Key facts

Overview

This intensive course will help you write more clearly and meaningfully for a wide range of audiences. It is highly interactive and the participants' objectives will govern a substantial part of the course content.

Please send me details about future Effective Writing for Biomedical Professionals courses.

Who is it for?

The course is tailored to the needs of professionals working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, in healthcare or in scientific research and development. It is suitable for anyone who needs to write scientific papers and reports, and present information to colleagues, management, external organisations or the general public. The course is suitable for participants with a wide range of backgrounds and does not require any specialist subject knowledge.

All delegates will receive a copy of Jane Fraser's book 'How to publish in Biomedicine - 500 tips for success' along with a full-colour set of course notes and reference materials.

Programme details

Course Content

Day 1 - Scientific writing - first steps

9.00-9.30: Exploration of participants’ personal objectives for the course

9.30-10.30: Fundamentals of scientific style
The writing process - planning, writing and revision. Style can be thought of simply as reader-friendly writing. We are writing to be understood, and clear thinking is the key to clear writing. Six rules for clear and lively writing. Avoiding wordiness and pomposity, worn out words, active versus passive. Some thoughts on sentences and paragraphs. Analysing your own writing using the 'fog' index and yellow marker test. Style points illustrated by mini-exercises.

10.30-11.00: Break

10.45-12.30: Publish or perish
What can be published, and where? How scientific journals work. Role of Editor and referees. Choosing the right journal. Impact and immediacy factors. Circulation and readership. Frequency, time taken from submission to publication. Special considerations with review papers. Current views on duplicate and prior publication, ‘salami’ publication. Possible formats within journals - not everything has to be a full-length research paper. Exercise – where were these papers published? Discussion – who qualifies as an author?

12.30-13.30: Lunch

13.30-15.00: Papers – the core sections
Structure of scientific papers: basic template and rules. How to approach writing a paper. Official guidelines for clinical trial reporting, including CONSORT. Things to look out for in journal style. Appropriate style. Tense and tone. Exercise – common errors in writing papers.

Materials and methods: A 'recipe' for the study. Most papers are rejected on the basis of the Methods, so it’s important to get this right. Preferred sequences for different kinds of research. Being precise but concise. Signalling the organisation visually and verbally. Tense and point of view. Using tables and flow charts. Illustrated using real-life examples.

Results: The core of the paper. Organisation. Relating results to methods. Selecting the best/most representative results. Graphs, tables and illustrations. General principles e.g. comparisons across not down, meaningful decimal points only, avoiding excessive amounts of data. Table titles and figure captions. The commonest statistical errors. Types of table and figure. Need for redrawing. Sizing. Position in text. Lettering and symbols. Illustrated using real-life examples.

15.00-15.30: Break

15.30-17.00: Editing your own work and that of others
What is editing? The editorial process. Degrees of editing. Editing versus proof-reading. What do you need before you start to edit? Importance of consistency, conforming to house or journal style. Style sheets. Editing on-screen and on hard copy, typescripts and proofs. Editing and proof-reading marks. How many steps? Common errors of grammar, punctuation and word meaning. Exercise – how good a proofreader are you? Additional exercises and quizzes if time.

Day 2 - The core sections of research papers

9.00-10.30: Refining your style
Techniques for making writing 'flow' better. Avoiding monotony by changing sentence length and structure. How to construct more elegant sentences using parallel structures. Transition words. Linking sentences and paragraphs. Pitching your writing at different audiences. Rhetorical techniques. Mini-exercises to illustrate key points.

10.30-11.00: Break

11.00-12.30: Synthesis and interpretation
Developing arguments throughout papers, reviews and book chapters. Mind-mapping and other ways of organising large volumes of information. Summarising techniques. Helpful and unhelpful repetition. Need to know versus nice to know. Routing devices. Using headings and lists effectively. The difference between the introduction and the discussion. Introduction: presentation of the problem, definition of the hypothesis or area of investigation. Discussion and conclusions: establishing general principles and relationships with reference to the literature. Dealing with inconsistencies and surprising findings. Applications, implications, and speculations. The take-home message. References: selecting and citing them. Illustrated using real-life examples. Exercises – mind-mapping.

12.30-13.30: Lunch

13.30-14.45: Abstracts and titles
Guidelines on writing abstracts that are concise, meaningful, and stand alone as a representative of the study. Structured abstracts. Differences between paper abstracts and conference abstracts. Principles of choosing paper titles to meet journal requirements and attract the right readers. Exercises on abstracts and titles.

14.45-15.00: Break

15.00-16.00: Perfecting and submitting your paper
Checking structure, headings, text, contents, figures and tables, references etc. Consistency, style guides. Putting together your own personal checklist. The submission package. Dealing with referees' comments. How not to respond. Tactful ways to deflect criticism. Strategies for resubmission. How to increase your publications list. How to get cited.

All delegates will receive a copy of Jane Fraser's book 'How to publish in Biomedicine - 500 tips for success' along with a full-colour set of course notes and reference materials.

First day registration from 8.30am when course materials will be distributed.
Refreshments from 8.30am on the first day plus two 30 minute breaks during the day and a one-hour lunch break.
The course will begin at 9.00am and end at approximately 5.00pm on day one. The course will begin at 9.00am and end at approximately 4.00pm on day two.

Course aims

• Communicate key messages quickly and persuasively
• Demonstrate your professionalism through 'effective writing'
• Combine rigorous scientific accuracy with readability and impact
• Avoid embarrassing mistakes
• Plan content & structure for maximum effect

Certification

Participants who satisfy the course requirements will receive a Certificate of Attendance. The pdf sample above is an illustration only, and the wording will reflect the course and dates attended.

Level and demands

The course is tailored to the needs of professionals working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, in healthcare or in scientific research and development. It is suitable for anyone who needs to write scientific papers and reports, and present information to colleagues, management, external organisations or the general public. The course is suitable for participants with a wide range of backgrounds and does not require any specialist subject knowledge.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available at the Rewley House Residential Centre, within the Department for Continuing Education, in central Oxford. The comfortable, en-suite, study-bedrooms are rated 3-star, and come with free high-speed internet access and TV. Guests can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme.

Payment

Fees include course materials, tuition, refreshments and lunches. The price does not include accommodation.

All courses are VAT exempt.

We offer a 10% discount to students in full-time higher education. To apply at the discounted rate, please contact us for details: email cpdpersonaldev@conted.ox.ac.uk or telephone: +44(0)1865 286958.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Standard course fee: £795.00

Apply for this course

Programmes including this module

This module can be studied as part of these programmes:

• Presentation Skills