July 11, 2022

 

Dr. Amitabh Anand’s workshop on Academic Writing conducted at MIM, MAHE, Manipal on July 11, 2022, started with a promise that “publishing can be cooler than we think”. The title of his presentation not only generated learning interest amongst the attendees but also left them curious. This day-long workshop was attended by Ph.D. scholars, researchers and professors at MIM and DOC, MAHE, Manipal. A well published author and an accomplished researcher himself; Dr Anand is an Associate Professor at Excelia Business School, France.

During the workshop he shared key pointers on essentials of academic writing. While he emphasized that there is no substitute to hard work and extensive review of the literature, Dr. Anand demonstrated smart ways to scientifically identify research gaps using Scopus. He placed great importance on identifying the relevant keywords for the area of interest. In doing so, he advised scholars to look at synonyms and antonyms for a holistic perspective in their search. He re-iterated the need for reading and internalizing the literature fully well in order to succeed at every step of the research work. As he delivered a hands-on training of using Scopus, he also exemplified the art of academic writing and referencing with a sample article on a topic provided by the audience.

Towards the second half of the day, all attendees practiced the steps shared by Dr. Amitabh as he monitored their progress and answered their questions. The session concluded with scholars sharing their experiences and how the workshop is helpful in overcoming their fear of writing. Though Dr. Anand had given smart tips and shortcuts to scientifically validating one’s ideas and research gaps; he concluded his session by encouraging all to read at least 2 hours a day and put the hard work to be the master of one’s area of interest. He also emphasized that, there is no shortcut to the required hard work. The session concluded with a note of thanks from Dr. Rajasekharan Pillai, Director In-charge, MIM. We are grateful to Dr. Anand for his time and candid sharing of his knowledge.