Academic Writing Workshops with Kali Tal
Course description
We are happy to offer selected inputs by Kali Tal and Sampoorna Rappaz for our PhD students. They are organized by the University library of Bern and take place online via zoom. Please register below.
25 February 2025, 13:00-16:00: Organizing Your Scientific Paper: Note-taking and Outlining for Success (Tutor: Kali Tal, PhD)
This workshop covers the organizational skills you need to write as you do science, beginning with recommendations, tracking literature, taking and organizing notes, and sorting your notes thematically into the appropriate sections of your paper. The course also covers outlining—an essential skill for writing while you do science and one that English native speakers use as the basis for constructing all their papers. You will come out of this course with a clear organizational plan and the skills to execute it. (3-hours, highly interactive).
18 March 2025, 13:00-16:30: Write Better Scientific Papers and Plain Language Summaries: Fundamentals of Writing in Plain English (Tutor: Sampoorna Rappaz, PhD)
In this course you will learn how to write easy-to-understand, concise, and clear scientific papers and summaries for non-specialist readers by applying the principles of plain-language writing. You will learn how to use simple words and craft effective sentences to convey the context and significance of your research. You will learn how to and how not to use AI tools for improving your writing. The tips, tools, and guidelines shared in the course will help you communicate your research effectively to a broader audience: researchers from other specializations, students, healthcare professionals, research participants, interested communities (e.g., patients), policymakers, grant reviewers, ethics committee members, journalists, and the general public.
25 March 2025, 13:00-16:00: Improve Your Scientific Writing in English: Focus on the Paragraph (Tutor: Kali Tal, PhD)
Designed for researchers or clinicians who want to improve their English-language writing skills. This course focuses on writing proper paragraphs, which are the building blocks of English argumentation. Many other languages, like German, can express complex ideas and multiple relationships within a single sentence, but good English writing requires thinking and writing in shorter sentences within a disciplined paragraph structure. This is not a simple grammar course—you will earn advanced techniques for writing and organizing excellent paragraphs into a strong and persuasive argument.
Learning objectives
Obtain the theory of writing scientific manuscripts
Lecturer
Kali Tal, PhD
Sampoorna Rappaz, PhD
Participants
University of Basel PhD students of the Faculty of Medicine and of Swiss TPH.
Workload & credits
no ECTS, stand-alone input sessions in a variety of length
In the framework of ‘Meet to Write‘, the sessions can count as ‘expert input’ for ECTS (learning contract required).
