As a graduate student, you are likely facing new academic challenges. The ideas about which you are reading, thinking, and writing are becoming increasingly complex, yet you need to find clear, concise, and engaging ways to express them. You are shifting from a focus on consuming information to a focus on producing and disseminating new knowledge and insights. You are expected to be fluent in the conventions of your discipline and to produce work that is free of grammatical and spelling errors.
Academic Skills works closely with graduate students to help them develop as scholars and writers as well as teaching assistants. We hope that you will take advantage of the many services that we can offer you.
Learn more:
Services for Graduate Students
Individual Appointments
Graduate students are welcome to book a free, confidential one-on-one appointment with an Academic Skills instructor.
Synchronous video, in-person, and asynchronous appointments are available to book in the Student Experience Portal.
Writing Conferences
You can book a free and confidential appointment to discuss any aspect of your writing. Academic Skills instructors can help you organize your ideas, outline, or upgrade your grammar skills. They can also look at partial drafts and comment on grammar, organization, and clarity.
Time Management for Graduate Students
Graduate work often involves long-term research and writing projects that have few check points along the way. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what you need to accomplish and, as a result, to procrastinate your work. You can book an appointment with an Academic Skills Instructor to discuss time management problems and to create a project plan that will work for you.
Grant Applications and Personal Statements
Academic Skills provides several resources to help you as you write graduate school or grant applications. Academic Skills is not an editing or proofreading service, but our instructors can comment on the strength and clarity of your writing and organization.
We also work with the Career Centre to offer "Apply Yourself: Writing the Graduate School Personal Statement," a workshop that provides advice on what to include in personal statements as well as how to write them.
Graduate Writing Retreat
May 8, 9, 10, 2024
9am to 4pm
In-person at Traill College
Are you planning to work on your course work, MRP, thesis, or other writing over the summer of 2024? Join your fellow graduate students and learn how to increase productivity as you progress with your writing.
The Writing Retreat will take place from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Wednesday, May 8, and Thursday, May 9, and Friday, May 10. One objective of the program is to build a writing community, so this event will be held in person. We take over Scott House and Bagnani Hall, Traill College, so you can use the many writing spaces at Traill.
We will be modelling daily writing processes to promote effective and efficient writing strategies. Each day will begin with a brief workshop on a writing-related issue. Academic Skills instructors will be available to meet students individually to discuss writing projects and to create their own writing goals. During breaks, we will offer activities to promote physical and mental wellness. We will wrap up by reviewing daily goals and preparing for the next day's writing.
Trent librarians will be offering a workshop on reference management software. This is a great opportunity to improve your digital organizational skills under the guidance of the experts.
Nutritional snacks will be available throughout each day to offer fuel for writing. On the last day there will be a free pizza lunch.
Sample schedule
- 9:00 - 9:45 am: Workshop: Overcoming Barriers to Write and Goal Setting
- 10:00 - 12:00 noon: Writing on your own
- Pomodoro Writing – 25-minute writing sessions with 5-minute breaks in between
- Academic Skills instructors available to have one-on-one appointments to discuss goal setting and writing
- 12:00 - 12:30 pm: Lunch – on your own
- 12:30 - 1:00 pm: Virtual walk – photography competition
- 1:15 - 3:00 pm: Writing on your own
- Pomodoro Writing – 25-minute writing sessions with 5-minute breaks in between
- Academic Skills instructors available to have one-on-one appointments to discuss goal setting and writing
- 3:00 – 3:30 pm: Workshop: Citation Management Software with a Trent Librarian
- 3:30 - 4:00 pm: Workshop: Review of daily goals and prepare for next writing session
This free event for Trent Graduate students is sponsored by Academic Skills and Traill College.
Workshops
Summer 2024 Workshop Offerings
Workshops will be presented online only via Zoom.
Writing Effective Research Proposals
Monday, June 10 at 1:00 pm via Zoom.
Writing a research proposal clarifies the researcher's thoughts into a coherent statement of research intent. We will discuss a structured approach to collect, analyze, and interpret information to create new knowledge. Our agenda includes:
- Proposal starting points
- Narrowing and focusing your research topic
- Proposal elements
- Commons concerns with proposals
Register to attend Writing Effective Research Proposals
Writing Effective Literature Reviews
Wednesday, June 12 at 1:00 pm via Zoom.
We will discuss how literature reviews present a foundation of knowledge on a topic, identify important studies, and establish rationale for a study. We will consider the following topics:
- Importance of literature reviews
- Different types of literature reviews
- Successes and challenges of lit reviews
- Gathering and assessing sources
- Integrating and synthesizing sources
- Organizational strategies
Register to attend Writing Effective Literature Reviews
Winter 2024 Workshop Offerings
Writing about Quantitative Data for Grad Students
Are you planning on including quantitative data in your research project? Then this workshop was created for you! We will discuss how to organize your analysis for quantitative data, how to write about statistics, the best methods to visually present your data, and how to refer to figures in your writing. We will conclude with a discussion of how to explain your findings in the results and discussion section of your thesis.
Writing about Qualitative Data for Grad Students
Are you planning on including qualitative data in your research project? Then this workshop was created for you! We will discuss how to organize your analysis of qualitative data, the process of analysis, a discussion of NVivo analytic software, how to create and write about themes, the best methods to visually present your data, and how to refer to figures in your writing. We will conclude with a discussion of how to explain your findings in your thesis.
Survival Strategies for your Thesis Defence
This workshop will help graduate students understand the thesis defense process by demystifying the presentation, question period, and evaluation processes. We will discuss your thesis talk, including knowing your audience, explaining the rationale for your research, and telling your research story. We will provide strategies to handle the question period and some general survival tips.
Fall 2023 Workshop Offerings
Graduate Academic Integrity: Policy and Prevention Strategies
Did you know that plagiarizing, cheating, and dishonesty are violations of Trent’s Graduate Academic Integrity policy? Do you know how to prevent plagiarism, especially with the introduction of AI generators, such as ChatGPT? This workshop will help graduate students protect their academic integrity by introducing them to Trent’s Graduate Academic Integrity Policy. We will then delve into some prevention strategies by using paraphrasing, attributing techniques, and citing of sources.
Time Management for Grad Students
Need help balancing competing time pressures and commitments from a variety of sources, such as research, course work, teaching commitments, and personal life? This workshop will help with project management skills and prioritizing through the establishment of long- and short-term goals. The process of conquering the workload will become more manageable.
Managing the Graduate Reading Load
The graduate reading load can be overwhelming. This workshop will help graduate students understand the goals of graduate reading, the key challenges of reading large volumes of text, the process of reading, and methods to deal with the graduate r
Common Writing Concerns for Graduate Students
This workshop will explore some of the common concerns seen in graduate writing assignments from course-based writing to research proposals and thesis writing. We will explore the writing process as an aid in clarifying the thought process. We will discuss style and flow in writing, the needs of the reader, and the basis of strong writing - the paragraph.
Friday Writing: Graduate Student Writers’ Group
Summer 2024
The graduate student writing group helps to develop writers with tips to improve their writing as well as create a community of writers to encourage and celebrate achievements of writing.
Graduate students will be encouraged to set realistic writing goals on a weekly basis to monitor their progress and to maintain momentum with their writing. Progress reporting will be a personal assessment followed by a discussion of progress tips as a group.
We will be meeting every Friday starting on Friday, May 17, 2024 from 10:30 to 11:30 am. Hybrid presentation format with in-person meetings occurring at Traill College and via Zoom.
We invite you to combine this event with Traill’s Pizza Friday: $5 all you can eat pizza lunch.
Schedule of Writing Topics and Motivational Tips
- Week 1: May 17
- Pre-writing Strategies
- Goal Setting
- Week 2: May 24
- Narrowing your Topic
- Thesis Anxiety
- Week 3: May 31
- Literature Reviews
- Stop Critical Self-Talk
- Week 4: June 7
- Introductions
- Overcoming Phone Addiction
- Week 5: June 14
- Conclusions
- Increase your Resilience
- Week 6: June 21
- Using Templates to enter the Academic Conversation
- Overcoming Thesis Inertia
- Week 7: June 28
- Paragraph Structure
- Stress in Graduate Students
- Week 8: July 5
- Creating Cohesion (Flow)
- Preventing Burnout
- Week 9: July 12
- Revision Strategies
- Celebrating Progress
Graduate Writing and Research Week – Winter 2024
During the winter reading week (February 20 to February 23) Academic Skills and Trent Library will present virtual workshops for graduate students. The workshops will focus on topics that are relevant to graduate students as they work through their course work and research projects.
Workshop Descriptions
- Writing Effective Literature Reviews (Tuesday, Feb. 20, 11:00am)
- Understand how literature reviews present a foundation of knowledge on the topic, identify important studies, and establish rationale for a study.
- 'Using Citation Management Software (Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1:00 pm)
- Citation Management Software enables you to cite, organize, and share your citations with others. Learn about the highlights Zotero, so that you can get the most out of this free, versatile tool.
- Writing Effective Proposals (Wednesday, Feb. 21, 11:00 am)
- Writing a research proposal clarifies the researcher’s thoughts into a coherent statement of research intent. We will discuss a structured approach to collect, analyze, and interpret information to create new knowledge.
- Research Strategies (Wednesday, Feb. 21, 1:00 pm)
- Need help starting your research and navigating the Trent University Library? In this session you will learn how to get the most out of the library resources and services. The main academic search tool, Omni, will be explored, including how to use interlibrary loan for books and articles.
- Fundamentals of Graduate Writing (Thursday, Feb. 22, 11:00 am)
- Learn disciplinary practices through reading, developing authorial presence, using meta discourse, and learning the needs of the reader
- Presentation Skills: Oral presentations (Thursday, Feb 22, 1:00 pm)
- Improve the structure of your presentation, while emphasizing your main points and responding to the question period.
- Fundamentals of Revision/Editing (Friday Feb. 23, 11:00 am)
- Improve your writing through revision, including a range of strategies to edit your own writing, establish flow, and revise for concision and common issues with writing mechanics.
- Presentation Skills: Visual Design (Friday, Feb. 23, 1:00 pm)
- Learn to make each presentation slide stand on its own, achieve balance and consistent layouts, explore disciplinary differences, and make visuals easy to read.
Graduate Student Blackboard Site
An online resource for graduate students developed by Academic Skills that contains a wealth of information geared to writing at the graduate level. Topics include narrowing a topic, literature reviews, revision strategies, and motivation and procrastination. This site is available to all graduate students who have registered for a workshop or who have signed up for Motivation Mondays.
Services for Teaching Assistants
Referring Students
As a teaching assistant, you can refer students to Academic Skills for help with their math, reading, listening, writing, and grammar skills. Referrals can be made either by emailing acdskills@trentu.ca (please cc the student on the email) or by providing students with information about our services. Students can book appointments directly at www.trentu.ca/sep