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A Short Guide to Writing About Chemistry
Book by Beall, Herbert, Trimbur, John
182 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 11, 2025
Note: I have an earlier edition of this book, so maybe take this review with a grain of salt!
This book is meant to be a practical guide in reading and writing chemistry. There are numerous practical tidbits interspersed throughout the book. There are also exercises (many of which include "peer review" style discussion among classmates) and numerous examples (both positive and negative). The topics range from reading the primary literature through writing lab reports and even to giving oral seminars.
The authors do a good job straddling the line between keeping the text short (this is a "Short Guide" after all), while providing the essential kernels of information. Unfortunately, it reads a bit like a how-to guide for someone trying to get an "A" grade in their "Writing in Chemsitry" course. There is little discussion of format variations (except possibly in the "Writing a Research Proposal" section) probably not the author's fault, more of a page constraint issue. However, I would like to have seen less on, say "How to keep a freshman lab book" (17 pages!) and more on, "How to give an oral presentation." Surely the target audience should be the upper-year student, not the freshman.
If the biggest problem is the formulaic presentation, the best aspect is the numerous examples interspersed throughout the book. I was pleased to note that the examples, at least, are chosen to highlight the differences in scientific opinion that constantly arise and that younger scientists find baffling. Because science is generally taught as hard facts in high school, there is no indication that science is actually a refining process where theories are put to the test, elevated, or destroyed as work is done to test their validity. This process is amply demonstrated by the authors, in a wide variety of subdisciplines, all of which are fun to read, even for professors and other chemical professionals.
Therefore, I recommend this book for the senior undergraduate and graduate student who wants to refine/develop their scientific writing style. I'm skeptical about recommending the book to freshmen, in spite of the number of pages devoted to freshman topics, because I'm not as happy with those chapters.
This book is meant to be a practical guide in reading and writing chemistry. There are numerous practical tidbits interspersed throughout the book. There are also exercises (many of which include "peer review" style discussion among classmates) and numerous examples (both positive and negative). The topics range from reading the primary literature through writing lab reports and even to giving oral seminars.
The authors do a good job straddling the line between keeping the text short (this is a "Short Guide" after all), while providing the essential kernels of information. Unfortunately, it reads a bit like a how-to guide for someone trying to get an "A" grade in their "Writing in Chemsitry" course. There is little discussion of format variations (except possibly in the "Writing a Research Proposal" section) probably not the author's fault, more of a page constraint issue. However, I would like to have seen less on, say "How to keep a freshman lab book" (17 pages!) and more on, "How to give an oral presentation." Surely the target audience should be the upper-year student, not the freshman.
If the biggest problem is the formulaic presentation, the best aspect is the numerous examples interspersed throughout the book. I was pleased to note that the examples, at least, are chosen to highlight the differences in scientific opinion that constantly arise and that younger scientists find baffling. Because science is generally taught as hard facts in high school, there is no indication that science is actually a refining process where theories are put to the test, elevated, or destroyed as work is done to test their validity. This process is amply demonstrated by the authors, in a wide variety of subdisciplines, all of which are fun to read, even for professors and other chemical professionals.
Therefore, I recommend this book for the senior undergraduate and graduate student who wants to refine/develop their scientific writing style. I'm skeptical about recommending the book to freshmen, in spite of the number of pages devoted to freshman topics, because I'm not as happy with those chapters.
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August 10, 2011I read the 2nd edition.
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