Seminar: Scientific and Technical English (STE, WiSe 2026/27)

Lecture 1 hour, Blanchette; exercise 1 hour, Blanchette, Desharnais-Schäfer and Kirsten

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, mathematical notations, 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 regular 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 regular lectures are dedicated to the fundamentals of English writing: structure, style, grammar, punctuation, presentation issues, citations, quotations, and revisions. The next three regular lectures focus on specific issues associated with theses, papers, slides, posters, and software documentation. The regular lectures are complemented by two mystery guest lectures.

Organization

Please register on Moodle using this registration key: STE202627

Place and Time

The regular lectures are about 45 to 60 minutes long each and are followed by an exercise session. Consider bringing a laptop or tablet or some pen and paper. The mystery guest lectures are about 90 minutes long.

Videos of the 2025/26 regular lectures are available on LMUcast as a convenience to students with scheduling conflicts. However, there are no recordings of the exercise sessions, so we strongly recommend that you attend the lectures.

Schedule

The seminar consists of 15 lectures:

R1. Practicalities and Computer Aids
slides · exercises

R2. Structure
slides · exercises

R3. Style
slides · exercises

G1. Mystery Guest 1

R4. Words and Phrases
slides · exercises

R5. Sentences and Paragraphs
slides · exercises

R6. Punctuation, Part 1
slides · exercises

R7. Punctuation, Part 2
slides · exercises

G2. Mystery Guest 2

R8. Typesetting
slides · exercises

R9. Citations and Quotations
slides · exercises

R10. Revisions
slides · exercises

R11. Theses and Papers
slides · exercises

R12. Slides and Posters
slides · exercises

R13. Software Documentation
slides · exercises

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-26W27-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 and 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.

Past examinations are available so that you can practice.

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