General advice

Writing Papers

Every paper is different and every journal has its own requirements. Some things stay the same across any writing, however. Here are a few general pointers that I have found useful:

• Anything you say you should be able to defend in a court of law

• A good figure can replace half a paper. A bad figure will confuse.

• People hate reading. If it's not important, take it out. The reader won't care how hard you worked on a particular thing, all the reader cares about is how the information in the paper will contribute to their future success.

• Think about how you look at papers. This is how others look at yours. I'd estimate that I only look at the abstract for 10% of the papers of which I read the title, then for 10% of those I'll glance through the figures.

• The Microsoft Word grammar checker isn't the best, but it's helped me catch a lot of dumb mistakes.

Giving Presentations

Remember: the audience is going to remember only one or two things from your presentation so make sure the way you have organized things reflects this desired outcome.

A good article in Nature with some general advice: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00832-5?fbclid=IwAR0QSzhq0dYlbhJR5oHySZkQwgdKE6tSWCAWTx8pBLN_7WaqZTIPhPsXsJ0

A video about what to do with your hands while talking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpqfZJuZRNY