Required writing course wants me to write a review?!

[ss2player]

Hey y'all,

 

My school requires us to take a scientific writing course in order to graduate, which I'm fine and dandy with, the issue is which one I should choose. My specific program is new and doesn't have its own course yet, so I was planning on taking one in a more established program. Talking with the course director today, he has changed the course format and we are now required to write a review article with the goal of publication. 

 

Now, I don't plan to stay in academia, so will a published review really benefit me all that much? Is the effort I would put forth worth the return? I could take another course that is currently in development, though I don't know what the requirements are for it yet. It's for a different program that just got a new chair, and the chair has a reputation of bucking traditional trends, so I'd expect the course to be more realistic and less "academic". 

 

On the other hand, a review would help me when writing my thesis, as I could probably use a lot of it for my background chapter(s). From the experienced folks here, what say you...suck it up, impress my PI, and work like crazy? Or ignore her wishes, feel out the other class, and just try to publish enough to graduate?

[TakeruK]

I can't speak for your course's director but in my experience, I find that when instructors set goals like "write X with the goal of publication" they don't actually mean that you would actually be ready to submit the final product directly to a journal for publication. In particular, very few journals will be accepting review articles from starting graduate students (assuming you are one, since you are in coursework phase). Usually I hear this about final projects, and what professors usually mean is that the topic will be something novel and worthy of publication, if you choose to pursue and continue working on the project after the course is over. 

 

I think the course with the "publication quality" final review article would be helpful for you to write your own thesis when the time comes. Make sure you pick a topic where you can basically almost copy and paste that assignment into your dissertation so that you don't duplicate effort. If you are still worried about the course requirements, maybe it would be a good idea to clarify expectations with the instructor. I think you are savvy enough to know how to ask this without sounding like you just want to do the minimum work But even if you have to publish your review to get an "A", maybe a B is good enough? 

 

Overall, I think a course with this kind of end project is something that will help you. It will earn you points with your PI, it will directly help you complete a chunk of your thesis (and let's be honest, the background chapters are the most boring and motivation draining parts to write), and it will help you develop good writing skills that is useful inside and outside of academia (the published article is just the medium, communication is important everywhere!). I would just make sure you and the instructor are on the same page with the requirements (maybe wait until the class begins though). Maybe you can ask if you can write a review article in the style of a publication in something like Scientific American to maximize the course usefulness to you.

[rising_star]

Having to write a review article isn't a bad thing. Being able to write one means that you'll have a good command of the scientific literature about a particular topic. It's possible that (with the permission of the professor obviously) you could tailor your review as one written for a lay audience, rather than for a scientific journal. Such a "lay" review might be something that would be in the New York Times magazine or a similar publication. If you go the more academic route, you would definitely be making progress on the literature review for your thesis, which can be a difficult and time-consuming task given the volume of extant literature about or related to many topics.

 

As TakeruK has said, it's unlikely that any review article that you write in one semester will be ready for publication at the end of the term. Also, it might be worth considering whether the employers and positions you're interested in outside of academia will value publications, particularly in the area(s) of your expertise. I've seen job ads that seem to explicitly want someone with prior publications, though I'm not in your field...

[ss2player]

Thanks for the thoughts, y'all! 

 

I chatted with some classmates and my PI, and I'll be taking the course. I figure if I don't like it, I can drop it and take one of the courses in the spring. As was pointed out, it should help with my thesis even if it's not publishable, and I like the idea of also doing a lay version in case I want to go into science writing as a career. My thesis work is in a rather esoteric type of brain tumor that isn't well studied, so a review might already be needed! I should note I very much intend to publish original articles (hell, I need at least one 1st author to graduate), I just wasn't sure of the benefits of a review article outside of academic circles.

 

If anyone else has any thoughts, would still love to hear them! Dog knows I'll sure need pointers come the fall term when the class starts.

[rising_star]

Oh, review articles are awesome if you can get them published. They end up getting cited way more often than most experimental or case study articles. Others will cite your review paper and consult the references you use to write their own lit reviews in the future. One of the things I'd love to do one day is co-author a review article because it'll totally up my citation count.

[shadowclaw]

I was assigned a review paper for one of my classes during my masters. The professor told us she would love if we persued publication after the course was over, but we weren't required to. It ended up being an excellent way to get a really good background on research related to my thesis topic, and I actually used a lot of it when I wrote my thesis. It made an excellent introductory chapter. While writing a review isn't the easiest thing in the world, getting all of that information in your head and on paper for future reference is invaluable.