Showing posts with label Michael Alley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Alley. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

How To Write Good

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post “How To Write Good” [Hake (2013)]. The abstract reads:

*********************************************
ABSTRACT: Physoc’s Art Hobson, in a post “Once more time: Writing tips” alerted readers to (a) the abstract and the slides http://bit.ly/16T0UmN he had shown for a 2009 APS talk “Writing about, and teaching, physics for non-scientists”; and (b) two recommendations –
(1) The Craft of Scientific Writing [Alley (1996)] at http://amzn.to/YBnwWu, and
(2) The Elements of Style [Strunk & White (2000)] at http://amzn.to/109Cb9E.

To Hobson's recommendations I would add:
(3) the AIP Style Manual [AIP (1997)] at http://bit.ly/d8hJgp;

(4) “Intellectual Journey: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom - Conversations with John Kenneth Galbraith - The Art of Good Writing” [Kreisler (1986)] at http://bit.ly/ZMesNj;

(5) The Technique of Clear Writing [Gunning (1968)] at http://amzn.to/11QtG1t.

(6) “Draft No. 4: Replacing the words in boxes” [McPhee (2013)] at http://nyr.kr/12cz2Vu.

Q. So “HOW’m I DOin’ ” after having been exposed to the above 6 guides to writing good?

A. NOT BAD! The first 489 words of this post have a Gunning Fog Index of 8.8, cf. 11.9 for the first 530 words of Hemingway's masterpiece The Sun Also Rises !
; - )
*********************************************

To access the complete 14 kB post please click on http://yhoo.it/15ouwJm.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: http://bit.ly/a6M5y0
Links to Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs: http://bit.ly/9nGd3M
Academia: http://bit.ly/a8ixxm
Blog: http://bit.ly/9yGsXh
GooglePlus: http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE
Google Scholar: http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3
Twitter: http://bit.ly/juvd52
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XI7EK

“We are all apprentices of a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
- Ernest Hemingway (1961)

REFERENCES [URL’s shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 08 May 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. “How To Write Good,” online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at http://yhoo.it/15ouwJm. Post of 7 May 2013 20:00:15-0700. The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists.

Hemingway, E. 1961. New York Journal-American, 11 July.