Category: Writing

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

Creative Writing II at Malmö University


by Terese Bergfors

The second semester of this course is over. I turned in my writing portfolio on 3 June 2022. During the spring semester, I created a collection of creative writing, both fiction and non-fiction, but finally decided upon submitting a 4000-word short story for the final grade.

If I am a science writer, why am I taking a course in creative writing? Writing is an art, an act of creation, but it is also a craft. I have learned many useful writing tools in this course. The ability to construct a good sentence is a highly transferrable skill to any kind of writing.

My new book is out now


by Terese Bergfors

If writing a journal article is a like running a 10K race, editing a book is the equivalent of an ultra-marathon.

Or so it felt.

The idea to update the second edition occurred to me in November, 2019. I contacted the publisher of the first two editions and he agreed to produce a third one. So, with his enthusiasm backing me up, I started after Christmas that year.

Then came the pandemic. I almost wanted to call this book the “Journal of a Plague Year”. However that title was already taken, by Daniel Defoe in 1772.

But now, almost two years and one (still ongoing) pandemic later, the third edition is available as an e-book. A softcover version is underway.

I thank my wonderful colleagues who contributed chapters, the publisher, and the many coworkers who assisted in fact-checking, indexing, and photography.

And finally, I thank my grandson Alex, now 7, for being quiet hours on end. Due to the quarantine, he had to put up with me working from home on this book for months.