Participants acquire scientific writing basics as a core competency to communicate with different audiences. They apply important methods and tools to refine a scientific question, research and evalutate the necessary information, quote and paraphrase, and to plan the structure of their own text.

Current research topics are presented and discussed based on scientific literature. The students prepare a presentation with the support of an expert. Subsequently, the topics are discussed jointly by students and experts in student-moderated discussion rounds. Presentation and moderation techniques are introduced and trained in the seminar, supported by instructions for constructive feedback.

The ability to critically evaluate original (scientific) literature and to summarise the information in a succinct manner is an important skill for any student. This course aims to practice this ability, requiring each student to write a term paper of scientific quality on a topic of relevance for research in the areas of biogeochemistry and pollutant dynamics.

This class is the 2nd part of a series and participation is conditional on the successful completion of "Term Paper 1: Writing". The results from the term paper written during the previous term are presented to the other students and advisors and discussed with the audience.