Scientific Writing from the Readers' Perspective: What Do Disciplines Have in Common?

A big part of what scientists do as academics is write. Though writing for the sciences is largely different from writing for humanities, it still absolutely depends upon readers’ interpretations, which ultimately determine the text’s impact. How can scientists communicate such complex concepts clearly, instead of merely presenting information and thought?

In this workshop with the Language and Communication Centre, Dr Judith Swan analyses scientific documents from a reader’s perspective, identifying expectations that transcend disciplines and genres.

About the Speaker:
Judith Swan, Ph.D., is Associate Director for Writing in Science and Engineering in the Writing Program at Princeton University, where she developed and oversees a writing program for graduate students and postdoc and collaborates with her colleagues in teaching writing pedagogy to new faculty and fellows in the Writing Center. Dr. Swan’s research focuses on writing development during scientific training, on the ways language shapes the interpretation of emerging science, and on the functional congruences that underlie research writing in academic disciplines. As a consultant, she has taught writing to scientists and engineers at all levels of academia, industry and government, including Rockefeller University, Columbia University, Academica Sinica, Japanese Institute for Genetics, Riken Kobe, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US National Institutes of Health. Dr. Swan was trained in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard and received her Ph.D. in Biology from MIT.

#LifeatSoH #Language #Humanities #Scientific

[kneadedmassage]

There's a sad irony here: that this video is about communication from the audience perspective, yet it starts with an introduction that shows the opposite: the audio is crap and the lighting and positioning/posture of the talker is a disgrace. For example, forward head posture, especially when combined with looking down decreases your ability to breathe and voice ability, it changes your emotional "place", and most importantly, you don't come across respecting the audience. You are physically talking down to the audience. I know my comments may feel harsh, but the whole point is to teach and inspire, and the introduction does the opposite, expressing that the following material really ain't anything important enough, even for some one (the introduction) to pay attention to.