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Writing Well is Essential
with special thanks to Professors Ken Richardson and Al Zolynas for comments
& corrections
Many of the hundreds of papers and essay questions I grade each year contain
reasonably coherent thoughts but are poorly written and hard to understand.
In school and business it is critical to communicate clearly and
efficiently.
Suggestions | General
Outline for Environmental Science Papers
Further Reading | Online
Resources
Here are some suggestions for improving your writing and your grades.
- Write about something you care about. If you aren't interested,
you probably won't be able to interest anyone else. If you explore the
range of possible topics in a class, you can almost always find
something that affects you, your family, your friends or your career.
Seek it out! Show others why it matters. Still having trouble? Talk it
over with your professor and you may find a shared interest, suggestions
for some new line of investigation you haven't considered, or an even
more exciting topic.
- Identify your audience and write for them. In papers for my
class you are writing for me and the other students in the class. You
are our scouts. As a systems ecologist with an interest in policy,
business, economics, and anthropology I have a wide range of interests.
Include environmental and economic aspects of a problem, a discussion
and conclusion, and complete references and I will be happy learning
from you (and you will be pleased with your grade). For your in-class
presentation gear your talk and audio-visual materials to the whole
class. If you have done some research show why the results are
interesting: Don't just say, "As the information in table 23
clearly shows." Tell us what matters and why.
- Use the active voice and keep things straightforward and crystal
clear. The active voice is direct, forceful and more alive. For
example, in the active voice: Sea otters eat up to 30 sea urchins
a day. The passive voice is much less compelling: Up to 30 sea
urchins a day are eaten by sea otters. In the active voice the subject
acts!
- Watch tenses and plurality. Don't bounce between past, present
and future tenses. Make sure the tenses are in sequence: "We
collected field data at the Elliott Reserve" (PAST); "We are
examining it in the lab using the SuperANOVA statistics package"
(PRESENT); and "We will present the data at the Society of
Ecological Restoration meeting in Seattle this Fall"
(FUTURE).
IMPROPER PLURALITY is equally disruptive and distracting.
A sentence like "Restoration ecologists is holding their annual
meeting in Seattle" stops me in my tracks. "Ecologists"
is PLURAL so the verb must also be the PLURAL "are."
- Be concise. Keep the paper as short as possible while including
all the relevant information. Never use filler, vague, general, or weak
words, such as "things, in order to, people." Use specific
words that create a clear picture. Don't use "scientist", use
the words that tell what the person does, e.g. "marine
ecologist" or "molecular biologist." Many papers and
articles are padded, poorly written, and poorly edited. Scientific
writers are no better (or worse) than other writers, and many papers can
be cut in half with good editing. And never fall into the trap of using
jargon or tribal scientific language when you can say the same thing
with simple English.
- Do your research and clearly identify the information you have used
from others, but don't be afraid to say "I" if you have
done something or thought something important. Scientific and technical
writing used to be very impersonal and anonymous, but editors are
increasingly interested in making it personal and alive.
- Develop an outline and use it to help give structure to your
thoughts and your writing. A good outline will help save time in
research and writing. It will also make it easier to craft a compelling
discussion and conclusion. Many student papers I read are interesting,
but just trail off without a discussion or conclusion. Never start with
"In this paper I will talk about... -- start right in and show us.
- Structure paragraphs and sections so they flow smoothly. Choppy
sentences and fractured paragraphs are hard to follow. Ask a friend to
outline the paper and read it for continuity. If you want someone, who
is not getting paid, to read your writing, it has to be enjoyable. A
persuasive writer can sell ideas within a community or a business.
- Edit your papers before you turn them in. Failure to edit your
papers implies that either you don't respect the audience, you don't
respect yourself, you didn't manage your time very well, or you can't do
any better. I dislike reading error filled drafts; so do magazine
and journal editors and business managers. START EARLY, WRITE AND
REWRITE. A good paper is something you can show to potential employers;
keep a file of your best efforts. Get them published if you can.
- Avoid abusing word forms and creating new words. This is a
growing problem popularized by Pentagon "political speak." It
is Orwellian at its worst, "War is peace," and hard to read,
"We need to incentivize this program," at its best. Using
nouns and verbs as adjectives is also common and very appalling, like
fingernails on the chalkboard.
- Practice, Practice, Practice. Don't be discouraged if it takes time. You have to do it often to get
better. Reading more books, magazines and journals helps. Reading builds
vocabulary, familiarity with style and form, and general information that
can improve your research and writing.
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Become familiar with the library and the librarians. We may not have many
books, but we are blessed with some excellent staff. Reference librarians
enjoy using their skills to help you, but be prepared and do the preliminary
work first before asking for help.
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And always spell check and spell check again. Ask a friend to look
for grammatical errors and structural weaknesses. Follow guidelines in the
course syllabus or journal's guide to authors accurately. Are the reference
correctly formatted? Are the margins and page numbers in the right place?
Make multiple backups of computer disks, preferably in at least two
locations (just in case that flood or brush fire strikes).
General Outlines
for a Paper in Environmental Science
Descriptive papers
- Introduction - the nature of the problem, why the topic is important
- Descriptions of past research, discoveries, applications, behavior
- Description of current status or activity
- A discussion of the information/summary
- Conclusion - Why does it matter?, Where do we go from here?
- References
Position papers
- Introduction - the nature of the problem, why the topic is important
- Arguments for a given position
- Arguments against the given position
- A summary discussion
- Conclusion - What do we do now?
- References
Research papers
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Materials and methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusions
- References
Further reading:
Alvarez, J.A. 1980. The Elements of Technical Writing. Harcourt, NY.
Baugh, L.S. 1997. How to Write Term Papers and Reports. VGM Career Horizons.
Chicago, IL.
Lertzman, K. 1995. Notes on writing theses and papers. Bulletin of the
Ecological
Society of America. June. pp. 86-90.
REA. 1997. Writing and Publishing Your A+ Scientific/Technical Paper.
Research
and Education Assoc. Placataway, NJ.
Williams, J.M. 1990. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, IL
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