How to give a scientific talk, present a poster, and write a research paper or proposal.

■ INTRODUCTION Half of a chemist’s job is oral and written communication. A professional chemist, in any employment sector, has to communicate clearly in writing and orally every day. A chemist has to write reports and manuscripts to communicate research findings (research that is not written-up is useless) and has to present “talks” to communicate research in progress. Too often, chemists (and other scientists) are given almost no instruction in communication. The following presents some suggestions on how to give scientific talks and posters and on how to get started writing research papers or proposals. This article gives my opinions as gleaned from 45 years of reading the scientific literature, helping to edit Environmental Science & Technology, sitting through thousands of scientific talks, and viewing hundreds of scientific posters. These opinions are intended to jump-start your thinking about how to write and to present chemistry. They are not intended to replace the ACS Style Guide and other how-to-write books, such as From Research to Manuscript: A Guide to Scientif ic Writing, Write Like a Chemist: A Guide and Resource, and The Craf t of Scientif ic Communication. These are all useful books and should be used as resources. However, in my opinion, they are all too long to be of primary use to the average chemist (particularly the average student). In addition, none of these books pay sufficient attention to the preparation of scientific talks and posters, an activity that is as important as writing in the career of most chemists. My intended audience includes advanced undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral research associates, and junior faculty. I hope that each of these groups will find something useful here that will improve their communication skills. Only about half of what I have to say here is original. Brief (and unabstracted) articles about writing scientific papers and giving scientific talks have appeared in Chemical & Engineering News, and I have borrowed ideas from them.