Academic writing - How to create good texts
Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen
This is a generic course. This means that the course is reserved for PhD students at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at the Graduate School, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrolment deadline, available seats will be allocated to the waiting list.
The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD students at NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
1. get tools as to articulating even complex data clearly and comprehensibly
2. get knowledge about how to coherently built up and convincingly formulate academic texts
Content
For many young scientists writing is the most difficult part of research work. Poor structure, breakneck formulations and unclear argumentation lead to texts which are not too user friendly. However, for the success of academics it is essential that the content is successfully conveyed to the relevant target groups – from the subject community to the wider public.
The methods and instruments of scientific writing can be learnt. With a few select mechanisms for structuring and techniques for building arguments, it becomes possible to articulate even complex data clearly and comprehensibly. Coherently built up and convincingly formulated, even academic texts can be an exciting read!
In this course the process of academic writing is highlighted from the first idea through the structuring and formation of the text to its completion. The participants engage with the content related, formal and organisational aspects of writing and train their text competency with exercises. The course offers both synchronous and asynchronous elements: Live in-person lectures provide content and the opportunity for questions, exercises allow participants to apply the theory, and in group discussions, participants can share their experience. Finally, the course offers the opportunity for individual “meetings” with the trainer.
The following topics are covered:
- Abstract, article, thesis: Text types and reasons for writing in academia
- From idea to text: Topic selection, structure, argumentation
- Rummaging, digging, serving it hot: Research strategies
- Writing as a process: Utilising creative bursts – avoiding blocks
- The eye reads too: Convention and form
- Academic writing: My next steps
Participants
PhD students
Relevance to graduate programmes
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:
- Pharmaceutical Sciences (Drug Research Academy)
- All graduate programmes
Language
English
Form
Lectures, discussions, group work, exercises and role-play
Course director
Petrine Wellendorph, professor, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, pw@sund.ku.dk Name,
Teachers
Dr.-Ing. Bartlett Warren-Kretzschmar, Golin Wissenschaftsmanagement, Berlin [Germany]
Dr.-Ing. Bartlett Warren-Kretzschmar, Hanover, was born in New York and studied Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Cornell University.
She has been teaching courses in landscape architecture and environmental planning at both American and German universities for the past forty years. At the Leibniz University in Hanover, she has taught and researched for 30 years.
Moreover, she was a guest professor in the international Master of Landscape Architecture programme at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Bernburg and professor in the Bioregional Planning Programme at Utah State University, where she also offered courses in research skills and scientific writing, as well as communication and rhetoric.
Dates
9-10 December 2024
Course location
PharmaSchool, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2/Jagtvej 160, 2100 Copenhagen
Registration
Please register before 1 November 2024
Expected frequency
4-6 times per year
Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.
Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.