Bioletim Script for Science Communication
In 1993, when a group of undergrads in biology from the (Federal) University of Rio de Janeiro created the BIOLETIM journal, we were aiming to provide a space where students could write about their research, to become familiar with the ‘art’ of article publication.
Open parentheses: Art? No, writing is not an art, neither is a natural talent that you are born either with or without. Writing is practicing! Is training! It is not inspiration, it is transpiration! But at that time we didn’t know that and still many student don’t know that. It is common, for example, to see on the chronograph of a thesis project, the last two months ‘reserved’ for the manuscript preparation. But when the time arrives, the student sit in front of the computer kind of waiting for ‘divine illumination’ to control their fingers to put characters in the computer screen in a way that they make sense. A kind of psychography. Close parentheses.
When in 2007 we published the BIOLETIM online version which should be even more publication friendly (we can’t forget that a printed journal is much more expensive than a online one), we thought that we would have thousands of submissions. But it didn’t really happen like that. We had a beautiful, high tech website, but we had no authors.
There are many reasons for that, but one of these is, I’m sure, that writing is more difficult for the students than they actually think!
That’s why we created a script to get the students out of inertia, out of the ‘writer’s block’. The script is available online in Portuguese at the BIOLETIM website. (you need to register and loggin to access)
But when I was preparing one of my ISMEE classes, I thought that this script could be useful not only to Brazilian students, but for everyone. Thus, we created and English version. I really liked the result! The file is an electronic form in .doc format and is available to download here.
The ‘BIOLETIM script’ is strong influenced by the ‘Autoria (authorship)‘ method (only in portuguese), created by Sonia Rodrigues and if you want to practice even more your writing, we strongly recommend the ‘Almanaque da Rede’ (only in Portuguese) which I have already mentioned hereaqui.
Download the script and write your science communication article. If you have any doubts or comments, write it in here and we will get back to you. We will be flattered if after that you send your article to be published at the BIOLETIM.
Open parentheses: Art? No, writing is not an art, neither is a natural talent that you are born either with or without. Writing is practicing! Is training! It is not inspiration, it is transpiration! But at that time we didn’t know that and still many student don’t know that. It is common, for example, to see on the chronograph of a thesis project, the last two months ‘reserved’ for the manuscript preparation. But when the time arrives, the student sit in front of the computer kind of waiting for ‘divine illumination’ to control their fingers to put characters in the computer screen in a way that they make sense. A kind of psychography. Close parentheses.
When in 2007 we published the BIOLETIM online version which should be even more publication friendly (we can’t forget that a printed journal is much more expensive than a online one), we thought that we would have thousands of submissions. But it didn’t really happen like that. We had a beautiful, high tech website, but we had no authors.
There are many reasons for that, but one of these is, I’m sure, that writing is more difficult for the students than they actually think!
That’s why we created a script to get the students out of inertia, out of the ‘writer’s block’. The script is available online in Portuguese at the BIOLETIM website. (you need to register and loggin to access)
But when I was preparing one of my ISMEE classes, I thought that this script could be useful not only to Brazilian students, but for everyone. Thus, we created and English version. I really liked the result! The file is an electronic form in .doc format and is available to download here.
The ‘BIOLETIM script’ is strong influenced by the ‘Autoria (authorship)‘ method (only in portuguese), created by Sonia Rodrigues and if you want to practice even more your writing, we strongly recommend the ‘Almanaque da Rede’ (only in Portuguese) which I have already mentioned hereaqui.
Download the script and write your science communication article. If you have any doubts or comments, write it in here and we will get back to you. We will be flattered if after that you send your article to be published at the BIOLETIM.
ISMEE's diary. Sunday, October the 24th. 2nd day.
The day started at 10am. Despite his name, Stevens Rehen was born in Rio. Today he is the head of National Lab of Stem Cells research at UFRJ. Who better than one of the 100th most promising young researchers in the world to talk about the challenges of the academic career? He discussed cases involving responsibility, authorship and ethics in science and finished his talk with a quote from the Brazilian poet Ferreira Goulart: “I do not want to be right, I want to be happy.”
The ‘Blue Amazon Cultural Centre‘ has a prime location, literally inside the Anjos’ beach, so nobody felt the need to go somewhere else for lunch, and the ‘brunch’ became the perfect integration for the group.
We return 14h. The writer Sonia Rodrigues has published over 20 books and has a lot of experience in teaching people how to write. Today she is launching a new book while coordinating the ‘Network Almanac‘ a initiative involving the Internet, writing and physics teaching.
“If you follow these simple tips will never have a writer’s block.”
She talked about the narrative model and the seven questions, the ‘seven magic’ , that help students to organize ideas to say whatever they want to say. The good thing about Sonia is that in the end of her classes everyone writes!
We finished the day with an unusual class, but one that should be present in any scientific meeting: ballroom dancing. Without knowing it, while playing Samba and Forró students were learning posture, balance and corporal perception. Very Important!
Visit the ISMEE’s youtube channel
The ‘Blue Amazon Cultural Centre‘ has a prime location, literally inside the Anjos’ beach, so nobody felt the need to go somewhere else for lunch, and the ‘brunch’ became the perfect integration for the group.
We return 14h. The writer Sonia Rodrigues has published over 20 books and has a lot of experience in teaching people how to write. Today she is launching a new book while coordinating the ‘Network Almanac‘ a initiative involving the Internet, writing and physics teaching.
“If you follow these simple tips will never have a writer’s block.”
She talked about the narrative model and the seven questions, the ‘seven magic’ , that help students to organize ideas to say whatever they want to say. The good thing about Sonia is that in the end of her classes everyone writes!
We finished the day with an unusual class, but one that should be present in any scientific meeting: ballroom dancing. Without knowing it, while playing Samba and Forró students were learning posture, balance and corporal perception. Very Important!
Visit the ISMEE’s youtube channel
