Dear enrollees in Epidemiology 212 (Publishing & Presenting Clinical Research):
I hope you are all managing to stay in good spirits as we approach the end of our fifth week of shelter-in-place in the SF Bay Area.
I enjoyed the live Zoom-based interactive critique of research abstracts that many of you were able to join last week. For those of you who weren’t able to join, you can find the pdf slide set showing “before” and “after” versions of the abstract sections posted on the syllabus.
As a reminder, the first assignment for this course, which focuses on research abstracts, is due by this Tuesday, April 21, before noon. You have two different options for this assignment, and instructions and templates for each are posted on the syllabus. Please use the assignment upload link in the syllabus at the end of module 1.
As you know, TICR-wide policy is that late assignments are not accepted. If you anticipate any special circumstances that are likely to interfere with your ability to submit assignments, particularly during this period of COVID-19 crisis, please send me a message to let me know in advance if possible.
Starting next week, we will begin the second module of the course, focused on the introduction and methods sections of research manuscripts. Pre-recorded lectures addressing these topics have been posted on the syllabus in module 2.
We also have another optional live Zoom-based discussion session coming up on Tuesday, April, 21 at 3 pm, focused on stylistic points in research writing. This session will be no more than 45 minutes long and will focus on questions like:
- Is it appropriate to use the first person ("I", "We") in a formal scientific report?
- When, if ever, is it acceptable to use the passive voice in research writing?
- Complex and compound sentences—when does a long statement get too long?
- At what point does necessary technical language turn into needless jargon?
- The Oxford comma—even if you don’t need, are you really going to regret it?
Please also feel free to email me with any other finer points of writing style that you’d like to debate in this session. The Zoom link/instructions are posted on the on-line syllabus in module 2.
Best wishes,
Alison Huang
Epi 212 course director