• Assistant Unit Leader, USGS WACFWRU (2019-present)

• Associate Professor, SAFS (2019-present)

• Research Fisheries Biologist, NOAA Fisheries (2003-2019)

• Assistant Unit Leader, USGS WACFWRU (2019-present)

• Associate Professor, SAFS (2019-present)

• Research Fisheries Biologist, NOAA (2003-2019)

• Grew up in Sartell, MN

• BS from Univ of Wisconsin - Madison

• MS from Cornell University

• PhD from UW (advisor: Daniel Schindler)

• Author of 70+ peer-reviewed papers

• Author of 70+ peer-reviewed papers

• Associate Editor, Limnology and Oceanography Letters (2016-present)

• Special Issue Editor, Limnology and Oceanography (2017-2018)

• Associate Editor, Ecological Research (2007-2017)

• Manuscript reviewer for 30+ journals

• Outstanding Reviewer, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (2017)

• Author of 70+ peer-reviewed papers

• Associate Editor, Limnology and Oceanography Letters (2016-present)

• Special Issue Editor, Limnology and Oceanography (2017-2018)

• Associate Editor, Ecological Research (2007-2017)

• Manuscript reviewer for 30+ journals

• Outstanding Reviewer, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (2017)

• Panel reviewer for NSF

• Help you learn the material

• Be a future resource

1. Your name & pronouns

2. Your advisor/lab

3. Your home town

4. Your undergraduate school

5. Your research area(s) of interest

6. What you’d like to get out of this course

• 1:30 - 2:30 discussion of background info

• 2:30 - 2:40 break

• 2:40 - 3:25 hands-on exercises & small-group discussions

• 3:25 - 3:35 break

• 3:35 - 4:20 feedback & further discussion

Heard SB. 2016. The Scientist’s Guide to Writing. Princeton University Press.

• Very few writers are geniuses–most find it difficult and time-consuming

• Writing is a craft, which can be improved through practice & deliberate attention

• Developing good writing behavior is part of the process

• When reading, make notes about things you (dis)like

• If you like a paper, why do you feel that way?

• What wording, structure, and graphics do you find most effective?

• If you don’t like a paper, or it’s hard to understand, what elements are you struggling with?

Writing typically goes slowly for 2 reasons:

1. Lots of time spent writing, editing, rephrasing, reorganizing

2. Distractions

Heard (2016, p22) writes

“For instance, after opening the blank document that was to become [Chapter 4], but before writing anything past the title, I checked my email four times, read news articles in the New York Times and the Toronto Globe and Mail, went to the greenhouse to weed (unnecessarily) goldenrods growing for an experiment, read the latest postings on a baseball blog, a computer-security blog, and two economics blogs, and thought hard about whether is was close enough to noon to heat up my lunch. (Sadly it wasn’t.)”

Reminders

• Put a sticky note on your monitor that asks, “How are you writing?”

• Are you actually writing or doing something else?

Writing log

• Choose a 2+ hour block for writing

• Set an alarm for every 6-10 minutes and note what you’ve been doing

Cooperation

• Discuss behaviors with a friend or colleague

• Send copies of daily accomplishments or exchange writing logs

Avoidance

• Procrastinators (“I need a snack”)

• Intential non-starters (“I’ll wait for the moment”)

Distraction

• Consider your environment and time of day

• What else is going on in your life?

Feeling stuck (“Writer’s block”)

• Lower your standards

• Divide and conquer

• Change your environment or take a break

• Talk it out

• Freewrite

Perfectionism

• Try to get something on paper & edit it later

• Chris Harley, my former officemate and current professor at UBC used to say, “Write drunk. Edit sober.” (Note that I do not endorse this behavior.)

Fear of criticism

• Red ink can be triggering

• Accept constructive criticism and make it work for you

1. Pick an image for the starting point of your story.

2. Beginning with “Once upon a time…”, make up a story that somehow links together all 9 of the images.

• Word of mouth

• Journal table of contents

• Online searches

• WOS is a powerful and popular option

• Find it online here

• Google Scholar is another option

• Find it online here

• Note: results will vary between WOS & Google

Reference management software has 2 benefits:

1. keeps your references organized and easily searchable

2. (generally) integrated with word processing software to create citations and literature cited section