Writing is hard, and scientific writing is really hard. University of Canberra ECR Sarah Whiteley has been there and wanted to help.

She found that in her undergraduate studies, there was little to no preparation for the level of writing required in postgraduate programs, and the academic career that may lay beyond.

So Sarah developed and presented a series of workshops that aimed to pass on what she wished she knew when she was undertaking her earlier studies, and what she learnt during her Honours and PhD programs, to other postgrad students and ECRs.

In the first workshop, The fundamentals of writing, Sarah addressed ways to improve writing, increase productivity, and techniques for managing the mental struggles that often accompany writing. This day also featured professional scientific writer Andrea Wild, Communication Advisor for CSIRO's National Research Collections.

The second, How to write a scientific paper quickly and efficiently, was a three-day intensive scientific paper writing workshop that outlined effective strategies for putting together a publication quickly and efficiently.

Guest presenters, Professor Arthur Georges (UC) and Dr Alicia Grealy from CSIRO Collections spoke about, respectively, writing a paper from concept to publication and presenting information visually and the value of great figures for scientific publications.

One of the major objectives of the CBA is to build capacity through training of postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers and we welcome input from Early Career Researchers regarding the types of training activities they want.

Over 30 ECRs from ANU, UC, CSIRO and the ACT Government registered their interest (with over half attending). So thank you and congratulations to Sarah, and her guest speakers, on this series of highly-rated workshops.