Essential Clarity

Seminars and Workshops on Professional Development

Testimonial
Wowed by Freya's workshop
"My doctoral students were wowed by Freya's workshop on how to write a scientific paper. And, as someone who regularly publishes research in social work and child maltreatment journals, I also found her techniques, such as word mapping, extremely helpful in writing more powerful scientific "stories." I am confident that Freya can develop a workshop on writing, publishing or presenting that will help your students, faculty, and staff improve their skills regardless of their disciplinary background." Carol C. The University of Iowa
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Freya has been a successful scientist for over 13 years. She wrote numerous scientfic papers, grants, prepared presentations to international scientific meetings (see CV) and mentored many students and postdocs. She has been a faculty and co-organizer of the Virtual Free Radical School and Sunrise Free Radical School for 5 years.

During her career she developed and refined seminars and workshops on scientific communication and professional development. The seminars below represent the experience of a decade in the scientific arena.

Freya offers live seminars and workshops as well as teleseminars (via phone) on a variety of Professional Development issues. The length of the live seminars and workshops can be adjusted to your needs. The workshops and seminars are co-active, involving the interaction of the whole group. In addition to the topics listed below, Freya can customize a seminar or workshop to address specific issues of concern to the group. Email Freya for more information

Seminars on Scientific Communication

How I write a scientific paper

"How I Write a Scientific Paper: Selling your data with power writing" provides an entirely new perspective on how to approach scientific writing. Getting started is often the stumbling block in writing. This seminar helps investigators find a starting point and provides a scaffold on which the scientific story of a presentation can be built. E-mail Freya for more information.

How to write a clear and informative poster abstract

The importance of well written abstracts is often overlooked. The quality of an abstract decides if your work is chosen to be presented as a poster. The abstract also is the advertisement of your work that draws people to your poster. It is the one part that will be accessible after the poster session is over. This seminar provides you with tools on how to write concise and informative poster abstracts that peek interest, are easy to digest and present your message clearly. E-mail Freya for more information.

How to make effective posters efficiently

Learn how to make simple posters that outline your scientific work in a form that stimulates interest and discussion and is easily assimilated. This seminar is packed with practical tips and helps you answer questions such as: “What are the most important parts of a poster? Where do I start?” E-mail Freya for more information.

Tips on oral presentations

This seminar offers practical insights into the mechanics of building a presentation so it is engaging, logically organized and easy to understand. Take home practical tips on turning a 1000 words into one picture, choose an effective outline and format for your presentation and make it easy for your audience to follow your story. E-mail Freya for more information

Seminars on Professional Development Issues

Career planning for scientists - From graduate student to faculty.

Is your goal to become a faculty? Are you unclear what skills you need as a principal investigator of a laboratory? This seminar will show you a path to a successful academic career. Gain tips and insight on how to make your future career a success. E-mail Freya for more information.

Career survival skills

Are you prepared for your work life? There is more to a science career than planning and executing experiments and reading science. Explore soft skills needed to have a successful career in science:

• Networking
• Time management
• Self promotion
• Leadership

Your Winning Edge - The Art of Landing the Job You Want

This seminar provides you with a self-empowering overview of the job search and interview process. Explore strategies and tools for

• Building a successful network,
• Developing effective communication skills and
• Writing an excellent CV and cover letter.

Workshop on Scientific Communication

This workshop combines topics of the seminars described above. The basic concepts of scientific writing are explained with easy to understand examples. Differences between a publication and a poster and their similarities are highlighted.

The first part of this workshop on "How I Write a Scientific Paper: Selling your data with power writing" will provide practical tips on how to approach scientific writing. We will cover topics such as:

• Getting started,
• How to build and present the scientific story
• Informative titles
• Three different types of conclusions
• Informative figure captions
• Writing with persuasion and impact
• And much more...

The second part of the workshop on "Pointers for Posters" builds on the first part and will point out ways to translate the newly learned concepts to posters. Additional topics:

• How do poster viewers read your poster
• How to advertise you work
• The 2-3 min poster talk
• Being prepared for the judges

In the third part of the workshop on "How to Prepare and Present a Talk" the mechanics of building an oral presentation are discussed. Some topics that are covered:

• How to logically organize your presentation,
• How to make you presentation easy to understand, and easy to read
• What to do when you are nervous,
• How to start and end your presentation strong

This workshop is not about grammar. This workshop is loaded with practical tips that can be easily applied. Freya can tailor this workshop to your needs, adding or substituting topics.

E-mail Freya for more information.

More Testimonials

Dynamic workshop leader
"Although I have been writing scholarly manuscripts for many years, it was not until I attended a 90-minute writing session by Freya Schafer did I realize just how easy it would be to dramatically enhance the effectiveness of my academic writing. Using concrete examples, insight, and humor, Freya walked us through specific steps to improve our writing. I was so convinced of the effectiveness of her method, that upon returning to my office that afternoon, I literally re-organized a grant application I was working on. Since attending Freya's writing workshop, I now provide more helpful feedback to my students on their writing, and am better able to edit my own writing.

Freya's teaching style is dynamic, interactive, inquisitive, gentle, and refreshing. She has a knack for simplifying complicated concepts and communicating them effectively. I strongly encourage any one who wants to improve scholarly writing to attend one of Freya's informative and well-organized sessions.” Mercedes B. The University of Iowa