by Ellen Hagedorn

This Tuesday the Ars Iuris organized an English Academic Writing Workshop as an opportunity for all non-native speaking fellows to work on their upcoming publications in English. All participants handed in a text sample prior to the event. Lauren Wagner, the academic writing trainer, had already worked on all of them and could therefore give general recommendations as well as personal feedback.

The workshop started with a short reflection on how we currently approach the task of writing in English. Miss Wagner drew our attention to some characteristics of the English language – especially in academic writing – regarding, e.g., sentence structure or the length of sentences. We spoke about how to use or reduce tentative language, relative clauses, passive constructions and linking words in a productive way.

Having all this in mind, the second part of the workshop put our own texts into focus. We tried to apply our learnings to another fellows’ text and discussed them afterwards. In the end, each participant had received feedback from another participant as well as from Miss Wagner: A very helpful output – not just for the specific text. The workshop provided general strategies for using concise language to convey academic insights more precisely.