This episode features Pamela Walter, MFA, the Director of the Office for Professional Writing, Publishing, and Communication (OPWPC). Pam shares how the OPWPC supports researchers in writing, publishing, presenting, and navigating the complexities of scholarly communication. This episode also highlights common writing challenges, the importance of narrative flow in scientific communication, team-based approaches to increasing publication output, and the influence of generative AI in academic writing.

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Guest: Pamela Walter, MFA

• Role: Medical Editor/Writer and Director of the Office for Professional Writing, Publishing, and Communication
• Expertise: Professional writing skills, publishing practices, and presentation skills.

Quote from the Episode:

• “If you can speak, you can write, and there are plenty of resources available to turn that unpolished writing into polished writing.” Pam Walter, MFA

Getting Started:

• Participate in writing retreats for focused, uninterrupted writing time, and use short writing sprints to overcome writer’s block and make consistent progress.
• Take advantage of in-house services like manuscript reviews, presentation feedback, and workshops to enhance the quality and impact of your research communication.
• Use connective words and a logical flow to make your research writing more engaging and easier to follow, even for technical audiences.
• Utilize tools like BioRender to create graphical abstracts and visually summarize your research.
• Contact us to improve your academic writing.

Terms to Know:

The terms below are mentioned in the episode, and for context and clarity, we’ve provided brief definitions of potentially unfamiliar terms you may hear.

• Connective Words: A word or phrase whose function is to link linguistic units together.
• Narrative Writing: In essence, story writing; it can be fiction or nonfiction. If it has a narrative structure and tells a story, it is narrative writing.
• Generative AI: An AI system capable of generating text, images, or other media in response to prompts.

Selected Resources:

The Learning Curve team curated this list based on university resources or guest recommendations.

1. Professional Writing & Communication (OPWPC)
2. Jefferson Libraries Homepage
3. AI for Educators: From Basics to Best Practices
4. Research Administration Center of Excellence (RACE)
5. Hillier, A., Kelly, R. P., & Klinger, T. (2016). Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science. PloS One, 11(12), e0167983.
6. Academic Commons Upcoming Workshops and Events