Biotext, a leading science information consultancy based in Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne, will be offering a training course — Successful science writing and editing — in Brisbane in September.

This interactive course includes lectures, group discussions, exercises and comprehensive course notes.

Who should attend?

Anyone who writes or edits material dealing with science and technology, for any audience. Participants are welcome to bring with them texts that they would like to discuss.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• write text that is easy to read and understand
• communicate complex scientific information clearly, accurately and effectively
• use editing skills to improve written material
• assess their own and others’ work, and provide constructive feedback.

Course topics

• Common problems — outlines a set of questions to ask when first working on a document.
• Where to start — outlines a set of questions to ask when first working on a document.
• Writing clearly and succinctly — looks at how to:
  • say what you did and what happened, not what was performed and what was observed to have occurred
  • avoid weak verbs and nouns (eg write ‘the samples were analysed’ rather than ‘analysis of the samples was carried out’)
  • avoid other pitfalls of scientific writing such as overuse of jargon and passive voice.
• Improving documents through editing — explains where substantive editing fits in the process of producing a document; and covers the different aspects of this stage, such as overall structure, content and logical flow.
• ‘Bare bones approach’  — outlines how to use a simple checklist to determine whether a document needs more work and if so, in what areas. The checklist is useful in assessing your own work or in giving feedback to others.