This entertaining and highly readable book gives anyone writing in the sciences a clear and easy-to-follow guide to the English language. English is often regarded as one of the most difficult languages to master. Yet while the English language has a vocabulary of upwards of 500,000 words, it only uses nine parts of speech, and all of these words fall into one (or more) of those nine categories. Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals, Third Edition contains many simple revelations like this that make effective scientific writing in English easy, even for those whose fluency is in another language. The book is organized around a basic guide to English grammar that is specifically tailored to the needs of scientists, science writers, science educators, and science students. The authors explain the goals of scientific writing, the role of style, and the various kinds of writing in the sciences, then provide a basic guide to the fundamentals of English and address problem areas such as redundancies, abbreviations and acronyms, jargon, and foreign terms. Email, online publishing, blogs, and writing for the Web are covered as well. This book is designed to be an enlightening and entertaining read that can then be retained as a practical scientific writing reference guide. Includes cartoons and humorous illustrations that help reinforce important concepts Provides a glossary that allows readers to easily reference the meanings of grammatical terms used in the book Incorporates a wide variety of quotations to provide humor, make points, or reinforce key concepts Includes an entire chapter on electronic media as well as new material on self-editing

How to Write Serious Nonfiction—and Get it Published

Distilled wisdom from two publishing pros for every serious nonfiction author in search of big commercial success.

You may be an acknowledged expert in your area and have vital information and a great story to tell. But how can you ensure that your project will be accepted for publication and—more important—that your book will be read by more than a handful of like-minded experts in your field?

This book reveals the trade secrets of an editor/literary agent team with a long track record of success in helping hundreds of authors write serious nonfiction. Many of these books have become best sellers, garnered great reviews, earned their authors prizes, and in some cases altered the course of public debate.

This book will teach you how to craft a serious nonfiction proposal that will interest the right publisher; when to use a literary agent and how to choose the right one; how to shape your argument and present it in good narrative form; and how to work with your publisher to successfully market your book.

Whether your subject is history or science, biography or business, the law, politics, or economics; whether you're a journalist or an independent writer, a newly minted Ph.D. or a seasoned scholar hoping to write your most important book, here's the inside information you need to ensure that your book gets the attention it deserves.

Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains:

• How to tailor academic writing to a general reader, without losing ideas or dumbing down your work
• How to write a proposal that editors cannot ignore
• Why the most important chapter is your introduction
• Why "simple structure, complex ideas" is the mantra for creating serious nonfiction
• Why smart nonfiction editors regularly reject great writing but find new arguments irresistible

Students will write more effective term papers with this guide to 500 term paper ideas--as well as a listing of appropriate print and nonprint sources-- on twentieth-century U.S. history. This guide presents entries on 100 of the most important events and developments in twentieth-century U.S. history organized in chronological order. Each entry consists of a short description of the event, followed by five specific suggestions for term papers about the event, and a wide-ranging annotated bibliography of 15-35 books, articles, videos, and a web site appropriate for student research. In every case the emphasis is on recent and up-to-date material, as well as landmark works and primary sources. Every entry contains a video and concludes with a recommended web site, producing a multimedia approach designed to appeal to the current information-gathering habits and preferences of young people.

From the Spanish-American War to the creation of NAFTA, the 100 events and developments cover political, social, economic, and cultural issues. The work has been designed to meet the needs of the U.S. history curriculum. Term paper topic ideas offer students thought-provoking suggestions that are challenging and develop critical thinking skills. The annotated bibliography is organized into reference sources, general sources, specialized sources, biographical sources, periodical articles, recommended videos and World Wide Web sites. All items are readily available in school, public, and academic library collections. This unique guide is valuable not only to students, but to teachers and librarians who guide students in research, and is an excellent purchasing guide for librarians who serve student needs.

As colleges and universities have responded to the demand of businesses and industries for graduates who can write effectively, Composition Studies has gained significance. However, while new theories and approaches to the teaching of writing have been proposed and implemented, many composition courses do not satisfactorily educate their students. This volume includes essays by writing specialists who are concerned with their own failure to improve their students' writing skills.

These contributors examine why entering college students still write poorly and why our various attempts to improve such poor writing skills have largely failed. They compare the promise of previously touted new methods, paradigm shifts, and curricular innovations with the reality of little change or improvement; they describe what their students can and cannot do in the writing classroom, even after 12 years of primary and secondary education; and they address what they see as needed reforms in the whole idea of college composition, especially for the first-year college student.

A Practical Guide to Writing a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Grant, Second Edition, continues to provide F-Series grant applicants and mentors with insider knowledge on the process by which these grants are reviewed, the biases that contribute to the reviews, the extent of information required in an NRSA training grant, and a deeper understanding of the exact purpose of each section of the application. New additions to this edition include coverage of other NIH grants, such as R01, R21, and P20, as well as information on significant modifications to the Biosketch and Letters of Recommendation sections. This book is a solid resource for trainees and their mentors to use as a guide when constructing F30, F31, and F32 grant applications.

Teaching writing is not for the faint of heart, but it can be a tremendous gift to teachers and students. Students often approach writing courses with trepidation because they think of writing as a mystical and opaque process. Teachers often approach these same courses with dread because of the enormous workload and the often-unpolished skills of new writers. This approachable composition textbook for beginning writers contends that writing can be a better experience for everyone when taught as an empathetic and respectful conversation. In a time in which discourse is not always civil and language is not always tended carefully, a conversation-based writing approach emphasizes intention and care. Written by a teacher with more than fifteen years of experience in the college writing classroom, Composition as Conversation explores what happens when the art of conversation meets the art of writing. Heather Hoover shows how seven virtues--including curiosity, attentiveness, relatability, open-mindedness, and generosity--inform the writing process and can help students become more effective writers. She invites writers of all skill levels to make meaningful contributions with their writing. This short, accessible, and instructive book offers a reflective method for college-level writing and will also work well in classical school, high school, and homeschool contexts. It demystifies the writing process and helps students understand why their writing matters. It will energize teachers of writing as they encourage their students to become careful readers and observers, intentional listeners, and empathetic arguers. The book also provides helpful sample assignments.

McPherson captures the best and worst aspects of American journalism since 1965. The press has evolved into a conglomeration of entities, that today can be described as pervasive, entertaining, and justifiably mistrusted. In some ways, today's press offers the best journalism Americans have ever seen. In other ways, the modern news media fall short of the ideals held by most of those who care about journalism, and far short of the promise they once seemed to offer in terms of helping create an enlightened democracy. Neither a paean to the press nor an exercise in media bashing, this book finds much to criticize and to praise about recent American journalism, while illustrating that traditional journalistic values have diminished in importance -- not just for many of those who control the media, but also for the media consumers who most need good journalism.

Chapters are devoted to various themes that include social unrest, the influence of entertainment values, technological shifts, media consolidation and corporatization, issues of content versus context, new kinds of news media, and why the 1970s may have been the high point of American journalism. Events and issues given extra attention include the rise of television news (and later CNN), the Civil Rights Movement and other race-related issues, the Women's Movement, various forms of alternative journalism, wars in Vietnam and Iraq, investigative journalism, the World Trade Center attacks, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and elections, civic journalism, and journalism scandals.

Taking Yourself Seriously: Processes of Research and Engagement is designed for college students as well as more experienced professionals who want to further their development as researchers, writers, and agents of change. A wide range of tools and processes for research, writing, and collaboration are defined and described-from Governing Question to GOSP, Plus-Delta feedback to Process Review, and Supportive Listening to Sense of Place Map. The tools and processes are linked to three frameworks that lend themselves to adaptation by teachers and other advisors: A set of ten Phases of Research and Engagement, which researchers move through and later revisit in light of other people's responses to work in progress and what is learned using tools from the other phases; Cycles and Epicycles of Action Research, which emphasizes reflection and dialogue to shape ideas about what action is needed and how to build a constituency to implement the change; and Creative Habits for Synthesis of theory and practice. Researchers and writers working under these frameworks participate in Dialogue around Written Work and in Making Space for Taking Initiative In and Through Relationships. These processes help researchers and writers align their questions and ideas, aspirations, ability to take or influence action, and relationships with other people. Bringing those dimensions of research and engagement into alignment is the crux of taking yourself seriously. The tools, processes, and frameworks are illustrated through excerpts from two projects: one engaging adult learning communities in using the principles of theater arts to prepare them to create social change; the other involving collaborative play among teachers in curriculum planning. A final section provides entry points for students and educators to explore insights, experiences, and information from a wider world of research, writing, and engagement in change.