Vollum Writing Program

The Vollum Writing Course is an in-depth, 6-week professional science writing course open to OHSU graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. This class uses short lectures, class discussion, and workshop-style writing assignments, as well as individual sessions, to help researchers learn to write better papers and grants. The emphasis is on improving writing style. Topics include:

• The basic elements of good scientific writing style, including sentence and document structure;
  
• Insight into scientific conventions regarding grammar, punctuation, and usage;
• Strategies for revising;
• Dealing with writer's block and time management;
  
• Best practices for writing introductions, results, discussions, and grant proposals.

The course will help you improve your writing quickly by helping you understand the needs and expectations of different audiences. The course will also help you become a better editor and reviewer. Students are expected to spend time outside of class writing but only on grants and papers they are actually working on.

In addition to the weekly workshop, you'll receive six individual meetings with the instructor. These meetings are tailored to your needs, with the goal of helping you finish manuscripts and grants.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this noncredit, professional development course, but you should not take the class unless you have enough data to write about.

When? Four 6-week sessions per year (winter, spring, summer, fall) on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon. Individual meeting times arranged by appointment. The summer session is reserved for graduate students working on their qualifying exams.

Upcoming sessions

Spring 2012: Begins April 4

Where? Vollum 4M

Costs? No fees are assessed for NGP students, second-year PMCB students, and Vollum researchers; other participants will be charged a $500 fee.  

Questions? Email Research Funding & Development Services or call 503-494-3124.

Register for the class.