At several stages during your PhD, you will have periods with lots of writing. Many struggle with writing efficiently and do not feel competent about their writing skills. This is why we welcome all DEEP members to a new course from Mathew Stiller-Reeve which follows a real academic writing process.
By using digital solutions “Writing with Results” will take place over several weeks, instead of consecutive days over one or two weeks. In this way, we can follow an actual writing process. By the end of the course, you will hopefully have a research article (at least close to) ready for submission.
By extending the length of the course to 1-day a week over 6 weeks, you will be able to develop and practice a writing process that works for you. We start with lectures on basic writing skills, and then week-by-week work through the sections of a typical research article. At the same time, Mathew Stiller-Reeve will encourage and guide you and your fellow participants to give each other peer-feedback and support.
The process
The DEEP “Writing with Results” course will take place each Tuesday from the 2 February 2021. Each week, we will use a whole day for lectures, discussions, writing and feedback. The foundational lectures during week 1 will cover issues like cutting clutter, using active voice, and planning structure. We will also discuss how to form concrete research questions that your article will focus on. The lectures during the first week can be open to several more participants before we move forward with a core group from Week 2 and onwards. During the rest of the course, we will use a recurring process to develop the different sections. This process will include discussions, brainstorming, planning, writing, and editing. We will also develop forums for peer-to-peer reflection and collaboration. Over the 6 weeks, you will develop as independent writers and practice a writing process you will remember and be able to apply to future writing projects.
Requirements
For those following the whole course, you need to have a writing project in mind. Remember this course targets the writing process of an article aimed at a peer-reviewed journal. Maybe you are about to start a new writing process, or maybe you would like to fully revise a draft you already have.
You need to be open to working with your peers and giving feedback to each-other. The power of peer-to-peer feedback has long been documented and we use it actively in this course. During the course, you will work in small groups to analyze each other’s text and give feedback.
You need to be willing to use a couple of digital tools. The first is Zoom, which I am sure you all have some experience with now. The other will either be Mural or Miro. These are an online collaboration tools, which are essentially fancy whiteboards with post-its and other useful functions. The following video gives a brief but useful overview of some of the functionality of Mural as an example (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0946e6barQ&t=17s).
More details will be sent out in good time before the course starts, when I will also inform you about the digital tool we will use. In the meantime, ensure that your calendars are free each Tuesday from 2 February (9am-4pm).
Sign up
Sign up within 10 January 2021 through our online form.
Program
| Week | Day, date and time | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuesday 2 February 2021, 09:00 - 15:00 |
Lectures on writing skills + forming the research question/aim |
| 2 | Tuesday 9 February 2021, 09:00 - 15:00 | The Introduction |
| 3 | Tuesday 16 February 2021, 09:00 - 15:00 | The Methods + The Results |
| 4 | Tuesday 23 February 2021, 09:00 - 15:00 | The Discussion |
| 5 | Tuesday 2 March 2021, 09:00 - 15:00 | The Conclusion + The Abstract |
| 6 | Tuesday 9 March 2021, 09:00 - 15:00 | The Title + editing, editing, editing |
Location
All activities will take place on Zoom so please make sure you’ve signed up to the free version (at least), or maybe you have an account through your university.
The room invitations will be sent on email - but if you have any questions on how to join, please contact post-deep@geo.uio.no.
The instructor
Mathew Stiller-Reeve has a PhD in Meteorology and has published several peer-reviewed articles on the monsoon as well as interdisciplinary and communication issues. He founded the SciSnack writing group community in 2012 and helped start several writing groups around the world. He and 12 international co-authors published their collaborative writing process in 2016, and since then it has been used by summer schools and communication initiatives around the world. Recently, he has become a Thematic Editor of the Geoscience Communication journal and has developed a peer-review process that he recently published on Nature.com. He has held writing seminars and courses over the past 4 years, both in Norway and internationally. Mathew puts emphasis on how we apply basic writing skills to our academic writing, and not least, how we can improve our writing together!