Scientific Writing Lesson 1: Why Scientific Writing?

1. Purchase, or borrow, Michael Alley's book, "The Craft of Scientific Writing."
2. Purchase a notebook for the course and title it appropriately, for example, "Scientific Writing."
3. Using the techniques from lessons two and three from the MAST course "Self-Study" read chapter one from Alley's book entitled, "Introduction: Deciding Where to Begin." While reading do not be alarmed or intimidated by the examples the author provides, we will develop our own examples as we go.
4. Give an operational definition of scientific writing. Give three examples that would be considered scientific writing.
5. Why is scientific writing different than any other kind of writing?
6. Give three examples of how someone might underestimate the difficulty of scientific writing.
7. Give an operational definition of strong scientific writing. How do you think this contrasts with weak scientific writing.
8. Give an operational definition of the word constraint. Give an example of how this can be applied to scientific writing. Give an example of writing with no constraints.
9. Give an operational definition of audience. Give an example of an audience. How would you use the concept of an audience as a document constraint? Make a list of the possible audiences for scientific writing. If you were writing a paper on the weather, how would you write your document for each type of audience? What does each audience know about the weather? Why would they be reading the document? How would they read the document? What is the difference between trying to persuade an audience as opposed to trying to inform? Think of a way to get hard information about what an audience wants and needs. How would you go about conducting a survey? How would you perform interviews of customers or potential customers?
10. Give an operational definition of format. Give an example of a document format. How would you use the concept of a format as a document constraint?
11. Give an operational definition of document mechanics. Give an example of mechanics. How would you use the concept of mechanics as a document constraint?
12. Give an operational definition of politics. Give an example of politics. How would you use the concept of politics as a document constraint?
13. Give an operational definition of scientific subject. Give an example of a scientific subject. How would you use the concept of a scientific subject as a document constraint?
14. Give an operational definition of purpose. Give an example of a purpose. How would you use the concept of a purpose as a document constraint?
15. Is there more than one type of scientific writing? Below is a list of different types of scientific writing, think up an operational definition for each, and the differences in the constraints of each:
    • Articles.
    • Book reviews.
    • Booklets.
    • Brochures.
    • Conference reports.
    • Grant proposals.
    • Letters and/or email to a pupil.
    • Letters and/or email to a scientific colleague.
    • Letters and/or email to a teacher/mentor.
    • Live presentations.
    • Newsletters.
    • Operator's manual.
    • Reference manual.
    • Review papers.
    • Scientific papers.
    • Textbooks.
    • Tutorials.
    • User reference manual.

Additional Reading