Scientific Writing Workshops
The department offers workshops on writing and publishing scientific papers for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in physics.
Scientific writing workshops are conceived for PhD students and postdocs who would like to make their writing process more structured and effective. They're tailored to members of the physics department and are meant to complement the courses and services offered by the ETH Library.
The two-day workshop will take place on Monday 8 and Thursday 11 September 2025: registration is open!
The number of participants is limited to 12 to facilitate the interactive part of the workshop (see programme below). Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
Available formats
Half-day workshop
- This version of the workshop is conceived for an extended group meeting or a group retreat: its duration can vary from two to four hours.
- As the scale is smaller, the workshop is meant to focus on the group's research topics.
- The structure of the workshop is shaped by the group's input: participants are asked to share their drafts prior to the event, so that most writing examples discussed during the workshop come directly from the group's work in progress.
Two-day workshop
- The workshop takes place over two weekdays (one half day, one full day) in Hönggerberg.
- As this format wishes to offer a practising ground for writing to all participants, it doesn't take place over consecutive days. The first half day covers basics of writing practice and tips, whereas the second day is also meant as a time to reflect on the participants' experience of revising their writing. Attendees receive detailed information on how to prepare for the workshop ahead of time. Below is the provisional programme.
Monday 8 September, 09:00-13:00
09:00-10:30
Questions to ask before writing
The structure of a scientific paper
Paragraphs and sentences
10:30-10:45 Small break
10:45-13:00
Getting to grips with verbs, words and tone
Avoiding ambiguity and confusion
*** Participants are then asked to revise a text of their choice by taking inspiration from what we discussed during the first half day. Their revised pieces need to be ready for discussion on the morning of Thursday 11 September. ***
Thursday 11 September, 09:00-16:00
09:00-10:15
Discussion: how did your revisions go?
10:15-10:30 Small break
10:30-12:30
The structure of an abstract
A bit of paper strategy
12:30-13:30 Lunch break
13:30-15:00
Writing and revising
Gearing up for journal publication
15:00-15:15 Small break
15:15-16:00
Discussion
What these writing workshops are
- They're an opportunity to gain better awareness of one's reading and writing processes.
- They cover fundamental aspects of the scientific writing practice and discuss common pitfalls best avoided when writing scholarly texts.
- They offer pointers for revising one's writing and for giving feedback on other people's writing.
- They provide an overview of the scientific publishing landscape and of the journal peer-review process.
What these writing workshops are not
- They aren't English language courses. The Language Center of UZH and ETH Zurich has a rich external page selection of language courses.
- They focus on writing scientific papers, which by extension can apply to reports and theses. Writing grant proposals is a different matter and is not discussed.
Contact
Kommunikation D-PHYS
Robert-Gnehm-Weg 15
8093
Zürich
Switzerland