A Writing Review for Budding Science Communicators
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As William Zinsser says, "Few people realize how badly they write." This set of slides was developed for first-year science communication students to help them to recognize their shortcomings.
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A Writing Review for Budding Science Communicators
- 1. …for budding science communicators Use readable chat txt in this msg box as u would on a real phone. Srch the web 4 txt messaging abbrev 2 learn how 2 write in this style. :-) …the problem in question!
- 2. “Few people realize how badly they write.” • William Zinsser, On Writing Well 2COMM 1501
- 3. What is “style”? • “…what is correct, or acceptable, in the use of English.” • Correct use of… – Grammar – Syntax – Punctuation – Word choice COMM 1501 3
- 4. Writing has a purpose… • To provide information • To induce to action • To entertain COMM 1501 4
- 5. Avoiding Clutter (and improving clarity) • “In an effort to streamline the booking of appointments in the outpatient clinic, staff members are to be advised that the prioritization of patients will be completed prior to providing the patient with the appointment time. This will necessitate telephoning patients and advising them of their appointment times rather than being able to provide such an appointment times during the initial telephone encounter.” COMM 1501 5
- 6. Let’s explore… • Grammatical errors on signs • American Eagle, you should have known better! • Five grammatical errors that make you look dumb • Grammar Girl COMM 1501 6
- 7. COMM 1501 7
Editor's Notes
- If you think back to your high school or even college English teachers, they were always commenting on writing style. In these instances, they were usually referring to the voice carried by writers that you were studying from Hemmingway to Shakespeare. This kind of style is important because you need to consider your audience. Writing a piece to explain the current financial situation for your donors will require a different style than the one you might employ to write a speech for your peers at a conference of healthcare financial officers. Another way of defining style, however, is a bit more pragmatic: style in this instance is what Strunk and White, authors of the classic book The Elements of Style referred to as “what is correct, or acceptable, in the use of English.” Let’s take a writing test…
- Provide information. Probably more often than any other purpose, we write to provide others with information. Exactly who we are directing that information toward is also an important part of determining the objectives of a piece since the style will vary with each.Induce to action. The second objective for any written work is to induce someone to take the action you want or need them to take.
- Of course, translated into good writing this means: “When patients call to make appointments, put them in priority order and telephone them later with their appointment times.”
- The truth is that writing is fundamental to our ability to communicate