We are currently not open for applications. We will announce the new course offer in August 2023. Please leave your details to receive the announcement when we open registrations for VU Graduate Winter School 2024.
This course will run over the course of 5 days and you will be working on one of your PhD papers during the course. We will have 2-hours interactive live sessions in the morning (via Zoom) and 3-hour practical writing sessions in the afternoon during which you will work on your own paper, give feedback to each other, and have an opportunity to receive feedback from the teachers. The overall goal of the course is to help you improve your academic writing skills and improve one of your PhD papers which you aim to publish in a top journal.
On the first day, you will learn about how to engage in academic conversations and how to target varied audiences. Day two will be all about how to write an effective introduction. The introduction is arguably the most important part of a paper, and you will learn about and apply a template for writing introductions. On the third day you will learn more about how to write theory sections and improve the current version in your own paper. Day four will focus on the methods section. You will learn how to ensure your methods are consistent and reliable. Finally, on day five, you will learn about the revision process at journals and how to respond to reviewers’ comments. In the afternoon of the last day, we will go through an exemplary revision process based on a paper published in the Academy of Management Journal.
The course draws on Huff’s (2008) book “Designing Research for Publication” as well as various articles on academic writing.
During the practical writing sessions in the afternoon, you will be working on the respective sections of your own paper covered in the morning. You will also give other course participants feedback on their section and receive feedback, thus enhancing the learning process. You will also have an opportunity to receive feedback from the teachers. At the end of the week, you will have revised the introduction, theory, and methods sections of your paper.
Learning objectives
By the end of this online course, students will be able to:
- Signal to readers which academic conversations they are joining and contributing to.
- Write effective introductions based on a step-by-step model.
- Understand how to select and critically review the literature and write effective theory sections.
- Write effective methods sections in terms of appropriateness, consistency, and reliability of the methods chosen.
- Draw on various tips and lessons learned in the review process.
