Pejman Milani, the founder of Milani Creative, used to be a a high school film & animation teacher with more than 20 years of experience. In 2022, he started sharing visual metaphors to teach big ideas fast and encourage people to live a more positive, creative life to make the world a more creative place.

❤️ It’s his metaphors about writing we love most!

Многие знают, сколько сил и времени занимают нумерация параграфов, рисунков, таблиц, ссылок на литературу, перепроверки выравнивания текста и межстрочного интервала, переноса кусков текста так, чтобы рисунок с подписью остался на одной странице...

Хватит терпеть все эти неудобства!!!

Не упустите отличную возможность познакомиться с основами LaTeX специально для написания бакалаврских ВКР, магистерских и кандидатских диссертаций.

Вы научитесь:
✅ Делать заголовки, основной текст, рисунки, формулы, таблицы
✅ Автоматизировать перекрестные ссылки и цитирование
✅ Пользоваться уже готовыми шаблонами ВКР и диссертаций


* Бонус для тех, кто дослушает до конца: узнаете как находить шаблоны для написания журнальных статей

В конце мастер-класса у вас будет настроенный LaTex-шаблон для написания ВКР или диссертации.

Спикер: Вадим Рыбин
Дата: 24.04.2025 (четверг)
Время: 14:00 - 16:00
Формат: онлайн
Язык: русский

РЕГИСТРАЦИЯ

Участникам потребуется аккаунт в overleaf.com

Это быстро и бесплатно!

Research writing values precision, evidence, and critical thinking. If a text is commented as "too general," it requires drilling deeper into specifics, analysis, and supported arguments.

How to Revise "Too General" Writing?

🔹 Provide evidence: Use studies, quotes, or real-world examples.
🔹 Be focused: Discuss one aspect of a topic in depth.
🔹 Analyze: Explain causes, effects, and implications.
🔹 Stick to Critical Perspective: Compare theories, Debate viewpoints, or Acknowledge limitations.
🔹 Mind clichés: Replace expressions like "since time immemorial" with specific phrases "Since the [specific century/event]...".
🔹 Be non-evaluative: Instead of "bad," try "detrimental," "problematic," or "ineffective."

Too General ➡️ Improved

❌ Many students struggle with online learning. It can be hard to focus at home.
✅ A 2023 Pediatrics study revealed that 62% of students reported lower concentration in virtual classrooms due to distractions like smartphones.

❌ Additional education is important for getting employed.
✅ Vocational training programs correlate with 15% higher employment rates in Germany.

❌ Renewable energy sources are the best solution.
✅ Solar energy does reduce emissions, however, its high initial costs and storage challenges limit its adoption.

❌ Global warming is a serious problem.
✅ Rising CO₂ levels intensify the greenhouse effect, causing Arctic ice to melt at 12.6% per decade.

What generation are you when texting?

People of different generations tend to text differently. It’s not an exact science, but interesting theories and trends are emerging as researchers delve into the texts and messages we send.

Take the quiz to see what your texting style says about you, and how well you understand other generations. You'll be given a few results along the way and a final score at the end.

A new academic year has just begun! The Academic Writing Lab celebrates your dedication to research and readiness to thrive in the global scientific community. You are shaping the future—may a year be full of growth, success, and inspiration! The AWL instructors are always there for you and provide a helping hand with proofreading, editing and polishing your texts.

To apply for a consultation, use awl@itmo.ru

The End of the Blank Page

The emergence of generative AI has fundamentally transformed the academic writing process. Instead of replacing the author’s writing, AI reshaped it, augmenting its every stage. Let us have a look at the first of them, namely, ideation and brainstorming.

With the prospect of having to write, many have struggled with the blank page syndrome manifested in the sinking feeling, rising anxiety, and resulting in escaping behavior. Even if one is buzzing with thoughts and ideas, to transfer them into words can be overwhelming and block the ability to write. Does it sound familiar to you?

How did we formerly cope with the writer’s block ?
We used mind mapping, free-writing, discussed our ideas with peers, managed our writing time and work environment, started to write from the middle, and self-reflected: 1) I can’t write because… 2) I want to write because… 3) I will write because...

What can we do now with AI assistance?
Writers can use AI as an instant brainstorming partner. The initial friction of starting to write will dramatically decrease. Ideation will become faster and more prolific. Moreover, AI can help writers see the options they might have never considered themselves.

Academic Writing and AI: Friends or Foes?
Professional development course for researchers and teachers

Facilitator: Keith Ray, an international school leader and adjunct university professor specializing in AI integration for academic writing and teaching. He helps educators and faculty design AI-enabled learning experiences, establish clear guardrails for ethical use, and leverage AI as a true thought partner in research and instruction.

Workshop Themes
🔹Can AI really write a persuasive research paper?
🔹Can AI really edit a research paper?
🔹Can AI help provide an adequate customized translation of a research paper?
🔹Can AI be used for other genres of academic writing?
🔹Can AI help make the author's voice audible in academic genres?
🔹Human3AI Collaboration: Friends, foes, or something more?

What You'll Gain
✔️ An evidence-based understanding of how AI can (and cannot) contribute to persuasive academic writing.
✔️ Practical strategies for using AI to draft, edit, and translate research papers while preserving authorial voice and critical thinking.
✔️ Tools for evaluating and fact checking AI-generated content.
✔️ Guidance on leveraging AI as a collaborative "thought partner", not a substitute for human expertise.
✔️ Ways to maintain academic integrity and avoid over-reliance on AI in writing.

Language: English

Wednesdays:
September, 24
October, 1
October, 15
November, 5
November, 12
November, 26

Moscow Time:
18:30 - 19:30

Format: online

Register for the course

Can AI replace humans in editing, revision, and polishing in research writing?

The short answer is NO. True editing, revision, and polishing in research writing remains a fundamentally human-centric process. On the other hand, text polishing with AI saves the author’s time contributing to a cleaner and more consistent draft. Therefore, AI has become an indispensable collaborator. The human’s role in the writing process has shifted from doing all the manual labor to being a strategic director, verifier, and quality controller.


What Can AI Do as an Editing Assistant?
AI excels at monotonous and time-consuming work that bores many humans. AI can automate mechanical, repetitive, and rule-based aspects of editing.

Surface-Level Corrections: AI can be superb at spotting spelling, grammar, punctuation, and basic syntax errors. Now tools, like Grammarly, are AI-powered and go beyond simple rules to suggest improvements in clarity and conciseness.

Consistency Checks: AI can ensure consistency in terminology, formatting (e.g., heading styles, number formatting), and the citation style (e.g., APA, MLA) throughout a document.

Basic Clarity and Readability: AI can detect overly long sentences and overloaded passive constructions, coming up with simpler alternatives. What it can also provide is the readability score.

Structural Analysis: AI can analyze the overall text structure to notify the author if the flow of arguments could be improved.

Summarization: AI can summarize so that the author can immediately see if they managed to clearly communicate the key points in their text.

Does science still speak for itself and allocate hundreds of science-hungry followers?

The focus has shifted from "Publish or Perish" to "Promote or Perish". A paper published in a top journal can get lost without social media attention compared to a supposedly lesser paper that goes "viral" when promoted at platforms like Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. To reach out to their audience, researchers are expected to become academic influencers with developed skills in science communication.

How is this connected to academic writing?

The conventional approach to writing academic texts in a dry, impersonal, and passive-voice-heavy style is challenged. Moreover, it is seen as a barrier to the impact. The audience is seeking more accessible writing with plain language summaries, graphical abstracts, and a narrative-driven structure that tells the "story" of research. Researchers need to learn the new writing skills that would be typically associated with journalism or popular science.

For example, these discoveries might not have been overlooked if they became timely visible.

Well, we are here!

AI has developed a recognizable accent in academic writing. This is definitely not about pronunciation, but about those subtle patterns in word choice, sentence structure, and rhetorical flow that can signal a text is AI generated rather than human written. AI training on a massive corpus of existing text results in producing an averaged or statistically likely academic prose.