Scientific Writing (including AI)
artificial intelligence (AI) tools: Literature & Article Summarizer Search Tools:
Elicit: Use AI to search, summarize, extract data from, and chat with over 125 million papers.
ResearchRabbit: A citation-based literature mapping tool.
Consensus: A search engine that uses AI to find insights in research papers.
Scholarcy: Can summarize articles in most European languages. Users can find highlights, summaries, comparative analysis, and full text in the original language.
Alethea (still in beta): Facilitates meaningful engagement with academic texts, class readings, and assignments through personalized and adaptive guidance
artificial intelligence (AI) Creating writing assignments:
AI Prompt Library : Can be used for use in classrooms to help instructors with preparation and teaching, created by Ethan Mollick
Working with AI: Two paths to prompting, by Ethan Mollick
AI-Generated text considerations for teaching & learning writing (University of Wisconsin-Madison collaborative document for faculty integration in teaching)
artificial intelligence (AI) tools:
Quillbot: A grammar and writing checker that also provides summary, paraphrase, plagiarism checking, and good translation for 45 languages.
ChatGPT: Enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language.
Claude: An alternative to Chat GPT and is often described as generating text with more nuance and texture than Chat GPT.
Resources trainees can use:
Phrasebank (University of Bradford): Lists phrases commonly used in research writing, organized by category. These are very helpful to novice writers.
Academic Phrasebank (University of Manchester): Aims to provide you with examples of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation, as well as the more general communicative functions of academic writing.
Reducing Informality in Academic Writing (George Mason University): Language features that usually contribute to informality and examples of more formal alternatives from The Writing Center at GMU.
How to Improve your Writing through Freewriting Exercises (Peter Elbow)
The Thesis Whisperer: A blog dedicated to the topic of doing a PhD and completing a dissertation, managed and edited by Associate Professor Inger Mewburn (Director of Researcher Development, Australian National University). This set of slides [Your academic writing trouble (and how to fix it)] is particularly helpful.
Duke Graduate School Scientific Writing Resource: A general resources for scientific writing with lots of examples and problems for mentee to work on.
25 Writing Prompts to Fuel Your Academic Argument (Sarah Tynen, University of Colorado Boulder)
Joining a conversation: the problem/gap/hook heuristic (Lorelei Lingard, The Writers Craft Column, Perspectives on Medical Education): Tips and perspective on how to write a compelling introduction.
Organizing Your Research Paper: The C.A.R.S. [Creating A Research Space] Model (Research Guides, USC Libraries): Offers detailed guidance on how to develop, organize, and write a college-level research paper in the social and behavioral sciences.
Writing in the Sciences (Course SOM-Y0010, Stanford School of Medicine): This course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, and issues in publication and peer review. It is offered for free via Coursera.
The Science of Scientific Writing (Gopen & Swan, American Scientists)
Procrastinate Much? Manage Your Emotions, Not Your Time (Adam Grant, New York Times)
Are You Confused by Scientific Jargon? So Are Scientists (Katherine Kornei, New York Times)
RESOURCES FOR MENTORS:
9 Tools for the Accidental Writing Teacher (Vitae User, ChronicleVitae): Here are nine ideas to help you preserve your sanity and improve your students’ writing.
Teaching with Writing: Informal Writing Activities (Center for Writing, University of Minnesota): Brief activities designed to help students develop and distill their writable ideas and provide targeted revision practice that they can apply to their works in progress.
Teaching with Writing: Faculty Writing Groups/Retreats (Center for Writing, University of Minnesota): Tips and tricks for setting up writing groups/retreats.
Setting Up a Writing Critique Group (Tacey A. Rosolowski, The Write Stuff)
We Know What Works in Teaching Composition (Doug Hesse, The Chronicle of Higher Education): Students needed help developing and deploying their ideas and matching their writing with the expectations of various disciplines.
Learning to Improve: Using Writing to Increase Critical Thinking Performance in General Education Biology (Ian J. Quitadamo and Martha J. Kurtz, CBE-Life Sciences Education)
Why Kids Can’t Write: Some say English instruction must get back to basics, with a focus on grammar. But won’t that stifle a student’s personal voice? (Dana Goldstein, New York Times)
Writing Productivity Ep. 1: Diagnosing Trainee Barriers to Writing Productivity [video - see below; 11:05] (Shine Chang)
Writing Productivity Ep. 2: Shine's Specific Strategies for Specific Barriers [video - see below; 23:59] (Shine Chang)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY TOOLS:
Zotero: Free and open-source reference management software with multiple functionalities including sorting items into collections, tagging with keywords, and creating bibliographies.
Mendeley: Free reference management software that includes the ability to create a reference library, bibliographies, and collate your highlights and notes from multiple PDFs.
Perusall: E-reader for collectively annotating readings in threads, responding to each other’s comments, and interacting asyncronously.
OUTSOURCING GRAMMAR:
Grammarly: An AI-powered writing assistant.
Microsoft Editor: Grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling checker with free and premium versions.
PerfectIt: Another proofreading software for checking technical editing points.
Wordtune: An AI writing tool that rewrites, rephrases, and rewords your writing.
Self-editing checklist (Office of Grants and Fellowships, University of Notre Dame)
Hemingway Editor: This editor app highlights your texts in different colors to show errors and weaknesses as well as assesses its readability score for comprehension.
Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL): Another very helpful site offering guidance in grammar, paragraph organization, document organization, and more.
Grammar Bytes: Interactive grammar exercises.
Useful Words and Phrases (Lund University): Scaffolding writing tool with helpful guidance in various topics including grammar, paragraph organization, document organization, and more.
American Medical Writers Association Freelance Directory: A source to find freelance editors of all kinds.
Don’t focus on English at the expense of your science (Zhanna Anikina, Nature Career Column)
Improving scientific communication with service, education and career development (Amanda Dicks, et al, Nature Biotechnology Career Feature): Description of a trainee-run editing program at Washington University in St. Louis.
Finding Writing Support for Trainees [video - see below; 11:14] (Jennifer Shade Wilson)
book recommendations:
Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, by John C. Bean
Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills (for mentees) and Commentary for Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills (for mentors), by John M. Swales & Christine B. Feak (especially good for non-native English speakers)
Telling a Research Story: Writing a Literature Review, by Christine B. Feak & John M. Swales
Writing to Learn, by William Zinsser
Scientific Writing, by Claus O. Wilke
A Short Guide to Academic Writing, by Andrew P. Johnson
Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup
The Scientist's Guide to Writing: How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career, by Stephen B. Heard
Becoming an Academic Writer: 50 Exercises for Paced, Productive, and Powerful Writing, by Patricia Goodson
Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis, by Joan Bolker
How to Fix Your Academic Writing Trouble: A Practical Guide, by Inger Mewburn, Katherine Firth, and Shaun Lehmann
Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations, by Angelika H. Hofmann (addresses discipline, genre, rhetoric, and voice in the biosciences)
Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers, by Mimi Zeiger (provides real, concrete examples of how to structure and restructure language for publication)
Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded, by Joshua Schimel
Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success, by Wendy Laura Belcher
Houston, We Have a Narrative: Why Science Needs Story, by Randy Olson