Paul Schmidt

The Professor as a Writer

About the Professor

Professor Schmidt received a PhD from Brown University. He is currently an associate professor of biology at Penn; he does research on how variation in the abiotic and biotic environment affects the evolutionary dynamics of specific phenotypes and genotypes in natural populations.

Personal Writing Process

Professor Schmidt takes a few weeks to write an article. He only writes when he has a long period of time available to work, rather than writing in small chunks as his research unfolds. He feels strongly that a hypothesis should be explanatory, rather than persuasive, for the task of the biologist is to observe and interpret results of an experiment.

GENRES

Textbook Chapters (for undergraduate and graduate students)
Research Articles (for other evolutionary biologists)

MORE INFORMATION AND WRITING EXAMPLES

Professor Schmidt's Faculty Page