BIOS5500 – Science Writing

Course content

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the principles of good writing in general, with a focus on science writing. While the course will be taught in English, and the texts and exercises will be in English, the emphasis will be on good writing habits, which apply to any language. The course is not a course on technical writing, but rather will aim to develop good writing, editing, and journalistic skills. The course will be in the form of 3-hour workshops. The following topics will be covered: Drafts, revisions, the structure of specific types of writing (scientific articles, essays, summaries) and writing for non-scientist readers. The course will discuss general points of style, sentence construction, voice and tense.

Learning outcome

• You will practice different types of science writing.
• You will learn to edit and shorten long texts without losing content
• You will learn to write a brief article on any given scientific topic
• You will learn to write scientific pieces for a non-scientific readership, and to express scientific ideas clearly and concisely

Admission to the course

Students admitted at UiO must apply for courses in Studentweb. Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

Nordic citizens and applicants residing in the Nordic countries may apply to take this course as a single course student.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The courses BIOS5500 and BIOS9500 have joint admission. The course have a capacity of 12 students. Applicants are ranked by the following criteria:

1. PhD candidates and master students at the MN faculty who have the course as part of the approved curriculum.

2. Other PhD candidates and visiting PhD candidates.

3. Students with admission to single courses on master’s level and exchange students

Applicants are ranked by credits in each group; all applicants within 1st rank before applicants in 2nd etc. If admission is limited to a fixed number of participants, admission will be decided by drawing lots for students who are ranked equally

Overlapping courses

• 5 credits overlap with BIOS9500 – Vitenskapelig forfatterskap.
• 5 credits overlap with BIO4600 – Science Writing (continued).
• 5 credits overlap with BIO9600 – Science Writing (continued).

Teaching

• Workshops

• Each week the students will mark and discuss the work of two or three other students, so at the end of the course each student will have substantial feedback from their peers for his/her work.

• Three short written exercises (500 words each)

• Final assignment of 1000 words

All course activities are mandatory. If you can not attend the first lecture, please send a note to studieinfo@ibv.uio.no, before the first lecture.

Examination

The assessment will be based on the completion of 3 short pieces (500 words) during the course, and one longer, final, assignment (1000 words). Students will be expected to complete all writing assignments on time, and attendance every day will be required.

Withdrawal from an examination

It will also be counted as one of the three attempts to sit the exam for this course, if you sit the exam for one of the following courses: BIO9600 – Science Writing (continued), BIO4600 – Science Writing (continued), BIOS9500 – Vitenskapelig forfatterskap.

Resit an examination

Re-scheduled examinations are not offered.

Examination support material

All examination support material is allowed.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Resit an examination

Re-scheduled examinations are not offered.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.