The Department of Surgery's Scientific Writing Course is intended for faculty and trainees who wish to learn specific ways to marshal the details of a biomedical research paper or grant proposal into a clear, concise and comprehensible story that will be understandable to an interdisciplinary readership (papers), or meet the agency's review criteria (proposals).
Objectives
By carefully deconstructing published examples and their own writing, participants will learn how precise word choice can eliminate jargon and ambiguities, how simple, direct sentences can describe complex science, and how organizing and developing ideas into paragraph form makes scientific writing logical and persuasive. Participants will also learn that although they may think they have described a concept, experiment, or result in an early draft, careful reading will typically reveal information gaps, unrecognized assumptions, and faulty reasoning. All of these problems can be fixed if the writer learns how to spot them, and how to revise them.
Who May Take the Course?
Faculty, fellows, and research residents who wish to learn
specific ways to marshal the details of a biomedical research paper
or grant proposal into a clear, concise and comprehensible story
that will be understandable to an interdisciplinary readership
(papers), or meet the agency's review criteria (proposals).
The class size is limited to 15 full-time
participants. Priority is given to members of the Department
of Surgery, but openings are often available for
others.
Course Structure & Format
The course is taught twice a year (Fall and Spring). Class meets
for 10 weeks on Wednesdays from 4-6 pm on the Mt.
Zion Campus. The following topics are covered:
- Writing Fundamentals (word choice, sentence structure, and paragraph structure) (3 weeks)
- Reports of Original Research (introduction, methods, results, tables & figures, discussion, abstract & title) (4 weeks)
- Journal Submission, Peer Review & Authorship (1 week)
- Grant Proposals (2 weeks)
Although there are didactic presentations, participants should expect to do a lot of writing and revising in class and outside of class, and to expect feedback on their writing from the course instructor.
Course Requirements
- Rewriting examples of unclear writing (time needed for homework: about 1-1.5 h per class meeting)
- Rewriting an Introduction to a paper written by the participant
- Writing exercises are critiqued by the instructor and returned to the participants at the next class meeting
Course Fee
There is also no fee for researchers in the Department of Surgery. For others, the fee is $400.00.