Physics 596

Dr. Herbst

WELCOME TO PHYSICS 596

TITLE:

The Art of Writing and Speaking About Physics and Astronomy

PROFESSOR: Eric Herbst (Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry)

PURPOSES: (a) to improve your writing about science at several levels

(b) to be able to give understandable and coherent talks without reading

DIFFICULTY: writing (and speaking) about science is hard because one must be precise and

really understand the subject.

IMPORTANCE: you must be able to communicate about your scientific work,, and writing is

now a skill tested on the GRE’s.

MY QUALIFICATIONS:

(a) not a trained English teacher, but my parents were English majors, and my father

was an English teacher.

(b) I’ve written 290 scientific papers.

(c) I was until recently a Scientific Editor of The Astrophysical Journal, and saw

scientific writing all of the time, both good, bad, and in between.

(d) I have lots of experience at this course, and indeed developed it.

ORGANIZATION:

(a) Proceed to syllabus and organization hand-outs.

(b) Discuss calendar.

(c) Emphasize need to attend at least 2/3 of the class periods to pass.

PLAGIARISM

In the era of the web, plagiarism has become more widespread. Please avoid copying

web pages such as those of Wikipedia. If you do, I have software to catch you, and

penalties can be severe. Grading in this class is not harsh, and it is in your own

interest to learn how to write and speak science better with your own ability.