TABLE.

Factors facilitating the completion of the second draft in 3 days

• Four facilitators with experience in the writing of scientific papers

• Standardised monitoring and reporting tools used at each study site for which all health care workers had been trained

• Supervision of all facilities early in the project to correct errors in data collection

• Participants bringing their completed monitoring tools and data to the module so that data queries could be resolved in class

• A ‘zero’ draft of the paper prepared before the module, including downloaded references

• Presentations from all sites on their data, challenges and solutions

• Using these data to write the first draft, which was circulated to all participants and displayed on a screen using an LCD projector

• Plenary presentation of the paper section by section in class

• Clear roles and responsibilities of the facilitators during the plenary presentation, including one facilitator revising the paper on his laptop

• A second draft revised and refined by all facilitators, and circulated to the remaining authors