Training on Academic Writing, as well as on the Module “Scientific Research Methods” as part of the Master’s Program in Public Administration was conducted on 21-22 January 2020 for teachers and listeners/students of the Academy of Civil Service under the President of Turkmenistan (AoCS) and other stakeholders with the participation of the project international expert Dr. Annika Jaansoo.
The training was organized within the framework of the European Union (EU) funded project “Support for Public Administration Capacity Building in Turkmenistan” to enhance the institutional and training capacities of the AoCS and other project stakeholders.
Participants of the training were representatives of the EU Delegation to Turkmenistan, AoCS, Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen State University named after Magtymguly, and the International University for the Humanities and Development.
The first part of the training was about academic writing. It included topics such as “Writing an academic article”, “Standard structure of an academic paper”, “Steps for writing an academic article”, “Title examples, abstract and keywords” and “Writer’s strategies – Clustering, Outlining and Freewriting”. In each chapter, the expert explained the detailed steps of the writing of an attention-grabbing article, from the sequence of the content to the number of the words. Following the instructions of the expert, participants gradually composed their draft articles.
The second part of the training covered research methods in social science. It contained the topics “Survey Research”, “Response formats”, “Example of Lickert scale question”, “Question content and wording”, “Rules for creating good survey questions”, “Question content and wording”, “Question sequencing”, “Biases in survey research”, “Strategies to handle non-response biases”, “Interview plan”, “Case research / Case study”, “Research Ethics”, “Ethical Principles of Scientific Research” and “Anonymity and Confidentiality”. Participants took an active part in the training. The training raised interesting questions and discussions and it was concluded with mutual appreciations of the trainer and participants. As the possession of knowledge about Academic Writing and Research Methods is an integral part of the future Master’s Degree Program in Public Administration, the training facilitated the task of the participants in this regard.
