[EAS] Fwd: The Scout Report -- Volume 20, Number 43

Peter J. Kindlmann peter.kindlmann at yale.edu
Fri Nov 7 13:31:27 EST 2014


Dear Colleagues -

I'm forwarding the current issue of Scout Report 
in its entirety. It's all about writing.

All best,  --Peter


=======
The Scout Report
November 7, 2014
Volume 20, Number 43
-----
A Publication of Internet Scout
Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison
=======


Every week at Internet Scout, we scour the web to bring you the best of
STEM, humanities, social science, and other inspiring resources. Variety
is, indeed, the spice of Scout. But sometimes a special month calls for a
special issue. And November, which has been named National Novel Writing
Month, is just such a time. Now, we know that most of our readers aren't
aspiring novelists. But we also know that every one of our readers writes,
whether it's for work or play, for business, academia, government, tech, or
some other field. The following links touch on fiction, as well as science
and technical writing. They link to novelists, poets, and scientists who
have captured the public imagination with their words. We've also included
a pair of tools we think will help anyone who aspires to put themselves at
a desk and write something down. We hope the resources listed here will
inspire you as much as they have inspired us. In the great words of C.S.
Lewis, "You can make anything by writing."

If you know of other great resources fitting this special edition theme,
please let us know on our Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/InternetScout ), by Tweeting @IntScout, or by
emailing us at scout at scout.wisc.edu.



===== Fiction ===
1. National Novel Writing Month
2. Writing and Publishing Solutions
3. How Writers Write Fiction
4. Fiction Writers Review
5. The Official SCBWI Blog
===== Technical & Science Writing ===
6. Introduction to Technical Communication
7. The Purdue OWL: Conducting Research
8. Scientific Reports - The Writing Center
9. National Association of Science Writers
10. Sentence Structure of Technical Writing
11. LabWrite for Students
===== Literary Greats ===
12. The Official Site for Alice Walker
13. Faulkner Collection
14. The Official Site of Richard Feynman
15. Charles Dickens at 200
16. Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 78, James Baldwin
===== Writing Tools ===
17. SelfControl
18. Merriam-Webster


Copyright and subscription information appear at the end of the Scout
Report. For more information on all services of Internet Scout, please
visit our Website: https://scout.wisc.edu

If you'd like to know how the Internet Scout team selects resources for
inclusion in the Scout Report, visit our Selection Criteria page at:
https://scout.wisc.edu/scout-report/selection-criteria

The Scout Report on the Web:
   Current issue: https://scout.wisc.edu/report/current
This issue:
   https://scout.wisc.edu/report/2014/1107

Feedback is always welcome: scout at scout.wisc.edu

===== Fiction ===

1. National Novel Writing Month
http://nanowrimo.org

Freelance writer Chris Baty declared November as National Novel Writing
Month in the fall of 2000. Since then, the number of participants has grown
from 21 aspiring authors hacking away at manuscripts to over 300,000. The
project's "No Plot? No problem" slogan tells it all. No perfectionistic
haute culture here. Participants are simply encouraged to put at least
50,000 words on paper between 12:00 am on November 1 and 11:59:59 on
November 30. Scout readers can explore this official website via section
subheadings such as, About, How It Works, Press Information, and
Testimonials to find out all about the process. Signing up to participate
in the challenge is easy and free, and the website will help track your
progress, link you to support in your geographical area, and provide
platforms to meet fellow writers in person and online. NaNoWriMo, as it's
called, is a great resource for encouraging novice and veteran writers
alike to work through their writer's block and delve into their creativity.
[CNH]


2. Writing and Publishing Solutions
http://www.novel-writing-help.com

Anyone who has ever tried to write a novel will agree on at least one basic
fact: it's deceptively difficult. This site, from novelist Harvey Chapman,
provides beginners with helpful step-by-step advice. He lays it all out in
simple, digestible categories including, The Writing Process, Becoming a
Writer, Elements of Fiction, and How to Write. Each category includes
helpful, targeted articles designed to take some of the sting out of
putting words on screen or paper. For instance, How to Write a Novel
Step-by-Step breaks down the novel writing process into eleven linear
stages. Prose Writing 101, found under How to Write, is another great
feature of the site that details the importance of writing with a clear,
concise, and uncluttered style. [CNH]


3. How Writers Write Fiction
http://courses.writinguniversity.org/course/how-writers-write-fiction

The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa is often
considered the best fiction writing program in the United States. Not
everyone can dedicate the blood, sweat, and two years it takes to complete
the program, but this new MOOC series allows fiction writers to engages
with the material over a few short weeks. The course is free and the
teachers are extremely well known literary novelists. After signing up,
access to videos, transcripts, assignments, and tools will be at your
fingertips. Through video lectures and various writing assignments, the
series is a great way to learn about the writing process and interact with
other students/writers working on their craft. [CNH]


4. Fiction Writers Review
http://fictionwritersreview.com

If you want to write, read. And if you want to read about fiction writing,
a good place to start is the Fiction Writers Review. Completely free and
jam packed with writers writing about writing, this continually updated
online periodical will fill you up with ideas and images. Start with the
homepage, where you can explore numerous Features, ranging from interviews
to essays. Then explore Popular Posts to see what other visitors have found
valuable. There is a lot of fantastic stuff on this site, and author Philip
Graham's praise is quite illuminating: "I no longer much bother reading The
New York Times Book Review, and your site is one of the reasons- what great
work you're doing for literature." [CNH]


5. The Official SCBWI Blog
http://scbwi.blogspot.com

There are many great resources for those who want to write stories for
adults. But what if your market is more in the seven to twelve range? Well,
then this site, the official blog of the Society of Children's Book Writers
and Illustrators (SCBWI), is for you. Continually updated, blog entries
offer a variety of topics ranging from interviews with award winning
children's book authors, editors, and publishers to advice on innovative
marketing techniques, writing, and networking in children's literature. It
is a must for anyone looking to engage in the wide world of writing and
publishing for kids. [CNH]


===== Technical & Science Writing ===

6. Introduction to Technical Communication
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/writing-and-humanistic-studies/21w-732-5-introduction-to-technical-communication-explorations-in-scientific-and-technical-writing-fall-2006/

What if you could take a technical communication class with a world class
professor at a leading university? What if it was all laid out for you -
the readings, the lectures, the assignments? And what if the only thing you
had to pay for was a couple of books? That's exactly what Dr. Donald N.S.
Unger and the MIT Open Courseware system are offering here. On this site,
viewers can browse the syllabus, have a look at the required readings, and
ponder the ten assignments that form the foundation of this writing
intensive class. Self-directed learners who want to improve their technical
and scientific writing need look no further than this web-based adaptation
of an MIT classic. [CNH]


7. The Purdue OWL: Conducting Research
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/8/

Good research and good writing go hand in hand. This site from the Purdue
Online Writing Lab (OWL) introduces students to the principles of
conducting good research. The clear and helpful information on the site is
divided into six digestible categories: Research Overview, Conducting
Primary Research, Evaluating Sources of Information, Searching the World
Wide Web, Internet References, and Archival Research. Within each of these
categories are numerous informative subcategories, such as Research Ethics
and Searching with a Search Engine. This last area is a great tool for
students learning how to conduct better searches, including information on
Boolean operators. [CNH]


8. Scientific Reports - The Writing Center
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/scientific-reports/

Learning to write a good scientific report is no easy task. Thank goodness
this handout from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing
Center provides you with everything you need to get started. Beginning with
Background and Pre-Writing and proceeding with explanations of the
Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections of research
reports, the site answers such burning questions as, "What should I do
before drafting the lab report?" and "When should you use a figure?" In
all, students new to the art of technical science writing will be much
comforted by this detailed and user-friendly explanation of the entire
report writing process. Also of interest, the Other Resources section links
out to more useful resources around the web. [CNH]


9. National Association of Science Writers
http://www.nasw.org

Founded in 1934, the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) has
always sought to "encourage conditions that promote good science writing."
Today, the NASW boasts a roster of over 2,000 members, almost 300 of them
students. The site itself is a panoply of bustling information. Featured
articles (for instance, "Coming soon to this planet: More of us") touch
into issues relevant to science writers and bloggers, but also will appeal
to anyone with an interest in empirical research. A Twitter feed, ripe with
science-y links and hashtags, is available on the homepage and more than a
dozen writer resources are on bold display. If you think science writing
might be in your future, look here for the latest on how it's done. [CNH]


10. Sentence Structure of Technical Writing
http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/technical-writing.pdf

This visually clear treatise outlines "Good Tech Writers Practice" in three
pieces of sage advice: Plan your project, understand good technical
writing, and know that writing is a habit that takes time to develop.
Presented as lecture materials from Nicole Kelley at MIT, this 24-page PDF
leads students of technical writing through seven steps (planning, clarity,
brevity, simplicity, word choice, active voice, committing to writing as a
process), and is ripe with graphs, charts, tables, and other compelling
visuals. Adapted from The Craft of Scientific Writing by Michael Alley and
"The Science of Scientific Writing" by Gopen and Swan, this is a great
resource providing the basics of technical writing in an easily digestible
format. [CNH]


11. LabWrite for Students
http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/

This National Science Foundation funded site from North Carolina State
University "guides you through the entire laboratory experience, from
before you walk into the lab to after you get back your graded report."
Start with How to Use LabWrite for a comprehensive Powerpoint overview of
the program. Then, navigate slowly through the steps of PreLab, InLab,
PostLab, and LabCheck, each of which provides careful instructions on
everything from formulating a hypothesis to presenting results. Teachers
will especially recognize this tool as a welcome supplement to in class
discussions of best lab practices. [CNH]


===== Literary Greats ===

12. The Official Site for Alice Walker
http://alicewalkersgarden.com

Alice Walker, who has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award,
is one of America's best known and well loved writers. Since publishing her
first book of poems in the late 1960s, she has been churning out books of
essays, novels, short stories, and poetry at a prodigious clip.
Productivity, however, is not her real calling card; what Walker is known
for, above all, is her compassion and clarity. This official site contains
dozens of Walker's recent blog posts on a wide range of literary, artistic,
and social issues, from her thoughts on books and paintings to her fierce
musings on the state of the Palestine/Israel conflict. The About section
provides a great biography of Walker and her work. Additionally, Books and
New Books allows viewers to browse her ample collection of literary
achievements. [CNH]


13. Faulkner Collection
http://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu

William Faulkner was born in 1897 in Oxford, Mississippi and toiled away in
relative obscurity until unexpectedly winning the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1949. His novels henceforth earned him two Pulitzer prizes,
and several of them are almost always listed on "best of" lists for 20th
century literature. This University of Virginia site is a Faulker treasure
trove. From the homepage, visitors can navigate to Contexts for an overview
of Faulkner and his times. Next, the Browse section provides a list of
Faulkner's recorded lectures and classes at UVA - a rare and wonderful peek
at a man from another era. Readers can also search the site by Tapes &
Transcripts and Rest of Archive. Selected clips, organized by the author's
novels, are also available. [CNH]


14. The Official Site of Richard Feynman
http://www.richardfeynman.com

The video on the homepage of the Official Site of Richard Feynman is reason
enough to visit. It features Feynman, the theoretical physicist, Nobel
Prize winner, and best selling author, lecturing to a group of
undergraduates on the topic of scientific and unscientific understandings
of nature. The talk is wildly entertaining, vivacious, and intellectually
clear; viewers are left with a vivid sense of who this man was and why he
so deeply impacted the popular imagination. A detailed About section
provides information on Feynman and his work, as well as quotes and a small
photo gallery. The Notable Works section lists his writings for scientific
and popular audiences, though, sadly, none of them are available on the
site. [CNH]


15. Charles Dickens at 200
http://www.themorgan.org/collection/Charles-Dickens-at-200

The Christmas Carol, which Dickens wrote in the six weeks leading up to the
Christmas of 1843, has continuously been in print ever since, spawning
adaptations into the forms of plays, films, TV specials, mime performances,
abstract performance art, and opera. This online exhibition, hosted by the
Morgan Library & Museum in New York, features a leather bound manuscript of
the author's first draft, presented to his friend and debtor, Thomas
Mitton, just before it's publication. This excellent site allows viewers to
visit half a dozen pages of the original document, replete with cross outs
and scribbles, corrections and revisions. The accompanying essays cover
topics such as Dickens at Work, which explains the sense of Dickens
"writing at a fast pace, usually enacting second thoughts and changes of
mind in the heat of original composition." [CNH]


16. Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 78, James Baldwin
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin

Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin moved to France in the late 1950s
because he didn't want to be read as "merely a Negro; or, even, merely a
Negro writer." He lived the rest of his life in Paris and the French
Riviera, publishing fiction and essays that deeply influenced American
literature from afar. This interview with Baldwin, published in the Paris
Review a few years before the author's death, touches on such topics as his
choice to permanently leave the United States for Europe, his writing
process, and his thoughts on race and racial justice. It's a rare gift to
find a freely available window into this revered writer's thoughts and
feelings in his later years. [CNH]


===== Writing Tools ===

17. SelfControl
http://selfcontrolapp.com

Whether you're writing the Great American Novel or just trying to finish a
term paper by tomorrow morning, the biggest threat to productivity is
distraction. And the biggest progenitor of distraction is the very machine
you are working on to write that novel or term paper. This open source app
blocks access to distracting websites, as well as mail servers and
everything else on the internet. Just set the timer, and write. [CNH]


18. Merriam-Webster
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary-apps/android-ipad-iphone-windows.htm

Every writer needs a dictionary. The Merriam-Webster app provides
"America's most useful and respected dictionary," plus synonyms, antonyms,
example sentences, and many other bonus functions. It's free, it's easy,
and it's available for iPhone and iPad (iOS 7.0+) as well as Android
(2.3.3+). [CNH]




Below are the copyright statements to be included when reproducing
annotations from The Scout Report.

The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when
reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:

     From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2014.
     https://www.scout.wisc.edu

The paragraph below is the copyright notice to be used when
reproducing the entire report, in any format:

   Copyright © 2014 Internet Scout Research Group - https://scout.wisc.edu

   The Internet Scout Research Group, located in the Computer Sciences
   Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides Internet
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   under grants from the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W.
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and
   distribute verbatim copies of any of Internet Scout's publications or
   web content, provided this paragraph, including the above copyright
   notice, is preserved on all copies.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed
in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, or the
National Science Foundation.

======                        ======
==   Index for November 7, 2014 ==
======                        ======

1. National Novel Writing Month
   http://nanowrimo.org
2. Writing and Publishing Solutions
   http://www.novel-writing-help.com
3. How Writers Write Fiction
   http://courses.writinguniversity.org/course/how-writers-write-fiction
4. Fiction Writers Review
   http://fictionwritersreview.com
5. The Official SCBWI Blog
   http://scbwi.blogspot.com
6. Introduction to Technical Communication

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/writing-and-humanistic-studies/21w-732-5-introduction-to-technical-communication-explorations-in-scientific-and-technical-writing-fall-2006/
7. The Purdue OWL: Conducting Research
   https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/8/
8. Scientific Reports - The Writing Center
   http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/scientific-reports/
9. National Association of Science Writers
   http://www.nasw.org
10. Sentence Structure of Technical Writing
   http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/technical-writing.pdf
11. LabWrite for Students
   http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/
12. The Official Site for Alice Walker
   http://alicewalkersgarden.com
13. Faulkner Collection
   http://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu
14. The Official Site of Richard Feynman
   http://www.richardfeynman.com
15. Charles Dickens at 200
   http://www.themorgan.org/collection/Charles-Dickens-at-200
16. Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 78, James Baldwin

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2994/the-art-of-fiction-no-78-james-baldwin
17. SelfControl
   http://selfcontrolapp.com
18. Merriam-Webster

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary-apps/android-ipad-iphone-windows.htm


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University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Computer Sciences.
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                              Editor   Craig Hase          [CNH]
                     Managing Editor   Catherine Dixon     [CBD]
                 Contributing Editor   Debra Shapiro       [DS]
                            Director   Edward Almasy       [EA]
                            Director   Rachael Bower       [REB]
Metadata and Information Specialist   Kendra A. Bouda     [KAB]
                  Internet Cataloger   Sara Sacks          [SS]
                  Internet Cataloger   Elzbieta Beck       [EB]
                   Software Engineer   Corey Halpin        [CRH]
                       Web Developer   Yizhe (Charles) Hu  [YH]
                Technical Specialist   Zev Weiss           [ZW]
          Administrative Coordinator   Chris Wirz          [CW]
            Administrative Assistant   Annie Ayres         [AA]

For information on additional contributors, see the Internet Scout staff
page.
   https://scout.wisc.edu/staff-bios

                                                                       ==
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