However good your science is, if it is not communicated effectively, its value, your value, is lessened. Whether you like it or not, the modern scientist is a professional writer and learning how to do it properly is essential. Yet despite the ‘publish or perish’ culture in scientific research, almost no investment is made into teaching researchers how to become better writers. Since 2006, Craig Riddell has helped edit hundreds of scientific papers to successful publication, many for high-impact factor journals. This experience led to the development of a bespoke scientific writing course, Effective Scientific Writing (ESW), from which hundreds of researchers working in UCT, as well as commercial research institutes, have benefitted. ESW is a two-semester course that teaches you to really think about the mechanics of writing and, thus, changes your approach to it. Real-life examples provide the basis for exercises that help attendees to understand the importance of style and structure while also reducing the number of grammatical mistakes they make. From 2024, the course also uses many examples to explore what AI can do to help your writing and, equally importantly, to demonstrate its limitations. You will be provided with multiple opportunities to present and receive feedback on different sections of your article: Abstract, Introduction, Conclusion. (Results & discussion is covered by an intensive follow-up course.) Working together with the Course Tutor, who will provide advice and edits as necessary, a final publishable level will be achieved for each section. Thus, successful graduates will not only demonstrate improved scientific writing and editing skills but also be much better positioned to publish scientific papers in the future, especially in journals with a high impact factor.

Successful graduates of the course will:

− develop a philosophy of scientific writing

− consistently apply key principles of style to their writing so that their message is communicated in a clear, concise and reader-focused way

− understand and produce the structure editors and readers require for each section of a scientific paper

− be aware of the most common grammatical mistakes made by non-natives in scientific writing and, thereby, avoid making them

− not only develop writing skills but also the enhanced editing skills necessary to properly self-edit, as well as to give constructive feedback on the work of others

Furthermore, and this is crucial, many participants actually learn to enjoy the writing process; partly because the sense of structure gives them more confidence in what they are doing, and partly because they learn to recognize

that by thinking (really thinking) about how to improve their writing they are also thinking about how to improve their science.

In the end, it is all about the output, which means that participants will demonstrate improved scientific writing by producing a publishable-quality Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion.

All materials are supplied as needed on the course.

Mandatory Lessons (Style and Structure)

Unit 0: Where the course comes from and why it’s necessary

Unit 1: The 7 key principles of good writing style – How to write in a clear, concise and reader-friendly way

Unit 2: First impressions – Qualities of a good Title

Unit 3: The 5 parts of a model Abstract – Structure is the key to developing a summary that successfully informs and persuades

Mid-semester individual consultation of your v1 Title/Abstract as a basis for editing and improving it until it reaches publishable-level quality

End-of-course Abstract presentation and peer review

Optional Streams (Grammar)

Unit 4: Articles change meaning (misuse is the most common form of writing error) – How to use them correctly and how to use noun-noun phrases to reduce the need for them

Unit 5: The 7 essential elements of word order – A guide to thinking about and applying good sentence structure

Unit 6: Understanding clauses

You must be a PhD Student based at or associated with UCT, Prague

You need a minimum B1 (Intermediate) level of English

You must be a PhD Student based at or associated with UCT, Prague

You need a minimum B1 (Intermediate) level of English