On logic, structure, and your authorial voice

Ever felt frustrated with a paper that just won’t come together — where your argument falls apart, rewrites never end, and reviewer comments keep piling up? You’re not alone.

To help researchers rethink academic writing, on 13.12 we ran a one-day course “Beyond the Draft: Rethinking the Writing Process for Competitive Journals” together with Olesya Petrenko. The focus: developing ideas, building strong arguments, and polishing text from draft to final submission.

Participants practiced spotting logical gaps, improving clarity and flow, and tailoring their papers to specific disciplines and journals. They also explored AI tools, learning their strengths and limitations for editing and reviewing. By the end, everyone had practical strategies for combining AI with traditional editing — without losing their unique authorial voice.

Here’s what participants said:

• “Thank you very much for the course! It gave me renewed motivation to write for academic journals. I especially appreciated the experiments with prompts and LLMs for academic writing, as well as collaborating with colleagues from different fields through informal peer review, which helped us move each other forward.”

• “I learned how to formulate clear messages through topic sentences. I also became more precise in using references, improved stylistic coherence, and gained a better understanding of predictable macrostructure.”
   

This was our last event of the academic year. Now it’s time for a well-earned break! Enjoy the holidays, step away from deadlines, recharge, and come back refreshed. We will be waiting for you.

Your AWC team 💖