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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Writing in the Sciences by Stanford University

4.9
stars
8,321 ratings

About the Course

This course teaches scientists to become more effective writers, using practical examples and exercises. Topics include: principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, peer review, grant writing, ethical issues in scientific publication, and writing for general audiences....

Top reviews

SD

Feb 25, 2020

Respected Dr.kristiani sainani madam and coursera.

I thank you for the wonderful classes and presentations, it really didn't made me feel that i was learning online course but as in class learning.

AL

Jun 3, 2019

This was an amazing course that really helped me with my medical writing skills and understanding how making things clear for all audiences can help in spreading scientific knowledge across the world.

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201 - 225 of 2,766 Reviews for Writing in the Sciences

By zhang w

Dec 3, 2021

I really introduce this course for all students to learn the science writing, especially the non-native speakers. This course will give you the mind of structure, grammers and good sentences you should use in your writing. I really like the tips for writing and reviewing different parts of your papers like introduction, methods and results or discussion. It is very helpful if you want to publish. By the way, it is also a good way to practice your English listenning.

By amos a t

Aug 4, 2020

I can now write faster and better without anxiety. I have learnt the formats of writing a scientific manuscript, peer review, grant writing, ethical issues in scientific publication, and writing for general audiences. I can now present my facts and arguments in a better format without compromising. I believe all this would speed up my career goals and in no time - I would be one of the highly rated women in the animal science field that the world would reckon with.

By Marie B B

Apr 13, 2020

A really excellent course. Dr. Sainani explains clearly and without disturbing "clutter" how to write scientific papers, summaries for lay readers, science news articles and more. I wish, I had taken this course in my university days before writing my first science paper - but better late than never. There are a lot of opportunities for "learning by doing" in this course, and I feel it has improved my writing skills.

5 stars: I most definitely recommend this course!!

By Sandra P

Aug 24, 2020

This was an excellent course with a talented instructor, Dr. Kristin Sainani! I am able to add many tips to my writing, such as proper use of the semi-colon and the dash--which I rarely used in my writing prior to this course! I enjoyed the session on writing letters of recommendation, as I have been asked to write a few and now I appreciate the added knowledge given by Dr. Sainani. This is a valuable course that I would highly recommend! Thank you so much.

By David E

Oct 13, 2020

As someone who grew up in an age where I was supposed to just learn writing by doing this course has been fantastic. It was recommended to me by one of my PhD supervisors and I am going to recommend this course to many of my colleagues.

Dr. Kristin Sainani explains things clearly, confidently and with examples from the scientific literature and science press. The scaffolding of learning material is perfect for learning remotely and I commend the course to you.

By Kaisa K

Jul 5, 2018

I greatly enjoyed this course. Even though there were aspects of the course that do not currently directly relate to what I'm doing every day (e.g., grant and proposal writing), there were many good examples of how to improve ANY writing. I generally review <10 manuscripts or clinical reports a year, so I'm only moderately involved in writing. However, this course covered many aspects of how to write better. I have recommended this course to several colleagues.

By Stephanie L

Jun 27, 2018

I fully recommend this course for students needing to comprehend, paraphrase or write scientifically! I use the Grammarly tool while writing essays, and it points out my greatest sins are wordiness and using the passive voice, without guiding me on how to improve. Many researchers write in this manner too, and it is hard to understand. This course is amazing as it helps the reader get to the gist of the topic by teaching how to paraphrase to the active voice.

By Bernd N

Dec 15, 2020

This course was just perfect for me! I took it while parallely writing my first scientific paper and it helped me a lot. Not only did it explain how to write the paper in clear and appropriate English (my native language is German so this was challenging!), there was so much more useful information such as how to structure the paper and how review processes work. I also enjoyed listening to the lecturer, Dr. Kristin Sainani, a very likeable and smart person.

By Hoang B L

Nov 2, 2018

I don't know what to say. Thank you Dr. Sainani for your wonderful course. You're an inspiring lecturer. The course covers the whole range of writing in the sciences and provides learners with basic yet essential knowledge on how to write effectively. I've come to realize that the principles of writing are the same regardless of to whom you are writing. I believe my writing will improve greatly in the future, thanks to your clear and concise explanation.

By Learning V

Jan 22, 2019

I would like to congratulate and appreciate Dr. Kristine, for such a brilliant course. Wonderful way of addressing the course and it took my attention till end. It contains essential and useful information for all the people who are related to scientific field. I have submitted my thesis recently. I am very confident to do proofreading for my colleagues in a wonderful manner after this course.

Thanks you so much!!!

Best wishes!

Misbah Noreen Yousry Hasan

By Christopher B

Jan 24, 2022

This course was excellent. It covers topics that are certain to be relevant to a wide range of science writers. I felt that the instructor explained the theory well, and I found the examples helped me understand how the theory could be applied in practice. Even though I have been writing scientific reports and manuscripts for many years, I am confident that this course will make my writing clearer, more concise, and more enjoyable to read. Thanks!

By Deleted A

Apr 12, 2023

This coures delivers much intuitive understaning of scientific writing: how to write, how to organize, and how to deliver science writing for the lay audience. The hardest part of scientific writing is making it as simple as the lay audience can understand and also not failing in the delivery of scientific principles required to understand the writing. It’s like serving two ends. Thanks for the instructors, staffs, and the reviewers in peer-review.

By Amita P

Oct 3, 2022

This was one of the best course I have taken in the last few years. Even though I have already turned in my PhD thesis and manuscripts, I wish I had known all of this information when I first started my academic career. I had no idea that scientific writing could be made simple and enjoyable. I'll most certainly let the juniors at my university know about this course. I advise everyone who wants to begin their graduate studies to take this course.

By Devesh D

Oct 14, 2021

"Writing in the Sciences" was one of the best courses that I have taken. The instructor is knowledgeable and the perfect person to teach this material. Through this course, I learned about the science of writing well, and the importance of being clear and simple in my writing. I have a learned a lot from this course about effective writing and plan to apply this learning in my future manuscripts. Again - thanks for offering this incredible course!

By 张凯旋

Oct 27, 2022

This course is very useful for me. About 2 years ago, I started this course because of the recommenfation of friend. There are many effective skills on writing, which helped me publish my essays on magazine and finish my graduation thesis. Though I got master in engineering from Sichuan University, but I learned from Stanford. So proud of me.I hope this course could be studied by more people from the world, baccuse the knowledge has no borders。

By Josh T

Jul 12, 2020

I can't recommend this course highly enough. I recently started a new role as a Science Writer so this course was highly relevant for me. Dr. Kristin Sainani manages to cover a wide range of topics related to scientific writing--from the writing process itself, to drafting a manuscript or grant application, to writing for a lay audience--using clear and interesting examples. I'll be referring to my notes from this course for many years to come.

By Stephanie E

Jun 23, 2019

This course is one of the most helpful and engaging classes I have taken ever. Professor Sainani is a very enthusiastic and clear instructor, and you can feel her positive energy and attitude towards teaching through the screen. Not only has this course helped in writing in the sciences, but I believe it has taught me tools to improve my writing in general. I much appreciate this course, and I am thrilled that I had the opportunity to take it.

By Angela P

Jul 4, 2018

This course was amazing. It’s everything I forgot from my 5 th English teacher to my MSN papers. loved that it was self paced, I got behind and was able to switch classes with ease. I made a book with all the power points to to reference. I now know how to fix the passive verb that outlook loved to highlight in my writing. Teacher was superb. Only thing I would have done different is to have fewer guess speakers, I found it a little boring .

By Nataliia S

May 15, 2022

I really liked the course. Clear presentation of basic and advanced skills, very helpful tips. I really liked the modules devoted to interviews, presentations of science in the media. I would definitely recommend this course to my colleagues and students. My only regret is that I'm not a medic) and, unfortunately, I wasn't able to fully enjoy the additional videos, as they provided practical examples of editing specialized medical texts.

By Verónica H C

Jun 10, 2021

I’d like to especially thank Professor Kristin Sainani for the course “Writing in the sciences” and Coursera for giving people the opportunity to globally access this kind of education. The course exceeded all my expectations; it’s such a clear, engaging and compelling course that provides several skills and useful tools in medical writing, editing of manuscripts, and science communication, among many others. I fully recommend taking it.

By Yogini D

Oct 9, 2020

The course sets a foundation to write science well. Dr. Kristin - the course mentor- does an incredible job at igniting minds of writers. She shares, based on her experiences, valuable and highly useful tips to start off writing well. She has been utmost honest in accepting the hard part of writing- even for professionals and that kind of gives a hope and assurance to the beginners. Thank you for this insightful and highly useful course.

By Kangshu L

Feb 26, 2023

I think that I learn a lot through this course. Before this, I thought scientific writing is supposed to be full of jargon and hard to read. Professor Kristin Sainani taught me how to write a nice scientific essay being accurate and understandable at the same time, and also told me how to communicate with other researchers and the public. I believe this experience will help me greatly in my following scientific journey. Thanks a lot!

By Parvathi N

Apr 11, 2021

This was such an amazing course! I really loved how the instructor kept the classes very engaging with her sense of humor and her passion for the subject is very visible. I love how she used really relevant examples to explain a lot of the concepts. I got a chance to contemplate on my writing skills throughout this entire course and I will apply all of the skills I have obtained during this course to all of my future writing projects.

By Lisa S

Sep 9, 2020

Very helpful course with an excellent instructor. This course will help you write scientific manuscripts that aren't so dense no one will read them and helps you understand how to critically evaluate scientific writing. I found the "lay summary" exercise particularly helpful as it is always a challenge in science to communicate with the lay public. Definitely take this course if you will be doing any scientific writing in your career.