"Positive action not positive
discrimination"
Dear Researchers (Broad Life Sciences research areas)
As part of its SFI-funded Women in Science Engineering and Technology (WiSET) initiative, UCC is organising a scientific writing skills course in conjunction with the Health Research Board (HRB) aimed at early stage academics, post-doctoral fellows and postgraduates based in the broad life science disciplines (e.g. biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, pharmacy, medicine, occupational/speech therapies, nursing, ZEPS etc.)
The course is a 1 ½ day training programme for those involved in writing scientific papers, theses and proposals. A more detailed course outline is given below.
The first ½ day session is lecture style and we can accommodate upto 60 participants. The second part of the course is a 1 day workshop and can accommodate 20 participants per session. As a result, we are holding repeat sessions of the second part of the course on 3 successive days to ensure that all of the 60 participants can attend.
The course is being funded by the Health Research Board and the UCC WiSET initiative.
Researchers interested in attending the
course must apply through the HRB eGrants system. Details about the
application forms & guidelines can be found at:
http://www.hrb.ie/display_content.php?page_id=120&div_id=5
The deadline for applications to the HRB is 30th March 2007.
Although, this course is part-funded under UCC’s WiSET initiative, the course is not restricted to women researchers.
Yours sincerely,
Ruth Davis.
Description of Training Programme
A 1 ½ day training programme for writers and supervisors of papers and theses, organised by the Office of the Vice-President for Research, University College, Cork and sponsored by the SFI-funded Women in Science Engineering and Technology Initiative, the Tyndall National Institute and the Boole Centre for Research in Informatics.
Programme is aimed at early stage academics, post-doctoral fellows and postgraduates
Tuesday 22nd May 2007; Venue: Hayfield
Manor Hotel – Conference Room
Content and style for scientific writing
14.00 Registration
14.15 Welcome and Introduction Dr Anne Cody, HRB
14.20 WRITING GRANT APPLICATIONS A speaker from The Wellcome Trust
15.05 WRITING FOR JOURNALS Dr Stuart Spencer, The Lancet
15.50 Coffee Break
16.05 WRITING FOR THE REFEREE: MAKING A CONVINCING CASE Prof. Rosemary O'Connor, UCC
16.50 QUESTIONS and ANSWERS
17.00 Close
Wednesday (23rd May), Thursday (24th
May), Friday (25th May) 2007; Venue: Council Room (North Wing of the Quad)
Style for accurate and readable academic writing
Tutors: Peter Hunt; John Kirkman
20 attendees maximum/day
Programme
0900–0915 Self-introductions by seminar members.
0915–1000 Lecture/discussion: Preparing to write readably.
Developing the appropriate ‘mental set’; writing in a way that is accurate and readable, and
brings credibility and esteem.
1010–1100 Lecture/exercise: Making language-processing as easy as possible.
Delivering information in manageable sentences; considering accuracy, information load,
readability, and tone.
1100–1120 COFFEE
1120–1205 Lecture/exercise: Choosing words wisely (1).
Creating ‘comfortable’ text by judicious mixing of specialist terms and ‘plain English’.
1215–1300 Lecture/exercise: Choosing words wisely (2).
Avoiding excessive ‘nominalisation’ (for example, writing reducing instead of achieving a
reduction).
1300–1345 LUNCH
1345–1440 Lecture/exercise: The heart of the matter: verbs.
Stating what you did and what happened, not what was performed and what was observed to
have occurred.
1450–1540 Lecture/exercise: Points on punctuation.
Using punctuation marks as skilfully as you use intonation, pace, and stress in speech.
1540–1600 TEA
1600–1620 Open forum:
An opportunity to raise questions you’ve always wanted to ask about accurate, readable, and
acceptable scientific writing.
1620-1700 Exercise: Reviewing and revising text.
NOTE: The ‘Open Forum’ (1600–1620)
will provide an opportunity for you to raise questions about aspects of
style we have not dealt with elsewhere in the programme. You are welcome to
bring actual examples of problems, but the example material must be short
and non-confidential so that there will be no difficulty in discussing the
point briefly in the group as a whole.