Scientific Writing School | Scientific Writing

Hello

Scientific Writers!

Scientific writing is an important part of a scientific career, yet it is incredibly difficult for many people. Publishing papers and/or winning grants are key career builders. They are what stand between you and the next job, promotion, graduation, or expanding the lab or business to complete the R&D on that next big discovery.

We can help! The Scientific Writing School’s mission is “helping scientists communicate their research in the clearest way possible”.

We have a lot of free resources, here on the Scientific Writing Blog, and on the Scientific Writing School YouTube channel. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, where we further discuss scientific writing-related topics and share helpful articles.

For you scientific writers who need to finish a paper, thesis, or grant proposal quickly and/or with high quality, we can guide you in a step-by-step process.

We help early career science researchers finish papers and grant proposals with a proven step by step system even if they hate writing.

Is this you?

I have to write this paper or I won’t graduate.
My advisor is too busy to help me.
There is nobody to teach me how to get started on my paper.
I have no idea where to begin or what to do.
The task is overwhelming.
I have no confidence that I am up to the task.
Whenever I sit down to write I have a really hard time getting started.
I am way too slow at writing. I might miss my graduation deadline.
I have no writing goals or milestones to guide me.
I’m developing a serious fear of writing.
I may drop out of grad school rather than have to write my dissertation.
I really wish I could enjoy writing.

What if you keep approaching scientific writing the way you have been? You will keep getting the same slow and painful results, the same anxiety and stress, the same feeling of being overwhelmed. Your progress is being held hostage by your lack of a scientific writing approach. Do you have time for this? Or do you want to move forward in your career?

I have taken the scientific writing “secrets” I learned over 20 years of:

writing my own MS thesis and PhD dissertation
writing more than 35 journal articles
writing more than 75 grant proposals
teaching a university-level scientific writing course for 7 semesters
advising more than 25 students writing senior and graduate theses
starting and running a scientific writing center for 2 years
peer reviewing more than 100 journal articles
peer reviewing more than 85 grant proposals
being a grant review panelist for two federal agencies
presenting more than 25 scientific writing workshops internationally
working as a full-time scientific writer for 2 years

and designed these online courses to pass this knowledge to you.

Your job is to enroll, take the lessons, and do the work.

Imagine…

Sitting down and cranking out your scientific writing with minimal stress just a few weeks from now (maybe sooner).
Building your CV
Becoming known in the scientfic community
Moving on to the next step in your career with better financial stability
Making your family and your advisor proud
Making your peers envious
Seeing your name at the top of that journal article
Seeing people citing your work
Seeing your h-index going up
Seeing your Google Scholar page filling up

We help scientists finish papers and proposals quickly and with less stress even if they have no idea where to start.

Do these scientific writing courses work?

These survey results are 5 semesters of cumulative results directly from the students themselves on the first day of class and again on the last day of class. See how the curve shifts to the right? It works, when you put in the effort to implement the lessons!

In the scientific writing course offered by Dr. Waters, he covered all aspects and approaches of writing a scientific article, with strong emphasis on the audience. He gave excellent directions about how to structure a manuscript (what sections to start with and how to proceed), and the sections within a manuscript. I strongly recommend his course to anyone interested in publishing scientific research.

Raghuprakash Kastoori Ramamurthy, PhD

As a former student in Dr. Waters’ class, I can vouch for the value of this course! The training I gained has served me well from writing manuscripts to successful federal grant proposals. I am truly grateful that I took the class! I can’t recommend this enough if you don’t have access to a scientific writing course through your institution. Dr. Waters is one of the best writers I’ve ever worked with, and I got so much out of his university course. I am a good (hopefully great) writer today because of his course!

Katherine Frels, PhD

Dr. Waters was my instructor during my Ph.D. degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Taking his Scientific Writing course helped me to better structure my writing, and improve my focus by creating a writing environment that leads towards more productivity with less effort. I enjoyed his teaching methodology, especially the peer review process. During his course, I focused on one chapter of my dissertation and his contributions to my writing development yielded a poster award and a research publication at a high-impact factor journal.”

Alexandre Tonon Rosa, PhD

Dr. Waters’ course was very helpful in preparing an initial draft for my first publication, and also for writing, in general. I was lucky to take Dr. Waters’ course and I will recommend these valuable courses to manuscripts anyone writing a research paper, thesis, or dissertation.

Nikita Gambhir, PhD

I benefitted greatly from Dr. Waters’s course right before starting my M.S. The knowledge gained has been so helpful while also boosting my confidence while handling the writing process! Highly recommend!

Kolby Grint, MS

Dr. Brian Waters did an excellent job teaching Scientific Writing at UNL. He changed my perspective about scientific writing, making it much more enjoyable and less stressful. His patience and dedication to helping students in overcoming their writing challenges were outstanding. I now enjoy writing and making sure it will be also something enjoyable for the readers.

– Gabriela Inveninato Carmona, PhD candidate

The courses will be released on the Scientific Writing School YouTube channel week by week, beginning January, 2022, until all lessons are uploaded. This will make the courses available to you at no cost!

You will also be able to watch only certain lessons if you don’t want to take the entire course (but why would you not want to take the whole course?).

Subscribe to the Scientific Writing School YouTube channel (the link is here) to view the courses!

While you are there, check out the dozens of other scientific writing videos that are already uploaded.

Course 1: Write Your Scientific Journal Article

This course takes a project management approach and gives you step-by-step directions for going from a blank screen to a complete manuscript.

Course 2: Expert Scientific Writing Techniques

This course shows you how to make your writing clear, concise, coherent, and highly readable with a proven editing system. It is a great companion to the Write Your Scientific Journal Article course, and works well by itself for manuscript and grant writers.

Coaching: Custom Review and Edit Service:

Dr. Waters will provide actionable written feedback on your manuscript or grant proposal, which will help you improve your manuscript and improve your writing skills at the same time.

Do you have a grant proposal or journal article manuscript for which you would like an expert review? See this link for details! When you click the link, you will be taken to the Teachable site where this service is hosted. It will look a bit different, but all the information you need is there.

Downloadable items

To download the “22 Rules for Using Articles in English Grammar” table, click here. To see the video that goes with this table, click here.