth 50 points (a total of 450 points for the semester)

In the first part of the semester the breakdown will be

WRITING ORGANIZATION SCIENCE 25 Points 15 points 10 points 20 points for clear writing 10 points for putting things 5 points for data 5 points for formatting etc. in the proper place presentation 5 points for including necessary 5 points for information analysis

later in the semester (we will announce when the changeover will take place the grade you will receive will depend more on the “science” part of your lab write-ups. We are assuming that your writing and organization should be perfect by now – so lacks there will show up strongly.

The new point scheme will be:

WRITING ORGANIZATION SCIENCE 15 Points 10 points 25 points 5 points for putting things in 10 points for how you the right place and in order dealt with your data 5 points for proper inclusion of all the necessary information 15 points for analysis and your success at expanding on the meaning of your numbers