Paper-in-a-Day Workshop a Great Success

BY: .

Academic Leader of Research in the School of Clinical Medicine, Professor Colleen Aldous, hosted a workshop for 13 postgraduate students in which space was created for them to write up their research in the form of a journal article in a single day.

Masters of Medicine (MMED) students from the Departments of Surgery, Anaesthetics, Oncology and Infectious Diseases as well as a few PhD students learned about the different parts that make up a journal article and what elements are required within each.

The students all commented that they were astounded by the quality and volume of work they produced in a day. Their papers were ready for references and final editing with supervisors and co-authors by the end of the workshop.

Said Aldous: ‘The aim of the paper-in-a-day workshop is to allow students the opportunity in an academic and focused environment, to remove all distractions and learn about the structure of journal articles.

‘In learning about what needs to go into the different sections of a clinical research article, the students write up their own research. When they review each other’s work after writing each section, they are often surprised at how well their peers write, mainly because they are taught to write in clear and understandable language and present findings in a logical and distinctly understandable way.’

By the end of the afternoon, the students had the first draft of their paper completed, along with the abstract.

Progress made by the students at the workshop will help ease the workload for their supervisors to develop their papers to a standard where they are ready for publication.

MaryAnn Francis