A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry (Short Guides) PDF
Preview A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry (Short Guides)
A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry HOLLY B. DAVIS Jacobson Center for Writing, Teaching, and Learning Department of English Smith College Department of Chemistry University of Massachusetts Amherst JULIAN F. TYSON Department of Chemistry University of MassachusettsAmherst JAN A. PECHENIK Biology Department Tufts University Longman Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sa~o Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Senior Sponsoring Editor: Virginia L. Blanford Marketing Manager: Bonnie Gill Production Manager: Jacqueline A. Martin Electronic Page Makeup: GGS Higher Education Resources, A division of PreMedia Global, Inc. Cover Designer/Manager:John Callahan Cover Image: iStockphoto Senior Manufacturing Buyer: Dennis J. Para Printer and Binder: Courier Corporation/Westford Cover Printer: Demand Production Center Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holly Davis A short guide to writing about chemistry / Holly Davis, Julian Tyson. Jan A. Pechenik,—1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-205-55060-9 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-205-55060-6 (alk. paper) 1. Chemistry—Authorship. 2. Communication in chemistry. 3. Technical writing. I. Davis, Holly, 1951– II. Tyson, Julian, 1949– III. Title. QD8.5.P43 2009 808’.06654—dc22 2009040894 Copyright © 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10—CRW—12 11 10 09 ISBN 13: 978-0-205-55060-9 ISBN 10: 0-205-55060-6 Contents PREFACE xiii PART I General Advice about Writing and Reading about Chemistry 1 1—WRITING: A THRESHOLD SKILL 2 What Do Chemists Write about and Why? 2 The Keys to Success 4 Ten Strategies for Preparing Your First Draft 5 Strategy 1. Work to understand your sources 5 Strategy 2. Think about why you are writing before you begin and as you write 5 Strategy 3. Write in anticipation of discovery 5 Strategy 4. Write to illuminate, not to impress 6 Strategy 5. Use sources responsibly 6 Strategy 6. Use your own words; do not quote from sources 6 Strategy 7. Show rather tell. Support all statements of fact or opinion with evidence 6 Strategy 8. Always distinguish fact from possibility 7 Strategy 9. Write to show that you can “think like a chemist” 7 Strategy 10. Allow time for revision 7 iii iv CONTENTS Ten Strategies for Revising and Editing: Getting to Your Final Draft 8 Strategy 1. Make sure you say what you mean to say 8 Strategy 2. Use transitional words and phrases to keep the reader moving forward 8 Strategy 3. Avoid using pronouns likeit, this, and they without clear antecedents, that is, without clarifying what such pronouns refer to 8 Strategy 4. Don’t make readers work harder than they have to; do the work for the readers 9 Strategy 5. Eliminate throat clearing 9 Strategy 6. Avoid a too heavy reliance on weak verbs, such as to beandto use 10 Strategy 7. Excise unnecessary prepositions 11 Strategy 8. Use passive and active voice effectively 11 Strategy 9. Ensure that your writing is gender neutral 12 Strategy 10. Handle electronic files carefully and responsibly 12 Rules and Conventions: The Easy Stuff 13 1. Follow rules from the American Chemical Society about abbreviation 13 2. Observe the conventions of the American Chemical Society about capitalization 13 3. Pay attention to the discipline-specific conventions of chemistry regarding hyphens and suffixes 14 4. Pay attention to form and format 14 The Essential Last Pass: Proofreading 14 Do Not Depend on Your Computer to Do Your Work forYou 15 Checklist for Writing about Chemistry 16 CONTENTS v 2—GENERAL ADVICE ON READING AND TAKING NOTES 18 Why Read and What to Read 18 Effective Reading 19 Effective Note-Taking and Note-Organizing 21 Reading Data: Plumbing the Depths of Figures and Tables 22 Reading Text: Summarize as You Go 25 Take Notes in Your Own Words 27 Split-Page Note-Taking: A Can’t-Fail System 30 Final Thoughts on Note-Taking: Document Your Sources 31 Checklist for Reading and Taking Notes 33 3—CITING SOURCES AND LISTING REFERENCES 34 Citing Sources 34 Some Guidelines for Citing Sources in Chemistry 36 Preparing the References Section 42 Listing the References—General Rules 42 Format for Journal Articles 43 Format for Books 44 Format for Internet Sources 45 Format for a Laboratory Manual or Handout 46 Format for Information Received from Your Instructor 47 A Sample References Section 47 References 48 A Word or Two about Italicsand Bold Type 48 Reference-Management Software 49 Checklist for Citing Sources 49 Checklist for Preparing the References Section 50 vi CONTENTS 4—REVISING 51 Why Revise? 51 Revising for Content 52 Make Sure Every Sentence Says Something Worth Saying 52 Show Rather Than Tell 54 Be Cautious in Drawing Conclusions but Not OverlySo 55 Ensure That Your Writing Is Self-Sufficient 56 Revising for Clarity 57 Tip #1 Anticipate the Needs of Your Reader 57 Tip #2 Avoid Overusing Acronyms and Abbreviations 58 Tip #3 Keep the Reader Moving Forward 58 Tip #4 Beware of Modifiers and Their Perils 60 Tip #5 Avoid Ambiguity: the Dangers of It, This, They, Them,and Other Pronouns 63 Tip #6 Revise for Parallelism 65 Revising for Completeness 66 Do Not Assume the Reader Knows What You Mean 66 Do the Work for the Reader: Avoid Using Etc 67 Checklist for Revising 68 5—EDITING FOR CONCISION AND ACS STYLE 70 Editing 70 Editing for Gender-Neutral Language 70 Avoid Using Masculine Nouns to Refer to Males and Females 71 Avoid Using the Masculine Pronouns (He, His, and Him) to Refer to Both Males and Females 71 CONTENTS vii Editing for Concision 73 First Commandment: Eliminate Throat Clearing 73 Second Commandment: Eliminate Unnecessary Prepositions 76 Third Commandment: Avoid Weak Verbs 77 Fourth Commandment: Use Passive and Active Voice Effectively 79 When to Use Active Voice 81 When to Use Passive Voice 82 Editing for American Chemical Society Style: Some Guidelines 84 Abbreviations and Acronyms 84 Capitalization for Chemists 86 Hyphens 87 Spacing 89 Spelling 90 Chemistry-Specific Conventions 92 Chemical Elements and Formulas 92 Special Symbols 94 Quotation Marks 94 Conclusion 95 Correctness: The Conventions of Standard Written English 95 Checklist for Editing 95 PART II Guidelines for Specific Tasks 97 6—KEEPING LABORATORY NOTEBOOKS 98 The Role of Laboratory Instruction 98 viii CONTENTS The Teaching Laboratory Notebook 99 What to Record 100 Pre-lab Assignments and Preparation 102 Examples of Notebook Entries 102 Making Drawings 107 Computers in Labs 107 The Research Laboratory Notebook 107 Checklist for the Laboratory Notebook 110 7—WRITING LABORATORY REPORTS 111 The Role of Laboratory Instruction 111 Writing Reports of Teaching-Laboratory Experiments 112 Composition of the Report 113 Title and Authors 114 Experimental Section 114 Ten Guidelines for Writing the Experimental Section 114 Results Section 117 Tables 119 Figures 120 Dealing with Spreadsheet Software Output 120 Discussion and Conclusions Section 123 Errors in Chemistry Experiments 124 Introduction 127 Abstract 129 Acknowledgments and References 130 Checklist for a Laboratory Report 131
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