Scientific Writing III (2008) Syllabus

Course objectives:
The ultimate goal of this course is to obtain scientific writing and presentation skills that will enable you to present your research internationally. To this end, students will improve their skills stepwise, though taking Scientific Writing I through III.

Prerequisites:
None
Contents:
Scientific Writing I-III course will explore principles of clear English writing and presentation that will enable you to effectively transmit the information you wish to provide to your readers.
This year we will hold a new event:"Let's rewrite a paper". In this workshop, participants will "rewrite" an already published paper from a perspective that is different from what the authors have chosen. A conclusion --- or a "selling point" --- must be chosen that is different from the original paper. Obviously this will require a new introduction, different organization of the results, and a new future perspectives in the Discussion. The abstract will likely look completely different from the original. Participants will discuss in groups what kind of alternate perspective is possible for the given article, what is the most appropriate conclusion along that perspective, and what kind of presentation strategy is most effective for the new conclusion. Each participant will then rewrite a paper on their own, which will again be discussed in groups for effectiveness and readability. By going through this procedure participants will experience how to construct a paper from a collection of data, even though they may not yet be in a state that they have their own results to write a paper.

Time: see schedule below

Place: National Institute of Genetics, C101 (Building C 1st floor seminar room)

Course organizer: Yasushi HIROMI Participating faculty
Schedule:

Date Lecturers Topic and paper
2009/1/15

Toshiyuki TAKANO
Yasushi HIROMI

 Organizational meeting
Discuss examples of abstracts that may throw different light on a research topic. Please read the following example before the class: rewriting examples
2009/1/23 Toshiyuki TAKANO
Yasushi HIROMI		 Discussion on paper 1
Cheng et al. Centrosome misorientation reduces stem cell division during ageing.
Nature 456, 599-604, 2008. (discussion leader: Shinya MATSUOKA)
2009/2/12 Toshiyuki TAKANO
Yasushi HIROMI

Discussion on paper 2
Burnette et al. Filopodial actin bundles are not necessary for microtubule advance into the peripheral domain of Aplysia neuronal growth cones.
Nature Cell Biology 9, 1360-1369, 2007.(discussion leader: Rajshri JOSHI).
2009/2/20 Toshiyuki TAKANO
Yasushi HIROMI		 Discussion on paper 3
Gosse NJ, Nevin LM, Baier H. Retinotopic order in the absence of axon competition.
Nature 452,892-895, 2008. (discussion leader: Ikuo SUZUKI).
2009/2/27 Toshiyuki TAKANO
Yasushi HIROMI

Discussion on participants' rewritings of papers 1 and 2
2009/3/19 Toshiyuki TAKANO
Yasushi HIROMI

Discussion on participants' rewritings of papers 2 and 3


Appropriate grade level and Eligible Departments: (x) 1, (x) 2, (x) 3, (x) 4, (x) 5:
( ) School of Life ScienceC (x) All DepartmentsC( ) Other

Grades:
To obtain credit one must attend more than two thirds of the classes and complete course assignments. Grades will be either Pass or Fail.

Notes:

Previous year's courses: Scientific Writing 2006 Scientific Writing 2004



Participating faculty:

name email
(xxxx[at]lab.nig.ac.jp) 		phone
(055-981-xxxx) 		office
Yasushi HIROMI yhiromi 6767 C415
Toshiyuki TAKANO totakano 6781 A211
Koichi KAWAKAMI kokawaka 6740 C115

 

last updated 090806