Writing for Publication in the Social Sciences and Humanities

Content
Writing publications in correct, clear, coherent and convincing language is a vital competence that can be acquired. This series of three workshops, provides a structured collaborative process that supports you in developing this competence. At the same time, it supports you to compose concrete output in the form of a manuscript that is ready for submission.

You should ideally join this hands-on course when you are already working on a specific publication or a free-standing PhD chapter. If you start with a first draft, the course helps you turn it into a submittable text for publication; if you start only with data and/or a concept, it helps you create a draft.

Aims
Through hands-on generation and revision of a text you aim to publish or submit to your supervisor, the workshops develop your competence to write journal articles or other publications.

In order to achieve these aims, you will:

1. Try out different strategies to find the writing processes most productive for you


2. Explore ways to turn networks of ideas into coherent texts with a clear arc


3. Familiarize yourself with online and digital resources to produce, structure and evaluate texts


4. Expand the language you use to report existing research, describe processes and data, narrate change and construct cogent arguments


5. Consider the effects of various styles and train using language that is correct, clear, coherent and convincing


6. Familiarize yourself with various current views on gender, the use of first person and passive in scholarly writing


7. Learn to look at your own texts from the perspective of a reviewer and train giving developmental feedback that points peers in directions that will improve their texts.

Methods

1. When you start the course, you must already have a first draft that you can turn into a submittable manuscript. A less ideal alternative is to start with data and/or a concept only. In the latter case, you can use the course to create a draft


2. You must submit a written abstract for the text on which you want to work during the workshops a week before they start, length: 150 to 300 words


3. At the start of the workshops you will receive a manual that will familiarize you with various features of scholarly writing, such as those listed in the aims above


4. During the workshops you will analyze successful texts in your discipline and learn how to emulate their strengths in your own writing


5. The workshops consist of short input sessions, followed by cycles of writing, reviewing and revision:
   — You will have opportunity to produce text and/or revise your existing text on the basis of the input
   — You will give written and oral feedback on your peers' texts and receive the same from them and the lecturer
   — You will revise your drafts in a structured process