Technical Writing and PresentationMargaret J. Kupferle, PhD, PESummer REU Program June 18, 2014

Think of your research as part of a world-wide conversation among scientific peers ...

Your reports, peer-reviewed

journal manuscripts, oral presentations and posters are your

turn to contribute to the conversation!

Preplanning• Who?• What?• Where?• When?• Why?• How?

• Audience?• Purpose of author/speaker?• Venue? • Deadlines? Placement?• Gain to audience?• Format? Length?

Spend more time prewriting and rewriting

• Collect, synthesize, organize info• Brainstorm take home messages• Work out ideas away from computer

• Write complete sentences in order at computer

• Read your work out loud• Get rid of clutter• Do a verb check• Get feedback from others

Adapted from ideas at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related,accessed June 11, 2012

[1]

[2]

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The 4-S Formula

•Short•Simple•Strong•Sincere

S

S

S

S

Technical Writing Basics

• Be clear by using precise language

• Avoid long sentences

• Keep verb tenses consistent

• Define terms

• Present facts or inferences, not feelings

•Maintain a professional tone

Sentence-level tips

• Use active voice• Choose strong (and specific) verbs• Avoid turning verbs into nouns• Do not bury the main verb• Cut unnecessary words• Avoid jargon and abbreviations

Use active voice*

PASSIVE

• The apple was pierced by the arrow.

• Mistakes were made.

• Data quality was improved by the new technique.

Use strong and specific verbs ...• I went to the store.

• The house was on fire.

• Goliath was much taller than David.

• He did not pass the math exam.

• She did not remember to lock the door.

Avoid turning verbs into nouns

• Carbon capacity reductions for phenol adsorption occur when natural organic matter is in competition with it.

Do not bury the main verb

Because of the great diversity of pathogenic microorganisms transmitted by contaminated water and the difficulty and cost of directly measuring all microbial pathogens in environmental samples, organisms that may indicate the presence of sewage and fecal contamination (indicator organisms) are often used for monitoring and regulation of recreational and drinking waters.

Can your team do better?

Cut unnecessary words

Cut unnecessary words

“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of cancer biology study design, using as examples studies that illustrate the methodologic challenges or that demonstrate successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological research.”

Adapted from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related, accessed June 11, 2012

Can your team do better?

Avoid jargon and acronyms

Paragraph-scale tips

• Communicate one central idea per paragraph• Tell the reader the “punch line” early• Improve paragraph flow with:• Logical flow of ideas• Parallel sentence structure• Transition words (when absolutely necessary)

Try Sorting It Out ...

See what your team can do with the following paragraph:

“Enormous mining companies are both continuing operations at old gold mines, such as the case of the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, which has operated continuously since 1877 and is continuing to increase its operations [Hinds and Trautman, 1983], and opening new gold mines, often in very disturbing locations, such as the proposed, and for now, postponed, New World Mine, whose proposed location was about 2.5 miles from the border of Yellowstone National Park, near Cooke City, Montana.”

#7 at http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handbook/exercises/exercise1.html,Accessed June 5, 2012

Be consistent in your use of capitals, captions, units, and scale of graphs.

Fig. 1 – CV for 0.04 mM NaCl + Phenol Figure 2. CV for phenol at 0.05 mM NaCl

How many things can you find to fix?

Cite your sources in the text carefully and use quotes when appropriate – avoid plagiarism*.

* See http://www.plagiarism.org/ for complete discussion of plagarism

Rathbun (1936) and Hechtman and Johnston (1947) suggest ...

Kishi and Chen (1986, 1987a, 1987b) found ...

There are a number of finite element models (Kishi and Chen 1998, Desai 1990, Desai et al. 1995, Zaman et al. 1998) suggested in the literature.

- adapted from your handout

General page format :

1 “ bordersaround text

Single Line Spacingfor All Titles

Use double line spacing for

text. This makes it easier

to read and edit.

page numberin footer center9

Specific formatting requirements for your reports are spelled out in your guidelines handout.

Title SlideProject Title, Team

Members &

Affiliations, Date

IntroductionOne or more slides

introducing

problem and

stating project goals

TasksA few slides

describing the tasks

you plan to

accomplish

Methods

A few slides

explaining

basics of experim

ental methods

General Presentation Format

Results

Slides of data;

graphical or

embedded video format

preferred

ConclusionsOne or more slides

concisely summari

zing importa

nt conclusi

ons

Relevance

One slide summari

zing relevanc

e of findings

to audience

Timeline

One slide with a chart

showing schedule for tasks

Assertion-evidence slides are more effective than bullet lists for making key points* ...

Bullet List Assertion-Evidence

Example from http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides_body.html, accessed June 6, 2012

*especially for intro, background and results slides

vs.

Providing Access to Clean Water in Urban Centers Relying on Water Reuse

Martha Jones, Biomedical Engineering, University of CincinnatiCindy Smith, Civil Engineering, University of CincinnatiAmy Turner, Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati

June 20, 2012

EXAMPLE

Project Timeline

Task/Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Learn methodsPrepare samplesAnalyze samplesPrepare reports

EXAMPLE

Resources (other than handouts)

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Studentshttp://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=18107

http://www.plagiarism.org/