Language Center

Writing in English for Researchers

Joint Scientific Writing Course: University of Fribourg / HEG Fribourg

This 5-day interactive, workshop-style course is open to researchers and academic staff with B2 to C1 English language skills who would like to further develop their writing proficiency in academic and professional contexts. It will take place between 09:00 and 16:00 on the following dates at HEG Fribourg:

28.08.24 (Day 1) (Room 205, HEG Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 4)
10.09.24 (Day 2) (Room 205, HEG Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 4)
05.11.24 (Day 3) (Room tba)
03.12.24 (Day 4) (Room tba)
14.01.25 (Day 5) (Room tba)

Throughout the course you will benefit from the opportunity to engage and share information with peers about your research, areas of knowledge and expertise. You will also be encouraged to develop your critical thinking skills and to express your ideas more effectively across a range of academic disciplines and professional contexts. You will receive feedback on your writing as well as individual coaching from the instructors.

Learning outcomes:

To express ideas in writing more clearly and accurately, and in an appropriately formal, academic style
To better understand the rhetorical features of writing, e.g. the purpose for writing, the importance of audience design, content, organisation, conciseness, style and flow
To engage in the processes involved in writing, e.g. brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising and editing
To write using a range of different sentence types from simple, single-clause sentences to longer more complex sentences with several main and subordinate clauses
To understand the importance of paragraphing in scientific texts
To build resources for connecting and focusing ideas
To gain a better understanding of the use of hedging in academic writing
To use a greater range of reporting verbs when paraphrasing or summarising source materials
To develop confidence in writing a greater range of academic and professional texts in English
To improve writing skills for specific and immediate use in your field of study/area of work
To increase awareness of the grammar and vocabulary used in academic and professional contexts

Topics

Day 1 (Instructors: Andrew Hart and Marc Matter): The focus lies on writing Introductions as well as questions of audience design and the overall structure of research articles.
Day 2 (Instructors: Andrew Hart and Marc Matter): The focus lies on writing Discussion sections and the linguistic issues of academic style features, hedging and paragraphing.
Day 3 (Instructor: Marc Matter) The focus lies on writing Methods sections and the linguistic issues of creating conciseness and coherence.
Day 4 (Instructor: Andrew Hart): The focus lies on student presentations and the linguistic issue of creating text flow.
Day 5 (Instructors: Andrew Hart and Marc Matter): The focus lies on writing Abstracts as well as on individual coaching based on students’ writing.

Additionally, every course day will also contain the following elements: Individual writing, working with model articles and live editing of scientific texts.

Registration

Participants can register for the entire course (CHF 500.-) or for individual days (Days 1, 2 & 3 only – CHF 120.- per day).

Please contact the course tutors Marc Matter or Andrew Hart for further information.