Project Information for Biology 340: Ecology

Digression on Writing
Take pride in your writing. You will be graded on your writing in this course. Although scientific writing is different from other forms of written communication, you are still conveying information using the English language. Good scientific writing is concise, precise and as simple as needed to convey the information. Use technical terms when they clarify your point; avoid them when they do not.

If you would like help on writing, The University of Montana has an excellent Writing Center. This is a very valuable resource. You can get more information at:

The Writing Center. 211 Todd; 243-2266; growl@mso.umt.edu; www.umt.edu/writingcenter

Some of the best advice on writing for biologists was compiled by the ecologist Herbert Andrewartha in his book Introduction to the Study of Animal Populations (1961, University of Chicago Press). Some of these insights are summarized below:

Orwell’s (1946) five rules are a useful guide for scientists. I repeat them below, not quite literally.

1) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
2) If it is possible to cut out a word always cut it out.
3) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
4) Use technical words sparingly and correctly; never us a word that cannot be understood by a scientist working in a related field.
5) Break any of these rules rather that say anything barbarous.

On the “adjectification” of nouns – avoid strings of nouns (after Leeper 1941, 1942).

Once the first downward step is taken and the abstract noun is accepted as the pivot-word of the sentence, the second step is easy. This is the use of sets of two or more nouns, only the last of which has the full status as a noun, while the preceding nouns qualify it. The double noun, of course, is part of our language. Some double nouns, like boatrace and newspaper, have even been accepted as single words, while many others are commonly used without offence, like vapour pressure and spot test. But a writer of any sensibility will use them sparingly, and will avoid double nouns which are not in every day speech, such as the ugly fertility decline or phosphate source.

Dunsany made a satirical remark that we may use the frequency of multiple nouns in a given passage for dating our language decay progress. A treble noun like this is always inexcusable, yet treble or even quadruple nouns are common in our journals. The vice of this habit is not that experts think it is ugly, but simply that it makes reading difficult. We do not know at first whether we are reading about language, decay, or progress, and we must waste some seconds in reading the sentence over in order to solve the puzzle.

TWENTY RULES FOR RITIN SOME GOOD.
(Twenty of the Commonest Writing Mistakes)

1) Avoid run-on sentences you have to punctuate them in the middle.
2) Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
3) Avoid strings of nouns (more on this below).
4) Check to see if you any words out.
5) Don't abbrev.
6) About sentence fragments.
7) When dangling, don't use participles.
8) A writer must not shift your point of view.
9) Do not use no double negatives.
10) Watch out for irregular verbs which has cropped up.
11) In my opinion I think that an author should not get in the habit of making use of too many unnecessary words that are not really needed since the same thing can probably be said just as well more succinctly with fewer words and it will probably make the point more forcefully anyway.
12) Just between you and I, case is important.
13) Its' important to use apostrophe's correctly.
14) Do not use commas, which are not necessary.
15) In letters essays reports articles and book reports use commas to keep a string of items separated.
16) Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
17) Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
18) Chek yer spelin.
19) Always finish what you
20) Last but not least, lay off clichés.

HOW TO RITE OFFICIALESE®
(You DO NOT want to write OFFICIALESE unless you aspire to a political office
or plan to write computer manuals)

1) Start with a simple statement.
We quit. Nobody knew how to program the computer.

2) Put it in the passive voice and dilute the responsibility.
It was decided to quit.

3) Replace simple but accurate words with longer, vaguer words.
It was decided to terminate.

4) Build in strings of nouns.
It was decided to terminate project processes.

5) Add a qualifier of uncertain relation to the original statement.
On account of the status of the computer, it was decided to terminate project processes.

6) Add more strings of nouns and more terminology to the qualifier.
On account of the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, it was decided to terminate project processes.

7) Separate related words.
On account of the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, it was decided to terminate until a later date project processes.

8) Equivocate and Obfuscate.
On account of the uncertain status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, it was proposed and tentatively accepted to terminate until a later date project processes.

9) Cover your tracks to make yourself look good.
On account of the unavoidable uncertainties in the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, a number of contingency proposals were carefully considered and one was tentatively adopted to suspend on a temporary basis until a later date those project process deemed unessential to the expeditious fulfillment of contract requirements.

Voila!