First Class Meeting as a Sentence Outline

Abstract: To sell science-related content to various audiences, use
   (i) Nature of audience to refine the topic;
  (ii) Take-home message to select and organize material;
 (iii) Criticism to hone the presentation.

Refine technical content for intended audience.

  1. A different paper/talk for every audience.
  2. First two writing assignments have audience of non-science peers.
  3. Talks and last paper have class as audience.

Use take-home message to select & organize material

  1. Identify take-home messages meaningful to intended audience; accordingly, adjust level of science-content.
  2. Narrow subject to match length/time limits; eliminate all material inessential to take-home message.
  3. A sentence outline (a) lays out presentation logic; (b) is easy to revise; (c) speeds up writing.

Seek and use criticism to perfect presentation

  1. Drafts will be anonymously evaluated by class members.
  2. To effectively use criticism in improving a draft the author must assume the criticism accurately reflects how well the reader could understand the draft as written (not as intended by the author).
  3. Rewriting may mean throwing out the draft and restarting at either topic refinement or sentence outline stage.

Epilogue: Skills stressed are relevant for persuading a known audience.