Upcoming Communication Workshops!

OPD helps students and postdocs improve their writing and presenting skills through a variety of programs offered throughout the year.

Spring Shut Up & Write Tuesdays
Tuesdays, February 4th through May 13th - 9:00am-12:00pm (515 Goodell)
Writing alongside others is a best practice for academic writing! This weekly drop-in provides time and space to write while caffeinated - come late or leave early. We'll make the coffee; you do the writing. One pre-registration for the "Spring Series" is required; attend one week or attend them all!
 
Effective Poster Design
Tuesday, April 29th - 2:30-3:30pm (online)
Conference coming up? Not sure how to make a great poster? Come get a crash-course in making a poster presentation. We’ll cover the basics of graphic design, and the software you need. Get feedback and learn how to use your poster to network in your field and promote your research.
 
Editing Clinic: What to Do When It "Doesn't Flow"
Tuesday, May 6th - 1:00-3:00pm (515 Goodell)
Have you ever received feedback that your writing “doesn’t flow”? This clinic will introduce three different editing strategies you can use to bring greater fluidity to your writing. Each exercise is designed to demystify the concept of “flow” and bring a sense of cohesion to the structure of your prose. We’ll be trying these strategies out together, so make sure to bring a piece of writing—a paragraph or two from a seminar or conference paper, article, dissertation chapter, or any other draft—that you’d like to work on.
 
Communicating Your Expertise Quickly
Tuesday, May 13th - 10:00-11:00am (online)
Communicating what you do effectively can be tough, and it can be even tougher when your audience doesn’t share your expertise. Success hinges on your ability to articulate what you are doing and why it is worth doing, whether your goal is to communicate the relevance of your work, recruit a potential collaborator, impress a prospective employer, or finally have your family understand what you do. In this session, participants will draft a short explanation of their work that avoids jargon and engages audiences.
 
How to Stay on Track Even If You’re Not Able to Write Every Day
Wednesday, May 14th - 2:00-3:00pm (online)
A major benefit of a daily writing routine is that you always know where you’re at in your project. But what if it’s just not possible for you to write every day? This workshop will introduce a simple yet effective practice for staying on top of your ideas even when you go days without writing, allowing you to (almost) seamlessly jump back into a writing session when you can.
 
The 5 Things You Need to Do to Prep Your Writing for Summer Vacation
Monday, May 19th - 12:30-1:00pm (online)
We all know that breaks are important for our well-being and long-term productivity, but how do we take time off without losing momentum on our projects? The key to both a restorative break and a productive return is to take small steps to prepare your writing—and yourself!—in advance. Join us to learn the five things you need to do before you leave campus so that you’re able to come back from vacation refreshed, renewed, and ready to pick up where you left off.

Ways Generative AI Might Help and Inhibit Success with Writing and Researching
Tuesday, May 20th - 12:00-1:00pm (online)
Generative AI (like ChatGPT) has the potential to be a helpful tool, but before you use it, you need to understand the potential consequences to your academic career. This workshop will provide you with a clear set of guidelines to help you decide if using generative AI in your writing and research is ethical, appropriate, and in keeping with UMass recommendations.
 
Deep Work / Slow Productivity: When You Need Time to Think and Write
Wednesday, May 28th - 12:30-1:45pm (online)
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Pomodoro technique for short, productive writing stints, but are finding this doesn’t really work for you. Do you need longer stretches of time to make headway in your research and writing? This workshop is for anyone intrigued by the promise of “deep work” and looking to add a handful of slow productivity techniques to their repertoire.
 
5 Questions to Ask About the Comprehensive Exams
Tuesday, June 10th - 1:00-2:30pm (515 Goodell)
Preparing to take your Comprehensive Exams? Knowing what questions to ask—and who to turn to—will help you navigate the process of this important milestone. Come learn 5 key questions to ask as you prepare for Comps.
 
How to Get More Out of Your Reading by Doing Less
Wednesday, June 25th - 10:00-11:15am (online)
Are you looking for tips on how to tame your reading list and take efficient notes on what you’ve read? In this workshop we will break the reading and annotation processes down into concrete steps that will save you time and help you to keep track of your reading.
 
A Topic is Not a Question: How to Design a Research Question
Monday, June 30th - 1:00-2:45pm (online)
Determining a field or concentration for your research may be easy enough, but how do you transform a topic of interest into a specific and compelling research question? In this interactive workshop we will discuss the qualities of successful research questions and why the advice to “just keep narrowing it down” can do more harm than good.
 
Writing Literature Reviews
Wednesday, July 16th - 1:00-2:15pm (515 Goodell)
Many dissertations, research proposals, and articles require a literature review. But many grad students get stuck on this deceptively simple genre of scholarly writing. This session will demystify the lit review by discussing its purpose and strategies for critical reading and writing to make moving toward effective synthesis easier.
 
Drafting Clinic
Wednesday, July 23rd - 10:30am-12:30pm (515 Goodell)
All writers agree: drafting is hard. By “drafting,” we mean that blank-page moment between research and initial draft, when most sentences are being composed for the first time. This “clinic” will be a combination of workshop and writing session. We will learn about and practice three different methods for drafting academic projects. Think of it as a drafting boot camp, a chance to get a head start on the coming semester’s writing projects.
 
Writing in Graduate School
Monday, August 18th - 1:00-2:30pm (online)
Writing plays a central role in sharing research and ideas in academia, yet it frequently becomes a source of worry and isolation for graduate students. This workshop serves as an "orientation" to a critical mode of communication that you will use daily while at UMass. You will be introduced to some academic genres, learn best practices for the four phases of the writing process, and discover tips to make your writing "sound more academic"!