Education

Name of Lecture

Syllabus

In this roundtable seminar we intend to identity and improve skills in academic writing (i.e., those used for technical journals) and also to improve oral presentation techniques, assisted by Power Point or similar media.

The basic approach to technical writing in the fields of engineering and the sciences is unified. It can be learned through content analysis and close attention to style. Each journal has its own house requirements. Still, the structure of all peer-reviewed research follows what is referred to as IMRaD: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. You describe (1) what you did and (2) why you did it; then you tell (3) how you did it and (4) what you found out. Finally, you must explain clearly what all this means for your readers.

You will learn to be clear and logical in approach and to write from the point of view of a prospective reader. This is not a translation course. On the contrary, you will be encouraged to think and write in English.
In presentation, you’ll be requested to speak so that you can be heard and also to make your visual materials uniform and consistent, as well as attractive, effective, and persuasive.

All this takes hard work and for some students may at first feel unfamiliar. To achieve your aims, you must take risks, make mistakes, and then start again. To do this, we must meet twice a week on a regular basis and you will spend a certain amount of time outside class in preparation.