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Scientists and engineers must communicate with colleagues, public and governmental agencies, the business community, and the public. They often lack training for this task, and find it challenging. Communicating Science: a practical guide for engineers and physical scientists fills this gap, and helps scientists and engineers present their work effectively and efficiently.
Communicating Science is a textbook and reference on scientific writing oriented primarily at researchers in the physical sciences and engineering. Written from the perspective of an experienced researcher, author, and editor, it emphasizes the connection between good scientific thinking, good organization, and good writing. This book draws on the authors' collective experience teaching both native and non-native English writers.
The anchor chapter of this text provides guidance on writing research reports, including theses, journal papers, and internal reports. The research report is the most important writing task for graduate students and early stage researchers. Communicating Science explains the structural elements of a research report and provides extensive examples for constructing key sentences. Chapters on further forms of communication among scientific colleagues--including peer reviews, lectures, posters, and research proposals--present analogies relative to a research report and provide additional examples.
Researchers also need to communicate with businesses, governments, and the public, often with the aid of specialists such as business analysts, patent attorneys and publicists. Additional chapters introduce the researcher to business plans, patents, and the popular media, with the aim of facilitating efficient collaboration with these specialists. The book also includes a chapter on preparing curricula vitae and job hunting for early stage researchers. Finally, an extensive chapter, "Writing Well", offers advice on writing strategies and guidance on scientific English usage for the benefit of both native English scientific writers and those whose first language is not English.
Communicating Science is the book for graduate students to read before they write their thesis or first journal paper, and can be purchased from Amazon, major academic booksellers, or directly from the World Scientific Publishing.
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This book retails for US$68 / £56 (hardback) and US$32 / £27 (paperback) at major bookstores. To know more about the book, or to request for an inspection copy, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/10145.
About the Authors
Raymond L. Boxman received his SB, SM and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT, USA. His research specialty is plasma engineering and he has extensively investigated the vacuum arc for thin film deposition and submerged discharges for nano-particle generation and water treatment. After two years at the General Electric Company in Philadelphia, USA, Ray researched and taught in the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University, Israel, for 40 years. Ray was a department head and vice dean at Tel Aviv University. For 16 years, he taught a course required for all engineering PhD students on Technical Writing in English.
Ray has presented 490 scientific papers at conferences or in journals, edited the Handbook of Vacuum Arc Science and Technology, and has 11 patents. He chaired several international conferences, and served on the editorial board of several plasma journals. He founded the Israel Plasma Science and Technology Association and Clear Wave Ltd. Ray is a Fellow of IEEE and a recipient of the Joffee Foundation Award and the Walter Dyke Award.
Edith Boxman received a BA in Economics and English Literature from Tufts University, USA, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA. She worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her work and volunteer activities have included extensive translating and editing.
Ray and Edith together present short courses, tutorials, and workshops on scientific writing.
About World Scientific Publishing Co.
World Scientific Publishing is a leading independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research, professional and educational communities. The company publishes about 600 books annually and about 130 journals in various fields. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organizations like the Nobel Foundation, US National Academies Press, as well as its subsidiary, the Imperial College Press, amongst others, to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit http://www.worldscientific.com.
For more information, contact Amanda Yun at heyun@wspc.com