Technical Writing
and Presentation
Margaret J. Kupferle, PhD, PE
Summer REU Program
June 18, 2014
Think of your research as part of a
world-wide conversation among
scientific peers ...
Your reports,
peer-reviewed
journal manuscripts, oral
presentations and posters are your
turn to contribute to the conversation!
Preplanning
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How?
• Audience?
• Purpose of author/speaker?
• Venue?
• Deadlines? Placement?
• Gain to audience?
• Format? Length?
Spend more time prewriting and rewriting
•
•
•
•
[3]
Read your work out loud
Get rid of clutter
Do a verb check
Get feedback from others
[2]
• Write complete
sentences in order
at computer
Adapted from ideas at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related,
accessed June 11, 2012
[1]
• Collect, synthesize, organize info
• Brainstorm take home messages
• Work out ideas away from computer
The 4-S Formula
• Short
• Simple
• Strong
• Sincere
Technical Writing Basics
• Be clear by using precise language
• Avoid long sentences
• Keep verb tenses consistent
• Define terms
• Present facts or inferences, not feelings
• Maintain a professional tone
Sentence-level tips
• Use active voice
• Choose strong (and specific) verbs
• Avoid turning verbs into nouns
• Do not bury the main verb
• Cut unnecessary words
• Avoid jargon and abbreviations
Use active voice*
PASSIVE
• The apple was pierced by
the arrow.
• Mistakes were made.
• Data quality was improved
by the new technique.
Use strong and specific verbs ...
• I went to the store.
• The house was on
fire.
• Goliath was much
taller than David.
• He did not pass the
math exam.
• She did not
remember to lock
the door.
Avoid turning verbs into nouns
• Carbon capacity
reductions for phenol
adsorption occur
when natural organic
matter is in
competition with it.
Do not bury the main verb
Because of the great diversity of pathogenic
microorganisms transmitted by contaminated
water and the difficulty and cost of directly
measuring all microbial pathogens in
environmental samples, organisms that may
indicate the presence of sewage and fecal
contamination (indicator organisms) are often
used for monitoring and regulation of recreational
and drinking waters.
Can your team do better?
Cut unnecessary words
Cut unnecessary words
“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets
of cancer biology study design, using as examples
studies that illustrate the methodologic challenges
or that demonstrate successful solutions to the
difficulties inherent in biological research.”
Adapted from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJITpO3aEdM&feature=related, accessed
June 11, 2012
Can your team do better?
Avoid jargon and acronyms
COIK
Paragraph-scale tips
• Communicate one central idea per paragraph
• Tell the reader the “punch line” early
• Improve paragraph flow with:
• Logical flow of ideas
• Parallel sentence structure
• Transition words (when absolutely necessary)
Try Sorting It Out ...
See what your team can do with the following paragraph:
“Enormous mining companies are both continuing
operations at old gold mines, such as the case of the
Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, which has operated
continuously since 1877 and is continuing to increase its
operations [Hinds and Trautman, 1983], and opening new
gold mines, often in very disturbing locations, such as the
proposed, and for now, postponed, New World Mine, whose
proposed location was about 2.5 miles from the border of
Yellowstone National Park, near Cooke City, Montana.”
#7 at http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handbook/exercises/exercise1.html,
Accessed June 5, 2012
Be consistent in your use of capitals, captions,
units, and scale of graphs.
Fig. 1 – CV for 0.04 mM NaCl + Phenol
Figure 2. CV for phenol at 0.05 mM NaCl
How many things can you find to fix?
Cite your sources in the text carefully and use
quotes when appropriate – avoid plagiarism*.
Rathbun (1936) and Hechtman and Johnston (1947)
suggest ...
Kishi and Chen (1986, 1987a, 1987b) found ...
There are a number of finite element models (Kishi and
Chen 1998, Desai 1990, Desai et al. 1995, Zaman et al.
1998) suggested in the literature.
- adapted from your handout
* See http://www.plagiarism.org/ for complete discussion of plagarism
General page format :
Single Line Spacing
for All Titles
Use double line spacing for
1 “ borders
around text
text. This makes it easier
to read and edit.
9
page number
in footer center
Specific
formatting
requirements
for your
reports are
spelled out in
your
guidelines
handout.
General Presentation Format
Title Slide
Introduction
Tasks
Methods
Project Title,
Team
Members &
Affiliations,
Date
One or more
slides introducing
problem and
stating project
goals
A few slides
describing
the tasks
you plan to
accomplish
A few slides
explaining
basics of
experimental
methods
Results
Slides of
data;
graphical or
embedded
video format
preferred
Conclusions
Relevance
One or more
slides concisely
summarizing
important
conclusions
One slide
summarizing
relevance of
findings to
audience
Timelin
e
One slide
with a
chart
showing
schedule
for tasks
Assertion-evidence slides are more effective
than bullet lists for making key points* ...
Bullet List
Assertion-Evidence
*especially for intro, background and results slides
Example from http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides_body.html, accessed June 6, 2012
Providing Access to Clean
Water in Urban Centers
Relying on Water Reuse
Martha Jones, Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati
Cindy Smith, Civil Engineering, University of Cincinnati
Amy Turner, Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati
June 20, 2012
Project Timeline
Task/Week
Learn
methods
Prepare
samples
Analyze
samples
Prepare
reports
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Resources (other than handouts)
http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=18107
http://www.plagiarism.org/
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students
http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/