I previously created a how-to video explaining what graphical abstracts are and provided some examples, which can be seen here. In this video update, I cover three characteristics that will make your graphical abstract more effective and offer another example of how to craft one in PowerPoint.
Tag Archives: scientific writing
How to Write a Literature Review
I’ve posted another writing video on my Scientific Writing YouTube channel that focuses on preparation of a literature review. Whether you are writing a term paper, a thesis, a grant proposal, or an article for publication in a journal, you will need to include a literature review. In this video, I show how to conduct a literature search online and then how to organize and write a literature review for a research article.
What Do Journal Editors Want?
I just posted a new video on my scientific writing YouTube channel that looks at how journal editors decide to send out a paper for review. Some science journals send out for review less than half of papers submitted. Thus, it’s important to know how that decision is made and what an author can do to get past this first step in getting a paper accepted for publication. Here is that video:
How to Prepare a Graphical Abstract for a Scientific Paper
Some scientific journals are asking authors to prepare a graphical abstract to be submitted along with the manuscript. Graphical abstracts can help attract readers to your papers. In my opinion, it is worth the time and effort to craft them. In this video tutorial, I talk about the benefits of graphical abstracts to the author and briefly show how to prepare one. This and other writing tutorials are posted on my other YouTube channel.
Recording a Video with a Computer and a Script
I recently launched a new YouTube channel focused on scientific writing. Although I’ve written several essays about writing (How I Wrote My Best Scientific Paper, How to Write a Scientific Abstract), I knew that a lot of people dislike reading long articles. More and more people, especially students, like to get their information by watching brief videos. So, I decided to begin sharing what I’ve learned about writing over a forty-year career in a series of videos.
I’ve been making video tutorials about science videography for six years now. So, using video to share insights about writing was a no brainer. The only question was: What video format would work best for this particular topic? I decided to try something simple and that would make it easy to cover a lot of material on camera.
I used my computer camera and an external microphone to record these videos. I had my script or list of main points on my computer screen where I could easily see them. The trick is to deliver the material in a natural speaking voice and avoid the shifty-eye syndrome. That’s easier said than done. But I thought I would try it for a while and then in a future post offer some insights into what works and what doesn’t.
Here are a couple of the writing videos I’ve posted: