Despite versus In Spite Of?

Answer: does not matter.

References:
English4all
Grammar Girl

One of the shortest posts of all time! No, this is too short. Lets try another one.

Irregardless versus Regardless

Answer: regardless, because irregardless is not a word. This is elegantly pointed out several times in the 2006 cinematic masterpiece "Puff, Puff, Pass" by the character played by Danny Masterson.

Clarification
Irregardless is a nonstandard word. Meaning it is in the dictionary as common use, but not a proper word. Check out the Grammar Girl post on dictionary word usage stemming from the irregardless debate.

Commentary Pieces

I recently came across a post on a colleague's blog asking what "hard skills" training do you wish you had learned as PhD student? Not surprisingly, the first skill the professor identified was effective writing. Digging deeper I noticed that effective writing was not just limited to peer reviewed manuscripts, but what might be considered commentary pieces. Commentary pieces can be best defined as your opinion on a given subject. Certain disciplines are more akin to this type of writing than others. political science and economics jump to mind. These disciplines often have a fast paced structure where opinions are expected to influence decisions. Fields like geology have their heyday whenever there is an earthquake or a volcano and someone from the USGS comes and assures us its not the end of the world, otherwise, commentary articles in geology seem to move at a glacial pace compared to political science.

If you find yourself in a situation where you think that your opinion is valuable to an ongoing debate, proceed with caution. Think hard about what format (e.g., blog, op-ed) you want to your opinion in and who your audience will be. Also, writing a commentary piece is different than writing a manuscript. Check out this commentary piece writing guide by the Pembina Institute on when to use commentary pieces, tips, and writing process.

Impact Factors

Deciding on which academic journal to submit your research to can be tough.  Several influences can play into this decision.
A good series of questions to when considering a journal might be as follows:
-How much does it cost to publish?
-Does your paper have color figures?  If so, does this cost more?
-Do they provide open access?
-Do you know any of the editors? Does your professor know/is an editor?
-Are they a predatory publisher?
-Likely the most important question to be asking yourself is what journal Impact Factor (IF) will you be going for? This is a question that I think you should have as a discussion with your supervisors. So you don't come to the discussion empty handed I would suggest creating a list like to the one below for your field. Make sure to include the journals that your supervisors publish in.  Short list a few, discuss further, and pick a winner.

List of Suitable Journals for Paleolimnology with Impact Factors (IFs) (5 year average when available)

-Journal of Paleolimnology (IF: 1.89)

-Environmental Reviews (IF: 3.77)

-Canadian Journal of Forest Research (IF: 1.95)

-Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (IF: 3.021)

-Canadian Journal of Earth Science (IF: 1.16)

-Boreas (IF: 1.91)

-Geology (IF: 4.03)

-The Holocene (IF: 2.56)

-Quaternary Research (IF: 2.58)

-Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology (IF: 2.99)

-Climate of the Past (IF: 2.82)

-Conservation Biology (IF: 3.90)

-Journal of Quaternary Science (IF: 2.31)
-Conservation Letters (IF: 4.08)
-Landscape Ecology (IF: 3.06)
-Ecography (IF: 4.188)
-Nature Geoscience (IF: 8.115)
-Ecosystems (IF: 3.50)

-Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (IF: 2.213)

Remembering Daily Oral Language (DOL)

I recently stumbled on an article that took me back to the days of Elementary School.  Remembering back to 4th grade where my biggest daily fear took place.  Not the rope in gym class, the dreaded Daily Oral Language or DOL.  At the beginning of every English class we would take out our journals and stare into the overhead at we memorized and were tested on some aspect of grammar.  I hated it.

While I hated DOL, it has been shown to be an effective way to teach grammar rules.  Since I graduated Elementary School some teachers have had the notion that grammar can be taught as a co-benefit in teaching other Elementary School English subjects like vocabulary, sentence structure, or style. Not the case, teaching grammar rules explicitly like in my hated DOL past has been shown to be the best approach for grammar knowledge overtime. So, thank you Miss. Johnson.  I owe you what foundational grammar knowledge I have.  I still hate the gym rope.

Read the article here.

I have informed you thusly. Merry Xmas.

Sheldon is a character on the hit TV show "The Big Bang Theory" and upon being proved right in a episode he exalted, "I have informed you thusly", instead of the usual, "I told you so" (buy the T-Shirt here). The word "thusly" protrudes from this exhalation like a sore thumb. Is thusly even a word?  Turns out, thusly is a word, just a superfluous one. Thusly stands out as one of those words that gets circled in your 100-level undergraduate essay with the marking,  "non-standard" or "colloquial".  If your teacher has marked your essay in this way because they believe thusly not to be a word, then they are perpetuating a semantic misconception.  Thusly is not the only example of this.  Funnest is perhaps the most funnest of the semantic misconceptions.  There are more, along with a a host of common English usage misconceptions found in this well constructed Wikipedia page.  The page even explains the misconception, "Xmas" is a secular plan to take the Christ out of Christmas.

Science and the English Language

A good reminder about writing and communication skills from political writer George Orwell distilled by blogger Lewis Spurgin.

-Skip to the end for list

The Art of Memo Writing

Your relationship with your PhD supervisor is not likely one just based on yearly reviews, rather bi-weekly or monthly supervisory meetings (aka progress reports) and memos.  Memos are meant to update your supervisor with your work and allow him or her to provide direction on a particular issue you might be having.

 Recently, supervisor Mark Jaccard in another research group (EMRG) in my department, had these 6 guidelines on memos.

Good memos share similar characteristics in that they:
1) are short and to the point
2) remind the advisor of what you are working on
3) identify the specific issue
4) present some pros and cons on the issue
5) present a recommendation (while identifying uncertainty)
6) use excellent tables/figures where applicable.

Following these guidelines will help ensure that your professor is making efficient use of their time, while continuing to to make sure that you have enough direction and support to make timely progress on your research.

Shut up and Write!

An interesting idea I saw recently on The Thesis Whisperer blog is the shut up and write concept.  Basically, it turns what usually is a solo activity into a group event.  Check it out, maybe writing by yourself in a group setting is what can work for you.