Course Identification

Fluency in English, or at the very least, reading comprehension at college level is a must.

Preliminary Syllabus

The instructor is a practicing scientist who happens to have a lifelong "love affair" with the English language. The course will cover three main subjects:

1. ASPECTS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL)

English is an easy language to learn, but a difficult one to master. This follows directly from its nature:

- comparatively weak grammar, which on the one hand eases initial learning of the language, but on the other hand makes it easy to be misunderstood if one is not careful about word order
- an enormous vocabulary from multiple rootstocks (both Romance and Germanic)
- highly idiomatic character: English probably has more idioms (fixed expressions) than any other language

We will focus especially on some aspects of English grammar, syntax, and usage that tend to present difficulties to native speakers of Hebrew and Russian.

2. THE CHEMIST'S ENGLISH

Formal scientific communication has its own conventions. We will address some that are specific to the natural sciences in general and to chemistry in particular. This discussion will be loosely based on two different textbooks:

(a) "The Chemist's English" by longtime Australian Journal of Chemistry editor Robert W. Schoenfeld

(b) "The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century" by Harvard neuroscience professor and linguist Steven Pinker 

3. SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION

In this section, we will cover topics such as
* general types of scientific papers (rapid communication, full paper, note, comment, mini-review, full review, popular science article,...) and how to approach writing them
* how (not) to approach a referee's comments
* preparing scientific lectures
* common fallacies (logical errors)
* some suggestions for coping with "writer's block" and "stage fright"
* emerging scientific publishing media

ADDENDUM: SCIENTIFIC AND PUBLISHING ETHICS

Last but not least, we will devote some time to certain aspects of these subjects that are (to the best of the instructor's knowledge) not covered in any other course at present.

ADDENDUM II: COVID-19

Should the COVID-19 pandemic not have petered out in Israel by the time the course starts, lectures will take place online through Zoom, Panopto, or a similar platform.

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Be more effective communicators in English, which is the lingua franca of the scientific world and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
2. Demonstrate practical knowledge and insights about the craft of scientific communication in general, and of scientific/technical writing in particular.

Primary Textbook: Steven Pinker, "The sense of style: the thinking person's guide to writing in the 21st century" (Penguin, 2015). Library Record at WIS [Dr. Pinker is a well-known linguist and neuroscientist who also writes books for a popular audience.]
Secondary Textbook: Robert W. Schoenfeld, "The Chemist's English", Wiley-VCH, 1989. Library record:
http://lib-phds1.weizmann.ac.il/vufind/Record/000087669 [The late Dr. Schoenfeld was the longtime editor of the Australian Journal of Chemistry.]

Suggested reading: material in (formal, college-level) English on any subject

For the lecture on scientific ethics, consider either or both of the following two books:
Alexander Kohn, "False Prophets" (Blackwell, 1986)
http://lib-phds1.weizmann.ac.il/vufind/Record/000003532

Broad & Wade, "Betrayers of the Truth" (Simon & Schuster, 1982) http://lib-phds1.weizmann.ac.il/vufind/Record/000019046