PWR

Everyone, no matter what their field, needs the ability to communicate effectively in a range of situations. Academic and professional success depend upon it. Stanford's President, John Hennessy, a computer scientist and electrical engineer, once put it this way: 

"[In college] we had a notion that engineers had to know how to use slide rules or calculators or computers but not how to write. And that is the biggest falsehood you could possibly perpetrate on young people. I think writing and rhetoric -- public speaking -- are the two most valuable skills across any discipline in any field."

Nicholas Jenkins, Faculty Director of PWR, asked ten members of Stanford's faculty in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering about the importance of communication in their disciplines and about why writing matters to them.

Ravi Vakil, Mathematics

"I think in mathematics writing is probably more central than it is to other fields."

Deborah M. Gordon, Biology

"There's nothing special about science which lifts us out of the need to communicate."

Susan Holmes, Statistics

"Narrative is the best model of communication between people."

Julie Kennedy, Environmental Earth System Science

“The more you take care with your writing, the more you explore uncertainties in your thinking.”

Susan McConnell, Biology

“I try to use language that is rich in metaphors.”

Mark Kasevich, Physics and Applied Physics

“The challenge is really to find appropriate analogies that a lay person is familiar with.”

Christopher Edwards, Mechanical Engineering

“You use writing as the means to actually complete the distillation of the technical work.”

Margot Gerritsen, Energy Resources Engineering

“If you really want to understand something, write it down.”

Richard Zare, Chemistry

“Scientific results are nothing until they are communicated.”

Mehran Sahami, Computer Science

“Computer scientists need to write in an understandable way for people in other fields.”