From the Writing Guy

Greetings all! As of my most recent conversation with your professor, it looks like I will be posting to your blog! In any case, you probably all remember me as the guy with the guitar that came to your class last week (Joshua Cruz). I'll be posting to your blog on a weekly basis, just giving some general writing advice. If all goes according to plan, I'll also be contacting you throughout the week via email to give some feedback that's specific to you and your own writing.

In addition to all of that, I'm here for whatever writing help you're looking for. If it's a quick question, feel free to shoot an email to <cruzjo@daytonastate.edu>. If it's something that seems more involved--for instance, you want someone to look over an entire paper--set up an appointment at the Writing Center, which you can do by calling (386) 506-3059 (it doesn't have to be an appointment with me; everyone who works here is pretty good).

So, without drawing this out any more than I already have, let me give you...

THE FIRST RESPONSE TO YOUR BLOGGING ENDEAVORS

What you're all doing seems very interesting. Unfortunately, I am out of the loop in terms of oceanography and scientific method. One major obstacle for scientific writers is to explain to plebeians such as myself 1) what it is that they're doing and 2) why they're doing.

With that in mind, provide a little context for what you're doing. What scientific question are you pursuing? I know that you're collecting water samples--to what end?

A nice way to potentially start these blog posts is by "establishing a context" for the readers, letting them know what questions you are answering or what assignments you might be fulfilling (little tip: this also makes it easy for your professor to determine if you understand what you're learning in class/why you're learning it). Finally, this move makes it easier for outsiders such as myself to get caught up.

Now, the big thing here is that contextual establishment (that intro paragraph that tells us the what and why of what you're doing) isn't something you should just be thinking about for this class; it also transfers into papers you will be writing for research as you go on to attain higher degrees. No researcher would write up a report that said "we collected water samples from two different sources" without first discussing why that activity was happening. The idea there is that other people will be interested in the study, and might want to follow the same kind of methodology. This means people not intimately connected to the study may be reading your write-up. They'll want to be on the same page as you, and that means you need to let them know what page you're on. Admittedly, you are all posting on a blog, and all of you are part of a closely knit research community, but this idea of establishing a context for a larger audience is still far from superfluous (especially now that you have me lurking in the depths of the blog! Muahahaha!).