In this course, we will focus on the vitally important and challenging key skills of writing in your second language. You will explain the concepts and/or key parts of your research and then structure them in formal academic English. Through active drafting and peer review and feedback, you will be able to produce clear and focused academic texts and present your research with improved levels of clarity and fluency.

Contents:

• Strategic sentence structure: Create clear topic sentences, cohesive sentences and coherent paragraphs for clear and focused writing
• Active vs passive. Understand why these forms exist and how they can be used as tools for focus and emphasis
• Fossilized mistakes. Identify and eliminate them.
• Self-editing

PLEASE NOTE that this is NOT a beginners course and that you need to attend at least 6 of 8 sessions to receive a certificate.

+++ This course includes 8 sessions of 90 minutes (Wednesdays, 5:30-7:00 pm starting 15 October 2025, final session on 3 December 2025) +++

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This workshop is part of the transferable skills portfolio of the PIER Education Platform (PEP) on the Science Campus Bahrenfeld. The workshops are usually one-day courses for a maximum number of 12-15 participants and are offered once or twice a year. The trainers are carefully selected experts with many years of experience in teaching scientists. Some of the workshops are open for postdocs.
The workshops offered in the PIER Education Platform are a cooperation between the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School and its partner organisations and institutes Quantum Universe Research School QURS, The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging CUI, DASHH, and HELIOS.

Photograph: Marta Mayer, DESY