Writing Courses for Graduate Students
Supported by the Keller Center and the Graduate School, the Princeton Writing Program offers several non-credit, short courses in “Writing in Science and Engineering.” Focused on developing the skills to both read and prepare effective scientific research articles, these courses prepare graduate students for the task of publishing the results of their original work.
Judy Swan, the assistant director for scientific and technical writing in the Princeton Writing Program, developed both courses to address a critical need.
"Science advances only when scientists are able to communicate effectively. Yet even though communicating science well is difficult, most scientists receive little instruction in writing about science during their graduate training," Swan said. "This lack of experience often leaves them disadvantaged in communicating their results and findings and, at later stages, in obtaining support and funding for their research."
Reading and Writing about the Scientific Literature in English
Scientists and engineers use English in highly specialized ways. This course introduces non-native English speakers to writing about the scientific literature and explores how experienced and successful scientists work with the research literature as both readers and writers. Course sections are broken down by scientific subject areas, so that students can choose between molecular sciences or electrical engineering and computer science.
In particular, each course examines how scientific articles are constructed and interpreted, how research findings are presented, and how scientific arguments are developed. The course helps students understand the responsibilities of scientific writers to other scientists, including their readers, collaborators, and fellow researchers who have published in the field.
Writing an Effective Scientific Research Article
A scientific research article must mount a persuasive argument while simultaneously communicating to readers precisely what was done, what it might mean, and why it all matters—all in a single concise document. Since students are writing for specialized audiences, sections are taught by scientists and targeted to electrical engineering and computer science, environmental and materials sciences, and molecular sciences.
Throughout the semester, students develop their expertise in scientific writing by drafting a research article based on their original work. Their writing is informed by an understanding of how knowledgeable scientific readers use the structure of the research article as instructions to guide their interpretation of the science.
Princeton professors have praised the courses' results:
"This is why your courses are so important—to teach science/engineering/math students not only how to write good English, but how to construct a technical scientific article that tells a complete, precise story in a clear, compelling style. I plan to send all my graduate students who are not naturally gifted writers to your courses." Emily Carter, Arthur W. Marks ’19, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Applied and Computational Mathematics
"Publication of research results in scientific journals is essential to what we do. This is the means by which we communicate our research results to the world, and archive our findings. The impact of these publications and the success of acceptance are directly related to the quality of the writing." Catherine Peters, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
"One of my graduate students took the course last year, and the results were wonderful: his writing has become notably clearer and more concise, and his use of graphics is outstanding. Your course has clearly been of significant benefit to him, and I will happily send more of my graduate students your way." David Wilcove, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs, Director of the Program in Environ- mental Studies