Science and Communication
A graduate seminar from the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program built for students in the marine science PhD program who need a wider lens on their thesis work. The first half tackles big questions about how science actually operates, the nature of evidence, and how researchers frame their own work within a larger scientific tradition. The second half treats science as a social enterprise, focusing on the practical craft of written and oral communication: how to structure a paper, present findings to peers, and defend a research argument. Course materials from MIT OpenCourseWare include the syllabus, readings, and assignments used in the seminar. It is aimed at advanced students already doing original research, using their own thesis projects as the material for discussion rather than lecturing on communication theory in the abstract.