• Question: Do you have to do loads of writing in your job?

    Asked by 536terb28 to Angeline, Catherine, Luke, Philip, Shona on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Angeline Burrell

      Angeline Burrell answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Yes I do! I update my research notebook several times a week, and I write journal articles and grant or fellowship proposals. I don’t have to do a lot of the last two right now, but I try to write a bit for journal articles every day. Sometimes that’s hard because I feel like I don’t understand my data well enough, but it does help.

    • Photo: Shona Whittam

      Shona Whittam answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      I had to do quite a lot of writing up project work on my degrees to get this job
      Now I’m in the job and no longer studying there is less writing. Any writing I do at work is collaborative so I have help writing. For example, if we have a new technique or get a new piece of equipment I might need to write a work instruction so other people know how to use it. I also might need write a paper or make a poster to to show off the work I did at a conference.

    • Photo: Philip Moriarty

      Philip Moriarty answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Yes — a lot! Even though I’m a physicist, the majority of my time is spent on words rather than numbers. I recently wrote a blog post on the importance of writing because its something that some physics students try to avoid. (And I’m afraid they can’t avoid it, no matter how hard they try). Here’s the post: http://physicsfocus.org/moriarty-physicists-punctuation-communication/

    • Photo: Catherine Vlahakis

      Catherine Vlahakis answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Yes, I have to do tons of writing in my job. I write a _lot_ of emails. Plus reports, journal articles, applications for telescope time etc etc. I spend most of my day typing at my laptop.

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