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

4.9
stars
8,939 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

T

Feb 23, 2023

This is a great course! I have learned new knowledge that is far beyond my expectation! Highly recommend for young scientists to attend this course to learn basic principles in writing in the science!

AA

Jan 11, 2023

The best course I attain in Coursera. I struggled a lot to write my first manuscript and it took a lot of time. This course is beneficial for all scientific students. I highly recommended this course.

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251 - 275 of 2,920 Reviews for Writing in the Sciences

By Raquel M

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Aug 31, 2020

The course is excellent. Dr Kristin Sainani starts with valuable guidelines regarding grammatical construction and style. She guides us to writing a scientific article and submitting it for publication. Also, the course shows us how we can communicate with the lay public and social networks. This course is useful for all researchers, whether beginners or experienced. Exercices assist in learning. Congratulations!

By Katie V

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Jun 4, 2022

This was the 2nd time I have taken this course and this was a much better experience! I really enjoyed the changes and the quiz questions at the end of every activity that allowed me to double check my knowledge before the graded quiz. I really enjoyed this course and I feel like I learned a lot more and will use a lot more of the information in my writing in my doctorate program. Thanks for a great course.

By Annya S

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Jun 5, 2018

Wonderful critical thinking course. Having written a case report and personal statements in the past, I learned there was so much that I didn't know. This course broke writing down into goal oriented snippets and showed me what a wonderfully streamlined process it can be. I also found it lovely to be able to de-mystify the grant process as a young professional. A must course for any individual in the sciences!

By Renuka P

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Jul 9, 2020

Thank you so much Dr.Kristin Sainani for this excellent course. A course covering all the topics step by step. I have started this course as a free course, as I don't know the course would be completed by me or not. But I completed the course & took the certificate only because of your pretty way of teaching. Now I want to start my career in medical writing. Thanks to Coursera also for providing this course.

By Kurnia F

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Nov 8, 2021

This course is a great and amazing. I am an medical technology laboratory and this course very helpful to my job because i never received courses like this in formal school. My writing has improved significantly, this courses teach me how to edit paper, critical thinking, interviewing a scientist and writing in social media. I think everyone must try this courses. Thank you Dr. Kristin Sainani and Coursera.

By Nehad M N

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Jul 6, 2024

I enjoyed learning the information provided from the course. Dr. Kristin Sainani is very talented in explanation of the course with simplifying ability making the learning journey very excited. I was very satisfied and excited to do the learning and the exams to challenge my writing skill . At the end i found my self could write and summarize the scientific researches with more confident and with joy.

By Eleonora B

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Jul 12, 2022

This course gave me a lot of useful tips to improve my writing. The examples provided convinced me that scientific papers can be accurate but also interesting and enjoyable to read. The homework helped me realize that I often make "bad" writer's mistakes by comparing my answers to the example ones, so now I know exactly what to work on. I'll keep these writing tips in mind when I'll write my first paper.

By Antonio T

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Apr 18, 2019

This course should be a "must" for any PhD students or prospective researchers. It gives a clear method for writing scientific research with good examples, and helps to "clear the fog" we (students) usually have when drafting our first article. It also provide a guide on how to manage workload (and writing techniques) to avoid frequent mistakes among young writers. I wish I had known this course earlier!

By dpoljuha

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Jun 24, 2020

Scientific writing seems so easy and simple when Dr. Kristin Sainani speaks about it! When you try it yourself, of course, it's not quite like that ... at least in the beginning :) This course allowed me to get one step (and not a small one!) closer to that goal. It helped me structure the topic in my head and make things simpler and easier - in thoughts and sentences. I am infinitely grateful for that!

By Maciej B

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Jun 7, 2020

It is an excellent course, full of precious information and it was a pleasure to take part in. Some of the information were very surprising to get to know, as some teaching models of how to write papers are usually totally different (lots of clutter and passive voice). Thus, it made me feel more comfortable to change my mind about scientific writing and try to experiment on this, using gained knowledge.

By Anne T

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Dec 17, 2019

I found Writing in the Sciences incredibly helpful and challenging. I wish I had known about this course when I was handed a manuscript assignment without having had any previous experience writing a journal submission. Dr. Kristin Sainani is clear and concise (and personable!) in her presentations. I highly recommend this course for anyone who is or will be writing scientifically or needs a refresher.

By Swadhin S

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May 25, 2020

The course covers lots of technical aspects of writing manuscript, review, recommendation letter, and science news. The course is very helpful for biological science grad student/postdoc. There are real examples of good and bad writing from Nature/Cell/Science journals. The quizzes at the end of each module are easy—if someone carefully listens to the video. I would highly recommend taking this course.

By Favour O

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Jan 23, 2024

Thank you Coursera! I found this course absolutely enjoyable! The curriculum was rich too, and the tutor witty and knowledgeable. I don't often respond to call for reviews online but this was just exceptional. I started the course and followed through till the end, steadily exceeding my daily goals. I learnt about good writing, academic writing, and even social media! It was really an interesting one.

By Adam R

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Jun 8, 2020

As a high school student in South Korea, this course has assisted me in developing the writing skills that I did not have and also helped me to receive grant for my current project!

It is a great course that is so helpful now and I believe it to be even more helpful in the future!

Thanks to Dr. Sainani and many other doctors and professors who have put in their effort to create this WONDERFUL course!

By Ken F

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Aug 10, 2023

I learned a lot about communication in general when it comes to the sciences, that i was not aware of and revisited forgotten aspects of the english language. I have been working for 10 years in clinical practise. It has been very useful for my dissertation too! Just to note that the course was recommended by one of my supervisors after doing it and finding it equally helpful. Highly suggested!

By Fabio M M

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Nov 23, 2020

Very complete course, which give an exhaustive overview of all there's to learn about writing in the science, with many practical examples and exercise. Dr. Kristin Sainani is a very competent scientist and writer and very able to communicate the lessons with explanations and humor. She also gives her personal opinion on various aspects of writing, which is good in this case, in my opinion.

By Heder d V

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Jan 2, 2019

This course has been an eye-opener. I used to dread writing new, original articles. I could barely bring myself to start. This course has provided me with useful tips and tricks to start writing more effectively. It has also thought me more on the basis of writing, and on some tendencies that exist in academic writing.

Thanks to this course, I now look forward to writing my next manuscript!

By Jorge V

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Jul 23, 2018

The course has met all my expectations as it added pertinent information to my knowledge and answered basically all of my questions towards scientific writing style. Kristin Sainani has proven overwhelming qualified as a writing coach, encouraging me to write more confidently and clearly. And last but not least, this course addresses only what is relevant or pretinent to a piece of writing.

By Reza J

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Oct 18, 2021

I found this course almost necessary for anyone who's interested in continuing an academic career as a PhD student. It was a bit hard for me to solve the assignments as I'm not a native English speaker but later it became a reason to be able to search more deeply and efficiently ! I've recommended this course almost anywhere online, to pay Coursera back ! thanks for this great opportunity.

By Simone S

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Jun 4, 2020

It was a pleasure! A great course I can only recommend.

Very well chosen real-live-examples taken from current research literature.

I was able to deepen my grammar knowledge in English as well as gain experience with writing styles. I have developed a feeling for the linguistic differences between German and English. And I was surprised how precise you can be with a few well-chosen words.

By Muhammad A R

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Feb 1, 2022

This online course is very informative and helpful in scientific writing. My writing has improved with basic skills, academic writing, editing and grammar. I would like to say thank you to course instructor Dr. Kristin Sainani, and Coursera team for wonderful lectures and presentations. I highly recommend this course to everyone who want to become effective writer/author of a publication.

By Virginia S

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Jan 3, 2022

Dr Sainani is knowledgeable and enthusiastic. She obviously loves writing and inspires me to pursue this as a career. I always knew my writing style had issues such as wordiness, but she nails these problems and their solutions in the course. She even helped me to brush up on areas that I considered my strengths. This is one of the most practical and enjoyable courses I have ever taken.

By Ana C d S

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Jun 20, 2020

An incredible course! I can’t say enough about how much I’ve learned. It leads you through most types of texts you might find in scientific field in a very simple though complete way. However, I’d recommend it to students - specially graduate - from areas related to Medicine or Biology. Math, Physics or Engineering students might feel a bit bored, althouh they can benefit from it as well.

By Sheetal D

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Jun 7, 2020

The teacher is very enthusiastic and has done wonderful job. The difficulty level of the course increases slowly and steadily. I think there can be one more session on news and communication article. Grant writing module is really useful. My only criticism is course gives examples mainly from biological sciences and other sciences are kind of ignored. In all wonderful learning experience.

By Safeena A

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Nov 2, 2018

This course has polished the hidden scientific writer inside me. This was a totally new experience, and I am very thankful to Coursera team for offering such skill-polishing courses. The most important thing I learnt from this course is that scientific writing is not always meant to be too hard to understand, we can make our writing very simple and easy to understand. Highly recommended!