Brief Guide to Writing and Speaking
Rules for writing paper
- Do the figures; iterate the figures until display main points.
- Do the figure captions; iterate until they tell main story of paper.
- Do the table; iterate until most relevant and smallest set of numbers
with fewest digits remain.
- Do the table captions; what story should caption tell?
- Do the equations; iterate until least number capture physics in
terms of carefully chosen and already defined symbols.
- Do the references; capture most relevant papers.
- Using
copy-casting rules, estimate the number of lines and
figure out (by subtraction) how many lines you can write.
- Prepare
sentence outline;
iterate until each topic sentences captures the essence of the paragraph
and you have correct number for length.
- Write sentences: known-material subject drives to new concept.
Rules for preparing talk/viewgraphs
- Decide on take-home message.
What do you want listeners to carry away?
Design talk to that aim.
- Pick figures and illustrations that deliver take-home message.
- On each viewgraph, put
- Title that summarize subject of viewgraph.
- Carefully formulated argument.
- Conclusion of argument at bottom of viewgraph.
- Practice for:
- Length. Shorter is better.
- Connectivity. Cleanly segue
from one viewgraph to the next.
- Clarity . Formulate your ideas accurately and concisely.
To cite this page:
Brief Guide to Writing and Speaking
<http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/writing/Handouts/brief_writ_speak.html>
[Tuesday, 07-Oct-2008 10:49:41 EDT]
Edited by: wilkins@mps.ohio-state.edu on
Sunday, 15-Dec-2002 10:48:49 EST