High School Level Education

HydrogenBond · 08-23-2006

I think it is common for scientists not to be able to write as well as liberal arts majors. Most of their effords are spent learning science, which often does not require writing essays and such. Lab reports are often, fill in the blanks. My recommendation for anyone in high school or college studying science is to take some writing electives, especially technical writing. This will pay off in the long term when you enter industry or graduate school.

Another problem with technical writing is connected to those who take only literary writing courses. Such scientists often write well but do so in a literary instead of scientific way. The glass test tube gleamed in the fire of the bunsen burner, as I slowly added reagent B. This is beautiful if one is writing a novel, but technocrats in your future will prefer concise; I added reagent B to the test tube.

cwes99_03 · 08-24-2006

I totally agree.

At my college they had a required course called the gateway course that made every first year take a writing intensive course. The problem is that they weren't given the ability to take it in their major. While most majors had a writing intensive course that was required for them, it didn't always teach them to write any better, just forced them to write a lot.
I have asked repeatedly that they revise the Gateway to allow for anyone with a declared major to learn how to write for their major.
After all I don't need to learn how to write poetry or term papers when my focus was on lab skills and writing journal articles (which I never did because I never learned how.)

HydrogenBond · 08-24-2006

That is actually very true. Specialized writing courses would very helpful to the presentation needs of scientists.

At MIT the Chemical Engineering Department has an MS program called the MIT practice school. The students, in lieu of a thesis, do research projects at National Labs and within industry. They are required to write techical papers and give oral presentation of their research every week with formal critique on both style and content. At the end of the month they give a formal presentation and prepare papers for publication. This helps the students become better presenters of techincal information. A similar course could be useful even at an undergraduate level and could be coordinated with research of interest.

InfiniteNow · 08-25-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by HydrogenBond

Specialized writing courses would very helpful to the presentation needs of scientists.

There are some interesting points in this thread, but most who have posted here are generalizing. Also, to clarify, specialized writing courses would actually be more helpful to the audience than they would to the scientists, and could actually be detrimental to the scientist who is so successful because of specific use of noncommunicative localities in their brain. Basically, if they spend to much time directing their attention to communication they may lose their advantage in whatever particular branch of science which they study.

cwes99_03 · 08-25-2006

I don't know if I can agree with that Infinite.
I am talking about the undergraduate level myself, but the point about grad level is important too.
If you attend undergrad and grad in the states in the sciences you must write papers and articles. It is a fundamental part of the education process. If you aren't doing so, and possibly because you aren't being taught to do so then you are being given a complete education.
The science world depends upon the sharing of information with others. If you don't know how to present your information then it is of no avail that you learn anything.

eric l · 08-25-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by cwes99_03

The science world depends upon the sharing of information with others. If you don't know how to present your information then it is of no avail that you learn anything.

That's the whole point of it ! This forum may be rather informal, but even then poor grammar and poor spelling make it more difficult to understand (even the questions). I do give up reading occasionally if the value of the information does not seem up to the effort it takes to digest it.

cwes99_03 · 08-25-2006

I agree that I also give up reading some posts because they aren't written so that I can understand them easily enough to spend the time.
However, I don't think that mild spelling errors and the occasional run-on sentence should be sentenced to pain on the rack. I'm more commenting on the post secondary school education in the states. I've already said my piece above on the level of writing on this forum.