Course Description

Welcome!

GUIDE TO SCIENTIFIC WRITING I 
Course code: GSW1E


In this 3-hour introductory workshop, students are presented with some tools of the trade from a professional science and medical writer.

Guide to Scientific Writing I is designed to develop your scientific writing skills for lab and research reports, essays, and other written assignments during your degree course.


You can preview some course content from the free access modules below.


Course objectives:
1. Students develop better communication skills using concise, clear scientific language through instruction and practical exercises.

2. Students become self-learners and learn to use relevant information and advice from handouts, links, and references to external material.

More about ScienceSkills.net courses
Today's university students are very much aware of the high standard of scientific writing expected of them. Unfortunately, there is limited space in the academic timetable to teach them how to develop this skill. Your first literature review, as an example, will be especially challenging, and you are likely unsure of what is required (see workshop "How to Write a Scientific Literature Review.")


Why are ScienceSkills.net writing courses different, better, or relevant to you?

Simple - the instructor's research background and experience teaching scientific writing skills. Read Dr Kirsop's biography below.

Thank you for enrolling
Thank you very much for enrolling as a student, and welcome to our ever-growing community.

We do hope that you enjoy this workshop and that you recommend it to others.

Instructor

Allison Kirsop

Allison gained a Ph.D. in bio-inorganic chemistry from the University of Edinburgh, UK in 2008.  As a research chemist, she successfully designed antiviral drugs against HIV and drug delivery mechanisms for bone cancer and diabetes. Allison is an active member of the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) and holds an appointed position on the Executive Committee. She served for three years in the EMWA Freelance Business Group, and in 2022 she helped to establish an EMWA Special Interest Group for Entrepreneurship. #EMWAEPSIG

Course curriculum

  • 1

    A Guide to Scientific Writing I

    • READ THIS FIRST: online workshop preamble

    • INSTRUCTIONS: how to navigate

    • Course title

    • Course content

    • Lesson 1: Sentence structure

    • Instructions for downloading pdf for Watson and Crick paper

    • Exercise 1: Examples

    • Exercise 1 (online form)

    • Exercise 1: Discussed

    • Quiz: Clear and concise writing

    • Lesson 2A: Improving your language skills

    • Lesson 2B: Useful references

    • Lesson 2C: Ambiguity

    • Exercise 2 (online form)

    • Exercise 2: Discussed

    • Ambiguity quiz

    • Lesson 3A: Tables and figures

    • Lesson 3B: Formatting tables

    • Lesson 3C: Formatting figures

    • Exercise 3: notes

    • Exercise 3: Formatting Tables and Figures for a Scientific Paper/Thesis

    • Exercise 3 Answers: Table 1

    • Exercise 3 Answers: Figure 1

    • Designing an Illustration

    • Lesson 4 preamble and update

    • Lesson 4: Plagiarism, citations, and bibliographies

    • Exercise in Practical Writing Skills

    • Workshop evaluation form

    • Mendeley tutorial video

    • Grammarly tutorial video
  • 2

    Valuable tips and resources

    • 5 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your Work

    • Words and Phrases to Avoid

    • Supplementary Material: Plagiarism

Reviews

4 star rating

A good introduction to scientific writing

Anna Herz

This course was very clear and concise, however I wish there had been examples/exercises on how to write figure descriptions. I thought the length of the cou...

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This course was very clear and concise, however I wish there had been examples/exercises on how to write figure descriptions. I thought the length of the course was good for an introductory course. Update from instructor: Thanks Anna - these changes have been made and the workshop now includes worked examples of a table and figure.

Read Less

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