Workshop participants engaged in a writing activity during the pre-lunch session of the workshop “Basics of Academic Writing,” held on June 23, 2022
CBEC-SIUT Workshop: Basics of Academic Writing Karachi, June 23, 2022
Anika Khan
Part-time Faculty, Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture, SIUT, Karachi, Pakistan
On June 23, 2022, CBEC organized a one day workshop focusing on academic writing skills for its faculty, alumni and healthcare professionals from the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT). Running a workshop on English academic writing skills had been on the faculty’s agenda for quite some time but this was the first formal full day event dedicated to academic writing held at the Centre.
For most Pakistanis who enter scientific professions such as medicine, writing skills tend to take a back seat. Even individuals who come from a background of the humanities or social sciences are not taught academic writing skills explicitly. Rather, they acquire academic writing skills through experience – or, if they are fortunate – through good mentors. An added layer of complexity for Pakistani writers is the challenge of converting their thoughts (which are generally in Urdu) into clear, comprehensible, written English.
Entitled “Basics of Academic Writing,” the June workshop was an attempt to provide participants with fundamental skills and concepts that could help improve their written work. The event was run by Dr. Shahid Shamim, Associate Faculty, CBEC, and Ms. Kanwal Zehra and Ms. Rabiya Khalid of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Karachi, both of whom have a background in linguistics and are currently pursuing their doctoral degrees. The workshop was attended by 18 participants on-site at CBEC.
The first session of the workshop, run by Ms. Rabiya Khalid and Dr. Shahid Shamim, aimed to help participants improve their academic writing by looking at sentences and paragraphs to identify issues with structure, coherence and the flow of ideas. Most participants seemed to find this a useful session, particularly as there were many opportunities for hands-on practice. Commenting on his writing skills, one of the participants (a clinician) remarked that the last time he had focused on English grammar and structure had been in middle school.
The second session of the workshop, conducted by Ms. Kanwal Zehra and Dr. Shahid Shamim, focused on critical reading and paraphrasing. While this session conveyed important points about understanding written material and incorporating it appropriately into academic writing, some of the information seemed to be more suited to reviewers of academic articles. Participants generally felt that despite hands-on activities, there was a lot of material and they needed more time and practice to absorb it.
The final session was dedicated to feedback on samples of participants’ written work but participants generally felt that the feedback was insufficient due to time constraints. However, they took away helpful information about the mechanics of writing, particularly in the first session of the workshop. Overall, the workshop was a useful learning experience for both participants and facilitators.