Short and Sweet: Cottontail Rabbit Habitat Selection

1. Lecture 08 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATONS Spring 2014 - Althoff Style & EditingPart I Short and Sweet: Cottontail Rabbit Habitat Selection vs. Longer but Complete: Seasonal Variation in Habitat Selection by Cottontail Rabbits

2. Background • Carraway, L.N. 2006. Improve scientific writing and avoid perishing. American Midland Naturalist 155:383-394. • Improve __________ and improve _________ of communication are the basic reasons for working on style and the need for editing of any draft/version of a technical communication • Improvement in style (i.e., editing) requires: a) patience b) eye-for-detail c) time d) “separation” of time or familiarity with draft

3. Titles • Most important part of written communication, according to Carraway • Why isn’t a question way to state a title? • Why is word order important in a title? • What is the “watch the paw prints” concern identified by Carraway?

4. Titles • Edge Responses of Tropical and Temperate Birds Wilson Journal of Ornithology 119(2):205-220 2007 • Influence of Rain and Temperature on Reproduction in Gambel’s Quail • Can Researchers Conceal Their Scent from Predators in Artificial Nest Studies? Wildlife Society Bulletin 29(3):814-820. Journal of Wildlife Management 63(1):154-161 1999

5. Text -- concerns • Placement of Modifiers • Get-ready sentences • Unintended consequences • Misuse of Words • Slang • Contrived acronyms • Jargon

6. Text -- concerns • Placement of modifiers—do not overemphasize adverb: ex. “blood samples were continuously stirred” vs. “blood samples were stirred continuously” • Get-ready sentences—avoid, especially if introducing information for a Table or Figure ex. “Figure 1 illustrates changes in mass of quail eggs during incubation.” vs. “Mass of quail eggs declined during incubation (Figure 1).”

7. Text -- concerns • Unintended connotations—dimensions, characteristics, or features can be recorded or described but they can never be formulated nor extracted. Ex. “Weights were taken from each deer using a spring scale.” vs. “Weights were recorded for each deer using a spring scale.” • Misuse of words—Watch the use of “Using/Used” Ex. “Rodents were captured using live traps”“Spotted owl surveys used tape-recorders”

8. Style: get to the main point “_______” • Avoid starting witha preposition: “To determine if habitat differences on and off each prairie dog colony helped explain differences in predation rates, we estimated canopy cover, Robel cover, percent bare ground, and burrow density on each of the 74 colonies and their paired off sites.” vs. “We estimated canopy cover, Robel cover, percent bare ground, and burrow density on each of the 74 colonies and their paired off sites to determine if habitat differences on and off each prairie dog colony helped explain differences in predation rates.”

9. Style: get to the main point “first” • Avoid starting witha preposition—or at least all the time: “To determine if movement patterns on and off each prairie dog colony helped explain differences in predation rates, we estimated mean distance between hourly locations. To reduce autocorrelation of locational data we only used one pair of locations per tracking session per animal. To assess the distance for each location, 3-5 separate bearings were obtained within 5 minutes of each other.

10. Style: OK to use ________ voice • This has “come” and “gone” and “come again” among the technical literature gurus. • Was recommended to use “active” voice (we, I), then taboo (avoid we, I)—so go with “passive” voice, and now “active” voice (we, I) recommended. “____ concluded that predation rates of ground-nesting birds were not were not significantly impacted by rodent densities.” vs. “___ was concluded that predation rates of ground-nesting birds were not were not significantly impacted by rodent densities.”

11. 1 A varying degree of individual dominances occurs (a pecking order) within lemur troops. The lips of the muskrat close behind the incisors and allows for underwater gnawing. The muskrat is very common in its range and has been introduced to Europe and Asia.

12. 2 The bobcat courtship rituals usually last one to two days, during which the male and the female will travel, hunt, and eat together. After mating the two will go their separate ways. The gestation period last about 63 to 73 days, after which the female gives birth to two or three kittens. These kittens will nurse from their mother for about 2 months, and then they will progress to eating other food. From about 5 to 8 months the mother will teach its kittens how to hunt for food and teach them how to survive. After that time, the mother will either abandon her kittens or make them leave her den.