Meeting Time: Wednesdays @11am (Cahill 219)
Course Description ...... Policies ...... Schedule ...... Advice ...... Resources
This undergraduate course is intended to provide practical experience
in the types of writing expected of professional astronomers. Example styles
include research proposals, topical reviews, professional journal manuscripts,
critiques,
and articles for popular magazines such as Astronomy or Sky and Telescope.
Each student will adopt one of these formats in consultation with the course
instructor and write an original piece. An outline and several drafts reviewed
by both a mentor familiar with the topic and the course instructor,
are required. This course has limited enrollment and is open only to those
students who have taken upper level astronomy courses (i.e. it is intended
for Ay juniors and seniors).
Ay 31 satisfies the written component of the Science Communication Requirement.
Grading will be based on all of the bulletized items above.
A useful set of evaluation criteria for the written document is listed
here.
And yes, spelling, grammar, syntax, and document structure all count.
Extra credit may be given to those who point out (politely
and tactfully) errors of grammar or spelling in communications
emanating from the course instructor.
The course text is
Hofmann, Scientific Writing and Communication, 2009.
This book comprehensively covers paper and grant proposal writing,
and also discusses oral and poster presentations. It is geared towards
writing about research so is probably less useful for those of you
planning "popular level" papers. Nevertheless, if you plan to continue
on the academic route into graduate school and perhaps beyond,
I think it will be a well-worn resource for you.
The following are also relevant and useful resources.
Previously in Ay31 we used
Alley, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 1996 (3rd edition).
This book has a
website
with some excerpts but if you buy the book you will learn that it is a completely
digestable short text that covers the relevant points. I have enjoyed skimming it
once per year when I teach this course; the information is good to keep
in mind regardless of one's technical field or career level.
Alley has written other similarly useful books
entitled The Craft of Editing and The Craft of Scientific Presentations
that are also worthwhile reads.
Texts that are specific to academic writing and of good quality include:
For a broader range of material covered at a basic level, see
Gurak and Lannon, Strategies for Technical Communication
in the Workplace, 2010.
You may consult the Caltech course reserves list for this term for availability of the materials above.
These books are located in either the Cahill Library or SFL.
The following schedule outlines a path
of steady progress from topic choice to final paper.
Much of your progress
will be at your own initiative. Try not to fall behind
as the end of the term has a tendancy to sneak up and several
interim checks on progress are necessary.
"Why is writing important if I'm a science student?" is a complaint of the weary
problem-set-laden Caltech student. Contrary to common perception,
good communication skills, both written and oral, are
the most important ones to develop. This is true for
practicing scientists in both academic and industrial/corporate environments.
In academia, your ability to succeed in
graduate school, as a post-doc, or as a professor
depends on your ability to write and to speak with both clarity and authority.
Scientific skill is a given at these later stages; what sets you apart
from your peers is both a nose for a good problem and competency in selling
the idea to funding agencies, telescope allocation committees, journal referees, etc. And most of us could not do what we do without the support of the
U.S. taxpayers to whom we are occasionally asked to explain ourselves.
In this course we are concerned with writing skills. A good writer will:
Scientific writing is a process. This process involves at least two stages:
first thinking and planning, and second writing and packaging.
The goal is to tell a convincing and
well-woven story, not just transmit facts, and not just entertain.
One perspective setting piece of advice to keep in mind is that your paper
is of much more import to you, the invested author, than to most of
its readers. It is therefore incumbent upon you to place as much effort
as you can into effective communication; otherwise the average, generally lazy,
potential reader is likely to go elsewhere for the information. This is
not the desired outcome. You should, therefore, not only know and appreciate,
but respect and engage your reader. Another piece of advice is to pick a topic
in which you are truly interested. The process will be much easier on all of us
if this is the case.
"Okay, I'm paying attention now, but what should I write about"?
Possible topics
include a summer research project, an interest from the classroom,
something you read about in Astronomy or Sky and Telescope, a question your
friends expect you to be able to answer as an Astro major, and so on.
I do not have a comprehensive list, but some contemplation on your part,
discussions with your mentor, and limited web surfing (see links below)
may help you find
-- and then narrow down -- your topic. Understanding of and passion for
your topic is critical for being able to write well about it.
The next thing to decide is the
format of your paper. Possibilities here include a journal level article,
a telescope/theory/computation proposal, a piece for the lay-scientific press,
and others we can discuss.
If you plan to write a journal article:
Read the relevant resources below, especially the ApJ author instructions.
Here
is a checklist for the structure of your document including pages in
the text to which you should pay particular attention.
If you plan to write a telescope proposal:
Chapter 13 in Alley is a useful starting point for understanding
how proposal writing differs from other formats.
Read the relevant resources below, especially
the NOAO proposal template and other example proposals.
Don't worry so much about the exact realization
of your proposed project; it is okay to pretend, for example,
that a certain telescope has an instrument or detector like one
that exists on another telescope. Hypotheticals are okay as long as
they are among the feasible.
Here
is a checklist for the structure of your document including pages in the
text to which you should pay particular attention.
If you plan to write a popular article:
Read the relevant resources below. You have more latitude in the structure
of your document than those writing proposals or research articles.
Find a style you might want to emulate by reading published pieces.
[do please alert me regarding broken links]
Astronomy topics:
Astronomy research resources:
General scientific writing:
For technical papers:
For popular papers:
Course Description
Policies
Schedule
Week #
beginningIn Class
On your Own
Week 1
28 March
Introductory All-Class Meeting
Week 2
4 April
All-Class Meeting
Week 3
11 April
NO CLASS MEETING THIS WEEK
Outline due
Week 4
18 April
NO CLASS MEETING THIS WEEK
Week 5
25 April
All-Class Meeting
Week 6
2 May
First Draft due
All-Class Meeting
Week 7
9 May
No All-Class Meeting ==> Individual Meeting with Instructor
Week 8
16 May
Second Draft due
All-Class Meeting
Week 9
23 May
All-Class Meeting
Week 10
30 May
Final Copy due
NO CLASS MEETING THIS WEEK
Advice
Resources
Encyclodpedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Sky & Telescope Magazine - News
Astronomy Magazine (click on news)
Scientific American - Astrophysics
Caltech Astrophysics Library (lots of useful links)
Astrophysics Data System (astro literature search)
Google-Scholar (literature search)
Astro-Web (information on professional activities and resources)
Hixon Writing Center - activities and resources at Caltech including more
links to resources elsewhere
Communicating Science - from AAAS
Handouts and Videos, from the Writing Center at UNC (a very nice set of material)
Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students , from Penn State (by the author of our main text)
MIT Graduate Program in Scientific Writing
Tips on Word Usage in Scientific Writing, from Iowa State
Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization, by NASA of all entities!
Tips for Scientific Writing, by NOAA, not to be outdone by that other gov't agency
Principles of Science Writing
The Science of Scientific Writing
Scientific Reports from the University of Wisconsin Writing Center
Guidelines for Writing a Scientific Paper from a University of Illinois course probably like this one
Style Guide from the American Chemical Society
Style Manual from the American Institute of Physics (an oldie but a goodie)
ApJ author instructions
NOAO Proposal Template and content advice
HST amateur proposal instructions
Example Keck Proposal
Example Galex Proposal
Example Spitzer Proposal
The End of Science Writing
Planning and Writing a Science Story
Communicating Science News from the National Association of Science Writers
Communicating Astronomy with the Public from the IAU (see the links )
Last Revised: 23 January 2016 by LAH