-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Richard Wintle on A choral coda
- Frank Norman on A choral coda
- Anita Mynett on A choral coda
- Beatrice Mikuzi on Diversithon – some recipes
- Laurence Cox on Diversithon – some recipes
Archives
- September 2024
- May 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- April 2023
- April 2022
- January 2022
- September 2021
- June 2021
- February 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- December 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- March 2016
- April 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
Categories
- AI
- Archives
- Art
- Authorship
- Bibliographic management
- Bibliometrics etc
- Biographical
- Blogology
- Books
- Collections
- Communicating science
- Copyright and IP
- Crick
- Document delivery
- E-books
- Education
- Ethics
- Film
- Film and music
- Friends
- Froth
- Future of Libraries
- History
- Information skills
- Journal publishing
- Language
- Libraries and librarians
- Management
- Mentoring
- Metadata
- Music
- Open Access
- Open Science
- Peer review
- Preprints
- Reading recommendations
- Research Councils
- Research data
- Research management
- Research tools
- Scientific literature
- Searching
- Social networking
- Uncategorized
- Wikipedia
- Women
- Writing
Blogroll
Meta
Category Archives: Writing
Mill Hill Essays 2013
One of my more pleasurable annual tasks is producing the volume of Mill Hill Essays. I commmission between 5 and 10 essays, mostly from authors at the Institute, then edit them and oversee the production. Print copies of the essays … Continue reading
Posted in Communicating science, Writing
1 Comment
The joys of a Wikipedia edit-a-thon
Last week the Royal Society held a Wikipedia edit-a-thon to try and help redress the gender imbalance in Wikipedia’s coverage of biographies of scientists. Twenty volunteers gathered in the library of the Royal Society for a few hours to learn … Continue reading
Wordy, wooden, weak-verbed
A piece in today’s Times Higher, on the flaws of academic writing styles, struck a chord with me. It says: If you have ever needlessly added the term “Foucauldian” to a journal article or bludgeoned readers by starting an epic sentence … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
5 Comments
Collecting, connecting, communicating
Librarians collect stuff. To collect is one of the most important verbs in the librarian’s instruction manual. Probably the next most important is to categorise. There is a connection between these two. We do not collect randomly but with a … Continue reading
Posted in Blogology, Libraries and librarians, Uncategorized, Writing
4 Comments
A rearward look at rewards: celebrations and celebrities
Last autumn I had the pleasure of attending the awards ceremonies for two science writing prizes. They are similar competitions but have individual characteristics and constraints: the Max Perutz prize is sponsored by the MRC, which is a taxpayer-funded organisation … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
2 Comments
And the winner is …
The Max Perutz essay prize is in its 14th year and is a major landmark on the science writing landscape. To enter the competition MRC-funded PhD students are invited to write an essay: in no more than 800 words, to … Continue reading
Seven sins of science writing
I was never trained as an editor, but a few years ago I found myself as joint editor of our Institute’s annual volume of essays on science, aimed at a lay(-ish) audience. For the first few years I worked on … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
5 Comments
Books, Poetry and Prizes
Scientific poetry competitions are catching on. First there was a genomics poetry competition, organised by the Genomics Forum and the Scottish Poetry Library. You’ve missed the deadline for entries; winners are due to be announced in November. More recently the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Writing
10 Comments
Genomics poetry competition
I was delighted to see a new poetry competition announced. I must confess that I am not a big poetry afficionado, but I think on balance it is a good thing and deserves to be encouraged. The Scottish Poetry Library … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Comments Off on Genomics poetry competition
Truthtelling
Last month I attended an interesting and lively discussion at the City University about science journalism. On my way home I opened the book I was reading at the time and saw the the following: In the world of financial … Continue reading