Write-Research Newsletter

Volume 1 Issue 2

December 2007

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This free newsletter will be available more or less monthly.

Except this past past autumn, when an accident kept be away from the computer for all but essential work. My apologies, and no, I did not fall off my horse.

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The Word: Negligible

Negligible is a great word. It means something has such a tiny effect that it can be ignored. It is used, for instance, when explaining how a model has been simplified. It has made me smile ever since a PhD student in my course in Utrecht reminded me (and the class) that it shared its root with negligé, and said “there’s almost nothing to them”; negligés being those skimpy, filmy nightdresses men buy for their wives on Valentine’s Day.

Neglectable, however, isn’t a real word, and has an internal contradiction. Think about it. The base word is ‘neglect’. Neglect is always a bad thing. People who neglect children can lose custody of them. Those who neglect animals are fined or jailed. Neglected house plants die. It is just never ok to neglect something.

Googling ‘neglectable’ does show that people persist in using this non-word. There were 36,000 last time I checked. I did see one use that appears to be roughly correct: a woman selling felt animals as ‘neglectable pets’. The other uses (I admit, I only checked a few dozen not all of them) appear to be mainly in blogs and in a few science articles (where it seems to have been overlooked).

Found on the net (but do not try this at home):	Preferred:
*Low concentrations of benzene (1-2%) are neglectable.	Low concentrations of benzene can be ignored.
*The neglectable benefit of searching for incidental findings in the Dutch--Belgian lung cancer screening trial	The negligible benefit of searching for incidental findings in the Dutch--Belgian lung cancer screening trial
*Variation is neglectable	Variation is negligible
*The fans noise can be almost neglectable	The fan noise is almost negligible

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Structural details: The conclusion is at the end

When writing the first draft of a paper, I support anything that will help you get the draft finished. That includes putting in markers that help the writer plan and find a way through the draft. These markers (a type of metadiscourse, or ‘discourse about the discourse’) serve as a kind of scaffolding – I’m always looking for concrete ways to explain concepts, and maybe these intructions for building a pizza oven will help; scroll down to where the builder talks about using a template to make a brick arch. I know you’re writing a paper, not building an oven, but the same principle applies: A custom-made template is very useful during construction, but if you want to light any fires, remove the template first. Please don’t tell the reader that the conclusions are (surprise surprise) at the end of the paper. That’s one thing you can count on them knowing, no matter what.

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Smoking:

A small group of smokers has comandeered the steps outside one of the grad schools where I work. They are not all there all of the time, but at any given time there will be at least two or three people, huddling against the cold and rain a short distance from the door. They are surely taking breaks of at least 15-30 minutes for their habit.

What if if was possible to develop an addiction to writing? What if, instead of one of those cigarette breaks, it was possible to work for, say, 15-30 minutes every day on a current paper (an that’s only one cigarette break a day). What if researchers felt entitled to do this, in the same way that smokers feel entitled to smoke?

It might not be easy at first. Neither (as I remember from my early teens when many of my friends started to smoke) was becoming addicted to cigarettes. Habits can be hard to start. Developing the addiction was not simple. Work at it. Write for fifteen to thirty minutes every day, even if some days do not seem to produce anything you can use. A half hour per workday would be 2.5 hours per week. Fifteen minutes every day is an hour and 45 minutes every week. If you are now writing less than this, give this idea a (serious) tryout.

Interesting links:

On 4 October, an article about my Lelystad course appeared in Resource. Weekblad voor Wageningen UR. I should have mentioned it sooner. To arrange a course with me, or to take a course with me, either in or around Lelystad or Wageningen, contact Paul van Olm.

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Places remaining in upcoming courses

Current waiting lists are for spring 2008 and autumn 2008. For details, see: nextcourses