Instructor: Andrew Howard (208 Cahill, x8747, ahoward@caltech.edu)
Class schedule: 3-4pm Fridays in Cahill 219
Class website: http://astro.caltech.edu/~howard/ay31s19.html
Course Description:
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.
Policies:
There are no problem sets or exams for this course! However, there are other requirements including:
1. attendance at and participation in class meetings
2. interaction with your chosen science mentor
3. individual meetings with the course instructor
4. progress towards and completion of your writing assignment, including outline, first draft, second draft, final copy.
Grading will be based on all of the numbered 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.
The primary course text is Hofmann, Scientific Writing and Communication, 2017 (previous editions are fine). 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.
Previous iterations of Ay31 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. 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:
Porush, Short Guide to Writing About Science, 1994
Lindsay, Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words, 2011
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.
Schedule: click here (subject to revision)
Course Notes: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 5, Week 7
Grading:
[10%] - Attendance/Participation
[5%] - Outline
[15%] - First Draft
[20%] - Second Draft
[50%] - Final Paper
A+ = 95-100%
A = 85-95%
A- = 80-85%
B+ = 75-80%
B = 70-75%
B- = 65-70%
C+ = 60-65%
C= 55-60%
C- = 50-55%
...
Advice:
"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:
know their audience
know their topic
use precise language
give sufficient, but not too much, background material
motivate the present discussion
describe techniques/methods/assumptions and results
identify conclusions and evaluate their rigorousness
place implications into a broader context
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 AAS Journals 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.
Resources:
Astronomy topics:
Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Sky & Telescope Magazine - News
Astronomy Magazine
Scientific American - Astrophysics
Astronomy research resources:
Caltech Library (lots of useful links)
Astrophysics Data System (astro literature search)
Google-Scholar (literature search)
Astro-Web (information on professional activities and resources)
General scientific writing:
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 a class 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!
For technical papers:
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)
AAS Journals Author Instructions
NOAO Proposal Template and content advice
HST amateur proposal instructions
Example Keck Proposal
Example Galex Proposal
Example Spitzer Proposal
For popular papers:
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 )