ASC Grant write-up: the MD Writing and Editing Coaching Program

By Sarah Bradley, 2016 grant recipient

I would like to thank Australian Science Communicators offering me the MD Writing and Editing grant to aid my academic writing.

At the end of 2016 I graduated from the Australian National University with a Masters in Science Communication Outreach. This should have been the end of my academic career, but I didn’t feel ready to head into the workforce. Throughout my academic career I have completed short pieces of writing, but had never undertaken a long project. I decided to embark on a second Masters and improve my writing.

I started my thesis at the beginning of 2017. The idea was inspired by the popular Facebook page Humans of New York. Humans of New York takes the stories of everyday people and communicates these to people all over the world. I was interested to see if the personal stories of scientists and how they became interested in science, could be used to inspire people who didn’t previously have an interest in science.

Although I had an idea, I was not confident in my writing ability. When the Australian Science Communicators offered several grants, I decided to apply and was awarded with the MD Writing and Editing grant.

My longest project previously had been 2000 words chemistry laboratory report. I had never before written a literature review or designed a research project from start to finish. Understandably, I was nervous about embarking on a research project of this magnitude.

The MD Writing and Editing course was excellent. Malini was very supportive and full of knowledge. If I had a question about the structure or appropriate language, she was more than happy to help. Her planning method really made me revaluate my approach to each new writing task, making me more critical of my writing and evaluating each word before I put words on paper.

I would like to thank MD Writing and Editing course for improving my writing ability and for the Australian Science Communicators for providing the opportunity to improve my writing.

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