Due 3/19

As I was exploring the UNC “Writing for specific fields” handouts I was instantly drawn to the page that studies writing for sciences. I am a science major and found that this would surely be the most useful for what I need for my future science courses. Three main points that were said to be very useful when doing scientific writing were these; to have precision in what your ideas are, to have clarity- make your writing and the points you are writing about as clear as possible-, and objectivity- making sure you are listing facts, nothing based on personal opinion. Another tip that can be used in all type of writing but is especially helpful when writing lab reports or peer reviewed journals is word choice. Just because two words may have the same meaning doesn’t necessarily mean that they both fit to the same degree in that sentence. Another very important trait is to be quantitative rather than qualitative, being specific and giving exact details of the results of the experiment conducted is much more useful to the reader than being vague.  Another tipi to writing is keeping it as simple as possible, while obviously the subject matter being written about may be complicated, the writer can do their best to make it less complex when unnecessary. What I mean is words that do not have to be complicated can be simplified, sentences can be made shorter and not crammed with information, and side notes or added information does not have to be added to the papers.  It’s also required that when writing a scientific paper the author writes in a passive voice because this shows objectivity to the experiment. Lastly when writing the conclusion, the author should make certain that they only claim what has been found by their experimentation or the results of others, but to never make broad sweeping claims.

Dukes “Writing for specific disciplines” also drew me into the sciences, but I chose to look at how to create scientific poster presentations. What I learnt was that the abstract must be included on the board, typically in the top left hand corner. The texts that accompany the abstract across the board should be separate by how they relate to the abstract and should be between 700-800 words. These other sections should either be in bullet form or paragraph form depending on which way conveys the message most clearly. The colors used on the board should be light for the background and then only three additional colors. When adding graphs and images to the board, it should be limited to a maximum of eight figures. At the top of the board is where the title should be placed along with the authors names and degrees (and their graduated schools) below. Their should be four columns that hold all the information on the board. Lastly the citations should go on the bottom left of the page.

These handouts have been extremely helpful in aiding me to understand how to properly put together a well written scientific paper.