Academic Writing in English (Online)

Course description

In this course, we will introduce writing techniques that you can use to communicate your message as clearly and concisely as possible. After learning the techniques in class, you will immediately apply them to your current article and you will receive personal feedback every week. You will develop the confidence to become an equal player in discussions about writing with your peers and superiors. 

Learning objectives

You will learn to assess your own and others’ writing, with a focus on clarity and conciseness. You will learn to craft better sentences and paragraphs in English, to create logical flow in paragraphs, to reduce wordiness and to improve readability. You will learn to use the appropriate tone and to nuance with tenses and verb structures. We also review grammar, punctuation and vocabulary issues and discuss American vs British.

Instructional method

This course consists of lectures and discussions. You will receive individual feedback from the trainer online. We recommend this course especially to PhD candidates in their first or second year who want to develop strategies on how to write understandable, clear academic English. To take full advantage of the course, you will need to work extensively on your own writing; participants report spending at least 4 hours spread out over the week between each session. You may need to or choose to spend significantly more than 4 hours a week on your writing during this course, especially if you do not have a rough draft. We strongly recommend that you have a rough draft (a first version) in hand at the start of the course. Participants will be asked to submit a methods section (or a part thereof) within 24 hours after the first session. (We will work on Methods in Week 1, Results in Week 2, Introduction in Week 3, etc.)

Trainer

Taylor Krohn

Group Size

10 to 12 participants

Number of credits

1.8 EC

Course schedule

Study load

In addition to the scheduled sessions, you should take into account an extra study load of approximately 30 hours in total. This study load generally consists of homework assignments in preparation for the next session.

Course certificate

You will receive a course certificate if you attend at least five full course sessions and participate fully in the discussion and revision process. You cannot miss the first session.

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, but at least 80%. It is mandatory to attend the first session. If you are absent the first session you cannot follow the remaining of the course;
• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€ 280). 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.

The trainer made me aware of few (but essential!) rules in scientific writing and how to benefit from it

It has changed my writing significantly and therefore incredibly improved my scientific output quality. I think this course should be strongly encouraged for all PhD candidates.

My writing really improved after following this course!