What Is A Pundit or Punditry?

 

The word pundit entered English in 1672 with the meaning "learned Hindu," from a Hindi word for "a learned man" or "teacher." Pundit took on the broader meaning of "expert" in the 19th century.  Now  it seems to mean any self-proclaimed authority with something to say about the news. 

Reporting is supposed to be an objective gathering and presentation of the facts. The reader or the listener is presumed to possess the intelligence needed to process the information and arrive at his/her own conclusions.

"Punditry" is ideological opinion masquerading as objective analysis of the news. Punditry assumes that the average reader or listener can't be trusted to draw the "right" conclusions and must be guided by "pundits." 

The fact that a question can arise regarding the difference between "reporting" and "punditry" is evidence of how much the treatment of news has changed since the days in which straight news reporting and editorial opinion were kept strictly separate.

 

From: Daily Writing Tips

How to Format Block Quotations

 

A block quotation is a distinct body of type set off from the default text (also called the running text), usually distinguished by insertion of line spaces above and below and formatting of a narrower margin (and sometimes even type of a different point size or a distinct font).

When reproducing written text from another source, consider setting the quoted material off from the rest of the content in a block quotation if it

• is more than a hundred words long.
• consists of more than one paragraph.
• is made up of a number of shorter passages (so that it would resemble an indented list without numbers or bullets).
• constitutes a letter or other correspondence, complete with salutation, signature, and the like, or another type of templated form.
• requires any special formatting.

However, determine whether it might be better to simply paraphrase a long quotation in one or more normal paragraphs with perhaps some partial quotations when phrases should be reproduced verbatim.

When the first line of each paragraph in the running text is indented, block quotations of a single paragraph, and the first of multiple paragraphs, are not indented, but subsequent ones should be. When paragraphs in running text are distinguished not by indentation but by line spaces, follow the same format in block quotations.

If the block quotation is inserted in a framing paragraph that continues after the quotation, do not indent the first line of the rest of the paragraph. If paragraphs are set off by line spaces, a new paragraph that immediately follows a block quotation should be separated from the quotation by two line spaces so that the new paragraph is not mistaken for a continuation of the paragraph in which the quotation is inserted.

When a block quotation is the continuation of an introductory sentence, use punctuation or capitalization (or a lack thereof) accordingly. In this case, the quotation is a continuation of the introduction, so no punctuation or capitalization is necessary:

“The writer described the apparition as

a tall, thin wraith of diaphanous constitution, as if made of smoke . . . .”

(Note also that a block quotation is not enclosed in quotation marks; it is assumed that such an excerpt is quoted material.)

If the first word of the quoted material had originally been capitalized (“A tall, thin wraith . . .”), silently correct it, as above; it’s not necessary to call attention to the change, as is sometimes done in specialized contexts (“[a] tall, thin wraith . . .”).

A lead-in line consisting of a complete clause, and the first word of the following quotation, should be treated otherwise:

“The writer described the apparition as follows:

It was a tall, thin wraith of diaphanous constitution, as if made of smoke . . . .”

The same rules hold for run-in quotations (those that are assimilated into the running text):

“The sage says that ‘a fool and his money are soon parted.’” (Though the adage, standing alone, would begin with an uppercase a, it is part of the framing sentence here and must be lowercased; alternatively, you could write, “The sage says, ‘A fool and his money are soon parted.’”)

If the writer wishes to amend or comment on a quotation, several strategies are available:

To clarify that a typographical error is in the original, insert sic (Latin for “thus,” or “so,” and meaning “as originally published”), italicized and in brackets, after the offense. Take care, however, not to employ this term as a textual smirk, and if the quotation is full of unconventional, outdated, or variant spelling, an explanatory note before the quotation is preferable to a quotation repeatedly interrupted by [sic].

When you don’t need the entire quotation to illustrate a point, you may delete irrelevant passages and indicate the elision with ellipsis points. However, it is not necessary to precede or follow a passage with ellipses to indicate that you are not reproducing the entire text from which the excerpt is derived; the reader will assume this.

If you must make comment or clarify a point, enclose the note in brackets, but be as concise as possible, or provide a longer explanatory note outside the quotation.

If you wish to emphasize one or more words or phrases, follow the quotation with the parenthesized note “Italics added” or “Emphasis mine,” or vice versa. But a quotation with extant italicization should be treated differently: Insert the comment in brackets immediately following your emphasis.

From: Daily Writing Tips

If You Want to Explain Your Science to the Public, Here's Some Advice

Recently, Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, urged scientists to share their problem-solving innovations with the public in more accessible ways, including by using vernacular languages. This kind of openness and accessibility is important and needed. While most scientists publish their work in academic journals, only ten people, on average, read a given article in its entirety; so clearly, the general public is not being reached that way.

Translating complicated concepts that are jargon-heavy into terms and ideas the public can understand is not always easy. But, increasingly, scientists, university and research institutions, government institutions, and others are trying to find ways to do it. Professional societies like the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Entomological Society of America offer a wide array of tools and programs like science communication courses and science policy fellowships to help scientists with dissemination. The National Academy of Sciences even recently released a report, “Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda,” to help scientists effectively communicate their research. An example of an international effort is the Imagine Project initiative, through which scientists take their research out of the laboratory and share it with rural and indigenous communities in Africa and Latin America.

These are great initiatives, but many young scientists, including PhD students, post-doctoral scholars, and early-career scientists need more guidance in maneuvering the art of effectively disseminating their science to the public. I witnessed this need first-hand when I recently spoke at Emory University about my research on beneficial soil microbes and their use in agriculture; I mentioned however since I learning the art of writing opinion pieces through participating in a training offered through the Aspen Institute New Voices fellowship, I had written more than 60 opinion pieces that have reached millions of people. The audience of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows clamored to know how they could similarly write about their research for newspapers and reach the kinds of audiences their journal articles never do. I know they are not alone in that desire.


While there are other ways to disseminate academic research to the public, including writing research and policy briefs, sharing it on university and research institutions websites and blogs, my experience of this has been through op-ed writing. This is my advice to scientists who also want to use op-eds to reach the average person:

The first step is to connect the research you are doing or pursuing to a bigger theme. Is it the environment? Climate change? Public health? As an example, my research on beneficial soil microbes ties into several major themes including climate change, food security and soil health.
Secondly, it is important to find the story and storyline in your research. How do the results of your research creatively link and connect to the global challenges facing humanity? Once you have this lined up, it is time to write the piece.

Op-eds are centered around an argument: essentially you are arguing for or against something. So, you must decide on this before you can write the rest of your piece. The core argument should only be a sentence long and stated in a way that is convincing to your readers. Think as you decide on this: What do you want to share with the world? Is it new? Why is it new? Or what is new about it? How is it different from other arguments about the subject theme that have been shared before?

Next, you need to build your evidence to support your argument. Often there are at least three main points of evidence. These pieces of evidence can include statistics and research, quotes from experts in the field, anecdotes and personal stories and news articles. For researchers, this should be easy since your piece will be focused on research findings.


The “to be sure” paragraph is an important part of an opinion piece. In this paragraph, you preempt people who may discount your argument by acknowledging their viewpoint and then by bringing in even more evidence to back up your own argument. This allows you to acknowledge the other side, but still, support your own.

An element of an op-ed that differs greatly from academic writing is the news hook. While often this goes in the first paragraph of the piece, it does not always have to be placed there. What a news hook does is tie your argument and research to the current issues of the day to show how it’s timely and why your research matters right now. This also helps when pitching your piece to editors because they need to know what is new and timely about your piece before deciding to accept it. While a news hook could be a news story, it can also include new research and studies, a new piece of legislation, or a holiday or anniversary of an event or law. A recent personal experience can also be used as a news hook.

The final concluding paragraph is where you summarize all the paragraphs with a catchy and thought-provoking sentence. This is also where you can place your call to action. Why did you spend all that time doing your research? What do you want your readers and decision-makers to do?


Most importantly, always remember to keep everything short and to the point because many media outlets have a word limit that ranges from 500 to 900 words. And then your piece is ready to pitch!
When scientists write and share their work with the public inaccessible ways, that is when the magic happens and we can build bridges between research and society, engage the general public and develop a critical dialogue about the solutions science offers.


The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
 




Esther Ngumbi
From: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/.../if-you-want-to-explain-your-science- to-the-public-heres-some-advice/