Key facts
Start date: 2024 dates to be confirmed
Cost: $799 + GST
Duration: Six weeks
Delivery mode: Online
Time commitment: 50+ hours total, most of which will be spent revising your draft manuscript
Overview
This course helps postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career scholars speed up the process of successfully publishing in an academic journal or other scholarly publication. You’ll review, revise, edit and prepare an existing manuscript for submission to an appropriate journal or other publication venue in your field.
Each course offering is limited to 16 participants. A small class size allows for detailed and customised feedback from a research-active scholar in science communication and academic writing.
To apply, you need to submit a draft manuscript of 5,000 to 8,000 words.
Who this course is for
Postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and early career scholars in all disciplines, including the sciences, social sciences, humanities, business, and arts.
Testimonials
“This course not only taught me how to construct a journal paper but also explained the rationale behind it. The lecturer’s way of delivering the paper makes writing so interesting and fascinating. I would strongly recommend you all to take this course as early as possible in your PhD journey!”
“It was fabulous to get your feedback on our paper and very much appreciated. I’ll certainly be recommending more of my researchers to consider this course as they start to write their papers.”
Learning outcomes
- Receive customised feedback on your draft manuscript.
- Break down the writing process into actionable steps that progress towards publication.
- Form a supportive community of writers with your colleagues.
- Dialogue with current academic journal editors and reviewers.
- Examine feedback from reviewers and devise strategies to respond to it.
- Revise your draft manuscript substantially for a specific publication venue.
- Create and start to execute a plan for publishing your manuscript.
Course content and structure
Duration
You can take this course over six or 12 weeks. The six-week version covers the exact same content as the 12-week version, but moves at twice the pace.
The six-week version is ideal for participants who already have a solid draft manuscript and a strong command of written English.
The 12-week version is ideal for participants who are juggling many commitments and require more time to do their best writing.
Online learning
Due to the complexities of working with global researchers and their different schedules, the online offering of this course is fully asynchronous, meaning there are no synchronous video meetings. All teaching will occur through:
- pre-recorded educational videos
- weekly announcements
- regular dialogue in online forums
- writing exercises
- detailed feedback on your draft.
These activities give you a variety of ways to engage with the course materials, instructor, and fellow participants in your own time. Some past participants have also scheduled their own local weekly meetings to work through the course materials together.
Library access
Participation in the course does not include access to the Massey University Library system, unless you already have access through other means (such as being enrolled in a Massey qualification).
Learn more about library access
Grammar
The instructors will address some issues of grammar, usage, and mechanics in their customised feedback on drafts. But grammar is not the primary reason most research is rejected or accepted for publication. As such, this is not an English grammar course. Instead, this course teaches an essential set of academic writing and science communication skills that you can apply to your current and future research writing projects.
Assessments
There are no formal assessments for this course. Instead, you’ll complete weekly writing exercises with your draft manuscript, including revising, editing and peer reviewing.
Meet your facilitator
Dr Collin Bjork
Trained in rhetoric, writing, and communication, Dr Bjork has published original research in many leading international journals including Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Philosophy and Rhetoric, College Composition and Communication, Computers and Composition, and the Journal of Second Language Writing.
He is currently working on a monograph about podcasting and runs a Pod Uni podcast. Visit his website.
Registrations
Participants with a suitable draft will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
After you submit the application form, you will receive an email to direct you where to submit your draft manuscript (5,000-8,000 words).
After your draft has been received and reviewed by the instructor, you will be notified if you’ve been accepted into the course. Payment will be required to reserve your spot after you’ve been accepted.
Please note: Although many participants in this course achieve their publication goals, participation in this course does not guarantee successful publication.