Expert audience

In this textbook, we focus on two audiences. In module 1 ( The Journal Article ) we focus on the expert audience, and in modules 2 and 3 ( The Scientific Poster and The Research Proposal ), we focus on the scientific audience. There are other genres that target these same audiences, such as technical memos and reports, but they are not covered in this textbook. An important goal of this... 

Science writers, working for magazines such as Science News and Popular Science, translate discoveries reported in journal articles (written for expert audiences)... 

Have you written for an expert audience before What challenges do you think you ll encounter writing for an expert audience ... 

As you work through this module (chapters 2-7), you will be writing your own Journal-guallty paper. Your finished paper will Rewritten for an expert audience, be organized into appropriate sections (title, abstract. Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections, and references), and contain at least one table or figure. The final paper must... 

Compare the following excerpts that describe the process of recrystallization for product purihcation. The hrst excerpt is adapted from an undergraduate laboratory experiment involving the extraction of caffeine from tea leaves. The last two, written for expert audiences, are taken from articles in The Journal of Organic... 

The ACS Style Guide iists some abbreviations that need not be defined for expert audiences, (e.g., DNA, iR, RNA, and NMR). 

Many of you have already described procedures in a lab report. Most likely, you included items such as the equation that you used to calculate percent yield or the step-by-step instructions that you followed to complete a synthesis (e.g., Heat to reflux. or Stir constantly for 10 min. ). Are such items also appropriate in a journal article To answer this question, we analyze several different excerpts. Each excerpt describes a common chemical procedure. Although by no means comprehensive, these few examples should get you started and help you understand what an expert audience expects in this move of the Methods section. 

We now consider procedures that do not involve synthesis (excerpts 3M—30). There are literally hundreds of such procedures in chemistry however, these few excerpts illustrate essential features of how such procedures are generally written. As in syntheses, nonsynthetic procedures begin with a descriptive subheading following the subheading, the procedure is described in concise, complete sentences, including only those details needed by an expert audience. Such details are often quantitative in nature (e.g., the number of cells to plate). Information that is largely for students (e.g., zero the balance ) or available elsewhere (e.g., instructions from an operator s manual) is omitted. 

Audience and conciseness Are you writing for an expert audience, leaving out unnecessary details Try to find at least three sentences that can be written more clearly and concisely. Check for information that should be placed inside parentheses. 

Hint Combine several short sentences into fewer, more complex sentences, delete redundant or unnecessary information for an expert audience, and use parentheses to present information about materials and to dehne abbreviations. Goal 50 words)... 

The central purpose of the Results section is to describe your research findings to other scientists (an expert audience) in a clear and concise manner. As you will see in chapter 5, the central purpose of the Discussion section is to interpret those findings. The distinction between description and interpretation is not always clear-cut. The following rule of thumb helps to distinguish between the two ... 

Audience and conciseness Are you writing for an expert audience, leaving out unnecessary details Have you answered the question "What did you find " as a way to focus on description (rather than interpretation) Find at least three sentences that can be written more clearly and concisely. Are there sentences that could be made more concise by using the word respectively If the word we is used, check to see if it is used correctly. Replace such words as excellent, very good, or poor with more precise words or phrases. 

Is the last paragraph (P5) accessible to a scientific audience (as opposed to an expert audience), thereby completing the hourglass structure What larger implications do the authors present ... 

Written for an expert audience Foam and flavor stability are important... 

We conclude this chapter and module with a brief look at titles, often the last part of a journal article to be written. The title of a journal article must be as concise, specific, and informative as possible. Also, because the title is written for an expert audience, the title should be formal. Although an informal, catchy title is appropriate in many genres (e.g., in newspaper headlines and popular science articles), it is inappropriate in a journal article. 

The second audience comprises conference attendees, who read abstracts to determine whose talk to attend or poster to view. Because national conferences typically have multiple concurrent sessions, attendees rely on abstracts to make their decisions about what sessions to attend, where to go, and when. Individuals who read your abstract are likely to be in a related field of chemistry, but most likely will not be in your specific area of chemistry. Thus, it is important to keep your abstract general enough to be readily understood across different areas of science, thereby targeting primarily a scientific audience. In this regard, the conference abstract is more similar to the Introduction section of a journal article than to the abstract of a journal article, the latter written for an expert audience. 

Science content Are you prepared to discuss your poster with an expert audience Have you correctly conveyed the science in your work Have you used words and units correctly If asked, could you define all of the words that you have used in your poster ... 

Audience and purpose Flaes writes her proposal for an expert audience. The proposed work is in a specialized subheld of analytical chemistry (nanosensors), and she assumes that her readers are knowledgeable in... 

In the Experimental Approach section, shift to a more expert audience (e.g., PhD-level chemists) ... 

Move 3 concludes the proposal and focuses on the project s broader impacts, allowing investigators one more chance to stress the importance of the work. The Outcomes and Impacts section, like the Conclusions section in a journal article, broadens its scope to address a scientific, rather than an expert, audience. 

The Project Summary is not the same as a journal article abstract (chapter 7) or a conference abstract (chapter 8), even though the Project Summary is sometimes called an abstract. The Project Summary summarizes work that has yet to be done and is written for a scientific audience. The journal article abstract summarizes work that has already been done and is written for an expert audience. The conference abstract describes work in progress and is written for a scientific audience. Because the Project Summary reiterates the major aspects of the proposed work, it is written last, after the Projection Description has been completed. For that reason, this chapter comes last in the research proposal module. 

When you proofread your Project Summary draft, make sure that you have written for a scientific audience, not an expert audience. Check to see that you have not used first-person pronouns and that you have used verb tenses appropriately. Finalize your Project Summary using suggested guidelines in chapter 18. 

Convert the following information into a properly formatted table, with an appropriate table title. Assume that you are preparing the table for an expert audience. 

Tip 2 It s is the contracted form of it is. It is inappropriate to use the contracted form in writing for an expert audience. It s is sometimes acceptable in writing for a general audience, as in these examples ... 

Consider the use of its and it s in the sentences below. Decide whether the sentences follow the writing conventions expected by an expert audience. If the sentence is not appropriate, correct it. Indicate correct as is for sentences that require no changes. 

---