MOOC.txt

===============     Writing in Sciences (Coursera Class)   =============
Home Page: https://www.coursera.org/learn/sciwrite/home/welcome

- Writing is good communication of ideas

- How to improve your writing?
    * Read and pay attention to how professional writers do it. Imitate them.
    * Write in journal
    * Talk about your subject with others before writing.
        - Gives clarity to your ideas.
        - Makes your writing conversational.
    * Write to engage your readers. Don't bore them.
    * Stop waiting for inspiration.
    * Accept. Writing is hard.
    * Revise. Nobody gets it perfect on first draft.
    * Learn how to cut ruthlessly.
    * Find a good editor.

- Ask yourselves these questions:
    * Is this sentence readable?
    * Is this written to inform or obscure?

Themes of this course:
===
- Complex ideas don't require complex language.
- Scientific reading should be easy and even enjoyable to read.

- Nouns slow the reader down. Verbs move the reader forward.

    "dysregulation of physiologic microRNA, miR, activity has been shown to play an
    important role in tumor initiation and progression, including gliomagenesis.
    Therefore, molecular species that can regulate miR activity on their target RNAs
    without affecting the expression of relevant mature miRs may play equally
    relevant roles in cancer."

    Nouns: dysregulation, initiation, progression, and expression.
    Vague words: physiologic, molecular species
    Unnecessary Acronyms: gliomagenesis

- Use acronyms that are standard and don't create new ones.

Use of Active Voice vs Passive Voice:
====
- We use Active Voice in our conversations: "She throws the ball". We don't say
  "The ball is thrown by her" (Passive Voice).
- Best to write sentences in Active Voice



Overview: Principles of Effective Writing
====
Week 1: Cutting the clutter
======
1. Cut unnecessary words and phrases
2. Use active voice (subject + verb + object)
3. Write with verbs:
    * Use strong verbs
    * Avoid turning verbs in to nouns
    * Don't bury the main verb

Common clutter looks like
====
1. Dead weight words and phrases
2. Empty words and phrases
3. Long words or phases that can be short
4. Unnecessary jargon and acronym
5. Avoid repetitive words or phrases
6. Avoid adverbs in writing


Long words and phrases that can be short

A majority of them              most
A number of them                many
Are of the same opinion         agree
Less frequently occuring        rare
All three of the                three
Give rise to                    cause
Due to the fact that            because
Have an effect on               affect


Week 2: Verbs
======
1. Using active voice, sentence looks like this:
    * <subject> <verb> <object>
    * <agent> <verb> <receipient>
    * <cause> <effect>

- Passive voice is reaaranging object and subject in active voice
    * <object> <verb> <subject>
    * <receipient> <verb> <agent>
    * <effect> <cause>

- Passive voice is a way to avoid responsibility.
    "Cigerette ads were designed to appeal especially to children"
    * Who designed it? Avoid responsibility

- How to identify Passive Voice?
    * Recognizing Passive Verb. They always has a "to be" verb

Advantages of Active Voice:
    1. Emphasizes author responsibility
    2. Improves readability
    3. Reduces ambiguity

- Is there EVER a use for Passive Voice? Yes. Use it purposefully and sparingly.
- Wherever, "what was done" is more important than "who has done".

- Is it OK to use "We" or "I" in scientific paper? Yes.

- Change negative verb in to positive verb.

2. Use Strong Verbs
    * Verbs moves sentences.

a) Don't kill verbs by converting them in to nouns.
    Example:
    During DNA damage, recognition of H3K4me3 by ING2 results in recruitment of
    Sin3/HDAC and repression of cell proliferation genes.

    changed to:
    During DNA damage, H3K4me3 recruits ING2 and Sin3/HDAC, which together
    repress cell proliferation gene.


    Don't Turn Verbs in to Nouns
    ============================
Obtain estimates of             estimate
Has seen an expansion in        has expanded
Provides a methodologic emphasis    emphasizes methodology
Take an assessment of           assess

Provide a review of             review
Offer confirmation of           confirm
Make a decision                 decide
Shows a peak                    peaks
Provides a description of       describe

b) Don't bury the main Verb with a long Subject line. Get to the Verb as fast as
possible.


3. Reduce the distance between Subject and main Verb in a sentence.
    * Get to main verb quickly.


Grammar tips for Science Writing
---
1 "Data" is plural. So, "Data are" is correct. "Data is" is incorrect.
    * "datum" is singular form.

2 Affect vs Effect
    * Affect is the verb form "to influence"
        - The class affected her.
    * Effect is noun form of this influence.
        - The class had an effect on her.

3 Compared to vs Compared with"
    * "Compared to" = to point out similarities between different things.
        - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
    * "Compared with" = to point out differences between similar things.
        - Brain tumors are relatively rare compared with more common cancers,
          such as lung, breast and prostrate.

4 That vs Which
- "That" is restrictive (defining) pronoun.
    * The vial that contained her RNA was lost.
        - It appears that one vial, out of many, were lost.
- "Which" is non-restrictive (non-defining) pronoun. It has commas.
    * The vial, which contained her RNA, was lost.
        - Looks like ONLY vial which has RNA was lost. In above sentence, we can
          remove "which contained her RNA" and still retain meaning of sentence.


THAT --> If it's essential you can't eliminate the clause from the sentence
without changing the meaning. Use THAT.

WHICH --> If it's non-essential information it can be set off with commas and it
can be eliminated from the sentence without altering the meaning and then you
use WHICH.


Week 3: Experiment with puncuation
====
- Dash, colon, semicolon and paranthesis...

Semicolon:
It connects two INDEPENDENT clauses. A clause always contains a subject and a
predicate.
    Ex: It was best of times; it was worst of times.

It's also used to separate items in lists that contain internal punctuation.

Ex:
It happened because people organized and voted for better prospects. Because
leaders enacted smart, forward-looking policies. Because people's perspectives
opened up, and with them, societies did too.


Parentheses:
- Use it to insert an afterthought or explanation in to a passage that is
  grammatically complete without it.
    * If you remove stuff within parantheses, main point should not change.
    * Parentheses give reader permission to skip over the material.


Colon:
- Use colon after an independent clause to introduce something: A list, quote,
  explanation, conclusion or amplification.