The WCC’s student workshops offer students a wide array of learning opportunities to enhance both their academic experiences and successes, but each workshop also offers students opportunities to look beyond their educational years and envision how they may employ significant learning experiences in their everyday life beyond the academy.
Spring 2024 Workshops
February 8th, 2-3:00 pm in the Library Lanigan Classroom (L201)
“Developing Writing Strategies for Credibility” will offer students practices that will help them professionalize their writing through the use of transitions, proper grammar conventions, and using specific lexis to clearly and convincingly articulate messages to specific audiences. With readability central to the credibility of the writer, each of these aspects of writing are central to articulating a message to readers. Therefore, after offering a best practices presentation, this workshop will culminate with participants working with Writing and Communications Center (WCC) consultants individually, or in groups, to answer specific questions they may have regarding our presentation materials or their current writing projects. Students are encouraged to bring current writing assignments, so they can discuss them or work on them with WCC consultants after the presentation has concluded.
February 22nd, 2-3:00 pm in the Library Lanigan Classroom (L201)
“Writing the Reflective Report” will build onto the first workshop by recapping key aspects of writing concisely. This workshop will illustrate the reflective report as a document that is more structured than an essay using subheadings and typically short paragraphs (between 3-8 sentences), thus, it continues the lessons in writing concisely. The workshop also offers lessons in writing in first person, using conventional English i.e., no contractions, colloquial expressions, or slang, and it offers clarity on providing researched support. By also presenting a specific format for writing the Reflective Report i.e., Introduction/Background, Process/Active Experimentation, and Abstract Conceptualizations, our “Writing the Reflective Report” Workshop will help students explain the purpose for the reflection, present concrete details of the experiments in chronological order, use vivid descriptions of the experiments, and discuss the main lessons students have learned and how will they will apply this knowledge in their future experiments. Students will again be encouraged to bring current writing assignments, so they can discuss or work on them with WCC consultants after the presentation has concluded.
March 7th, 2-3:00 pm in the Library Lanigan Classroom (L201)
“Using and Captioning Figures in a Report” will walk students through formatting illustrations i.e., charts, graphs, or sketches; and referencing their figures accurately. This workshop will offer students strategies for professionalizing their reports with a focus on the uses and placement of figures, how to caption and label those figures, and how to accurately reference the figures in their texts. With each slide of the presentation dedicated to specific components of the process of inserting, captioning, and referencing figures, students will have an opportunity to add figures to their reports as we offer our presentation. After our presentation, participants will work with Writing and Communications Center (WCC) Consultants to make any corrections in their approaches to adding figures to their reports.
March 28th, 2-3:00 pm in the Library Lanigan Classroom (L201)
“Language, Voice, and Audience” will help students write reports that will enhance and develop their relationship with audience members who read their reports. Building on the writing concisely workshop, this workshop will focus attention on the language writers use in technical documents to establish and build their credibility as writers. This workshop will again reinforce previous lesson in writing concisely, but it will also focus on writing professionally, and technically. In other words, writing in chronological order, and writing objectively with no opinion, no colloquialisms, or subjective voice will be stressed. We will also discuss how to address audience constraints, provide definitions, and use specific language to help students develop their ethos and credibility for specific audiences. Using transitions and headings to tie sentences and paragraphs together, formatting texts for consistency, and using appropriate language and grammar conventions to convey a report’s message professionally will also be covered as students will continue to discuss or work on their reflective report assignments with WCC consultants after the presentation has concluded.
April 11th, 2-3:00 pm in the Library Lanigan Classroom (L201)
“Thinking Globally About Project Applications” is a workshop that will help students think about their projects globally by providing basic research strategies to help them view their projects as more than a class project. This workshop will help prepare students for the workforce as we help them consider real-world applications for their projects. Using past capstone examples, this workshop will illustrate how a little research can go a long way in developing a student’s credibility.
April 18th, 2-3:00 pm in the Library Lanigan Classroom (L201)
“Reflection Report Writing and Creating an Appendix” will offer students strategies for reflecting on the reflective reports they have written over the course of the semester and summarizing them as they will use that summary in their final capstone report. Clarifying how they have responded to the difficulties in design or effectiveness from their first reflections will help them clarify new approaches they have designed to resolve any complications they found through their initial reflections. With an opportunity to begin drafting a final reflection that summarizes all of the reflections, this workshop aims to help students complete, or at least begin to work on part of their final report. This workshop will also offer students strategies for developing their appendices as they prepare to write their final reports.
Fall 2023 Workshops
Reading Critically to Write Critically:
September 15, 2023
These workshops offer students strategies for notetaking and annotating as they develop their critical reading applications with an eye toward writing in the academy. With a strong focus on reading the academic article, students will learn how to read strategically and apply source material to support their writing. Thus, each workshop provides students with examples of academic articles that will also offer them opportunities to incorporate reading strategies into their writing. In other words, student will learn to read for information, but they will also learn the value of reading texts as models for writing. With in-session writing an integral component of these workshops, students will gain a practical sense of how reading articles leads to writing articles and seeing source synthesis as both art and science.
Developing a Thesis for the Essay it Embodies:
September 29, 2023
Writing a thesis statement can take many forms, and it may differ in the academic context than how it was taught to students in high school. Where does the thesis go? What is a forecasting message? When is a forecasting message appropriate, and when is it not? This workshop will helps students determine some best practices for developing a thesis statement in their written work in different contexts, and for different audiences.
Summary, Paraphrase, and Direct Citations…When and How to do Each:
October 13, 2023
Different fields of study use different methods for summarizing, paraphrasing, and citing sources directly…when and how to do each of these can be confusing! However, understanding some simple best practices for managing source material can go a long way in helping student find academic success. Let us help you navigate the confusing world of source documentation and synthesis! This workshop will offer students clear directions on when and how to synthesize summary, paraphrase, and direct citations to develop scholarly works in writing.
