Academic Writing 2: Writing a Scientific Paper with Impact - ONLINE (2024-II)

Course description

This course serves as a continuation of the Academic Writing 1 course, but is also open to GSLS PhD students who possess adequate writing experience already, even if they have not previously completed Academic Writing 1 (see Prerequisites).

The ability to write a scientific paper with impact is crucial for any researcher who aims to communicate their findings effectively and contribute to their field. In the world of science, the quality of research is not solely judged on the merits of the research itself, but also on how well it is communicated. A well-written paper not only ensures that the research is accessible to a wider audience, but it also has the potential to influence future research and shape the direction of a field. Writing a paper with impact requires more than just presenting data; it involves crafting a compelling narrative that connects the findings to existing research, emphasizes their significance, and conveys the broader implications.

The IMRaD structure, consisting of Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion, is widely used in most life science fields for scientific paper writing. This 8-week course delves deeply into the nuances of composing these elements effectively and impactfully, with particular attention to argumentation, storyline, and academic doubt and certainty. Learning in this 8-week course takes place through e-learning modules on the ULearning platform, supplemented with several online meetings.

Important

A Solis-id is a requirement for this course. Please check the website here for more information and how to apply a Solis-id. Make sure, before the start of the course, if your Solis-id works for you.

Learning objectives

This course is a thorough preparation for writing a scientific paper with impact. Specifically, you learn how to:

1. Compose a title with the required elements and in the required style.
2. Identify the relevant “moves” in an abstract, and compose an abstract that finds a balance between simplicity and depth.
3. Identify the relevant “moves” in an introduction section and write an engaging and effective introduction.
4. Identify the relevant “moves” in a method section and compose a clear and concise method section that highlights the quality of the research.
5. Organize a results section with a selection of data relevant to answer the research question, synthesized into patterns that fit the story.
6. Refer to figures and tables with higher-level summaries and big-picture trends, or highlighting striking results.
7. Identify the relevant “moves” in a discussion section and write a convincing and impactful discussion.
8. Improve general skills in writing readable and cohesive texts, and writing in a concise language with a high information density that is still easily understandable.
9. Apply techniques for academic doubt (hedging; being careful when needed) and academic certainty (boosting; being strong when needed), improve argumentation skills, and avoid pitfalls.

Instructional method

You are trained through weekly e-learning modules on the ULearning platform consisting of theory, examples, short knowledge clips, and interactive exercises. Throughout the course, you will also engage in peer feedback, and receive feedback from your teacher. There will be 4 online meetings (each 1 hour long) in which you can get to know your teachers and peers and engage in discussion.

The course consists of the following topics:

• Designing a storyline
• Publication strategies (brief)
• Writing the individual sections: methods, results, introduction, discussion, conclusion, and abstract & title.
• Composing tables & figures (brief)
• Readability and cohesion
• Conciseness
• Academic doubt & certainty
• Argumentation

This course is specially designed for PhD students in the natural and life sciences, and the provided examples will be from natural and life sciences writing.

Prerequisites

To ensure readiness for this course, we require the following prerequisites:

• You should have basic skills in structuring paragraphs, composing readable sentences, writing cohesive texts, and writing in correct English, as taught in Academic Writing 1. If you have not followed Academic Writing 1, you may still join Academic Writing 2 if you have followed any other writing course during your master or PhD program. If, for other reasons, you consider yourself a fairly skilled writer already (for example, if you have already published papers as the first author), please contact Kim Ommering at k.vanommering@uu.nl to discuss whether you can join this course.
• You need to be ready to start writing your paper at the start of the writing course, which means that you should have all your (experimental) results ready and be able to formulate a ½-page draft summary of your research goal, main results, and scientific conclusion in course week 1. In the weeks that follow, we will work on composing all relevant paper sections: title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion (in a different order).    
• You should be able to write a paper in the IMRaD structure or close to this structure, containing most of the above-mentioned sections. Note that it is not a problem if these sections are combined (such as results and discussion together) or otherwise slightly different in your paper structure. Strongly theoretical or mathematical work may not be suitable. Contact contact Kim Ommering at k.vanommering@uu.nl if you doubt whether this course is useful to you.

Trainer

This course will be taught by one of the teachers from the Utrecht University’s Communication Skills Academy (a joint GSNS/GSLS initiative). These teachers have a strong linguistic background and substantial experience with academic writing in the natural and life sciences.

Group Size

10 to 12 participants

Number of credits

1.5 EC

Course schedule

From the start date, learning units will become available each week for you to complete, for a total duration of 8 weeks. In week 2, 4, 6, and 8, there will be online meetings (see data below).

The schedule (date & time) for the online sessions is tentative. 2 months before the start of the course, the schedule will be final.

Meetings are from 10:00-11:30h.

The average amount of time you will need to spend on the course is 5 hours/week. This does not include the time of doing the actual writing for your paper or writing task, but it includes the time needed to improve this writing or undertake specific assignments with it for this course. If you do not have a writing task that you are already doing, this course may take you a little extra time.

Apart from the meetings and a few minor deadlines that may be mid-week (usually when interaction with peers is required in the second half of the week), you are free to plan your course work anywhere in the week as long as you complete the units of the week before the next ones are released on Monday.

Every week one new session will be online for you to follow. You are free to decide what time in the week you will complete the learning unit.

Course certificate

You will receive a course certificate after completing all 8 learning units and being an active participant on the online platform.

Cancellation and No-show policy

This course is free for GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. This is our policy:

• You may cancel free of charge up to 4 weeks before the start of the course. After this date you can only cancel if you have a GSLS PhD candidate to replace you in the course. Send the name and contact information of your replacement to pcc@uu.nl, at least 2 working days before the start of the course;

• We expect that you actively attend the full course. You have to complete the total E-learning.

• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€200). We will send the invoice after the course has ended. We are unable to make any exceptions, unless you have a valid reason (i.e., illness or death in the family 1^st/2^nd degree or partner). Your supervisor has to send an e-mail to pcc@uu.nl indicating the reason.

Unfortunately we don’t offer this course for participants not part of the GSLS. Our courses tend to be fully booked by GSLS PhD candidates.