IDK and the Art of Academy Writing

On June 3, 2026, the English writing doctoral students of IDK philology spent the day with Dr. phil. Mark Olival-Bartley for a writing workshop entitled “Writing Sentences and Paragraphs in Good Academic Style”. The group met at the LMU facility of the Faculty of Physics on Edmund-Rumpler Straße 09.
After being invited to reflect about the place of writing and philology in our current society, the IDK students were taught, throughout the day, about the subtilities of composing in academic English. While doing so, they focused on subjects such as the crafting of sentences, composing different types of clauses, and – most importantly – learning the arcana of English commas.
They also learned about the rhetoric power of phrasing and how they could strengthen their argumentation by considering various writing principles like binomials or the rule of three, metaphors, and prosody. It was also an opportunity to get to know a little more about creative writing.
In the afternoon, the workshop was centered on putting into practice these newly acquired knowledge: IDK members had to write about their own writing process and make a summary of their dissertation topic. Through this experience – and by sharing their creations between themselves during a round robin – the Ph. D. students had the opportunity to express the issues they encounter on the matter and confide about their own imposter syndrome in academic writing. It resulted in a regained assurance in their abilities and a renewed motivation for their own writing duties to come.
This session was concluded by the presentation of useful books and resources on writing and analyzing academic English. It was then followed on June 5 by individual appointments, where each member could tackle their personal issues more deeply with the compositionist.
The participating PhD students would like to express their sincere thanks to Dr. phil. Mark Olival-Bartley and to the IDK members in charge of organizing such a thriving event.

Text: Valentin Bernadou