Dissertation Writers Support Group
Steven Strang, Besty Fox
Thu Jan 7, 14, 21, 03:15-04:15pm, 12-132
No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 06-Jan-2010
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Writing a thesis or dissertation can be daunting and frustrating if we try to "go it alone." These sessions will present an overview of the thesis-writing process, as well as tips for managing time and emotional stress. In addition, we will discuss the possibility of establishing one or more support groups for the Spring and beyond.
Contact: Steven Strang, 12-120, 253-4459, smstrang@mit.edu
Sponsor: Writing and Communication Center
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Effective Speaking
Barbara Smith
Tue Jan 12, Thu Jan 14, Tue Jan 19, Thu Jan 21, 03-05:00pm, 1-390
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 05-Jan-2010
Limited to 50 participants.
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: None Required
Have you always wondered why some people seem at ease with public speaking? Have others told you to speak up because you speak too softly, or perhaps you are self-conscious because of your accent? Well, this class is for you! You will learn the proper techniques for projecting your voice and delivering a talk.
Contact: Barbara Smith, 5-320, x3-0137, bsmith@mit.edu
Sponsor: Mechanical Engineering
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Getting Messages Across with Graphs
Dr. Jean-luc Doumont
Fri Jan 29, 02-04:00pm, 1-190
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Although widely used in research to analyze data and to communicate about them, graphical displays are still poorly mastered by researchers, who often use the wrong graphs or use them in the wrong way (and popular software does not exactly help). Based on Dr Doumont's book _Trees, maps, and theorems_ about “effective communication for rational minds”, this session discusses how to choose the right graph for a given data set and a given research question, how to optimize the graph's construction to reveal the data, and finally how to phrase a useful caption.
Contact: Leann Dobranski, Asst. Director, Teaching & Learning Lab, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu
Sponsor: Teaching and Learning Lab
Cosponsor: Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education
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How to Speak -- Prof. Winston's Famous Talk!!
Patrick Winston
Fri Jan 29, 11am-12:00pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Winning Job Talks, Successful Oral Examinations,
Stimulating Lectures, And Getting Famous
You can improve your speaking ability in critical situations by observing a few heuristic rules. Professor Winston presents his collection of rules along with some observations about of their application in job talks,
thesis defenses, oral examinations, and lectures.
Contact: Patrick Winston, phw@mit.edu
Sponsor: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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Individual Consultations at the Writing and Communication Center
Steven Strang
Mon-Fri, Jan 4-8, 11-15, 19-22, 25-29, 10am-03:00pm, 12-132
No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Repeating event. Participants welcome at any session
Prereq: none
The Writing Center's professional staff will offer free consultations on any communication issue (writing,speaking, presentation) including finding topics, generating ideas, improving grammar and stye, organizing documents, and using evidence. We can help with theses from any department, application essays, resumes, articles for publication, proposals,course papers. Practice your oral presentations,work on slide design, etc. Go to our online scheduler to schedule an appointment.
Web: http://humanistic.mit.edu/wcc/appointments
Contact: Steven Strang, 12-120, 253-4459, smstrang@mit.edu
Sponsor: Writing and Communication Center
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MIT Writers' Group
Steven Strang
Wed Jan 6, 13, 20, 27, 12-01:00pm, 12-134
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 05-Jan-2010
Limited to 20 participants.
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Prereq: none
Want to write but need some motivation or support? Join other writers to get advice about your own writing, to help other writers, or to get inspiration to write something to share with the group-any kind of writing is possible (e.g, fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, course-specific assignments, theses, and professional projects).
Contact: Steven Strang, 12-120, 253-4459, smstrang@mit.edu
Sponsor: Writing and Communication Center
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Making the Most of Your Presentation
Dr. Jean-luc Doumont, Communication Consultant
Wed Jan 27, 02-04:00pm, 1-190
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Strong oral presentation skills are a key to success for engineers, scientists, and other professionals, yet many speakers are at a loss to tackle the task. Systematic as they otherwise can be in their work, they go at it intuitively, sometimes haphazardly, with much good will but seldom good results. Based on Dr Doumont's book _Trees, maps, and theorems_ about “effective communication for rational minds” this lecture proposes a systematic way to prepare and deliver presentations. Among others, it covers structure, slides, and delivery, as well as stage fright.
Contact: Leann Dobranski, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu
Sponsor: Teaching and Learning Lab
Cosponsor: Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE)
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Memoir Writing Workshop
Jyl Lynn Felman, Rochelle Weichman
Sat Jan 16, 10am-12:30pm, E51-385
Signup by: 16-Jan-2010
Limited to 8 participants.
Single session event
Write about your life! Preserve your memories. This three hour workshop covers the basics of autobiographical writing including creative writing exercises to help you remember those fabulous hidden details of your story. We’ll look at voice, character development, and scene; and discuss passages from successful contemporary memoirs, deciding what works and doesn’t work. Limited to 8 participants.
Bring an object that holds many memories for you to the workshop.
Web: http://www.jyllynnfelman.com
Contact: Rochelle Weichman, weichman@mit.edu
Sponsor: Sloan School of Management
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Public Speaking at Toastmasters (Tuesday evening group)
Ruth Levitsky
Tue Jan 5, 12, 19, 26, 06-07:30pm, E51-149
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Come join us at Toastmasters! You can come and observe or jump right in and practice impromptu speaking at Table Topics.
For more information, see http://www.toastmasters.org
For other clubs at MIT, see http://web.mit.edu/personnel/toastmasters
Web: http://web.mit.edu/personnel/toastmasters
Contact: Ruth Levitsky, E52-252, x3-3399, levitsky@mit.edu
Sponsor: Toastmasters@MIT
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Speaking in Public
Mara Radulovic Emerson College Faculty, Ivan Celanovic
Tue Jan 19, Thu Jan 21, 06:30-09:00pm, 4-257
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 05-Jan-2010
Limited to 12 participants.
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: Bring a presentation or a text you want to work with
Get your message across, clearly and powerfully, using simple yet effective elements of acting. Learn what makes a presentation or a talk inspiring. Discover which elements of your presentation put your already bored audience to sleep. How can you create, practice and deliver a presentation that will make everyone in the room (including yourself) engaged and energized.
Web: http://www.mararadulovic.com
Contact: Ivan Celanovic, NE47-427, x3-5022, ivanc@mit.edu
Sponsor: Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies
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Structuring Your Scientific Paper
Dr. Jean-luc Doumont, Communication Consultant
Thu Jan 28, 02-04:00pm, 1-190
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Papers are one of the few deliverables of the work of researchers. Well-designed, they efficiently allow each reader to learn only what he or she needs to. Poorly designed, by contrast, they confuse readers, fail to prompt decisions, or remain unread. Based on Dr Doumont's book _Trees, maps, and theorems_ about “effective communication for rational minds”, the lecture shows how to structure scientific papers, theses, and technical reports effectively at all levels to get the readers' attention, facilitate navigation, and, in this way, get the message across optimally.
Web: http://www.principiae.be
Contact: Leann Dobranski, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu
Sponsor: Teaching and Learning Lab
Cosponsor: Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE)
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Technical, Scientific, and Professional Communication
Leslie Perelman
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
All WAC workshops are open to instructors and teaching assistants who work with CI subjects, or who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Chelsey Norman, 12-117, x3-0650, chelseyn@mit.edu
Sponsor: Writing and Humanistic Studies
Powerful Feedback: Crafting Effective Response to Student Writing
Dr. Neal Lerner Director of Training, Writing Across the Curriculum
What kind of feedback will help students understand how to revise that essay, report, or article, or to write more effectively in their next assignment? This workshop will help faculty, TAs, and instructors learn to articulate their criteria for student writing, and to provide the kinds of comments and strategies that will help students understand how to improve both their essays and their skills as writers.
Mon Jan 25, 10-11:00am, 12-134
Visions of Revision: Teaching Students to Revise Effectively
Dr. Suzanne T. Lane (MIT '85) Associate Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
Wishing the revisions your students write were less like their initial essays? Wondering how to motivate students to revise thoroughly? Trying to decide which essay ought to be revised? This workshop will help you consider what you want students to learn from the revision process, how to help students understand the function of revision as rethinking, and how to build a more developed writing process into your subject.
Mon Jan 25, 02-03:00pm, 12-134
Developing Students’ Thinking Through Oral Presentations
Dr. Suzanne Lane and Dr. Neal Lerner Writing Across the Curriculum
By approaching oral presentations as a process rather than as a product, instructors can help their students achieve more depth and clarity. This workshop will help instructors think through their goals for oral assignments, so that they can learn to help students approach the engagement with their audience as a learning tool to develop their thinking, and not just as a performance.
Tue Jan 26, 10-11:00am, 12-134
Speaking of Speaking: Using Class Discussion to Develop Students’ Disciplinary Ways of Thinking
Dr. Suzanne Lane, Associate Director, Writing Across the Curriculum
What do we talk about when we talk about disciplinary ideas? This workshop will examine the functions of academic talk—defining terms, interpreting evidence, developing claims, etc.—in order to help instructors prepare students for effective discussion, deepen the level of learning and engagement in class, and use discussions to help students understand disciplinary ways of thinking.
Tue Jan 26, 02-03:00pm, 12-134
Using Technology to Teach Writing and Speaking
Dr. Mya Poe; Dr. Lisa Dush, Writing across the Curriculum
In this hands-on workshop, participants will be introduced to and experiment with a range of innovative technologies for document review, presentation design, and project management. We will also discuss strategies for integrating these new technologies into the classroom. The workshop is tailored to faculty/teachers; participants should bring a laptop.
Wed Jan 27, 10-11:30am, 12-134
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