Sci-tech: Communication

Last Updated: 28-Feb-2015

A series of guides was created to help support users strengthen scientific and technical communication skills in written, visual, oral, and multimedia formats. The first in the series, this guide contains key resources.

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Grace Baysinger

Head Librarian and Bibliographer of the Swain Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library

Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Library (Swain)

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graceb@stanford.edu

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Chemistry

Chemical engineering

Around Stanford

Eng. Tech. Communication Program

Future Faculty Seminar

Graduate Prof. Dev.: Communication

Hume Writing Center

Notation in Science Writing Program

Oral Communication Program (CTL)

Poster Printing Service at Lathrop Lib.

Program in Writing and Rhetoric

"Everyone, no matter what their field, needs the ability to communicate effectively in a range of situations. Academic and professional success depend upon it."

Writing Matters: Faculty Edition: "Nicholas Jenkins, Faculty Director of PWR, asked ten members of Stanford's faculty in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering about the importance of communication in their disciplines and about why writing matters to them."

Writing Matters: Student Edition: "Stanford undergraduate students in engineering, the humanities, mathematics, and the natural sciences talk about the importance of communication in their disciplines, and how their PWR experiences played a role in why writing matters to them."

"The Craft of Scientific Writing is designed to help scientists and engineers--both professionals already active in the disciplines as well as students preparing to enter the professions--write about their work clearly and effectively. The author, who is both a writer and an applied physicist, approaches the subject in a fresh way. Using scores of examples from a wide variety of authors and disciplines, the book demonstrates the difference between strong scientific writing and weak scientific writing. The book includes many useful suggestions about approaching a wide variety of writing tasks--from laboratory reports to grant proposals, from internal communications to press releases--as well as a concise guide to style and usage appropriate for scientific writing." (publisher's description)

"The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd edition aims to strengthen you as a presenter of science and engineering. The book does so by identifying what makes excellent presenters such as Brian Cox, Jane Goodall, Richard Feynman, and Jill Bolte Taylor so strong. In addition, the book explains what causes so many scientific presentations to flounder. One of the most valuable contributions of this text is that it teaches the assertion-evidence approach to scientific presentations. Instead of building presentations, as most engineers and scientists do, on the weak foundation of topic phrases and bulleted lists, this assertion-evidence approach calls for building presentations on succinct message assertions supported by visual evidence. Unlike the commonly followed topic-subtopic approach that PowerPoint leads presenters to use, the assertion-evidence approach is solidly grounded in research." (publisher's description)

"The ability to communicate in print and person is essential to the life of a successful scientist. But since writing is often secondary in scientific education and teaching, there remains a significant need for guides that teach scientists how best to convey their research to general and professional audiences. This book will teach science students and scientists alike how to improve the clarity, cogency, and communicative power of their words and images. The authors have combined their many years of experience in the art of science writing to analyze published examples of how the best scientists communicate. Organized topically with information on the structural elements and the style of scientific communications, each chapter draws on models of past successes and failures to show students and practitioners how best to negotiate the world of print, online publication, and oral presentation." (publisher's description)

"The Craft of Editing is about the craft of editing scientific writing. It is designed to help you - and all those who deal with scientific and technical writing by others in universities, government labs, businesses, or engineering firms - become more effective and more efficient at editing the proposals, theses, journal articles, and reports that cross your desk and which you must approve, grade, or review. Unlike other texts that try to present the gamut of all possible editing experiences, this guide focuses on the kind of editing that you as a manager or teacher perform with your pencil (or computer) and someone else's work." (publisher's description)

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