Biology Writes

In case you missed it, Hannah Rozear (Duke Librarian for Biological Sciences & Global Health) gave a talk this week entitled ChatGPT for Academic Research: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (watch here). Here’s my summary:

The Good:  ChatGPT has the potential to:

• accelerate your writing by
  • automating rote tasks (like writing the acknowledgements)
  • generating suggestions for better wording (like for article titles)
• generate keywords and topic ideas (especially helpful for novices in a field)
• improve writing by suggesting edits to your writing. It is very good at editing for
  • conciseness
  • organization
  • …but it sometimes changes the meaning so these edits should be taken as suggestions only

The Bad: GPT-4: AI does not have a way to access or search specific copyrighted or paywalled content on-demand. The AI model does not reproduce the entirety of copyrighted works or paywalled content but rather synthesizes the patterns and knowledge it has gained from various sources to generate human-like text.

The Ugly: Despite GPT-4’s capabilities, it maintains a tendency to:

• make up facts and nonsensical content
• double-down on incorrect information
• perform tasks incorrectly
• share your search history with strangers

What you can do to keep up…

• PLAY with ChatGPT
• TALK to your students and colleagues
• READ/LISTEN/ ATTEND events (like this one sponsored by DLI)
• EMBRACE & ADVOCATE for AI/algorithm literacy

Join a small group of Duke faculty, postdocs, and graduate students — and a global community of writers — every weekday morning from 8-9AM for 50 minutes of focused writing hosted by the London Writers’ Salon.

The format is simple but powerful:

• login every morning
• say hello to our Duke community in the chat
• set a writing goal for the hour
• focus exclusively on this goal until the time is up

Email Julie (jar88 at duke dot edu) if you join so she can say hello!

Let’s start the year off right with a Spring 2023 Writing Challenge!

The goals are:

• Create a departmental culture in which we support each other’s writing
• Increase productivity and impact
• Reduce stress around writing

The challenge is simple but powerful.

Each week I will invite you to join the conversation — participate as much or as little as you like.

• Step 1: Tell us about the writing project you are going to work on this semester

I’ll share the results of this poll with you next week.

The challenge is simple: write for at least 30 minutes every day (Monday through Friday) for two weeks. At the end of that time, we can evaluate ourselves: How did daily writing affect our productivity? Did participation in a writing community affect our enjoyment of the writing process?

The details:

• Schedule 2-weeks for the challenge
• Recruit friends, members of your lab, and co-authors to join you in the challenge
• Block off time on your calendar for the challenge and protect that time
• Each day of the challenge, you will get a reminder to log your progress (in a shared Google doc) and celebrate your writing streak

Spring 2023 dates:  Feb 20th – March 3rd.  Members of the Duke Biology Department can sign up for the challenge here.

“Writing comes from reading,

and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” – Annie Proulx

When writing a new type of document, it is often helpful to see a successful example to get a sense of the content, structure, length, and tone. Biology Writes is building a documents repository (modeled after one created and maintained by graduate students prior to 2016) so that we can share and learn from each other. This repository would contain successful prelim documents, grant applications, course proposals and syllabi, job applications, teaching statements, and many other documents that biologist must write.

Guidelines for the repository: Only member of the Duke biology department would have access to the repository. Users must agree not to redistribute these documents and, obviously, must not plagiarize any document. Any use except those specified would be a violation of the Duke University Community Standard. All copyright would be retained by the original creators or funding agencies, and all authors of the document must agree to share their document before it is posted.

We want your input: Do you have any concerns about this plan? Would Sakai be the best place for the archive? Are there additional guidelines we should add?  Please provide input here.   Thanks in advance!

We want your writing! If you have documents that you are willing to share, please email them to Julie.a.reynolds@duke.edu.

In my work as a Writing Coach, I often hear people describe the challenges of focusing on their writing when there are papers to grade, emails to answer, experiments to run, and meals to cook.

I remind them about the value of Thinking, Fast and Slow. Author and Nobel prize recipient Daniel Kahneman proposes that there are two systems that drive the way we think; System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional whereas System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.

In our hyperlinked culture, many of us are stuck in System 1 thinking as we try (with varying success) to react to all the demands on our time. Most scientific writing, in contrast, requires clear-headed, deliberative, System 2 thinking, free from distractions.

How do we tap into System 2 thinking? Many of us need to create meaningful transitions that allow us to shift into a mindset conducive to writing. Some take a walk before opening their laptops, others meditate for a few minutes at their desks. Most of us silence our phones, email, and all other push notifications. This recent article even suggests that, contrary to popular belief, mind-wandering can help us get more done.

If you, too, struggle to focus on your writing, consider deliberately invoking System 2 thinking.

What do you do to get prepared to write? Join the conversation!

If a one-off writing consultation isn’t enough to get your writing moving as quickly and as smoothly as you would like, you may benefit from working with a writing coach.

Here are some of the skills a writing coach can help you develop:

• Setting concrete writing goals
• Creating a realistic writing plan
• Building a regular writing routine
• Learning writing techniques
• Developing your writing skills
• Soliciting the type of feedback you need at various points in the writing process
• Improving self-editing skills
• Increasing writing efficiency
• Identifying your audience
• Understanding reader expectations
• Constructing a compelling argument
• Framing your literature review
• Increasing the impact of your writing

Here are some of the types of support a writing coach can offer:

• Brainstorming the narrative of your writing
• Helping you stay on schedule and stay organized
• Recognizing (and overcoming) barriers to writing
• Offering feedback on your writing

Finally, here are some of the types of feedback a writing coach can offer:

• Developmental editing (also called structural editing or substantive editing) is done for early drafts and focuses on ensuring that your overall narrative is compelling and well supported and that what you write is coherent, cohesive, and concise.
• Copy editing and proofreading focus on spelling, punctuation, grammar, and the correct use of the English language, but also can remove redundancies, resolve inconsistencies, and improve the flow of your writing.

Coaching is available 1:1 and in group sessions, both online and in person. To get started, email Julie.a.reynolds at Duke dot edu

Participants meet regularly at an agreed upon time and place to work on independent writing projects alongside other writers. Arrive with any materials you will need to work on your own writing and write in good company. Come when you can and stay for as long as your schedule allows.

Fall 2024 writing group meets Mondays from noon – 1PM

Here’s a sample schedule so you know what to expect:

• noon – 12:05  Check in, goal setting
• 12:05-12:55   Writing period
• 12:55-1:00   Optional check-in, and goal-setting for next writing session

A few logistics:

• Check-ins are optional: if you are on a roll with your writing or not in a space to participate, keep writing!
• You may join or leave the meeting at any time. If you join the group during a writing period, please wait until the check in to say hello
• Masking rules will follow Duke policy
• Some prefer headphones to mute background noises – bring some if that works best for you.
• Biology Writes will provide drinks and snacks

Feel free to invite others to join us.  If you want to join the mailing list, email me at Julie.a.reynolds at duke dot edu

There are hundreds of books on writing — here are a few of my favorites.

Best overview:

• How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper(8^th edition) by Barbara Gastel and Robert A. Day

Best text for student writers:

• A short guide to writing in biology (9^th edition) by Jan Pechenik

Best book on how to write well:

• Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (12^th edition) by Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup

Best books about productivity and the writing process:

• How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul Silvia
• Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
• On Writing: a memoir of the craft by Stephen King

What are your favorite books on writing?   Join the conversation below!