Science Writing Workshop     - Bi3112                      Wednesday 16-17:50; D31-239

Jeff Nekola                                                                  Autumn 2024


                                             SYLLABUS

Writing a successful scientific paper is not just about having a compelling question, good
experimental design and convincing results.  It is also about presentation. It is about helping the
reader understand why the work is important through use of a structure that presents a story with a
clear and interesting beginning, a cogent middle, and an ending that generates a catharsis as the
reader’s world view is changed in some way – whether it be a revolutionary new theoretical concept
or the simple discovery of a new rare species population.  Without such a clear narrative,
scientific research can easily become bogged down in pedantic details, and readers are lost along
the way.  Such papers make up a good proportion of the 2/3 of published works that are never cited
again and vanish into the academic void.  My recommendation is for others to remember that even
through we are scientists who are limited to writing in a pre-defined format about replicable,
empirical data, our work also needs to be framed as compelling stories told in simple and clear but
beautiful language.  And to do that we must embrace and be comfortable with our artistic side as
well.

                                          Weekly topics:

1:  Introduction; class structure; the workshop environment.

2:  Finding your story, where are you starting, what are you doing, and what catharsis do you want
to invoke?

3: the creative non-fiction model within the pre-defined form of science writing.  how to write
clearly and elegantly; prose poetry; high information to word content..

4: Finding your audience:  determining a journal - IF vs. appropriateness. Understanding your
primary (editor), secondary (reviewers), and ultimate (general scientific) audience.  How do they
differ?  how can you tailor your story to each?

5:  How to craft an introduction; things to and not to include.

6:  Methods:  how much is too much or not enough?

7:  Results:  making pictures be worth 1000 words.  choosing the images and tables / data upon
which your story will be told

8:  Discussion:  generating catharsis; showing the reader how the data leads to a change in world
view

9:  Titles and abstracts.  Getting yourself on the reader’s radar and convincing them to let you
take up some amount of their time

10:  Responding to review comments

10:  Workshopping

11:  Workshopping