by Brian Waters | Jan 5, 2020 | Book reviews, Publishing, Writing Tips
When writing manuscripts to publish in scientific journals or your thesis chapters, is there any room for creativity? Scientific journals have a rigid format, most of them being IMRaD (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion). There are a few...
by Brian Waters | Jan 2, 2020 | Process, Writing Tips
I hope you have some big goals for this year, and the years to follow. I know I do! But, how do you get there without becoming overwhelmed? What always helps me is to sit down and make a plan. Taking on a writing project is not different; you need a plan. So, what...
by Brian Waters | Dec 16, 2019 | Process, Writing Tips
Earlier I wrote a post on how to get started in a writing session. Today I’m going to talk about good ways to stop a writing session, and also bad ways to stop a writing session. You know that you need to write to finish your paper or proposal. You know that you...
by Brian Waters | Dec 11, 2019 | Publishing
If you are reading this blog, you understand that publishing scientific papers is important. Publishing can be what stands between you and your MS or PhD, getting a good postdoc, landing the next job, getting the next grant, or being tenured or promoted. We have all...
by Brian Waters | Dec 8, 2019 | Writing Tips
I often tell my students that the Introduction is the most important part of a scientific paper, in terms of setting up the rest of the paper to make it easy to write, and in terms of making it easy for the readers to be able to follow the rest of the paper. If the...
by Brian Waters | Dec 7, 2019 | Process, Publishing, Writing Tips
It’s definitely not as complicated as that teacher in the photo above makes it out to be. But scientific writing is no piece of cake, either. You can learn how to do it, and make it a whole lot easier, as I have been teaching students for years. Here are eight...
by Brian Waters | Dec 2, 2019 | Professional Development, Publishing
There’s a term it’s in the news a lot these days, quid pro quo. This phrase is in Latin, and it roughly translates to: if you do me a favor, I will do you a favor. I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day where a person was complaining about scientists who...
by Brian Waters | Nov 26, 2019 | Book reviews, Process, Writing Tips
If you look at writing advice books, on Twitter, on the internet, or wherever, you will come across advice about forming a regular writing habit. Which I think in general is good advice, but how regular should the habit be? When it comes to writing or other creative...
by Brian Waters | Nov 24, 2019 | Process, Writing Tips
(Or, how to get started writing quickly.) How many times has this happened? You make some time to sit down and write. Great, pat yourself on the back! Then you sit there, computer on, file open, cursor blinking, but no words appearing on the screen. You can’t think of...
by Brian Waters | Nov 24, 2019 | Writing Tips
The Discussion is such an important part of your scientific paper. This is where all the results come together, you interpret them, and put them into the context of your field. This is where all the hard work you put in in the previous sections pays off. This is where...
