GCAC FALL 2023 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

GW1 – Graduate Writing 1: Establishing Your Foundation

September/October

Graduate Writing 1: Establishing Your Foundation (GW1) is designed to introduce

graduate students to academic writing at the graduate level. This course will focus on
the transition to graduate writing by considering the unique identity of a graduate
writer. Key topics include learning the disciplinary practices of writing through reading;
developing an authorial presence by using metadiscourse; working with sources; and
building effective structure through paragraphing. The course will consist of five lectures
of 2 hours each; students will also have an opportunity to submit a writing sample for
individual feedback. This course is the first in our Graduate Writing sequence; the
second course (Graduate Writing 2: Deepening Your Expertise) builds on GW1 by
teaching graduate writers how to improve their academic writing through revision. We
recommend that students take GW1 before taking GW2. If you have already taken
the Academic Writing sequence, please note that GW1 is similar to AW1 and GW2 is
similar to AW3. You are entirely welcome to register for the GW courses, but there will
be significant overlap.

Course duration: 5 weeks.

If you have any questions about the GW1 course, please contact Dr. Jane
Freeman: jane.freeman@utoronto.ca.

GW2 – Graduate Writing 2: Deepening Your Expertise

September/October

Graduate Writing 2: Deepening Your Expertise (GW2) is designed to help graduate

writers develop their ability to improve their own academic writing through revision.
Most academic writers struggle to produce reader-worthy first drafts; this course is
designed to introduce graduate students to a range of strategies for improving their
own texts. Key topics include improving coherence in academic texts; learning how to
establish flow; grasping what readers need from sentences; revising for concision; and
reviewing common issues with writing mechanics. These topics will allow students to
develop a revision process that moves from first draft through submission. The course
will consist of five lectures of 2 hours each; students will also have an opportunity to
submit a writing sample for individual feedback.
This course is the second in our Graduate Writing sequence; the first course (Graduate
Writing 1: Establishing Your Foundation) is an introduction to academic writing at the
graduate level. We recommend that students take GW1 before taking GW2. If you have
already taken the Academic Writing sequence, please note that GW1 is similar to AW1
and GW2 is similar to AW3. If you have already taken Becoming a Better Editor of
Your Own Work, please note that GW2 is similar to that course. You are entirely
welcome to register for GW2, but there will be significant overlap.

Course duration: 5 weeks.

If you have any questions about the GW2 course, please contact Dr. Jane
Freeman: jane.freeman@utoronto.ca.

AG – Advanced Grammar for Multilingual Graduate Writers

September/October

Advanced Grammar for Multilingual Graduate Writers (AG) is designed to support

non-native speakers of English in improving the grammatical correctness of their
academic writing. Students will learn to self-diagnose their most common grammatical
errors, to apply the key grammatical rules learned throughout the course, to develop
strategies to enhance grammatical correctness, and to identify resources for improving
their grammar. Key topics include maintaining subject-verb agreement; avoiding
punctuation problems; using relative clauses correctly; minimizing article errors; and
understanding common sentence structure errors. The course will consist of five lectures
of 2 hours each; students will also have an opportunity to submit a writing sample for
individual feedback. Multilingual writers should also plan to take GW1 and GW2. We
recommend taking GW1 first, before either AG or GW2. If you have already taken
the Academic Writing sequence, please note that AG is the same course as AW2; we
don’t recommend taking this course if you’ve already completed AW2.

Course duration: 5 weeks.

If you have any questions about the AG course, please contact Dr. Jane
Freeman: jane.freeman@utoronto.ca.
ACS – Academic Conversation Skills (for non-native speakers of English)
September/October

This course is for non-native speakers of English who wish to improve their listening and
speaking skills in order to communicate more effectively in an academic environment. If
you have difficulty participating in class discussion or speaking to your classmates and
professors, either online or in person, this course is designed to meet your needs. Over
six weeks, participants will gain confidence as they develop their ability to engage in
academic discussion. Through active student participation and reflection, ACS focuses
on topics such as how to ask and answer challenging questions, how to disagree
respectfully, and how to manage academic interactions sensitively.

Course duration: 6 weeks.

If you have any questions about the Academic Conversations Skills course, please
contact Dr. Katherine Fry: katherine.fry@utoronto.ca.

OPS Modular – Modular Oral Presentation Skills Course

September/October

This asynchronous version of GCAC’s Oral Presentation Skills (OPS) course is comprised
of a series of pre-recorded videos and handouts on a range of specific topics related to
giving effective presentations (such as effective slide design, structuring presentations
well, managing nerves when presenting, effectively managing a Q and A session,
presenting online, etc.). Unlike OPS NS and OPS NNS, which provide a live online
community in which to practice presenting together, this modular version of the course
allows you to pick and choose both how much time you want to spend and which
specific oral presentation skills you would like to work on at what time. There will be no
live lectures. Instead, students watch pre-recorded videos at their convenience. Those
who want to practise giving a presentation after learning helpful techniques form the
videos may sign up to give a trial presentation in bi-weekly presentation sessions. These
sessions include a teacher and 3-4 other graduate students. Each student comes
prepared to give a 7-8 minute presentation and to receive feedback from the teacher
and other students. if you decide to sign up for a presentation session then you must
participate in the full 60-minute presentation session in order to give feedback to the
other presenters who have given feedback to you. You are welcome to use these
sessions as an opportunity to rehearse part/all of a presentation you are preparing for a
course, thesis committee meeting, or conference. This version of the course is for both
native- and non-native speakers of English.
Course duration: Videos and handouts will be available through the course page all
term. Presentation sessions will be available every other week.

If you have any questions about the Oral Presentation Skills course, please contact
Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires: jordana.lobo.pires@utoronto.ca.

OPS – Oral Presentation Skills (for native and non-native speakers of English)
October

This course will teach you how to present your ideas more clearly and confidently both
online and in person. During this six-week course, you will receive guidance on various
aspects of presenting, such as how to structure presentations, design visual aids,
manage nerves, and handle the question period. You will have a valuable opportunity to
learn from the presentations of others and to practice what you learn in front of an
informed and supportive audience of your peers. As a member of that audience, you will
be able to practice active observing to further improve both your listening and
presenting skills. Throughout, we’ll consider key differences between presenting online
and in person.

Course duration: 6 weeks.

If you have any questions about the Oral Presentation Skills course, please contact
Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires: jordana.lobo.pires@utoronto.ca.

PRE – Prewriting Strategies for Developing and Organizing Your Ideas

September/October

For students in all divisions.

This course is designed for graduate students who are conducting research towards a
PhD or Master’s degree in any division. In order for a research paper to be clear to
readers, it must first be crystal clear in the mind of its author. Whether you are writing a
course paper, a journal article, or a thesis, this course will help you clarify in your own
mind the content and structure of your argument before you begin to write. Participants
will be introduced to a range of strategies for developing and organizing their ideas —
strategies such as organizing notes, outlining, diagramming and use of Aristotle’s
Topics — and will be encouraged to consider which strategies work best given their
own learning styles.
Drawing on techniques from classical rhetoric, the course will give students the chance
to practice strategies for investigating and organizing ideas at both the pre-writing and
mid-writing stages.

Course duration: 4 weeks.

If you have any questions about the Prewriting course, please contact Dr. Jane
Freeman: jane.freeman@utoronto.ca.

SSHRC MA – Writing Master’s SSHRC Proposals (Humanities and Social Sciences)

October

This synchronous online course is designed for students in the Humanities and Social
Sciences who are applying for SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada) Master’s Scholarships. Several of the concepts we’ll examine will also be
relevant to students applying for an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), and OGS
applicants are welcome to register. Over four weeks, we’ll learn strategies for clarifying
the content, structure, and style of your proposal and common errors you’ll want to
avoid. SSHRC MA consists of four 90-minute synchronous (live) interactive online
classes. Students will also be eligible to submit draft proposals for receive feedback via
an online one-on-one conference.

If you have any questions about the SSHRC MA course, please contact Dr.
Katherine Fry: katherine.fry@utoronto.ca.

RA 3/4 – Understanding the Research Article: Reading towards Writing

October

For students engaged in experimental and population-based research.

What are the typical “moves” made in research article’s Introduction? Should you
integrate your discussion with your results? How do you get readers to see the
importance of your work? How much explaining do you need in a methodology section?
Should I use the personal voice? What about the passive voice? These are typical
questions asked by graduate students writing research articles that follow the
“Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion” (IMRD) format. This synchronous online
course is designed to help graduate students engaged in experimental work to not only
answer those questions, but also to improve their research article writing by increasing
their familiarity with the established forms of such articles.

To do so, we will analyze the discourse strategies of articles that follow the IMRD pattern
and consider research that has been conducted into writing in this genre. The course will
involve lecture, class discussion and close readings of articles drawn from representative
fields of study. Students will be expected to submit weekly assignments to the Quercus
discussion board that should require only about twenty minutes of out-of-class work
each week.

RA 3/4 consists of five 90-minute synchronous (live) interactive online classes. Please
enroll only if you expect to attend all five sessions. Students will also be urged to book
one-on-one online conferences to discuss their own academic writing samples with the
course instructor.

Course duration: 5 weeks

If you have any questions about the Research Article course, please contact Dr.
Fiona Coll: fiona.coll@utoronto.ca.

NPP – Navigating the Publishing Process

October

Graduate students are often encouraged to publish, but for many first-time authors,
navigating the publishing process can be intimidating. The goal of this course is to
demystify the publishing process by examining the various steps involved. We will begin
by considering the genre of the book review―a common first publication for sole-
author graduate students. In subsequent weeks, we will discuss strategies for selecting
journals to which to submit; revising articles for different audiences/lengths/journal
mandates; communicating with journal editors through cover or query letters; and
responding to reviews or rejection. If you are already in the process of writing to
publish or looking to start soon, this course is designed for you.

Course duration: 5 weeks

If you have any questions about the Navigating the Publishing Process course,
please contact Dr. Adeiza Isiaka: adeiza.isiaka@utoronto.ca.