Lecture 3 Flashcards
Science Writing
Active vs. Passive Voice
- Both are okay, use when needed
Ex. The boy kicks the ball (Active)
The ball is kicked by the boy (Passive)
- Same for first (active) and third (passive) person
Subject-verb Separation
- When possible, put the subject and verb close together in the sentence
- Material in between subject and verb are interruptive and are given less importance
- Scientists like to use interruptive text to provide bakground and context
References
For academic and scientific purposes
- avoids plagiarism
- ackowledges source material
- demonstrates effort to identify material
- current work in context of previous studies
- provide strength to argument
How many Scientific Methods?
zero-many
- science often progresses without the use of the scientific method
- there are many versions of the scientific method and they are all equal
Similarities and Differences of Scientific Methods
- seek to explain some observations
- invoke hypotheses and use experiments
- base conclusions on comparisons between results and predictions
- differences largely cosmetic and involve jargon
- most are less explicit compared to the ‘classic’ version
Why use classic
- logical and explicit
- not overly complicated
- applicable to every branch
- highly successful in the past
Science is trying to demonstrate and determine if a particular claim about the natural world is true
Scientific Argument
- An argument; use reasoning to provide support for a conclusion
- supporting reasons also known as premises
- one or more premises are used for support
- must have at least one premise and one conclusion
- sometimes multiple premises
Premises and Conclusions
Premises: since, the reason being, because, due to the fact that
Conclusion: thus, therefore, consequently, as a result
Inductive Arguement
All ducks in the pond are white, therefore all ducks are white
“inductive reasoning”
Use your observations of a pattern to produce a generalized pattern
- no explicit use of a hypothesis
- creates generalizations from a sample
- not truth-preserving
Hypo-deductive reasoning
- involves a hypothesis
- is used to produce a prediction
- if well-stated, leads to a valid conclusion (prediction)
- this is truth-preserving
- If the bulb burned out, and I flip the switch on and off, then the light should not turn back on
Abductive Arguments
- Given all of the evidence, what explanation is likely to be correct
- used when you compare results and predictions to determine whether an explanation has support or not
- consistent with the scientific method
- based on assessing evidence against predictions to judge utility of hypotheses
- retains a chance of in correctness
Objective view of the world
- there are definitive properties of the universe we live in
- our ability to perceive and describe these properties are limited by our senses
- there is always a chance that we have it wrong
Scientific Implications
- nothing is known with absolute certainty
- everything is known with varying degrees of certainty
- strongest conclusion; very nearly certain something is true or false
- words like ‘proven’ ‘fact’ ‘true’ are usually avoided unless accompanied by a qualifier
- scientific knowledge is not a cultural construct and is open to revision if we get new/better data
Hypothesis Tests
- Objective: provide support for or against the hypothesis of interest
- relevant to the hypothesis
- has a clearly defined response variable
controlled
produces unique predictions - replicated
- practical and ethical
Observational Tests
- observations are collected and compared to predicted results
- no active manipulation of the system is involved
- a well-designed observational study often chooses subjects based on some defining characteristic
- useful to study questions that have variables that are not easily manipulated
- often correlation in nature
- can be useful for historical studies
- common in medical studies
- unlikely to cause unintended effects
- typically have limited control of other variables
- often faced with ‘correlation does not equal causation’ criticism
