Writing Workshops

How does one give a successful oral presentation? “Make eye contact,” “be confident,” “dress professionally”… The advice that we often receive tends to focus on the performance aspect of presenting, rather than viewing it as an opportunity to communicate and further our research. In this workshop, we invite you to re-think oral presentations as part of the collaborative research process and scholarly communication. That is, instead of pursuing a fluent and error-free oral presentation, take the presentation as an opportunity to join a scholarly conversation, receive feedback, and fine-tune your research. This workshop aims to help participants develop a better understanding of how to engage in scholarly conversations through oral presentations.

This evidence-based workshop introduces researchers to the typical structure of an annotated bibliography, while accounting for variations in purpose. Typically, the annotations synthesize multiple studies, help develop a discussion of the current field, and help identify a potential knowledge contribution. Research shows that annotated bibliographies across disciplines typically consist of 3 parts: the full bibliographic citation; a relevant academic summary; a critical evaluation. But how do authors determine relevance? What does it mean to write critical annotations?

The workshop facilitator draws on research to address these questions, while discussing this text as a type of literature survey with its own distinct patterns of organization. Participants will write or revise an annotated bibliography entry and receive feedback from the workshop facilitator. Therefore, this workshop is most useful for those with an annotated bibliography underway.

This workshop is designed for undergraduate and master’s students applying for funding from the Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s (CGS-M) Program. Drawing on evidence-based research about successful grant proposals, facilitators discuss particular elements of this written academic genre: audience, purpose, knowledge gap, competence claim, structure, style, and more.

The workshop includes examples of successful UBC CGS-M research proposals from several disciplines, as well as a facilitated discussion with UBC master’s students about writing their successful CGS-M proposals.

All too often, citation is approached by students as a frustrating obstacle on the path to completing a writing assignment, rather than as an intellectual pursuit in its own right. Academic writing involves a complicated process of text integration, rather than mechanically following the rules of a particular style guide. No matter the citation style they are being asked to engage with, participants will come away from this workshop with a greater understanding of the purposes and functions of citations, as well as a pragmatic conception of how to apply that understanding in their own academic writing.

Did you know that 40% of language production in English is formulaic, that is, made up of common expressions? However, producing effective writing in English can be challenging for many non-native writers of English. The good news is, these formulaic expressions can be learned.

This workshop is designed for those who speak English as an additional language. In this workshop, participants are introduced to common expressions that perform a number of basic functions in academic English. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of how to use common academic English expressions in their writing, as well as the motivation and confidence to develop a larger repertoire of these expressions to further improve their academic English writing proficiency.

One of the major challenges that academic writers encounter is making connections within the text, for example, making comparisons and drawing conclusions. Rather than counting on readers to figure out the meaning of a difficult text, academic writing requires writers to make clear connections between ideas. In this workshop, we introduce a variety of academic expressions that are commonly used by academic writers to outline the overall structure of the text, or specify the relationships between sentences. At the end of the workshop, participants will walk away with an awareness of the writer-responsible nature of academic writing, and develop better facility with using academic expressions to improve clarity in their own writing practice.

The personal statement is written for admission to graduate and professional programs at academic institutions like UBC. But what does personal mean in an academic context? How do writers construct an appropriate professional identity? Research shows that personal statements must reflect the values of the profession, and that the personal self you construct in the statement must be a relevant self. That is, relevant to the chosen profession or discipline.

This workshop draws on research to introduce participants to some of the typical stylistic features of the personal statement, such as personal narrative, identity construction, and self-promotion, and includes dedicated time for participants to draft or revise a statement.

How do I avoid plagiarizing? “Paraphrase,” “cite everything,” “stick to the style guide”… These answers, and perhaps the question itself, neglect the fact that academic writing involves a complicated process of text integration, rather than mechanically following the rules to avoid being accused of plagiarizing. Despite the widespread interest surrounding academic integrity, what constitutes academic integrity remains unclear to emerging scholars new to academic writing. Drawing on the most recent pedagogical research, this workshop will cover some fundamentals of academic integrity in the writing context.