Writing 109ST: Writing for Science and Technolgy
The links below can help you with your Writing 109ST class assignments. They are organized by assignment number/letter. Please share! If you find other on-line resources that are useful to you, forward them to me so that I can list them here for your classmates.
To jump quickly to a specific assignment, click on the assignment number/letter:
Assignment #1
Assignment #2
Assignment #3
Assignment #4
Assignment #5
Assignments #7 and 8
Reference Links:
Individual (numbered) Assignments
Assignment #1: Personal statement
DB's PowerPoint on personal statements
Assignment #2: Job and expenses study
Link for salary surveys
Assignment #3: Resume or curriculum vitae
If you are writing a resume...
Refer to reserve materials at the UCSB Davidson Library for help with resumes.Two excellent books are also on reserve to assist you with writing resumes. You should refer to these for plenty of helpful examples and tips.
101 Best Resumes for Grads [HF5383. B5342. 2003. #8981]
Best Resumes for College Students and New Grads [HF5383. K87. 2003. #8999]
If you are writing a curriculum vitae (CV)...
Curriculum
Vitae Guide, by JobSearch, Inc.
A great guide to writing CVs, with templates and samples. This web page also
features links to other helpful sites.
How to write a curriculum
vitae, by PageWise, Inc.
A very brief how-to on writing CVs.
*See pp. 88–95 of the UCSB Career Manual, 2017–2018
How to
write a great letter, by William S. Frank
Tips on writing all kinds of business letters.
The purpose of this assignment is to get you moving on your conference paper! You will be writing a very brief, business-style memo to propose a conference paper topic. Please keep it short: What is your topic? Who is your audience? What sort of paper are you proposing (primary research, secondary, review of literature, or lay audience article).
Please be sure to use a standard memo format, with the word "Memo" or "Memorandum" at the top, "To," "From," "Subject," and "Date" fields, and your signature at the bottom or initialed next to the "From" line. Here are some helpful links for writing business memos:
Memo
Writing, by Purdue University Online Writing Lab
Excellent advice on memo writing from one of my all-time favorite websites.
This is an excellent place to start when writing business correspondence. It
also links back to OWL's home site where you'll find lots of other helpful info.
Business Memos, by Web Guru at Northeastern University.
Assignments #7 and 8
*You can combine Assignments #7 and #8 by composing an infographic that clearly conveys both graphic and quantitative information. See examples below:
"The 90 Best Infographics," InfoBloq.com (2015 AUG 24)
"13 of the Year's Best Infographics," Wired (2013 OCT 13)
Writing Instructions
The most important detail in writing effective instructions is to give your reader constant feedback. This lets them know whether they are proceeding correctly. The need for feedback often necessitates pictures, which should be integrated directly into your text (not bunched up at the end). Each individual picture should be numbered (e.g., "Figure 1," "Figure C," etc.) and given a caption. Refer to pictures in the text directly by their number (e.g., "Figure 6 shows a properly aligned bolt.").
Instructions:
How to Write for Busy, Grouchy People, by Dennis G. Jerz
This is a great website with excellent ideas for writing better instructions!
Jerz also has a neat link to another page, entitled "Instructions
-- Top 5 Tips," which is very useful.
How
to write instructions, by Techscribe (Mike Unwalla)
A brief guide to writing instructions from a British tech writer.
This is the largest assignment in Writing 109ST and defines 25% of your final course grade. You have four types of papers to choose from: 1) primary research paper; 2) secondary research paper; 3) review of literature; and, 4) lay audience article. I will explain each of these in class during the quarter; however, here is a cursory look at each:
Primary research— A scientific journal paper on actual field research that you are conducting yourself, or are assisting with as part of an established (funded and published) research team. Research may consist of laboratory and/or field work; however, you must have the approval of your research team's principal investigator (PI) before undertaking.
Secondary research— What you typically write at UCSB: a research paper built from the work of others (i.e., secondary research) as found online, in the library and/or via interviews.
Review of literature— Interview several experts in your targeted field of study and identify 4–5 "classic" papers that define the field. Read and summarize each, then explain in your review of the literature how each are related to the field, intellectually, historically and technically. Identify "camps of thought" within the field and explain divisions in theory and/or experimental approaches.
Lay audience article— An article such as one might encounter in Scientific American or Popular Science that explains an otherwise highly technical topic to a lay reader. Heavy use of graphics and crafting of language are designed to make the highly technical material understandable to a 10th grade-level educated reader.
Peer Review Committees
Just as with many professional organizations, you may be asked to serve on a peer review committee where you will work with your classmates to define the editorial standards of your conference section. In real life, this is a tremendous honor. You should be prepared to contribute to your committee in at least two ways. Firstly, you will be asked to contribute some editorial guidelines for your section. These may be adopted from an existing journal's editorial guidelines (the websites of most professional journals feature a "Guidelines for Authors" section), or you can invent your own. Secondly, you will be asked to assist your committee peers by reviewing their papers and offering advice. Even if you do not have the same expertise in your peers' area of study, you can still offer help with their writing and presentation. Teamwork here is paramount!
Adopted Writing Guidelines for Conference Papers (use as template; drafted in previous class).
* * * * * *
CSE-formatted Editorial Policies
See the Council of Science Editors (CSE—formerly the Council of Biology Editors--CBE) website.
* * * * * *
Editorial Policies for Primary/Secondary Research Articles on Medical Topics
See the "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References" for editorial policies related to citing medical sources.
Procedure for Writing Your Paper
Step 1: Talk to me!
The sooner we discuss your paper, the better. This will give us plenty of
time to brainstorm a topic and think about the sort of audience you will be
addressing. To schedule an appointment, e-mail me or call (680-2333), or we can discuss via Skype.
Step 2: Submit a proposal
Assignment #5 asks you to write a formal business memo with your proposed paper
idea. This is mainly to get you moving on a topic (by Week 5 you should decide),
and to give me a chance to review your idea in writing. Use a proper business
memo format (see the Assignment #5 help links above)
and keep it short. I do not need to know your rationale for choosing your topic.
Just simply state the topic you will writing about, the title of your paper, and the type of paper you are proposing (e.g., lay audience
article, secondary research paper, etc).
Step 3: Write! Write! Write!
By the halfway point in the quarter, you will need to make rapid progress on writing your paper.
Be certain to pay attention to the graphics and the numeric organizers in your paper such as figures,
tables, and charts as these often require a surprising amount of time to prepare.
Properly cite all references, using a bibliographic style agreed upon by your
peer review committee. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! We will be reviewing rough drafts
of your paper several times in class. Be sure to bring the latest version of
your paper to each class.
The final deadline for all conference papers is the last day of the instructional quarter (last day of classes)
Oral presentations are scheduled to begin during the last weeks of the quarter. This allows you ample time to prepare your paper. You can also use the audience feedback from your presentation to enhance your paper. Each presentation must be accompanied by PowerPoint (or equivalent) slides and will be allocated 10–15 minutes, including set-up, the presentation itself, Q&A, and take-down.
Here are some general suggestions for your oral presentation.
"What should I say in my presentation?"
Firstly, note that an oral presentation is not reading your conference paper! Your oral presentation should be prepared separately from your paper. You can read a prepared text, or speak from talking points. Whatever you do, be sure to have detailed notes and rehearse. Your presentation should flow smoothly, with a logical introduction, middle and end. The ultimate purpose of your presentation is to summarize your paper and entice the audience to eventually read it.
PowerPoint slides should change steadily throughout your presentation and be readable. Do not leave any slide up for longer than 45 seconds. If you need more time, divide your slide into two or more smaller slides and use these. (No "monster tables" with rows and rows of tiny data! Summarize numeric data with graphs and charts.) Be certain to make the font size large enough to be readable from the back of the room. (In our classroom, using our projector, this generally means 14-point or larger.) Be certain to submit a copy of your PowerPoint slides with the final version of your paper. Slides can be printed in hardcopy form, or submitted on CD-ROM or diskette. On the day of your presentation, be certain to have at least one back-up copy of your file(s) in case of technical problems. It is your responsibility to test your files and equipment in advance to verify that everything works.
Some students like to include handouts with their presentations; this lends a very professional edge. Your handouts might include a simple printout of your PowerPoint slides, or a brochure. Feel free to bring in examples, experiments, props, photographs, or anything else that will help enhance your presentation. Involve your audience whenever possible to keep them engaged.
CAD shareware
The links below access free CAD (computer aided design) shareware that you may find useful for generating drawings of your creations in Writing 109ST. Please note that all of these require time to learn; thus, you should first generate hand-drawn paper sketches while you are learning the software.
Archived Writing Tips and Conventions
"How to be a faster writer." Michael Agger. Slate Magazine. (2011 August 10)
"Language interpreter services see demand soar." Hugo Martín. Los Angeles Times
(2012 May 5)