Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft Winter School 2021

2021 was a Covid lockdown year, and it was also the first year of the Winter School. Instead of being held in person as planned, we went online. Despite the lockdown, the first Winter School was a success, and 13 PhDs and postdocs got the training they needed to confidently write and communicate their research in journal articles and presentations.

The LBG Winter School is a model for the kind of intensive workshops and training that researchers desperately need. The Winter School trains researchers to write about and present their research, shows them what the publication process looks like from a journal editor's desk, and expands their network of peers and colleagues.

I taught writing and revising skills to 13 PhDs and postdocs in the social and natural sciences to help them get their research published in peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Science Advances) and their proposals funded by agencies and foundations (e.g., Chanse). I opened three of the week’s workshop sessions with brief talks on elements of academic writing:

how to use the abstract to structure and write an entire article
how to focus readers’ attention and emphasize key points
how to improve one’s writing by providing context, stressing the main point, and clearly connecting ideas.

In addition, I offered them my advice on how to make writing less stressful and more productive. I also coached participants in 19 individual writing-coaching sessions (some participated twice), editing their texts on-screen and showing them how to express their ideas clearly and forcibly.