Engaged Communication
Establishing a Writing Practice (Sciences)
This workshop is intended to allow you to reflect on your writing habits and offer strategies to help you establish a productive writing practice. The session will cover topics such as:
- What level of writing is expected of you
- How to structure your writing time
- How to become more comfortable in your writing
- How to get the most out of supervisory meetings
Course Code: RSDA 6082
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: Year 1 MVLS and COSE PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Effective Writing 1 (Sciences)
This workshop is intended to encourage you to look at your own writing habits, identify strategies that work for you, and think more generally about academic writing. The session will cover topics such as:
- Assessing your writing practice
- Process and product writing
- Using critical reading to inform your writing style
Course Code: RSDA 6086
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All MVLS and COSE PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Effective Writing 2 (Sciences)
This workshop is intended to give you an overview of the grammar skills you will need to produce concise, coherent writing. The session will cover topics such as:
- A general overview of punctuation
- Most common errors in academic writing
- How to effectively use sentence structure to convey meaning
- Proofreading and editing
Course Code: RSDA 6087
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All MVLS and COSE PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
The Literature Review (Sciences)
The workshop is intended to give you an understanding of the purpose of the literature review, and tips and techniques on how to manage the writing of the review. The session will cover topics such as:
- What role the literature review plays
- The relationship between your work and existing research
- Different structural approaches
- How to talk about other people’s work
- Using the literature review to hone your thinking
Course Code: RSDA 6083
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All MVLS and COSE PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Structuring Your Dissertation (Sciences)
This workshop is intended to give you a range of tools to deal with the structuring of your dissertation. The session will cover topics such as:
- Thinking about chapter structure
- Paragraph building methods
- Editing and proofreading techniques for coherence and concision
Course Code: RSDA 6085
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All MVLS and COSE PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Writing for Publication (Sciences)
This workshop is intended to provide you with a general overview of writing for publication. The session will cover topics such as:
- The publication process
- Types of journal articles
- Making time for writing for publications
- Dealing with feedback
Course Code: RSDA 6088
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All MVLS and COSE PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Establishing a Writing Practice (Arts and Social Science)
This workshop is intended to allow you to reflect on your writing habits and offer strategies to help you establish a productive writing practice. The session will cover topics such as:
- What level of writing is expected of you
- How to structure your writing time
- How to become more comfortable in your writing
- How to get the most out of supervisory meetings
Course Code: RSDA 6076
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: Year 1 Arts and COSS PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Effective Writing 1 (Arts and Social Science)
This workshop is intended to encourage you to look at your own writing habits, identify strategies that work for you, and think more generally about academic writing. The session will cover topics such as:
- Assessing your writing practice
- Process and product writing
- Using critical reading to inform your writing style
Course Code: RSDA 6079
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All Arts and COSS PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Effective Writing 2 (Arts and Social Science)
This workshop is intended to give you an overview of the grammar skills you will need to produce concise, coherent writing. The session will cover topics such as:
- A general overview of punctuation
- Most common errors in academic writing
- How to effectively use sentence structure to convey meaning
- Proofreading and editing
Course Code: RSDA 6089
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All Arts and COSS PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
The Literature Review (Arts and Social Science)
The workshop is intended to give you an understanding of the purpose of the literature review, and tips and techniques on how to manage the writing of the review. The session will cover topics such as:
- What role the literature review plays
- The relationship between your work and existing research
- Different structural approaches
- How to talk about other people’s work
- Using the literature review to hone your thinking
Course Code: RSDA 6075
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All Arts and COSS PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Structuring Your Dissertation (Arts and Social Science)
This workshop is intended to give you a range of tools to deal with the structuring of your dissertation. The session will cover topics such as:
- Thinking about chapter structure
- Paragraph building methods
- Editing and proofreading techniques for coherence and concision
Course Code: RSDA 6078
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All Arts and COSS PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Writing for Publication (Arts and Social Science)
This workshop is intended to provide you with a general overview of writing for publication. The session will cover topics such as:
- The publication process
- Types of journal articles
- Making time for writing for publications
- Dealing with feedback
Course Code: RSDA 6081
RDF Domain: A1-3, B1, D2
Target Group: All Arts and COSS PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 1.5 hours on campus
Research Posters
Communicating your research via a poster is an excellent way to engage your peers, attract attention to your work and network with senior colleagues. Effective poster presentations require the researcher to consider several aspects such as design, data visualisation, image quality, key messages, concise written communication, public speaking and networking; it is therefore important to start planning your poster well in advance of the event.
This workshop is designed to introduce participants to effective poster design and networking strategy, it will also touch on some online tools and technologies that may be of helpful for poster presentations, through the use of short group exercises, case studies and the instructor’s personal expert.
Course Code: RSDD 6081
RDF Domains: A3, D2-3
Target Group: All researcher
Duration: 3 hours online or 3 hours in-person
Convincing Conference Presentations
The conference experience is an essential part of academic, but are you making the most of the opportunity? This interactive online workshop will show you how to make an impact at a conference taking you through how to plan and deliver an attention-grabbing presentation. Discover how to break your research into memorable and sharable segments, build rapport with your audience and learn the secrets of movement and voice to hold audience focus. The session will also show you how to use call to actions to find collaborators, solve problems and build connections.
Course Code: RSDD 6097
RDF Domain: B1, B3, D2-3
Target Group: All PGRs
Format: 3 hours online OR 3 hours on campus
PowerPoint Essentials
A great slide deck can help you be a more confident and compelling public speaker. Whether at conferences, seminars, interviews, or teaching, this workshop aims to banish ugly and confusing PowerPoints! There will be help with slide structure and design, as well as ways to make your slides more accessible and use PowerPoint to work on your delivery with rehearsal coach. The workshop is interactive, and you will be working on slides in your university Office 365.
This course was previously called PowerPoint Power-Up: for 2022-23 PowerPoint PowerUp has been redesigned as a more advanced course.
Course Code: RSDD 6004
RDF Domain: A3, D2-3
Target Group: All PGRs
Format: 2 hours online
PowerPoint Power-Up
A great slide deck elevates a presentation. This workshop is for people who are comfortable with the basics of slide design and PowerPoint but want to explore more of the functionality it offers. It will show you how using Themes, Master Slides, Templates, Action Buttons can make it easy to adapt a deck for different audiences. Plus you will get familiar with the wide range of animation and transition effects, sound and video options that can power-up your presentation and make your slides stand out from the crowd.
Course Code: RSDD 6096
RDF Domain: A3, D2-3
Target Group: Researchers with some knowledge of PowerPoint
Format: 2.5 hours online OR 2.5 hours on campus
Writing Freely: Blogging About Your Research
Blogging is turning into a popular format for communicating research processes and results to different audiences. It may seem straightforward compared to other academic writing platforms but taking the leap into publishing blogposts can be daunting. If you would like to start blogging or blog more frequently, this workshop is for you. We will explore what blogging can add to your academic practice; how to use it to support your research; and what will get (and keep) your readers interested.
Course Code: RSDD 6074
RDF Domain: A3, D2-3
Target Group: All researchers
Format: 3 hours online OR 3 hours on campus
Polishing your Presentation Skills
This workshop will help you get ready to give a memorable and confident presentation. This is a highly interactive session for researchers where you’ll examine and practise the skills required to give an impactful talk. You will gain an overview of the key presentation skills for both in person and online delivery and learn about the key stages of preparing to present and how to create your own delivery style to maximise the impact of your talk. You’ll emerge more confident, energised and ready to deliver your next presentation.
Course Code: RSDD 6094
RDF Domain: B1, D2-3
Target Group: All PGRs
Format: 2 hours online OR 2 hours on campus
Communicating Visually with Data
Displaying information in a visual format is a excellent way for researchers to communicate their work. You can enhance your research papers, thesis, conference posters, presentations and public engagement activities with accurate and clear visual representations. This workshop is designed to introduce participants to various types of visual formats including standard graphs, information visualisations and graphics for publication.
There are a number of different ways to display your data or ideas visually and it depends on who you are aiming to engage and what you want to tell them. Building excellent graphics and summary figures takes time, practice and a willingness to learn the appropriate software. This workshop will provide an overview of information visualisation and further resources for participants to explore in their own time.
Course Code: RSDD 6076
RDF Domain: A3, D2-3
Target Group: All researchers
Format: 3 hours online or 3 hours in-person
Theatre Techniques for Presenters
Bring the skills of the theatre into your academic presentations. This workshop explores the physical skills needed to present effectively and with the maximum impact. Learn practical ways to develop your vocal technique, enabling you to talk with power, clarity, and confidence, and how to ensure that your body language works for you rather than against you. You should leave the session knowing how to calm down nerves, use your voice effectively, project confidence through your body language and command an audience, whether online or in person. Note that the online and on campus versions of this workshop are different time lengths. Either way, though, prepare to be on your feet and make some noise (housemates and pets be warned!).
Course Code: RSDD 6104
RDF Domain: B1, B3, D2-3
Target Group: All PGRs
Format: 1.5 hours online OR 3 hours on campus