Michael Alley, Penn State and Virginia Tech
Writing as an Engineer or Scientist
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      • 2: Being Precise and Clear
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Lesson 6: Beginning with
​the Familiar

Because of the wide varieties of audiences in scientific writing, a challenge for engineers and scientists is to communicate their content such that the information begins with what is familiar to the audience before to what is new. This lesson addresses that challenge in the ways that you begin section and the ways that you define terms. The content here arises from Lesson 6 in The Craft of Scientific Writing.

Lessons Home

Lesson

    In high school, you learned different organizational strategies such as chronological and spatial. In scientific writing, another strategy becomes even more important: beginning with the familiar before moving to the new. Because longer scientific documents are written in sections, you are called upon to use this strategy multiples times through the document. In addition, you are called upon to use that strategy whenever you introduce a new term or abbreviation. This lesson explains that strategy. ​(14 minutes)

Beginning with the Familiar: Openings for Documents and Sections. This film discusses a strategy for opening a document or section in which you begin with the familiar before moving to the new.


Defining Abbreviations. This film discusses audience expectations for defining an abbreviation in a scientific or technical document.


Questions for Reflection

     Forthcoming. ​

Instructor's Lesson Plan


​     Forthcoming will be a plan for instructors to incorporate this summary lesson into a class period of their course. Included with this plan will be discussion questions, student activities, and a comprehension quiz. ​​​

References

  1. Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer Verlag, 2018), Lesson 6.​

Lessons Home

For the academic year 2019-2020, we are collecting comments, questions, criticisms, and suggestions for the films, text, and quizzes of each lesson on scientific writing. To help us understand your input, would please let us know what your discipline is and whether you are a student, professional, or faculty member?
Leonhard Center, Penn State 
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Michael Alley

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Marissa Beighley
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