CBR103: Scientific Thinking and Writing

Scientific Writing and Thinking (1 credit)

Timing 10am-11am on Saturdays Coordinator: (Dr Shweta Ramdas) Instructors: Shweta, Latha Readings: Mimi Zeiger - Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers; Strunk and White - The Elements of Style

Course Objectives

1. Be able to read a scientific paper and summarize the important messages
2. Be able to interpret scientific data
3. Be able to effectively write a scientific manuscript or research report

Course Structure

Weeks 1,2: Basics of writing in the sciences

Week 3: Structure of scientific papers

Week 4: Reporting numbers in science

Weeks 5,6,7: Interpreting data and summarizing papers

Weeks 9-10: Bringing it all together: practice

Readings:

1. How to read a scientific paper: https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee384m/Handouts/HowtoReadPaper.pdf
2. The structure of scientific papers (the hourglass model): https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bes2.1258
3. On Writing Well. William Zinsser
4. Calling Bullshit, Carl Bergstrom
5. The visual display of quantitative information, Edward Tufte