Category: Teaching

Writing Course at Karolinska Institute 10-13 March 2025


by Terese Bergfors

This week I am teaching at Karolinska in the Applied Biomedical Communication and Professional Development course.  This is a popular course — 60 masters students again this year. It covers scientific writing, oral presentation skills, and career planning. 

In my workshop this week, the students learn to apply linguistic strategies for improved readability and flow in scientific manuscripts. Specifically, I cover:

  • Creating a structure: introducing the CARS template
  • What makes a text easy or hard to read? The top 3 essentials
  • How long is a too long sentence?
  • Top-heavy sentences: why English hates them
  • Creating flow: the concept of topic-stress
  • The topic sentence and why every paragraph wants one
  • How to give feedback and why we do it

Teaching English in Laos


by Terese Bergfors

I was in Luang Prabang Laos last week where I volunteered at the Big Brother Mouse program. I spent a few days of my vacation chatting in English with young people who drop into this center from 9 to 11 a.m., or in the evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. A lot of them are 20 to 25 years old and want to improve their English to get jobs in the tourist sector. I got to learn about their lives and they got to practice their English with me. This was so fun that I hope to go again next year.