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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
This text is comprehensive, user-friendly handbook that will guide students through the full range of written and spoken communication skills that are demanded by today's biosciences courses. The book also offers a valuable refresher for postgraduate students who wish to review or expand their proficiency in these areas. This book will provide the student with practical advice on how best to communicate scientific material to different audiences including their peers, their tutors and to non-scientists.
Key Features:
- Highly accessible, confidence-building, student-friendly guide
- Provides comprehensive coverage of the complete range of presentation skills needed by students
- Covers essay writing, practical reports, dissertations, projects and presenting in individual, group and poster presentation settings
- Offers advice on how to avoid common errors including plagiarism using 'what not to do' boxes throughout the text
- Includes practical advice on how best to communicate scientific material to different audiences e.g. undergraduates, tutors and non-scientists
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Seitenzahl: 275
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Communication Skills in Science
About this chapter
Why are communication skills important for scientists?
Scientific writing: a little bit of history
Scientific language
Peer review
Basic rules for writing (scientific) English
Punctuation
More on plural words
Commonly confused words
Commonly misspelled words
UK and American English
Further reading
2 Using Scientific Literature
About this chapter
What is scientific literature?
Where to start
Peer review
Why use scientific literature for your assignments?
Reading the literature
Using material from the Internet
Plagiarism
Referencing conventions
The Harvard style of referencing
Quotations and how to cite and reference them
Using software to generate your references
Examples of citations and references
References
Further reading
3 Essay Writing
About this chapter
The purpose of assignments
Why write an essay?
Skills
Preparation
The paragraph
The sentence
General points of style
Plagiarism
Examination essays
Further reading
4 Writing Practical Reports
About this chapter
Introduction
Some general points
What to do before the practical session
During the practical session
How should it be written?
Other forms of report
Further reading
5 The Project Report
About this chapter
Introduction
How to begin
Writing the report
Dissertation-based projects
Ethical issues to consider when reporting your project work
And finally…
Further reading
6 Scientific Posters
About this chapter
Why use posters?
When to use a poster format
Designing a poster
Printing your poster
Examples of posters
Further reading
7 Oral Presentations
About this chapter
Introduction
Rules to follow and pitfalls to avoid
Presentations with a group of participants
Summary: a quick guide to oral presentations
Further reading
8 Preparing a Curriculum Vitae and Job Application
About this chapter
Introduction
The curriculum vitae
Covering letters
Application forms
How to write a good personal statement
Interviews
Personal development planning
Some terms
Further reading
Index
This edition first published 2010, © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Wiley-Blackwell is an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, formed by the merger of Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing.
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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Dawson, Maureen M.
Communication skills for biosciences / Maureen M. Dawson, Brian A. Dawson, and Joyce A. Overfield. p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-86393-0
1. Communication in science. 2. Technical writing. 3. Life scientists–Vocational guidance.
I. Dawson, Brian A. II. Overfield, J. III. Title.
Q223.D39 2010
570.1’4–dc22
2009047225
ISBN: 9780470863930
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
First Impression 2010
This book is dedicated to our families
Preface
It is well established that good communication skills are highly desirable in graduates in the biosciences no matter what careers they enter. Indeed, such skills are essential if undergraduates are to make the most of their degree course, since the majority of bioscience courses place emphasis on their acquisition. During their time at university, students may need to acquire a variety of presentational skills. These will typically include individual and group oral and poster presentations, and the writing of essays, practical reports, dissertations, projects, bibliographies and reference lists. In all their written, oral and visual communication, students will need to be able to summarize material while also avoiding plagiarism.
There is a perception that many students enter university without fully understanding the rules of English grammar, yet they are expected to communicate effectively in written form. Those who are skilled in written English are often unaware of what is acceptable in written scientific English. Their progress may therefore be hampered and they may become disheartened. If the basic skills are acquired at the outset, then students will gain much from their course and will emerge as more confident individuals.
This book will provide the student with practical advice on how best to communicate scientific material. It is aimed primarily at undergraduates in the biosciences, though postgraduate students may also find it useful. It will also be a useful text for students taking foundation years in sciences before tackling a degree course, as well as undergraduates on science courses generally.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank: Lisa Coulthwaite and Sadia Chowdhury, Manchester Metropolitan University for providing posters; Len Seal for the assessment marksheets; Alan Fielding for the planning for a dissertation-based project; Sid Richards for providing the cartoons and Julia Dawson, for her hard work in literature searching while on her school placement. Many thanks also to Nicky McGirr for her patience!
1
Communication Skills in Science
About this chapter
In this chapter we will discuss the importance of communication in science and the types of communication skills you will need both during and after your university course. We will look at some basic rules to follow when writing scientific English, and at general issues, such as paragraphing, common spelling mistakes, use of the apostrophe and problems that may arise with the use of spell-checkers. Although this book is aimed principally at bioscience students, much of the advice will be useful for science students generally.
Why are communication skills important for scientists?
When successful graduates move into scientific careers, they will be called upon to practise the communication skills they have learned during their training. In addition, they may be expected to talk about their work with scientists and with non-scientists. For example, scientists specializing in the molecular biology of cancer and who work in a research laboratory may be expected to communicate their work to:
fellow scientists working in their laboratory;
scientists who work in different laboratories, but who may wish to collaborate;
scientists at national and international conferences;
eminent scientists who sit on grant - awarding authorities;
students undertaking a placement in their laboratory;
research students whom they may be supervising;
journalists who want to find out about (and possibly publicize) their work;
ethical committees, which consist of scientists and non-scientists, if their work has ethical implications;
community groups and representatives from business who may wish to donate funds to their research;
senior managers who may influence the future course of their work.
The types of communication skills required by today’s scientists include being able to communicate in writing, and to make presentations which involve both oral and visual communication. Examples of written communications include:
laboratory reports;
research papers, articles and reviews for scientific journals;
grant applications;
briefings for management;
progress reports;
product descriptions.
Examples of oral communications include:
talks to a variety of audiences;
team or management briefings;
research papers delivered at conferences.
Examples of visual presentations include:
scientific posters;
information leaflets for target audiences.
Presentations using computer software such as PowerPoint require oral and visual communication skills. Above all, it is essential that scientists communicate the results of their work in a way which takes account of the audience, but which is always truthful and unambiguous.
New students studying science at university will quickly find that they are expected to acquire and demonstrate a wide range of communication skills throughout their course. It is no longer possible for students to obtain a university degree based almost entirely on the ability to pass examinations at the end of each year, as was the case in many degree programmes fifty years ago. However, even if successful science graduates choose a career other than one in science, they will find that they require good communication skills in any ‘graduate’ career they enter. For this reason, communication skills are regarded as ‘transferable skills’ which can enhance the employability of a student in many careers.
Scientific writing: a little bit of history
Table 1.1 shows some history of scientific writing which goes back to around 1400 BC. You can see that much of the reason behind recording natural phenomena (eclipses, floods etc.) had a very practical purpose, such as being able to predict when these phenomena would occur.
Table 1.1 A brief history of early science
Date
Who and where?
What and why?
1400
BC
China Egypt
Recorded information about, for example, solar and lunar eclipses and floods in order to predict when they would occur
800
BC
Homer, Hesiod
Indicated knowledge and study of stars and constellations, probably to indicate seasons for planting crops or to provide sailors with aids to navigation
500
BC
onward
Greeks
Used mathematics to lay down definitions and first principles of geometry Study of anatomy and physiology (dissection being practised) Technical terminology and taxonomy being developed
372–287
BC
Theophrastus
Produced treatises on botany; distinguished between mono - and dicotyledonous plants
ca.100 AD
Roman Empire
‘Sophisticated’ clinical techniques being practised
After the fall of the Roman Empire science and medicine declined in much of Western Europe but continued to flourish in the Arabic and Chinese worlds. In fact, had Arabic scholars of the period not translated much of the scientific literature of the later Roman times and of the great period of Greek science and philosophy, it is probable that such literature would not have survived. It was only when the Arabic translations of lost texts became available in Western Europe that science and scientific understanding began to be revived, and by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the development of science began to take off again in the Western world.
Today, we are very familiar with the idea that science is an experimental subject in which findings from experiments allow us to build on the work of previous scientists. Early on, though, science was mostly about observing rather than experimenting. The beginning of the seventeenth century, however, saw the development and widespread acceptance of what is known as the ‘scientific method’. Scientific method (see Figure 1.1) involves:
An example of this might be:
Figure 1.1 Scientific method
Scientific experimentation is a continuous process, as observations from experiments can then lead either to the support of the hypothesis and/or to the construction of new ones. It is the reporting and sharing of data that allows others to reproduce, and, therefore, to revalidate the experimental studies that to a very large extent inform the modern approach to scientific writing.
Scientific language
For quite a long time Latin was the international language of science in Europe and it was not until the seventeenth century that the use of English in scientific literature began to take off. Until then, however, science was only communicated between those who were highly educated and (usually) male. Newton’s great work, Philosophic Naturalis Principia Mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) was published in Latin in 1687.
During the seventeenth, eighteenth and even the mid-nineteenth centuries, scientific literature written in English followed the prose styles of the day and was often very conversational. For example Elie Metchnikoff, who developed the theory of phagocytosis in 1882, following experiments with starfish larvae, wrote:
I felt so excited that I began strutting up and down the room and even went to the seashore to collect my thoughts. I said to myself that, if my supposition was true, a splinter introduced into the body of a starfish larva … should soon be surrounded by mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter into his finger. This was no sooner said than done.
Through the influence of the Royal Society, it became increasingly the practice to use a much simpler and more straightforward style of writing, which remains to this day, and this is what you should be aiming for. The development of scientific journals and periodicals has undoubtedly led to a much more formalized and structured approach, both in the manner that articles are set out and in the language used. This helps ensure that ideas are conveyed effectively in a way that can be easily understood by the educated reader.
Peer review
Henry Oldenburg (ca. 1619–1677) was the secretary of the Royal Society of London. He was the first editor of the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions, first produced in 1665, which published the work of eminent scientists. In order to persuade scientists to publish their work, Oldenburg guaranteed that scientific ‘papers’ would be published rapidly, ensuring that scientists received proper attribution for their original works. He also ensured the quality and standards of the publications by sending them to experts in the field, to comment on them and to recommend publication. This process continues throughout the world in those journals which publish ‘peer-reviewed’ articles. A paper which has been published in a peer-reviewed journal is more highly regarded by the scientific community than one which has not, since it has been recommended by fellow scientists. However, unfortunately, on occasion, the system of peer review has sometimes delayed the publication of important works which have challenged the current view.
Basic rules for writing (scientific) English
Whether you are writing for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, for a research thesis, or for a simple laboratory report, there are certain rules you need to follow. Other chapters in this book will look at specific examples of scientific writing, such as laboratory reports, essays and so on. Here are a few rules to absorb before you get there:
While the cat was sitting on the mat, which had recently been swept and dusted in order to keep out the dust mites, whose droppings triggered asthma in the butler, a tall and handsome man of many years, the mouse played in the yard.
We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.
Punctuation
Punctuation helps the reader to understand written language and can help to avoid confusion or misunderstandings. In a sense, it is a way to help you read a sentence, or paragraph, out loud, with marks like commas indicating where you need to make a break. The following are some brief notes about the use (and common misuses) of punctuation marks.
Apostrophe
The misuse of the apostrophe is often regarded by some as a cardinal sin, and many tutors may find it extremely irritating. However, it is probably fair to say that the majority of people have misused an apostrophe at some stage in their lives. The apostrophe has two primary purposes: to denote possession and to replace missing letters in some ‘shorthand’ or ‘contracted’ terms.
Contractions
Although contracted forms are popular in speech, especially informal speech, there are relatively few contractions used in formal, written English and very few are used in scientific writing. Thus, though contractions of verbs, such as I’d for ‘I would’ or ‘I had’ or I’ll for ‘I will’, ‘I’m’ for ‘I am’, ‘isn’t’ for ‘is not’ ‘we’re’ for ‘we are’ are spoken frequently, they should not be used in formal scientific writing. Conventions do change and certain words which were originally contractions have become so ingrained in our culture that the apostrophe is seldom used. For example, phone used to be written as ’phone, as a contraction of telephone. Equally, plane used to be written as ’plane, as a contraction of aeroplane.
Possession
Where the apostrophe is used to denote possession, it takes two forms: for singular nouns, it will appear as ’s, for example, the cat’s paw or the dog’s dinner: for plural nouns it will generally appear as s’: for example, the asses’ ears, and the dogs’ dinner (i.e. the dinner of several dogs). The exception is where there are unusual forms of plural: for example, you would use children’s rather than childrens’, or women’s rather than womens’.
An apostrophe is never used simply to indicate a plural term and ‘the dogs went to dinner’ does not require an apostrophe anywhere. Thus, a greengrocer who lists his vegetables as tomato’s or carrot’s is incorrect. Tomato’s means belonging to the tomato.
The contraction ‘it’s’ for ‘it is’ gives rise to one of the commonest confusions and misuses of the apostrophe. ‘It’s’ is never used to denote something belonging to it.
A word of caution: American spell-checkers may sometimes mislead on the correctness or otherwise of the apostrophe as used in the UK, so make sure your spell-checker is set to UK English.
Inevitably, language does change and develop. By long-standing convention the plural form of abbreviations does not include an apostrophe. For example the accepted plural form of DVD is DVDs and not DVD’s. Equally where numbers are used in place of words, for example, the 80s, as the term for the period 1980 to 1989, no apostrophe is needed. Again if you have hundreds of books, you could use the form 100s.
Comma
The comma is used to separate parts of sentences into manageable and logical bits. It is generally used to separate subordinate clauses from the main clause, or other subordinate clauses. For example: ‘The dog, which had walked all the way from the station, went to get its dinner’. However, you do not generally use a comma before ‘that’, as, for example, in: ‘the dog that had walked all the way from the station went to get its dinner’.
In addition, with some subordinate conjunctions, like ‘who’, the comma can be used to distinguish between what is a necessary part of the sentence and what is there for elaboration. For example, in the sentence ‘Customers who steal will be prosecuted’ the subordinate clause ‘who steal’ is a necessary and conditional part of the sentence. In the sentence ‘John, who came from London, was found wandering the streets’, the subordinate clause ‘who came from London’ is merely an elaborative detail. It is generally conventional to use a comma before clauses beginning with ‘which’. Where a subordinate clause is followed by another part of the same sentence, it is generally closed with a comma.
The comma is also used before other conjunctions like ‘but’, which join two main clauses. It is used after introductory words/participles: for example, ‘nevertheless’, ‘for example’, ‘in general’, and so on.
Other uses of the comma are: to separate a passage of direct speech from the main sentence and to separate adjectives in a list. It is used as a separator in constructions like dates, years (for example, September, 2007) or town, county (for example, Wilmslow, Cheshire). Another use is the so-called bracket comma, generally where you are linking two nouns in apposition; for example, ‘His brother, William, was to become the leader of the group’.
