Scientific writing course for PhD candidates

The aim of this workshop is to learn about clear and concise writing and to motivate each other to communicate our science in the best possible way!

Mathew Stiller-Reeve will lead us through an exciting week of writing advice, group discussions and individual work.

You will have the opportunity to bring a piece of your own writing and develop it throughout the week. We will start with some concise lectures on writing skills and tips that you can apply directly to your own texts. We will cover topics like structure, flow, active voice and cutting clutter. We will also discuss different sections of a scientific article and how to construct a powerful title. All these activities will be spread across the week to give as much time as possible for your own writing! Mathew will guide the activities and be there the whole week for individual and group discussions.

Mathew has a lot of experience with peer-learning with the writing groups he has previously set up. In this workshop, we will develop a community of peer-learning and collaboration around writing. You will be put into small discussion groups to discuss your writing processes and practice giving each other constructive feedback and ideas.

You are free to choose what type of text you want to work on during the week, but priority will be given to scientific articles. If you want to work on something else, like your PhD introductions, then make sure you let us know in the registration form*.

Participants

PhD candidates enrolled in the PhD program at the Department of Informatics.

Schedule

More detailed content will be provided after the registration deadline. The content will be tailored to the participants’ background and where they are in the writing process. Please try and clear your schedule for this week. The more you are involved, the more you will get out of the workshop. The times given below are indicative. All activities will be held at the Department of Informatics.

Monday 23.11. 9-16, Tuesday 24.11. - Friday 27.11. 9-14

The instructor

Mathew Stiller-Reeve has a PhD in Meteorology and has published several peer-reviewed articles on the monsoon as well as interdisciplinary and communication issues. He founded the SciSnack writing community in 2012 when he developed a collaborative writing process and helped start several writing groups around the world. He and 12 international co-authors published this process in 2016, and since then it has been used by summer schools and communication initiatives around the world. Recently, he has become a Thematic Editor of the Geoscience Communication journal and has developed a peer-review process that he recently published on Nature.com. He has held many writing seminars and courses over the past 3 years, both in Uganda and Norway.

*Registration is now closed and participants have been informed about their place on the course.