PhD / Scientific writing and publishing

This course is tailored for PhD students working in science, who wish to improve their writing skills in English. The course emphasizes the importance of simplicity, clarity, and brevity to communicate science in an effective manner. During the course, participants will develop a critical approach towards the recognition of elements that make written communication weaker or stronger. Participants will improve their self-confidence towards the writing of scientific manuscripts, and the communication of science as a whole. Topics include:
 
The importance of simplicity and clarity. Avoiding redundancy in an era of “reading-noise”;
How do we help people to read? A perspective from the brain at work;
The importance of writing short phrases. How to organize information within a paragraph. How to connect phrases and paragraphs;
Active and passive sentences in scientific manuscripts;
'Hollywood storytelling' for the writing of abstracts;
How to structure each section of a manuscript;
Edging and negotiating in the publishing business.

With the skills acquired in this course participants are able to:
Improve their written and oral communication;
Become more confident about writing letters, scientific manuscripts, and organize their data in a logical manner to present a “story”;
Assimilate the backbone of the different sections of scientific manuscript to avoid procrastination about their writing tasks;
Become more critical of written communication.

Dr. Marino Jacopo, LBR, Paul Scherrer Institut

This course is aimed primarily at doctoral researchers in life sciences, geography, and social sciences.

1 ECTS (has to be recognized by your faculty)

New conditions of participation:

• A no-show will lead to a blocked account and the cancellation of all other booked GRC courses.   
• You may only register for two courses per semester.

-> Further conditions