Upcoming Communication Workshops!

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

Fall Shut Up & Write Tuesdays
Tuesdays, September 8th through December 22nd - 9:00am-12:00pm (515 Goodell)
Writing alongside others is a best practice for productivity! 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 is required; attend one week or attend all fall!
 
Public Speaking—for the Anxious and the Not-So-Anxious
Friday, September 18th - 10:30am-12:00pm (516 Goodell)
“There are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous and the liars.”–Mark Twain. Speaking to an audience is important for your professional life, but that doesn’t mean we get a lot of training in it. Come learn the tips and tricks that will make you a more confident public speaker, convince your audience of your brilliance, and leave a lasting impression.
 
Crafting Slides for Engaging Presentations
Tuesday, September 22nd - 10:00-11:00am (online)
Do you ever envy a presenter’s slick presentation? Do you wish you could convey your data simply or tell a great story that engages your audience? Join us to learn how to design slides that capture attention and convey your meaning!
 
How to Get More Out of Your Reading by Doing Less 
Wednesday, September 23rd - 2:30-3:45pm (515 Goodell)
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.
 
What is a "Response to Reading" and How to Write One
Monday, September 28th - 11:30am-12:00pm (online)
You might be asked to write a reading response – but what does that mean? This workshop will provide a framework for approaching a reading critically and suggest strategies for drafting a response.
 
Effective Poster Design
Thursday, October 1st - 12:00-1:00pm (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.
 
Communicating Your Expertise Quickly
Wednesday, October 14th - 11:30am-12:30pm (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.
 
Public Speaking—for the Anxious and the Not-So-Anxious
Thursday, October 15th - 12:00-1:00pm (online)
“There are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous and the liars.”–Mark Twain. Speaking to an audience is important for your professional life, but that doesn’t mean we get a lot of training in it. Come learn the tips and tricks that will make you a more confident public speaker, convince your audience of your brilliance, and leave a lasting impression.

Mid-semester Reset: Get Back into the Writing Rhythm
Monday, October 19th - 10:00-11:30am (online)
Have the sky-high writing goals that you set at the start of the semester fallen to earth? Are you struggling to find time to write? Is it hard to get going or to know how to stop? This one-off, mid-semester writing accountability session offers various goal-setting and time-management strategies that can help make even short blocks of time productive. We will devote a significant portion of the 90 minutes to focused writing, so come prepared to get words on the page. The goal is to give you an experience you can replicate on your own ... and to get you back into the practice of writing regularly. 
 
AI and Academic Writing: The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated
Friday, October 23rd - 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 when using generative AI in your writing would be ethical and appropriate. 
 
Demystifying Academic English through a Multilingual Lens
Tuesday, October 27th - 2:30-3:45pm (515 Goodell)
Writing in another language is hard enough, but navigating standard academic English -- with its unwritten rules and cultural conventions -- can be especially overwhelming. This workshop will introduce some of these “rules” and offer practical strategies to help you feel more confident as a writer. The session is designed especially for multilingual writers, but we welcome anyone who wants to better understand academic writing expectations. We will work with specific examples, so bring along some of your writing to work on.
 
Crafting Slides for Engaging Presentations
Friday, October 30th - 11:30am-12:30pm (online)
Do you ever envy a presenter’s slick presentation? Do you wish you could convey your data simply or tell a great story that engages your audience? Join us to learn how to design slides that capture attention and convey your meaning!
 
A Topic is Not a Question: How to Design a Research Question
Tuesday, November 3rd - 2:00-3:45pm (551 Goodell)
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/work session 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. Whether you are working toward a dissertation project, putting together a master’s thesis proposal, or setting out on some other research journey, this is the workshop for you!
 
How to Catch an Error: Tips for Proofreading Your Own Writing 
Tuesday, November 10th - 1:00-2:00pm (515 Goodell)
Typos are easy enough to find and fix, but what about mistakes in our writing that are more difficult to recognize … and that can compromise the message and meaning of what we produce? Join us to discover the most common writing errors as well as the pitfalls of proofreading at the wrong stage of the writing process. We will share the tips and tools to help you spot and correct errors in your own writing and to do so efficiently.  
 
Communicating Your Expertise Quickly
Friday, November 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.
 
Writing Literature Reviews
Wednesday, December 2nd - 2:30-4:00pm (online)
Many dissertations, research proposals, and articles require a literature review. But many grad students get stuck when tackling this 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.
 
Public Speaking—for the Anxious and the Not-So-Anxious
Thursday, December 3rd - 2:30-3:30pm (online)
“There are only two types of speakers in the world: the nervous and the liars.”–Mark Twain. Speaking to an audience is important for your professional life, but that doesn’t mean we get a lot of training in it. Come learn the tips and tricks that will make you a more confident public speaker, convince your audience of your brilliance, and leave a lasting impression.
 
Revision Clinic: Pushing the Draft Forward
Monday, December 7th - 10:30am-12:00pm (online)
If you have a draft, this workshop is for you! You can think of it as a revising boot camp, a place to push forward on a writing project by refining the argument, purpose, and/or organization of your draft. In this interactive workshop, we will try out various techniques for revising academic projects – so make sure to have available a draft of your conference or seminar paper, article, chapter, or any other draft. 
 
Crafting Slides for Engaging Presentations
Thursday, December 10th - 10:00-11:00am (online)
Do you ever envy a presenter’s slick presentation? Do you wish you could convey your data simply or tell a great story that engages your audience? Join us to learn how to design slides that capture attention and convey your meaning!
 
The 5 Things You Need to Do to Prep Your Writing for Winter Break
Monday, December 14th - 1:30-2:00pm (online)
We all know that breaks are important for our wellbeing 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 in the new year refreshed, renewed, and ready to pick up where you left off.