Writing Abstracts - 2023

This interactive workshop by Josie Dixon (Lucian Consulting) is a one-day intensive training session on writing research abstracts - a key form of scholarly communication. Essential for gaining acceptance to speak at conferences (and an audience for your presentation), and for attracting readers to your journal articles,
they are of critical importance for raising the profile of your research and developing an academic career. This short form of description, representing the essence of a research contribution, places particular demands on academic writing style, in terms of clarity, economy and precision.

The workshop is designed to develop the necessary skills, encouraging participants to find clear, concise and powerful ways to summarize their research and make an impact. Non-native speakers will receive feedback designed to improve their written English, including questions of style and tone.

There will be a mixture of presentation, group discussion and interactive exercises; handouts will provide reference material and further resources for continuing to develop the skills learned in the workshop.

This is an entirely practical workshop, so no theoretical framework is required. The trainer has a professional background as an editor and publisher and brings that professional knowledge and experience to the training.

The following topics are addressed in the workshop:

• What are abstracts for?: Contexts, Functions, Characteristics
• Key elements: Quickfire writing exercise to draft an abstract
• Differing conventions between subject areas
• Tailoring to the context: Conferences and journal articles
• Revising and editing your draft

Learning outcomes

After attending this workshop, you will ...

• have developed an understanding of the contexts, functions and characteristics of abstracts.
• have learned to use a framework of key elements to structure their abstract.
• have produced a first draft efficiently, using quickfire writing to build it step-by-step.
• have developed an ability to tailor their abstract to the context.
• have learned to revise and edit their draft, developing critical skills through mutual editing.

Competences

An important part of preparing for any further professional step is becoming (more) aware of the competences you have developed and/or want to develop. In the current workshop, the following competences from the UHasselt competency overview are actively dealt with:

• academic research competences
  • publication skills
• interpersonal competences
  • written communication
• task-orientedness
  • precision
  • quality assurance
• intellectual competences
  • critical Judgement
  • conceptual / synthetic thinking

For whom?

• The workshop is open to Humanities & Social Science PhD students and postdocs. It is designed for postgraduates 2nd year into their PhD and beyond.
• 16 places available

When and where?

• The workshop will take place on May 17, 10:00 - 16:00.
• Campus Hasselt, Old Prison, OG-D1.1Ge (Yellow Room)

Registration?

• Registration is closed.
• As places are limited, registering does not automatically imply that you will be able to participate. You will be notified by email after the registration deadline has passed.
• Please cancel your registration at least one week in advance in case you cannot make it (cf. cancellation & no-show policy).

Preparation?

• Participants are required to submit a brief project description so that the examples and exercises can be built around their own work in the course of the workshop. A full abstract is not required as you will be learning to write one during the session. A thesis title and and a couple of lines to explain the subject matter, scope and approach will be sufficient. - Deadline for submission of the brief project description is May 02, 2023. 

Acknowledged as?

• DS BSH: category 'research management & communication skills' - workshop aimed at developing general research skills