Geoscience communication
• Non-technical
• Technical
• Writing
• Speaking
• Graphical presentation
How well you communicate affects
your career
• % of time writing on the job (successful
engineers spend 25% of work week writing)
• Survey professional scientists and engineers –
say writing their most useful subject in college
• Survey recruiters/employers – these are the
skill they want
How well you communicate affects the
well-being of others
• Explosion was caused by
failure of O-rings in the
solid rocket boosters
• Engineers knew of O-ring
problems well before fatal
launch
Space Shuttle Challenger
(January 28, 1986)
• Engineers failed to
communicate seriousness
of problem
Scientists and engineers are called upon
to communicate in many different situations
Conferences
Lectures
Meetings
Posters
Reports
Articles
Proposals
Web Pages
specific
technical
audiences
general
technical
audiences
non-technical
audiences
Website & Syllabus
First impressions
• Elevator pitch
• Email of introduction
• Cover letter and resume
EXAMPLE 1:
Subject: samples Q
Hello Kate, Sorry if this question is weird, but i
remember from the ESS Gala that Josephina had gotten
some sediments measured by a machine that
automatically measured them (does that make sense?)
to show a size distribution of a sample when she was
working on a project with you, and I have a few hundred
barnacle plates that could use some measurements,
would it be possible to chat with you about this?Thanks
for any help,-Robert B. Smith
Subject: Graduate School Inquiry
Dear Dr. Huntington,
My name is Georgina Geo, and I am writing to inquire about opportunities for
graduate study in your group at the University of Washington. I am a recent
graduate of the Department of Earth Sciences at Superstar University, where I
had the opportunity to conduct geochemistry research in the stable isotopes lab
of Prof. Smartipants.
I wanted to contact you to see if you were planning to accept students for the
Fall of 201X. If so, do you have a sense for the types of projects that might be
available to your students? I have read with interest the project descriptions on
your web page, and I am especially interested in potential projects involving
geochemistry and the evolution of mountain systems and landscapes.
I have attached a resume, and I would be happy to field any questions you
might have about my background and experience. I look forward to hearing
from you.
Sincerely,
Georgina Geo
B.S. in Geology with Honors, 200X
Department of Earth Sciences
Please get in touch
Please do not hesitate to contact me
I’m not happy
I find it most unsatisfactory that….
Thanks for your email about
Thank you for your email regarding
Please
I would be grateful if you could…
I’m sorry for any problems…
I would like to apologize for any inconvenience…
I’m sorry to tell you
I regret to inform you that
I’m writing to let you know
I am writing to draw your attention to
From: XXXX@uw.edu
Subject: ESS 418 Introduction
Dear Dr. Huntington,
My name is Mitt Romney, I am currently enrolled at the university of
Washington under the standard option of the Earth and Space Sciences
major. This is my final year at the university and I look forward to this
communication based geology class. My previous experience with Earth and
Space Sciences include; ESS 105, 211, 212, 213, 301, 311, 312, 313, 450, 454,
and 456. I also attended field camp in the summer of 2009. The Classes that I
have taken involving composition are ENGL 198, HIST 111 and C LIT
397. Although I have experience in writing papers and in presentations I feel,
especially after field camp that my skills in writing scientifically is very lacking
and I am excited in the prospect of improving upon my current abilities.
I believe communication to be a very important skill to have and I plan to
employ those skills when seek employment in geology once I have
graduated. In the field of geology I find understanding the processes that
occur naturally shaping the earth as we see it to peek my interest the
most. Subjects such as plate tectonics, volcanism, structural stability of an
area in terms of construction and the hazards associated with these subjects
are ones I find most interesting and look forward to researching and
presenting on these topics in the future.
Sincerely, Mitt Romney
The elevator pitch