Running a writing workshop

A writing workshop combines exercises, discussion and explanation, with a schedule and practical arrangements that let participants concentrate on learning and writing.

Modules and exercises

Combining familiar standard elements with material tailored to the audience’s level and the organiser’s requirements saves preparation time and makes delivery easier. ¹ A Do–Discuss–Recap module reinforces points while involving trainees at every stage: ¹

1. Do: a writing exercise or game.
2. Discuss: a group discussion that draws out the key points, using a flip chart and coloured pens.
3. Recap: a short presentation or talk covering the relevant points.

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Slides in handouts allow trainees to listen rather than copy, while flip-chart drawings offer an effective alternative that avoids computer and power failures. ¹ Alternating heavier and lighter modules can help both trainer and trainees, for example grammar and style followed by critiquing diagrams and posters. ¹

Exercises should be adaptable, their objectives and outcomes must be clear, and the activities must relate directly to medical writing; group exercises are appropriate when more than two or three people attend. ¹ Examples should use the audience’s subject knowledge, such as health economics for health economists rather than optical physicists, because many trainees struggle to write outside their specialty. ¹ Trainers can time an exercise themselves and allow trainees twice as long; if that exceeds the available time, the exercise needs redesign. ¹ Backup material gives faster participants work while others finish. ¹

Participation without embarrassment

Many trainees fear public embarrassment, particularly when their spoken English is weak; discussion in pairs and marking one another’s work can be enjoyable and less stressful while reducing the trainer’s marking burden. ¹ Writing is personal, and participants may resist having their work presented as an example of poor practice, so trainers should focus on good examples and encourage good ideas from participants perceived as weaker English speakers. ² The possibility of running the course or asking questions in the group’s mother tongue should be made explicit. ²

Brainstorming, pairing more and less experienced participants as buddies, and small-group discussions reported back to the room can encourage participation. ² One trainer recommends limiting photocopies and exercises and finds writing tasks between sessions more useful than starting writing during a workshop. ² This differs from the Do–Discuss–Recap approach’s use of writing exercises during the day. ^{2, 1}

Humour needs care because it differs across cultures and may not work with every nationality. ¹ Movement can help maintain attention during a long day through changes in team size that require rearranging furniture or through group spokespeople reporting at a flip chart. ¹

Opening and pacing the day

A five-minute opening exercise can ask participants to fold a card and write their first name on both sides in capitals with a black felt-tip pen, then ask whether anyone found the task stressful or impossible before discussing why it was easy. ³ The example illustrates understanding the subject, knowing what to write and how, and following instructions, while involving everyone and helping the group bond. ³ Latecomers lose little because the ideas recur during the day, and an opening should not depend on handouts in case copies are unavailable. ³ The trainer using this exercise finds a round of names and research topics slow and uninteresting, especially when trainees already know one another or do not need introductions to complete the course. ³

The most critical content of a one-day course should come in mid-morning, because interactive training is tiring and energy often runs low by 3 or 4 pm. ⁴ Immediately after lunch, a short writing-related game or enjoyable exercise can work better than a trainer’s presentation. ⁵

For professional writers, a whispered-message game demonstrates how a brief becomes distorted until the last person lacks enough information to carry out the writing task. ⁵ For scientists and clinicians, teams can race to complete boxed 20-piece jigsaws, with all but one puzzle altered; the team with the correct pieces and matching box picture usually wins. ⁵ The exercise illustrates how research, planning and a clear picture of the article, with material that matches it, can make writing smoother. ⁵

A poster walk provides an end-of-day activity involving walking and talking, using up to ten posters from the host institution to assess their effectiveness as scientific communication. ⁴ It shows trainees what they have learned and how published posters can fail to inform audiences and disseminate research. ⁴

Venue, materials and trainer preparation

Logistics can be the largest source of stress, so trainers should keep in contact with organisers, request the facilities needed and picture the whole day in advance. ⁶ Organising responsibilities may be split between logistics and content, and a briefing and prepared questions help establish arrangements. ⁶

Carrying course material on a laptop, USB stick and paper, and emailing it ahead, provides alternatives when promised computers or projectors fail. ⁶ Organisers often print handouts to reduce cost and avoid the trainer carrying booklets for up to 30 people, but time is needed on arrival to locate them. ⁶ Furniture may need rearranging before a 9 am start, so trainers should wear clothes suitable for moving it and not rely on trainees to help. ⁶

Arrangements and tools should be checked before the last evening, and the trainer should arrive early. ⁷ Bringing water and food avoids reliance on the institution providing them, while throat sweets can help when extensive talking dries the throat. ^{6, 7} Time to eat and drink needs protection because participants often use breaks to ask questions. ⁷ Toilets, fire exits and the way out should be located on arrival. ⁷ A jacket can give a professional first impression, with layers for poorly regulated room temperatures and comfortable shoes for potentially eight hours standing. ⁷

Trainers should introduce themselves and their experience to establish credentials, since institutions may not have explained who they are or why they were selected. ⁷ One trainer recommends withholding handouts, checklists and attendance certificates until the end, telling participants at the start that they need to stay to receive them. ⁷

In a two-day Harare course in October 2013, planned local printing proved slow and poor-quality, a generator was needed when the electricity failed on day two, and the fact that few participants arrived before an hour after the planned 9 am start required a flexible agenda. ⁸ The remaining equipment was adequate, and the venue allowed outdoor group work. ⁸ A later course in Moshi, Tanzania, used a wrinkled sheet as a screen in poor lighting. ⁹ After teaching in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, the trainer concluded that teaching in Africa was not very different from Europe: planning and flexibility mattered in both. ⁹

An intensive course’s organisation checklist

A Copenhagen University course in 2016 used three presenters, four tutors and 36 participants, with all participants attending three Monday-afternoon lectures before dividing into groups for two full days on Tuesday–Wednesday or Thursday–Friday. ¹⁰ The lectures covered grammar and usage, figures and an editor’s view of medical writing; the full-day sessions covered IMRAD, clear and concise writing, style and vocabulary, punctuation, numbers, publication and the cover letter. ¹⁰

Its organiser’s ten practical tips were: ¹⁰

1. Send participant information when the course is approved, ten days before and immediately before it starts, since emails are often lost.
2. Send a map and directions in the final email and provide plenty of signs; a visible roller banner can also publicise the course.
3. Choose an appropriately sized room and arrange smaller rooms with horseshoe tables so participants can see and interact with each other.
4. Welcome early and late arrivals, directing early arrivals away from the door to leave space for latecomers. Use quick introductions giving name, institute and project to break the ice and encourage interaction.
5. Mix lectures, presentations, exercises and small-group discussions. Short grammar, usage, punctuation and editing exercises and a longer numbers exercise complement lectures; groups of six with a tutor discuss their own texts using a manuscript checklist. Participants often rate these discussions and exercises most highly.
6. Keep a fast pace with minimal interruptions, brief questions during sessions and longer discussion during breaks, with all tutors present and ready to elaborate.
7. Provide useful, legible handouts and answers to everything so the material remains understandable afterward.
8. Prepare for cancellations, absent speakers, equipment failures and missing refreshments; fill spare places from waiting lists where possible and keep important contact numbers, including IT and catering, available.
9. Send a follow-up email with useful links and answers requiring further research, and request additional feedback.
10. Develop an effective evaluation form, asking participants to explain low ratings and suggest improvements, while disregarding impossible requests.

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The organiser also ran eight-session courses for twelve participants in spring and autumn, and a requested one-day follow-up course was scheduled twice yearly. ¹⁰ She found the follow-up submissions much more advanced than those submitted for the preceding full-length courses. ¹⁰

A worked first day

In one four-day course for twelve biomedical researchers, the trainer opened by asking who needed to reread scientific sentences and reassured participants that difficult prose was rarely the reader’s fault. ¹¹ Participants then compared four versions of scientific prose, and a senior scientist’s defence of the wordiest version prompted discussion of whether scientific writing serves the writer’s ego or communication. ¹¹ Comparison with readers’ preferred style introduced work on readability through clumsy sentences, empty words, noun clusters and overloaded sentences. ¹¹

During the break, the trainer learned about writer’s block, lack of writing time and rejection, then used these concerns in class discussion. ¹¹ To introduce manuscript structure, participants wrote a title for a published abstract and selected a preferred title from their versions and the original without being told which was which; the original, a long title packed with unnecessary detail, received no votes. ¹¹ Discussion of an introduction from a paediatrics journal then considered its story and whether references interrupted its flow. ¹¹ Participants can learn as much from one another as from the trainer. ¹¹