| With the exercises and tests in this section, you can self-assess and reflect on how you write texts. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| My desk can talk (opens in new tab) | Change your perspective, recognize your strengths and weaknesses |
| Writer's interview (opens in new tab) | Reflect on your own writing |
| Individual writing strategies (opens in new tab) | Find out what type of writer you are, recognize your strengths and weaknesses |
| This section contains methods for time and self management, which you can employ during the planning of a writing project. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| Reverse analysis (opens in new tab) | Plan your writing project in reverse, beginning with the deadline and ending in the present. |
| Pomodoro (opens in new tab) | How to increase your productivity |
| Time management for academic texts (opens in new tab) | Devise a schedule for your project that includes deadlines and rewards and get an overview of the stages of academic writing. |
| The Pareto principle (opens in new tab) | A time management technique to increase your productivity (80/20-rule). |
| Identifying and avoiding time killers (opens in new tab) | Find out how much time you have for your writing. |
| Weekly schedule (opens in new tab) | Draw up your weekly schedule and define time slots for writing. |
| Mindmapping tasks (opens in new tab) | Create a mind map to visually plan out your tasks. |
| The following writing techniques can help you put the content of your text in a particular, find an outline, narrow down your topic etc. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| Be the Master of Your Thesis | The section “City of Hope” of this moodle course contains checklists, exercises, information, and techniques for getting oriented in thesis projects in STEM. |
| Finding your topic and your research question (opens in new tab) | Formulate and narrow down your topic and research question with the given criteria. |
| Narrowing down your topic (opens in new tab) | Techniken, die beim genaueren Eingrenzen eines Themas helfen können |
| Fascination & Confusion (opens in new tab) | Create a table about interesting as well as confusing or annoying aspects of your topic. |
| Cluster (opens in new tab) | Gather ideas in an unstructured manner (especially helpful when you do not yet feel confident about the content of your text). |
| Mind map (opens in new tab) | Gathering ideas in a structured manner |
| Instant proposal (opens in new tab) | Specify the main points of your paper, thesis or research project and write a brief proposal. |
| Brainstorming | Collecting ideas in an unstructured manner: Gather ideas for your text without prioritizing or categorizing them (i.e. associate, jot down bullet points etc.). |
| Outlining with flashcards (opens in new tab) | Brainstorm your ideas in a flexible and dynamic way. |
|
Letter to your granny (opens in new tab)
Letter to a fellow student (opens in new tab) |
Put the basic contents of your paper into simple terms, thus improving your understanding of them as well as your usage of the terminology. |
| The planning pentagon (opens in new tab) | Define and structure your topic according to five points: Research question, working hypothesis, methods, theories and terms, material/objects |
| Key words and structure tree (opens in new tab) | Finding a structure for chapters |
| Interest-based choice of topic | Reflect on what interests you about a field or topic, using e.g. freewriting. |
| Identifying the potential of a topic | Break down your topic into subtopics, using e.g. a mind map. |
| Pros and Cons | In a table, collect positive and negative aspects of a topic. |
| Support your reading and writing with these techniques to navigate the wealth of research literature. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| Instant proposal (opens in new tab) | Specify the main points of your paper, thesis or research project and write a brief proposal |
| Reading techniques | Highlighting, underlining, taking notes, summarizing, creating tables, writing down important quotes (including the source), … |
| These techniques can help you in structuring and arranging the content of your text, narrowing down your topic, specifying your research question, as well as planning out sections of your text. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| The planning pentagon (opens in new tab) | Define and structure your topic according to five points: Research question, working hypothesis, methods, theories and terms, material/objects |
| Instant proposal (opens in new tab) | Specify the main points of your paper, thesis or research project and write a brief proposal |
| Outlining with flashcards (opens in new tab) | Collect your ideas in a flexible and dynamic way, and turn them into a draft outline. |
| Brainstorming | Collecting ideas in an unstructured manner: Gather ideas for your text without prioritizing or categorizing them (i.e. associate, jot down bullet points etc.). |
| Cluster (opens in new tab) | Use this technique to gather ideas freely; later, you can use the result to create an outline. |
| Mind map (opens in new tab) | Mapping out the content of your text (terms, bullet points, sentences etc.) in a structured manner (identifying areas, hierarchies etc.) |
|
Letter to your granny (opens in new tab)
Letter to a fellow student (opens in new tab) |
Put the basic contents of your paper into simple terms, thus improving your understanding of them as well as your usage of the terminology |
| Key words and structure tree (opens in new tab) | Finding a structure for chapters |
| Checklist for the structure of a scientific text (opens in new tab) | Check the structure of chapters, sub-sections and paragraphs with this checklist. |
| Organizing text chaos (opens in new tab) | If you want to organize your text after you have written it, use this method of keywords and categories. |
| If you are having trouble beginning to write or if you feel blocked, try techniques from this section. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| Freewriting (opens in new tab) | Get into the writing flow and get started with a topic, not focussing on mistakes but rather on content. |
|
Letter to your granny (opens in new tab)
Letter to a fellow student (opens in new tab) |
Put the basic contents of your paper into simple terms, thus improving your understanding of them as well as your usage of the terminology |
| Instant proposal (opens in new tab) | Specify the main points of your paper, thesis or research project and write a brief proposal |
| The planning pentagon (opens in new tab) | Define and structure your topic according to five points: Research question, working hypothesis, methods, theories and terms, material/objects |
| Switch the medium | Try recording yourself with your smartphone and transcribing this afterwards, or other changes in your writing tools or media to get a different perspective. |
| My inner critic (opens in new tab) | Clarifying expectations and self-criticism, refuting criticism, finding solutions |
| Be the Master of Your Thesis | In “The Great Plains of Thesis Writing”, this moodle course contains lots of tips for getting started with writing your thesis in STEM. |
| Work on your individual scientific writing style with these materials. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| General criteria for scientific writing (opens in new tab) | Scientific language style is heavily influenced by these criteria. |
| Language in scientific writing (opens in new tab) | Tips, examples, tools |
| Academic Phrasebank (University of Manchester) | This resource can help you in finding appropriate phrases for your scientific/academic texts. |
| Every text needs to be revised and, before submission, proofread. The following materials can help you with that. | |
| FILE | DESCRIPTION |
| Organizing text chaos (opens in new tab) | If you want to organize your text after you have written it, use this method of keywords and categories. |
| Look at headings, main points, topics, and lines of argument | Read your draft and compare section for section: Does your understanding of the text match your writing goals? Gaps, repetitions, conflicts, discrepancies etc. will become apparent. |
| Checklist for the structure of a scientific text (opens in new tab) | Check the structure of chapters, sub-sections and paragraphs with this checklist. |
| Questions for constructive text feedback (opens in new tab) | Use these questions when you are asking someone for text feedback or when you are reading someone else's text. |
| Checklist: A final check of my text (opens in new tab) | Check the formalities of your text before submission. |
| General criteria for scientific writing (opens in new tab) | Check your text against these criteria. |
| We are working on some techniques to help you with your applications. In the meantime, take a look at our writing tutorial on cover letters in English . |