Information for Graduate Students
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.
Winter 2022: Synchronous and asynchronous appointments are available to book in the Student Experience Portal. Synchronous appointments are delivered by Zoom as a default; if you require an in-person appointment, please call the college office to book. Note that both staff and students are required to follow all of Trent's health and safety protocols. Asynchronous appointments are an accessible option for students who wish to submit pieces of writing and receive feedback via email. More information on Academic Skills appointments.
How do I book an appointment?
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.
Workshops - Fall & Winter
Workshops will be presented synchronously via Zoom. An Academic Skills instructor will present the workshops.
Winter 2022 Workshops
Grammar for Grad Students
Tuesday, January 25 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Registration required: https://ccr.trentu.ca/ccrevents.htm?evtId=1693
Have you ever received feedback and you are not even sure what it means? What is a comma splice anyway? Then this workshop is for you! We will delve into the mysteries of English grammar to help you edit and improve your writing. We will consider topics such as: sentence structure, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, modifiers, active and passive voice, and parallel structure.
Writing about Quantitative Data for Grad Students
Tuesday, February 8 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Registration required: https://ccr.trentu.ca/ccrevents.htm?evtId=1701
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
Tuesday, February 22 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Registration required: https://ccr.trentu.ca/ccrevents.htm?evtId=1695
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
Tuesday, March 22 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Registration required: https://ccr.trentu.ca/ccrevents.htm?evtId=1696
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 Workshop Titles
- Time Management for Grad Students
- This workshop will help graduate students balance competing pressures and commitments for their time from a variety of sources, such as research or course work, teaching commitments, university obligations, and personal life. This is particularly important with remote learning. Through the establishment of long- and short-term goals, the process of conquering the workload will become more manageable.
- Managing the Graduate Reading Load
- 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 reading load effectively and efficiently. We will discuss note-taking strategies and some of the common pitfalls of graduate reading.
- Strong Writing for Grad Students
- This workshop will explore principles of strong writing to achieve progress on many written 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.
Motivation Mondays: Graduate Students Writers’ Group
The grad student writing group will help to develop writers with tips to improve their writing as well as create a community of writers to encourage and celebrate achievements of writing. The theme for the winter writing group is: Get to the Finish Line!
- Meet weekly – Monday mornings – Zoom meetings 10:30 – 11:30 am
- Writing tip of the week – 10 minutes
- Topics will include comma splices, transitions and flow in writing, reducing wordiness, paragraph construction, and the power of revision.
- Motivational topic – 10 minutes
- Topics will include imposter syndrome, impulsivity and distraction, overcoming writer’s block, and stress and burnout in graduate students.
- Goal setting and progress reporting
- 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. The progress reporting will be a personal assessment followed by a discussion of progress as a group.
- Writing tip of the week – 10 minutes
Schedule of meeting dates and tentative topics on writing and motivation:
- Jan 17
- Goal Setting for the Semester
- Planning: The Best Thesis Hack Ever
- Jan 24
- Narrowing your Topic
- Time Blocking
- Jan 31
- Supervisor Relations – Roles and Responsibilities
- How to Cope with Pandemic Fatigue
- Feb 7
- Introduction Chapters
- Addicted to your Phone: From Distractor to Power Device
- Feb 21
- Conclusion Chapters
- Take the Stoic Challenge: Increase your Resilience
- Feb 28
- Literature Reviews
- Ways to Stop Critical Self-talk
- Mar 7
- Clarity, Coherence, and Conciseness
- Overcome Thesis Inertia
- Mar 14
- Meta Discourse: Shaping your Reader’s Experience
- Nudge Yourself to the Thesis Finish Line
- Mar 21
- Using Templates to join the Academic Conversation
- Strategies to Prevent Burnout
- Mar 28
- End-of-Year Reflection
- Celebrate your Success
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