A great and comprehensive course! A must for a scientific writer. Go over the contents, at least twice to get all the golden nuggets!!

Dr. Kristine Sainani is a powerful, passionate speaker and TEACHER.

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!

This is the best course I have ever taken. I have learned many skills like organization of the article, writing a perfect sentence and paragraph and academic language.

The certificate has a bad quality. "Standford" sign just like a copy-paste name from the web. Not good

I felt the second part of the course rather uninteresting. I'm much more interested in improving my writing style rather than knowing how to write a captivating tweet. Additionally, some editing exercises are hard for those of us that are not from the biology field, because we are not accustomed to terms and concepts this discipline. Maybe proposing editing exercises on more generic texts would be helpful.

So SO So much difficult to actually go through it, Instructor is repeating one thing multiple times, so Lengthy videos . Simply describe 1 thing at 1 time dont amplify it so much that one forgets what was the actual point. If instructor has personal interest in that "Academic spam " mail that doesnot mean everybody will have . Same example repeated so many times.

This course was excellent! I have learnt a lot in just 8 weeks. I am excited to apply this knowledge to my field. I was actually disappointed when I reached the end of the course, because It was fun!

Extremely helpful for someone who is just beginning his scientific career (me). It is particularly convenient to have examples from medical articles, as this is the science field I am exploring.

Dr. Sainani really is a great tutor, she inspired me and gave confidence about how to approach writing in the sciences with a very fun and thorough style. Wouldn't be better !

Thank you

Erkan

The course covers wide range of skills in the academic writing; especially for scientific manuscripts. The contents are clear and concise, easy to follow!

there is something wrong in grading system.

if i write correct answers i get 56%

if i select wrong answers and leave the answer boxes empty i get 56%

its been 6th time

Summary:

I have zero complaints about the course. A retraction of the article used in the assignment below is no doubt after the material was released in the course. I write to address the issue and believe it may be useful as a teaching point.

Writing in the Sciences, Week 8, Peer Graded Assignment:

Below is an exact copy of the assignment.

The following summary appeared in a paper in PLOS Biology.

"Despite scientific and technological advances, communication has remained impossible for persons suffering from complete motor paralysis but intact cognitive and emotional processing, a condition that is called completely locked-in state. Brain–computer interfaces based on neuroelectrical technology (like an electroencephalogram) have failed at providing patients in a completely locked-in state with means to communicate. Therefore, here we explored if a brain–computer interface based on functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)—which measures brain hemodynamic responses associated with neuronal activity—could overcome this barrier. Four patients suffering from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), two of them in permanent completely locked-in state and two entering the completely locked-in state without reliable means of communication, learned to answer personal questions with known answers and open questions requiring a “yes” or “no” by using frontocentral oxygenation changes measured with fNIRS. These results are, potentially, the first step towards abolition of completely locked-in states, at least for patients with ALS."

Research References:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002593 Published Jan 31, 2017.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000089 Correction published Dec 12, 2018.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000607 Retraction Notice, Dec 16, 2019.

https://www.dfg.de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2019/pressemitteilung_nr_46/index.html Misconduct by Birbaumer Chaudhary cited and upheld by the German Research Foundation (GRF).

Student Recommendation, William Sparks (completed the course):

If the paper continues as the Week 8, Peer Graded exercise, I believe the model answer should be adjusted to add one sentence about the charges, subsequent investigation, and findings of the GRF. It is unknown if the deficiencies would have made any difference to the outcome of the research. I believe this paper remains a fantastic assignment and in some respects is now better due to the conflict and the path that thorough research of the exercise should no doubt discover by students in the course.

I reviewed 8 exercises for this module and zero mentioned the retraction or findings of the misconduct investigation. Of note, I was fully aware of it but did not mention it either. I said nothing to keep the question internal to Stanford and Coursera. Perhaps others felt the same way.

This course was great!! It started with basic information on how to write and flowed into the various types of science writing in a way that allowed me to become more comfortable with all sorts of writing. The information on how to "pre-write" works for organizing all types of manuscripts, not just research papers. I highly recommend that everyone watch and participate in the optional additional videos to get further practice in writing. I loved learning about he different science and technology that was discussed in the examples, as well as the formal lessons on how a research paper is organized and how to write for grants. The section on plagiarism was especially helpful. Again, great course!!

I am sure that the knowledge and skills I acquired by taking this course will help me write publishable scientific articles for my research. Dr Kristin Sainani has covered the fundamental aspects of writing scientific papers and provided insights with practical examples. With a decade-long clinical experience working as a psychotherapist, I am now in a process to shape my career as a researcher, and I believe completing this course with honors will be instrumental in my pursuit.

This course is by far the best I have enrolled online. It is interesting, practical and entertaining. You learn a lot, I recommend it for those starting their career in research but also for those who are just looking to improve their English and writing skills.

Excellent, comprehensive course even though it is ranked as beginner level. I definitely honed skills from it. The professor's lectures are excellent.

The course greatly improved my writing skills. I would definitely advertise this course to my colleagues.

It was a great learning experience. Highly recommended for non-native English speakers

EXCELLENT COURSE..I have learned so much..in these past 8 weeks. THANK YOU SO MUCH

Very informative - a must for anyone embarking on an academic writing journey!

Excellent course. Enjoyed it. Thanks to Coursera & Prof Kristine

I love the course. Yes it is long but it is also covering a lot.

It was an incredible course and improved my knowledge very well.

excellent course for a beginner in scientific writing...

this course help me easing my fears about writing.