Writing an article is now easier: Polytechnic University international postgraduate students took an academic writing course

Participants of the Best International Grant for PhD (BIG PhD), aimed at supporting the best foreign PhD students and their supervisors, took an academic writing course in English. Let us recall that BIG PhD was initiated by the International office of SPbPU and took place as part of the Priority 2030 program.

The task of improving the quality of academic writing is relevant to many graduate students, especially foreign ones. Most of them already have experience in scientific publications in specialized journals in English and understand how important it is to use English competently in professional and scientific communication as well as in creation of scientific texts. In order to support the participants of the BIG PhD competition, to improve their academic writing skills and increase their motivation for research activities, the organizers decided to implement a specialized course with the assistance of external experts. Thus, for several months, foreign postgraduate students and individual university staff members studied an in-depth practical course devoted to various aspects of academic writing. They got acquainted with the genre features of a scientific article in English, the structure of an international scientific publication and the rules of its design, studied the specifics of scientific journals in different countries, and independently created scientific texts, following the key requirements of English-language scientific discourse.

For me, studying in graduate school is a great responsibility. I understand that a variety of reports, reviews and scientific articles in specialized journals are written according to the rules of academic writing. It is not enough to know English at the conversational level, so I immediately responded to the invitation of international office staff to take the course, shared BIG PhD contest participant, SPbPU PhD student from Vietnam Tran Thanh Dat. I am grateful to the Polytechnic University for the opportunity to improve my academic writing skills. It is one of the most difficult forms of written English, it was not easy to learn, but very interesting. The knowledge I gained will definitely come in hand.

Twelve participants — international postgraduate students and two Polytechnic University staff members — attended the course. Academic writing skills are extremely important, that is why similar programs will continue to be offered on a regular basis for international postgraduate students involving competent SPbPU instructors. The next course will take place this year.

Prepared by the SPbPU International Office