Academic Writing: Effective Strategies for Publishing in English

Responsible person

Frank Lauterbach

Language

English

Workload

30 h attendance time
30 h self-study time

Credits

2

Schedule

26^th and 27^th September, 10^th and 11^th October 2024

9:30 - 17:30

Location

FSR 3.1
Büsgenweg 3

Number of students

16

Registration

Please send an email until 01.09.2024 to gfa@uni-goettingen.de

Seminars objectives: Successful researchers need not only compelling data and ideas but also skills to communicate their research effectively through writing in English. Yet, many academics are unsure about how they can best express themselves, what criteria a well-written English paper needs to fulfill, and how the writing and publication process can be managed most productively.
In this workshop, we will address such fundamental questions. We will, on the one hand, discuss important requirements for developing powerful English sentences, paragraphs, and texts that meet the expectations of readers, reviewers, and editors alike. On the other hand, we are going to work closely with your own work in progress in order to practice how to effectively organize the writing process and how to successfully prepare your papers for publication.

In particular, we will cover the following topics:

• understanding the nature of professional academic writing in English;
• organizing the writing process effectively;
• getting started with writing your text;
• defining the focus and objective of a research paper (or dissertation);
• developing adequate outlines for paper (and other) introductions;
• recognizing the overall organization of research writing;
• presenting and discussing your findings;
• creating powerful abstracts;
• outlining the individual sections of a paper (or other academic texts);
• achieving coherence in your writing;
• presenting and discussing your findings;
• creating powerful abstracts;
• drafting well-focused paragraphs;
• applying the stylistic conventions of academic writing;
• writing clear and concise sentences in English;
• connecting sentences and linking ideas to make a text flow well;
• avoiding some typical grammatical mistakes and pitfalls;
• overcoming potential obstacles or anxieties throughout the writing process.

Requirements: To participate in the workshop, you need to register for the course through the GFA and, after having been accepted into the course, submit one (and only one!) writing sample of yours to the course instructor. This can be a draft of a paper or a part of it (such as an introduction, abstract, etc.). You do not need to have a finished version yet; drafts at any stage of the writing process are perfectly fine.
Please mail your text as a Word-file to the course instructor Frank Lauterbach (frank.lauterbach@posteo.de) at least 10 days before the first workshop meeting (i.e., by Monday, 16 September, 2024). He will then choose appropriate sections for discussion and distribute them to the other course participants. Please note that you should submit a text only after your course registration has been confirmed by the GFA! The course instructor is not in charge of the registration process.

To be eligible for credits (2 ECTS), you need to:

1. email the instructor a piece of your academic writing before the workshop (as explained above; latest date of submission: 16 September, 2024);
2. provide some of your peers with feedback on selected aspects of their writing (in small groups);
3. submit a written reflection after the workshop in which you outline how the course in general and the discussion of your work in particular have helped you rethink and improve your writing.

Admission requirements: Students of GGG or GFA, other PhD students if free places are available