Modern researchers are increasingly expected to be able to communicate their research to a variety of specialist and non-specialist audiences with confidence, clarity and impact. Those researching in the field of Higher Education may be looking to publish in Wonkhe, The Conversation, LSE Blogs and similar outlets. The aim of this workshop is to equip participants with valuable writing strategies for producing impactful text for broad audiences. This highly interactive session covers three main themes: 1) Motivations and Choosing Your Audience, 2) Making Headlines and 3) Writing for the Genre. Participants will get an opportunity to discuss a selection of higher education texts of different genres to highlight some of the key differences between them and more traditional academic texts, and to identify strategies used to ensure that writing is impactful. The session is structured around a balanced blend of input from the two facilitators, break-out room activities and individual tasks.

Schedule

11.00-11.10: Welcome and introductions

11.10-11.40: Part 1: Motivations and Choosing Your Audience 

11.40-12.20: Part 2: Making Headlines

12.20-12.30: Break

12:30-13.15: Part 3: Writing for the Genre

13.15-13.30: Summary of session + Q/A

Dr Nadya Yakovchuk is a programme leader for the Doctoral College Writing Development Programme for PhD students and early career researchers at the University of Surrey, UK. She has previously taught at Warwick and Leicester Universities, QMUL and the OU, mainly in the areas of writing and academic skills development, linguistics and English for Academic Purposes. Nadya is a regular presenter at international writing conferences and she has published articles and book chapters on different aspects of academic writing. She co-edited Enhancing Student-Centred Teaching in Higher Education - The Landscape of Student-Staff Research Partnerships (published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020) and guest edited a special issue of Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education (https://repository.brynmawr.edu/tlthe/vol1/iss31/). Nadya is currently a participant of the multi-institutional research project coordinated by the Centre for Engaged Learning at Elon University, USA, that explores writing transfer between academic and professional settings.

Dr Michael Rose is a researcher development training officer in the Doctoral College, University of Surrey. He has a lead role in public engagement and digital learning, and in recent years has headed the 23Things International programme – a massive online networking and development course for researchers across 5 continents. As a writing tutor and copyeditor he has worked at Universities of Exeter and Warwick, UCA, and various Taylor & Francis publishers. His research background is in philosophy and literature, especially Wittgenstein. This fuels an interest in how we handle uncertainty in research, teaching and writing, and the language we use to talk about it. He is co-editor of Anglo-Dutch Connections in the Early Modern World (Routledge, out 2022) and runs Spindlebox, a small poetry press.