Researcher Development Programme (RDP) course timetable

Writing at postgraduate level

In this series of four sessions we’ll be taking an in-depth look at various aspects of writing at postgraduate level. Each session will be 90mins, with 30mins at the end for questions and discussion.

Whilst they have been designed as a set of sessions, with each building on from the previous, the individual sessions have been designed to be standalone – which means that you can attend the whole series or just those that particularly speak to you.

Workshop 1: Why writing at postgraduate level is hard

In this first session, we’ll be taking a step back and reflecting for a moment on what it is that you’re actually doing at PG level, as this is far more than simply writing. You’re engaging in a complex, cognitive process of knowledge creation. And so when the writing gets hard, its useful just to remember that what you are doing is far more complicated than just writing – as writing is something that you can all already do and to a pretty high degree of ability. In fact, as we will see, there are numerous factors involved in writing at this level, from the epistemological assumptions of your discipline, through how we construct argument, before we even get to how we construct an articulate sentence – and we’ll be looking at all of these.

The other workshops in the series are:
Workshop 2: The University’s criterion ‘clearly written’ – what this means
Workshop 3: Reader empathy. It’s not just about the writing – it’s writing for your reader
Workshop 4: The true secret to clarity: multi-level editing
Workshop 5: Editing session (practical)

Writing at postgraduate level

In this series of four sessions we’ll be taking an in-depth look at various aspects of writing at postgraduate level. Each session will be 90mins, with 30mins at the end for questions and discussion.

Whilst they have been designed as a set of sessions, with each building on from the previous, the individual sessions have been designed to be standalone – which means that you can attend the whole series or just those that particularly speak to you.

Workshop 2: The University’s criterion ‘clearly written’ – what this means

If you’ve ever had a look at the Cambridge Student webpages as to the requirements of postgraduate writing submitted for assessment, you’ll see that the University has only one criterion – and this is that it is ‘clearly written.’ At first glance, this seems both explicit and unequivocal as clarity in all its forms is surely the bedrock not only of postgraduate study, but of academia itself. Yet on further scrutiny, whilst there may be an instinctive consensus that this is a cardinal criterion for postgraduate writing, when it comes to defining what this actually means and how we are supposed to attain it, the matter is far less perspicuous. And indeed, clearly written is not simply an assessment criterion at Cambridge, as the vast majority of guides to academic writing rhapsodise about clarity as an assumed mutually acknowledged objective. Yet rarely is this criterion unpacked.

And so in this second session, we’ll be looking at doing just that – by considering what academics see as the central tenet of ‘clearly written’, namely, argument, and also in what ways the rhetorical expectations of ‘clearly written’ in English may differ from the expectations in other languages.

The other workshops in the series are:
Workshop 1: Why writing at postgraduate level is hard
Workshop 3: Reader empathy. It’s not just about the writing – it’s writing for your reader
Workshop 4: The true secret to clarity: multi-level editing
Workshop 5: Editing session (practical)

An interactive and informal session looking at:

• Your own assertiveness – where are you starting from and what do you want to work on?
• The assertive and the unassertive you – when do you behaviour differently and why?
• Some theory and hints and tips that will help you to work your assertiveness.
• Putting it into practice
• Actions to move your assertiveness forwards.

Writing at postgraduate level

In this series of four sessions we’ll be taking an in-depth look at various aspects of writing at postgraduate level. Each session will be 90mins, with 30mins at the end for questions and discussion.

Whilst they have been designed as a set of sessions, with each building on from the previous, the individual sessions have been designed to be standalone – which means that you can attend the whole series or just those that particularly speak to you.

Workshop 3: Reader Empathy. It’s not just about the writing – it’s writing for your readers

The primary focus of most writing training is on honing your skills as a writer – and for obvious reasons. But what tends to be overlooked is the reason why we are writing – namely, to be read. Text is generated to be read by a reader and as soon as it has been submitted, it belongs to the reader, a reader who has no recourse to question the writer. This is why the monological form of writing is difficult, as the writer has to structure the text and articulate the content in such a way that they will hopefully be received by the reader as the writer intended it, and so it has to be clearly articulated.

And this is precisely an aspect that novice postgraduate writers often struggle with – the research has been conducted and it is now simply a case of getting it down on the page. As one academic I have spoken to about this put it, they tend to write with no empathy for the reader, thereby forcing the reader to do the hard work of trying to elicit from what they have said what it is that they are actually trying to say. Being widely read has long been known as good training for a writer – but explicitly thinking of the reader when constructing text is often overlooked, when in fact it proffers a useful frame through which to view one’s own writing.

So, in this third session we’ll be looking at the concept of reader empathy and why it’s important to think of your reader when writing. We’ll look at a range of strategies to help you to do this: from the macro perspective of the structure of the entire document, through rhetorical templates, right down to where the reader expects information to be in a sentence.

The other workshops in the series are:
Workshop 1: Why writing at postgraduate level is hard
Workshop 2: The University’s criterion ‘clearly written’ – what this means
Workshop 4: The true secret to clarity: multi-level editing
Workshop 5: Editing session (practical)

Writing at postgraduate Level

In this series of four sessions we’ll be taking an in-depth look at various aspects of writing at postgraduate level. Each session will be 90mins, with 30mins at the end for questions and discussion.

Whilst they have been designed as a set of sessions, with each building on from the previous, the individual sessions have been designed to be standalone – which means that you can attend the whole series or just those that particularly speak to you.

Workshop 5: Editing session (practical)

This is an optional practical editing session where you’ll have the opportunity to put what you’ve taken from the morning’s session into practice by sharing your own writing with others and both getting and giving feedback

The other workshops in the series are:
Workshop 1: Why writing at postgraduate level is hard
Workshop 2: The University’s criterion ‘clearly written’ – what this means
Workshop 3: Reader empathy. It’s not just about the writing – it’s writing for your reader
Workshop 4: The true secret to clarity: multi-level editing

Have you ever wanted to get creative with your research – to discover how writing can bring a new perspective to your research? How your words can engage with new audiences about the academic research that you are passionate about?

This training will enable you to develop creative ways by which you can engage with the public, providing you with the resources to be more confident in developing, and sharing, creative writing responses to your area of research.

The course will introduce creative writing for poetry and prose, and textual writing for exhibition / display. It will discuss developing writing for performance and for publication and work with you to bring out the creative responses that lay within your own work. There will be the opportunity to receive written feedback throughout the week, to share your work at a final showcase, and to discuss your work in a 1-to-1 session with the course tutor on Wednesday 14th July (if requested in advance).

The training will be led by David Cain. David’s most recent book, Truth Street, was shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prizes for Poetry (2019). David brings his writing experience together with a passion for public engagement - he currently leads the delivery of the Cambridge Festival.

Have you ever wanted to get creative with your research – to discover how writing can bring a new perspective to your research? How your words can engage with new audiences about the academic research that you are passionate about?

This training will enable you to develop creative ways by which you can engage with the public, providing you with the resources to be more confident in developing, and sharing, creative writing responses to your area of research.

The course will introduce creative writing for poetry and prose, and textual writing for exhibition / display. It will discuss developing writing for performance and for publication and work with you to bring out the creative responses that lay within your own work. There will be the opportunity to receive written feedback throughout the week, to share your work at a final showcase, and to discuss your work in a 1-to-1 session with the course tutor on Wednesday 14th July (if requested in advance).

The training will be led by David Cain. David’s most recent book, Truth Street, was shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prizes for Poetry (2019). David brings his writing experience together with a passion for public engagement - he currently leads the delivery of the Cambridge Festival.

We live in visually over-saturated society. How can we use visual information to help communicate an idea with impact and effectiveness? Animation can be a powerful tool to convey a message and to capture your audiences attention and interest. It allows huge leaps in time/ concept because we have accepted the visual language of cinema, we are soaked in it, so a car can become a dinosaur and a tennis ball a mitochondria. Animation allows a whole concept to be encapsulated and transmitted without the barrier of language, across cultures.

This course will introduce you to a range of animation and storytelling techniques using simple exercises to get you started on animating your own research, and feel more confident in working with visual material. The trainer will work with you personally to develop your new creative skills and to get started with your very own research visualisation.

The course will be led by Sally Stevens. Sally is an artist and animator based in Bristol, UK. Her moving image work encompasses 2D animation techniques including hand-drawn and paper cut-out, as well as video editing. She is interested in the use of animation in relation to performance, in visual analogy as a scientific tool, and has a fascination with composition and with the timing of things. She has a background in illustration and music, and has worked with theatre, orchestras and music groups to produce visual material for live events as well as video. She studied Animation MA at the Royal College of Art and since graduating has worked as a freelancer in London and Bristol, for clients including The Jersey Maritime Museum, The School of Life, the Disney Channel, M&C Saatchi, and Sound UK.