Communicating ideas – 2-days workshop on scientific writing

Communicating Ideas
Two Days Workshop on Scientific Writing

When ? May 22-23, 2025, 9:00-17:00

Where ? Université catholique de Louvain, de Duve Institute, Brussels

Host: Prof. Jean-François COLLET

Lecturer: Dr Petra KELLERS, Scientific Coordinator, Biologist, Göttingen, Germany

Outline

Gather your ideas & generate a plan

We will discuss the writing process and address preliminary considerations before starting the actual text production and the importance of having a concept. Answering key questions about purpose, message of your text, and your potential audience can help you to overcome the white paper fear and to develop a story along a red thread. We will look at strategies how to organise ideas and how to structure the writing process leading to efficient writing of your paper or thesis.

Communicate your results – How to write a scientific publication

We will examine the conventional journal article structure, from title to acknowledgement, and facts on figures and tables. What do we need to consider when creating illustrations and graphs and what is important to know about the “visual language”? Things you should not miss and things you better avoid in a paper will be summarised. We will also address how we correctly cite and refer to other peoples’ work, what is considered as plagiarism and how we can avoid it. Finally, we will take a closer look at the peer review process and will discuss how to reply to reviewer comments.

A matter of style – Clear and concise writing and revision

Basic technical principles such as text and paragraph structure, the value of active or passive voice, punctuation, or word use will be discussed to trim your writing style and to allow fluent reading of your text. We will look at most common writing or spelling mistakes and specific rules and conventions of editorial style. Further, particular issues a non-native English speaker might face, e.g. the use of articles, will be addressed. We will further look at different methods to revise and proofread texts.

Exercises – Learning by doing

You will have the chance to train what you have learnt by assessing examples and exercises. You can immediately apply your knowledge to your individual abstract (paper, thesis, poster…) and will practise both giving and receiving feedback from your course fellows.

>> Please prepare an abstract (about one A4 page long) in advance and take it to the class!

Practical Information

Organized by the FNRS doctoral school “Structure and function of biological macromolecules, bioinformatics and modelling (SFMBBM)”

Applicants should send an “application package” via email (pauline.leverrier@uclouvain.be) including a motivation letter explaining their background and why they would like to participate in the course and a recommendation letter from their supervisor. Both documents are requested in English.

The course language is English
Deadline to register: May 5^th, 2025
The selection of candidates will be announced by email on May 12^th