Seminar: Scientific and Technical English for Computer Scientists (STE, WiSe 2025/26)
Lecture 1 hour, Blanchette; exercise 1 hour, Blanchette, Desharnais-Schäfer, Kirsten, and Lempa
Recognized as "Einführung persönliche und soziale Kompetenz" in the informatics and media informatics bachelor programs.
Overview
This bachelor-level seminar will help you develop your English-language scientific and technical writing skills in the context of computer science. These skills will help you create the various kinds of documents used in academia and industry.
In this seminar, you will
learn the basics of scientific and technical writing for computer science, such as the proper use of citations, quotations, and code excerpts;
acquire techniques for structuring the writing process, to help avoid the blank page syndrome;
learn the fundamentals of writing in plain formal English, including grammar, punctuation, and style;
learn how to develop various types of documents, such as papers, theses, slides, posters, and documentation.
The first lecture reviews computer aids, including spell-checkers and artificial intelligence assistants, that can be used to improve the quality of your writing. The following nine lectures are dedicated to the fundamentals of English writing: structure, style, grammar, punctuation, presentation issues, citations, quotations, and revisions. The next three lectures focus on specific issues associated with theses, papers, slides, posters, and software documentation. The last two lectures feature mystery guest speakers.
Organization
1+1 hours per week
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Jasmin Blanchette
Teaching assistants: Dr. Martin Desharnais-Schäfer, Dr. Michael Kirsten, and Elisabeth Lempa
Place and Time
The regular lectures are about 45 minutes long each and are followed by an exercise session. Bring a laptop or tablet or some pen and paper. The guest lectures are about 90 minutes long.
| Activity | Time | Place | Start | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture and exercise | Wed 16-18 c.t. | Schellingstr. 3, room S 003 | 15.10.2025 | 04.02.2026 |
We will make videos of the lectures available on LMUcast as a convenience to students with scheduling conflicts. We will do our best to put the videos online shortly after the respective lectures, but we offer no guarantees about the videos' availability or quality. The exercise sessions will not be recorded, so we strongly recommend attendance.
Schedule
The course consists of 15 lectures:
Practicalities and Computer Aids
slides · exercises · solution of in-class exercises · solution of homeworkStructure
slides · exercises · solution of in-class exercisesGuest Lecture 1
Guest Lecture 2
Chat
There is a Zulip chat stream associated with the seminar where you can ask organizational and content-related questions. Please use it if possible, instead of sending us emails, so that your fellow students can also benefit from the answers.
Zulip-Server: https://chat.ifi.lmu.de/
Stream: TCS-25W26-STE
Materials
The slides of the lectures are available above under Schedule. The exercise sheets are also available there. Solutions will be gradually be made available there as well. All materials are provided for your convenience and are subject to changes.
Additional material referenced in the lectures or the exercises is available on Moodle.
Examinations
The possible grades for this seminar are pass and fail. A written examination at the end of the semester will test your understanding. The examination will be on paper and closed book. You will be given 90 minutes to complete it. There will also be a retake examination. Registration is mandatory and will be via LSF.
If you need some adjustments to compensate for disabilities or impairments, please contact the lecturer at least one week before the examination.
The seminar is being taught for the first time. A mock examination, together with solutions, is available so that you can practice.