Academic writing for PhD candidates and Research's Master’s students

PhD-1 offers you a general introduction to academic writing. As such, it is open both to PhD candidates and to Research Master’s students from across Maastricht University and beyond.  In these courses, you will write your own texts, review literature, improve texts, develop your grammatical ability and learn to identify typical features in published articles. The course also provides you with an opportunity to submit work to your tutor and receive comprehensive feedback on what you have written.  In addition, participants have repeated opportunities to provide feedback to fellow course members and receive feedback from them on your written submissions. 

When participating on this course, ideally students should be able to submit two pages of written work each week. It is advisable, therefore, either to have written something just before starting the course, or at least to be in a position to submit pieces of work as the course progresses. Submitting and sharing your work on a regular basis, enables writers to discover more about their writing style and maximise their learning experience.

After completing the course, students will be able to:

• structure ideas to write clearer sentences and more cohesive paragraphs
• use an academic writing style which is characterized by precise, concise, and formal language
• report on previous research and assess its importance
• write more persuasively and with nuance
• use a wider range of vocabulary and grammatical structures
• identify common mistakes in written texts
• feel more confident about writing in English

This is an online course.

For available times and registration please see the timetable and registration form

Registration

• Please register using our online registration form. 
• Course code is: PhD-1.
• Use status 'UM PhD candidate' if you are a PhD candidate of the UM.

The ability to write a coherent scientific article is essential to educational and career development, allowing researchers to engage with complex ideas and contribute to the intellectual life in their chosen field. The PhD-2 writing course aims to help candidates further refine and develop their writing ability at dissertation and publication level. As well as improving their overall writing technique and organizational competence, students learn vocabulary and language skills that will positively impact their wider academic and professional life.

At the beginning of the course, participants are placed in smaller groups with colleagues from similar research backgrounds. Groups work together on a variety of exercises during the first hour of the session before completing peer-reviews of one another’s work in the second hour. During the course, students are required to (re)submit 600-800 words of work weekly for review. The peer-review of this work focuses on structure, language, and coherence. The teacher provides feedback on the submissions immediately after class, so you can combine both the advice of your colleagues and teacher to help improve your work. While the course does follow an IMRaD pattern, meaning that a given week focuses on a given section of a scientific paper, you may resubmit an improved draft or a section from any part of your research for peer-review in class.

By the end of the course, students will have received up to 18 pieces of oral or written feedback across six submissions, including the written feedback provided by the course instructor. You will also have built up a portfolio of useful sample articles from both the course and from your own field. As such, the course aims to make you highly independent in your ability to scrutinize and redesign work in terms of structure, style and narrative, and to feel more confident when applying these skills throughout your writing career.

Learning Objectives

• Outline knowledge of redrafting to improve overall writing skills

• Expand knowledge of the theory and practice of scientific writing for journals

• Develop the ability to critically evaluate writing style, argument, and rhetoric

• Revise language skills and improve use of rhetoric

• Enhance ability to discuss research and writing with colleagues in English

Required Material

Glasman-Deal, H. (Second Edition 2020). Science Research Writing. London: Imperial College Press (available at the Randwijck Study Store) ISBN 9781786347848

For available times and registration please see the timetable and registration form

This is an online course via Zoom.

Registration

• Course code: PhD-2.
• Please register using our online registration form.
• Use status 'UM PhD candidate' if you are a PhD candidate of the UM.

PhD-1 (FHML) is available to all PhD candidates and Research Master’s students at Maastricht University and from other universities.

Our PhD-2 courses are open to scientific PhD candidates at Maastricht University and other universities after assessment of previous academic writing experience.

** If you are from a non-FHML discipline please contact us at: languages-phdcourses@maastrichtuniversity.nl to enquire about our other writing courses.

Certificate

At the end of the course you will receive a certificate, providing you have attended at least 6 out of the 8 sessions and submitted at least 5 of the writing assignments.