English: Writing Skills Workshop - What makes a good Abstract and Title?

This is one in a series of five Scientific Writing Skills Workshops tailored to the needs of the PhD/PostDoc Engineering student. These run throughout the year.

• What makes a good abstract and title? (see topics covered section for more details)

The following workshops are also available:

• Planning and Writing the Literature Review
• Presenting your results and findings
• Working on the Discussions and Conclusions Sections
• Preparing successful poster presentations

• Native AND Non-native PhD students, MPhil (Res) from the Department of Engineering
• Further details regarding Engineering Language Unit's eligibility criteria are available

Number of sessions: 1

This is usually considered the most important part of a research paper so how can you ensure that your Abstract is successful? Here we draw on a number of published abstracts and evaluate their strengths and/or weaknesses and consider whether there is an optimuum format for an Abstract. If you are writing an abstract of your own, then bring it along with you for peer review and feedback – we can all learn from each other.

• To develop students’ awareness of the reader’s aims
• To write in a clearer and more concise way in order to communicate ideas successfully
• To Inform you about what it means to be a successful writer and the importance of context (e.g. who is your reader, what are your assumptions about their knowledge of the topic?)

• Workshops are ‘hands-on’ where students work with, and edit text from a variety of sources relevant to their specialist field.
• Students’ work-in-progress and papers they are reading are used wherever possible to develop their awareness of good writing and critical ability.
• Students are encouraged to work in groups and share ideas- from student feedback on these workshops, it has been noted that peer feedback was found to play a key role in their success.

One two-hour session

As required.

• CLIC: Speaking skills: Fluency and Appropriacy
• CLIC: Speaking skills: Practising your presentations in English
• CLIC: Speaking skills: Pronunciation Skills
• English Focus on Writing - Non-native PhD and Postdoc, MPhil by Research students from the Department of Engineering
• English: Writing: The Basics of Writing: Your Strategy
• English Focus on Writing 3 - Session 7 (Nonnative Postdoc, PhD and MPhil by Research Engineering ONLY)
• English: Writing Skills Two week intensive (PhD Engineering ONLY)
• English: Writing Skills Workshop - Planning and Writing the Literature Review
• English: Writing Skills Workshop - Presenting your Results and Findings
• English: Writing Skills Workshop - Working on the Discussion and Conclusions Sections
• English: Writing Skills Workshop - Preparing Successful Poster Presentations
• English: Writing Skills Workshop - What makes a good Abstract and Title?
• English: Cultural Awareness
• English: Grammar for Speaking & Writing: Articles