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36764 Writing in Statistics 6 A3 Y TR 03:00PM 04:20PM WEH 4709 

Central themes:

You are trying to capture the reader's attention and focus it on the
content of your work.  Two things matter most:

  -- the reader's time & information processing capacity
  -- the reader's expectations (no distractions!)

*** The reader's time and information processing capacity

1. Layered presentation

2. The sentence, the paragraph, the section, and the article

3. The story, the characters, dramatic conflict, and resolution

*** The reader's expectations

4. Mechanics

   A. Generic mechanics
   B. No surprises
   C. Consistent use of technical language

5. A consistent and appropriate level of detail

6. Document organization

*** Why are we writing?

1. To be able to say you have a paper

2. To perform an obligatory report

3. To propose work for which you hope to be paid

4. You have something to say and you think it's important to say it

5. Writing to learn

*** The process of writing

1. Practice, repetition, habits

2. The role of outlines

   -- using a required document organization to scaffold your
      outlining
      


JAN 11 semester starts

FEB 29 last day of classes

FEB 29-MAR 4 - min 3 exam days
  MAR 1-3 reading days
  MAR 4 midsem break
MAR 7 (mon) grades due

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WEEK 01

Tue Jan 12

Thu Jan 14

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WEEK 02

Tue Jan 19

Thu Jan 21

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WEEK 03

Tue Jan 26

Thu Jan 28

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WEEK 04

Tue Feb 2

Thu Feb 4

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WEEK 05

Tue Feb 9

Thu Feb 11

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WEEK 06

Tue Feb 16

Thu Feb 18

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WEEK 07

Tue Feb 23

Thu Feb 25 (DAC)

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WEEK 08

Feb 29-Mar 4 exam week, mid sem break

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Topics:

1. Writing

   Introduction:
     the reader's time
     the reader's expectations
     we are always teachers, even when we're not
     writing is teaching/pedagogy
     communication is teaching

   Stuff from the "core dump"
     
   More on the reader's time and information processing capacity

2. Writing

   More on the reader's expectations

3. Writing

4. Presentation: Talks & Posters

5. Tables and Graphs

6. Referee reports of various sorts and how to deal with them