Writing Training & Evaluation Services

On-Site Writing Training. Dr. Dakin provides training in scientific, technical, and business writing tailored to meet clients’ specific training needs. She focuses on application of fundamental and advanced writing skills to effective presentation of information in scientific, technical, or business documents. She provides all course materials, which may be customized to reflect clients’ subject matter and document types. As an option, she provides detailed individual feedback on participants’ writing samples or assignments.

Courses usually range from 6 to 20 hours and cover the at least following topics:

• conciseness
• word choice, usage, and tone
• punctuation (especially comma use)
• common errors in sentence structure
• keys to effective sentence structure
• paragraph structure
• document organization and format
• the writing process

Other popular training topics include conventions of scientific writing; treatment of numbers, units, and quantities; use of tables and graphs; how to write scientific journal articles; proposal, report, letter, and memo writing; manuscript preparation; writing project management; and author-editor relations.

Other Training Offered. Dr. Dakin also has developed and presented courses and workshops in author-editor relations, careers in technical writing, presentation of data in graphs and tables, and typography for desktop publishing.

Tutoring. Dr. Dakin works one-on-one with individuals who need to improve their work-related writing skills. She helps them write or revise documents, such as reports or journal articles, while providing systematic and detailed feedback.

Evaluation. Dr. Dakin provides evaluation of writing samples or writing tests in support of hiring or employee development.

Writing Training Experience

Dr. Dakin has presented over 100 writing courses or workshops, ranging from 4 to 20 hours. Since 1982, she has annually taught a 12-hour course in scientific writing and editing for Duke University Continuing Education. These are some of the other organizations for which she has provided training:

• Natl. Inst. of Environmental Health Sciences
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Research Triangle Institute
• Family Health International
• University of North Carolina Medical School
• Durham Veterans Administration Hospital
• Magellan Laboratories
• Burroughs Wellcome Co.
• Glaxo Inc.
• Cato Research, Ltd.
• Ciba-Geigy, Ltd.
• Mitsubishi Semiconductor
• NationsBank
• Customer Management Services
• Public Service Co. of N.C.
• City of Durham
• North Carolina Writers’ Network