Category: Teaching

Karolinska Institute 8-11 March 2026 Professional Development Course for Master Students


by Terese Bergfors

This course called Applied Biomedical Communication and Professional Development has been running since 2022. This is a popular course with 47 masters students 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:

  • AI tools: what they can—and cannot—do for your writing. NEW for this year
  • How to give feedback and why it is good for you, the reviewer
  • 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 and why AI fails to fix them
  • Creating flow: the concept of topic-stress
  • The topic sentence and why every paragraph wants one

Technical Writing 14-16 January 2026 Uppsala, Fokuniversitetets Yrkeshögskoleutbildningar


by Terese Bergfors

This course is part of their program for Service Technicians in the Life Sciences.

Academic scientific writing and technical writing share many similarities, but there are some requirements specific to writing a technical report. These apply regardless of whether the report is in Swedish or English. My lecture will present “My Top Ten Tips for Writing a Technical Report” and then we will practice by writing SOPs (standard operating procedures) and other forms of instructions.

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.