Technical Writing and Presentation Margaret J. Kupferle, PhD, PE
AY-REU
October 11, 2013
Think of your research as part of a world-wide conversation among scientific peers ...
Your reports, peer-reviewed
journal manuscripts, oral presentations and posters are your
turn to contribute to the conversation!
Preplanning
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How?
• Audience?
• Purpose of author/speaker?
• Venue?
• Deadlines? Placement?
• Gain to audience?
• Format? Length?
Spend more time prewriting and rewriting
• Collect, synthesize, organize info • Brainstorm take home messages • Work out ideas away from computer
• Write complete sentences in order at computer
• Read your work out loud • Get rid of clutter • Do a verb check • Get feedback from others
Adapted from ideas at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related, accessed June 11, 2012
[1]
[2]
[3]
The 4-S Formula
•Short
•Simple
•Strong
•Sincere
Technical Writing Basics
• Be clear by using precise language
• Avoid long sentences
• Keep verb tenses consistent
• Define terms
• Present facts or inferences, not feelings
• Maintain a professional tone
Sentence-level tips
• Use active voice
• Choose strong (and specific) verbs
• Avoid turning verbs into nouns
• Do not bury the main verb
• Cut unnecessary words
• Avoid jargon and abbreviations
Use active voice*
PASSIVE
• The apple was pierced by the arrow.
• Mistakes were made.
• Data quality was improved by the new technique.
ACTIVE
• The arrow pierced the apple.
• The technician made mistakes.
• The new technique improved data quality.
Use strong and specific verbs ...
• I went to the store.
• The house was on fire.
• Goliath was much taller than David.
• He did not pass the math exam.
• She did not remember to lock the door.
• I drove to the store
• Flames erupted from the kitchen window.
• Goliath towered over David.
• He failed the math exam.
• She forgot to lock the door.
Avoid turning verbs into nouns
• Carbon capacity reductions for phenol adsorption occur when natural organic matter is in competition with it.
• Natural organic matter may compete with phenol and reduce carbon capacity for adsorbing phenol.
Do not bury the main verb
Because of the great diversity of pathogenic microorganisms transmitted by contaminated water and the difficulty and cost of directly measuring all microbial pathogens in environmental samples, organisms that may indicate the presence of sewage and fecal contamination (indicator organisms) are often used for monitoring and regulation of recreational and drinking waters.
Can your team do better?
Cut unnecessary words
Cut unnecessary words
“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of cancer biology study design, using as examples studies that illustrate the methodologic challenges or that demonstrate successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological research.” Adapted from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related, accessed June 11, 2012
Can your team do better?
Avoid jargon and acronyms
COIK
Paragraph-scale tips
• Communicate one central idea per paragraph
• Tell the reader the “punch line” early
• Improve paragraph flow with:
• Logical flow of ideas
• Parallel sentence structure
• Transition words (when absolutely necessary)
Try Sorting It Out ...
See what your team can do with the following paragraph:
“Enormous mining companies are both continuing operations at old gold mines, such as the case of the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, which has operated continuously since 1877 and is continuing to increase its operations [Hinds and Trautman, 1983], and opening new gold mines, often in very disturbing locations, such as the proposed, and for now, postponed, New World Mine, whose proposed location was about 2.5 miles from the border of Yellowstone National Park, near Cooke City, Montana.”
#7 at http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handbook/exercises/exercise1.html, Accessed June 5, 2012
Be consistent in your use of capitals, captions, units, and scale of graphs.
Fig. 1 – CV for 0.04 mM NaCl + Phenol Figure 2. CV for phenol at 0.05 mM NaCl
How many things can you find to fix?
Cite your sources in the text carefully and use quotes when appropriate – avoid plagiarism*.
* See http://www.plagiarism.org/ for complete discussion of plagarism
Rathbun (1936) and Hechtman and Johnston (1947) suggest ... Kishi and Chen (1986, 1987a, 1987b) found ... There are a number of finite element models (Kishi and Chen 1998, Desai 1990, Desai et al. 1995, Zaman et al. 1998) suggested in the literature.
- adapted from your handout
General page format :
1 “ borders around text
Single Line Spacing for All Titles
Use double line spacing for text. This makes it easier to read and edit.
page number in footer center 9
Specific formatting requirements for your reports are spelled out in your guidelines handout.
Title Slide
Project Title, Team
Members & Affiliations,
Date
Introduction
One or more slides introducing
problem and stating project
goals
Tasks
A few slides describing the tasks
you plan to accomplish
Methods
A few slides explaining basics of
experimental methods
General Presentation Format
Results
Slides of data;
graphical or embedded
video format preferred
Conclusions
One or more slides concisely summarizing
important conclusions
Relevance
One slide summarizing relevance of findings to audience
Timeline
One slide with a chart
showing schedule for tasks
Assertion-evidence slides are more effective than bullet lists for making key points* ...
Bullet List Assertion-Evidence
Example from http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides_body.html, accessed June 6, 2012
*especially for intro, background and results slides
Providing Access to Clean Water in Urban Centers Relying on Water Reuse
Martha Jones, Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati
Cindy Smith, Civil Engineering, University of Cincinnati
Amy Turner, Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati
June 20, 2012
Project Timeline
Task/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Learn methods
Prepare samples
Analyze samples
Prepare reports
Resources (other than handouts)
Effective Scientific Writing -- Manuscripts and Grantshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=rh-NHu5yOYc&feature=endscreen Write Well and Prosper - Science Writing Tips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related
Americal Chemical Society ACS Webinars™
Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=18107
http://www.plagiarism.org/