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Written Communication and Presentation Skills
- CRN 39467 - STEM students will meet Thursdays, 3:30 - 6:20 p.m. in Stevenson Hall (SH) 101.
- CRN 40746 - non-STEM students will meet Wednesdays, 3 - 5:50 p.m. in the Student Services Building (SSB) 2790 on "2North."
Course Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
1. write according to the conventions of academic English
*at the sentence level: use various types of clauses, make appropriate verb choices, avoid needless complexity and jargon
*at the paragraph level: write clear topic sentences, employ smooth transitions within paragraphs, and create coherence across paragraphs
2. use a writing process prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, submitting to successfully complete academic writing assignments
3. identify strengths and weaknesses in a text
4. create effective posters and/or PowerPoint presentations
5. communicate effectively with specialist and nonspecialist audiences
Sample Course Topics (subject to change)
Week 1: Course Introduction; Audience, tone, and purpose; Verbs: action, reporting, linking
Week 2: Writing from general-specific texts; Specialist vs nonspecialist audiences; Combining clauses
Week 3: Problem process, solution;Specialist vs nonspecialist audiences; Embedded, noun, and complement clauses; Workshop #1
Week 4: Data commentary; Hedging, boasting, and positioning
Week 5: Writing summaries; Collocation and corpus searching; Workshop #2
Week 6: Writing critiques; Collocation and corpus searching (pt. 2); Workshop #3
Week 7: Writing abstracts; Establishing theme, flow, cohesion
Week 8: Writing about methods; Establishing theme, flow, cohesion (pt. 2); Workshop #4
Week 9: Writing about results; Reducing wordiness
Week 10: Writing a discussion section; Workshop #5
Week 11: Writing a discussion section (pt 2); Transitional phrases
Week 12: Posters and presentations: layout and visuals; Workshop #6
Week 13: Posters and presentations: layout and visuals (pt .2); Citation: what and how
Week 14: Workshop # 7
Weeks 15-16: Course wrap-up; Students present work