Workshops

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview:  

New students often see note-taking as a chore to do before the real process of studying begins.  In fact, taking and (especially) processing your notes, is a key part of the study process itself.  Mindlessly transcribing notes is largely wast of time, but effective note-taking and processing engages the same critical thinking skills you’ll use on the test, acting as a massive shortcut to studying. 

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn to actively and critically take notes, while avoiding mindless transcription
• Understand the importance of processing your notes and its relation to taking tests
• Evaluate your own note-taking and learn new note processing and study methods

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: 

Reviewing notes and flashcards is not always enough to ensure a good test-grade, especially for upper-level classes in your degree. Often test questions ask you to use what you know at higher levels of critical thinking than just memorization and recall.  Blooms taxonomy can help new students develop study methods that correspond to and engage the same critical thinking as a test question.

• Understand the importance of critical thinking and its relation to study methods and tests
• Learn and use Bloom's taxonomy to organize your class materials and study methods
• Evaluate your own study methods and explore new, more effective methods

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: 

Students often struggle with preparing for tests, not only because of the material's difficulty, but because they have yet to develop a method of study that works at a college level.  Five-day study plans give college students a method to organize their study material, rank it by difficulty, and plan a system of review using critically effective study methods.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand that preparing your material for study is as important as reviewing the material
• Learn how to plan and execute a five-day study plan to prepare for tests
• Evaluate your own study methods and learn new, critically challenging methods for your plan

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: 

Academic writing by nature is more likely to be wordy, complex, and unclear. The paramedic method is a simple, step-by-step method used by many college students to reduce the length and increase the clarity of their sentences.  Having a method for sentence-level revision in your toolkit gives your academic writing a foundation to build clear paragraphs, arguments, and papers on top of.

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify long, confusing sentences and understand their impact on your reader's comprehension
• Learn and deploy the paramedic method to produce clear, concise academic sentences
• Understand the connection between sentence-level clarity and your paper's argument

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: 

Larger than a sentence, yet smaller than a paper, paragraphs can pose a challenge for new college writers. Paragraphs connect the smallest parts of your argument to the largest, your thesis, which is why no writers tool-kit is complete without a method understand and organize paragraphs.  MEAL gives students a simple, four-step method to write, analyze, and revise their paragraphs and improve their paper's argument.

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify & know when to revise a paragraph's main idea, evidence, analysis, and lead out (MEAL)
• Learn how to use MEAL to write and revise overlong, confusing, and unfocused paragraphs, including your intro, body, and conclusion
• Understand the connection between paragraph structure and paper structure

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: 

Students new to college writing quickly discover that a paper in the planning stages can look vastly different than a finished first draft. Reverse outlining gives students a simple method to look at their draft as a whole and realign what was planned with what was actually written, improving the paper's structure, clarity, and argument in the process. 

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify a paper's argument, including it's thesis, main points, transitions, and support
• Learn how to do a reverse outline and use it to revise and clarify a paper's argument
• Know when to revise your body to align with your thesis or when to revise your thesis instead

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: 

New students, due to a lack of confidence in their authority, often prefer to clearly separate themselves from their sources by using direct quotes. This can lead to papers written to support sources, rather sources supporting the paper.  IICC is a four-step method to help seamlessly integrate sources, increase your authority, and make your words the center of your argument, not the words of another.

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify quotes with poor introduction, integration, and relevance to your argument
• Learning how to seamlessly introduce, integrate, connect, & cite sources (or IICC)
• Understand the importance of authority, both your own and your sources, in academic writing

Description and Learning Outcomes

Overview: Clarity of thought and clear action are two of the most important qualities of effective academic writing. However, students often encounter their first obstacle to clear writing in the form of passive voice.  Having a method to turn passive sentences into clear, active sentences gives students a key tool to help your reader understand your argument, its logic, order, actions, and effects.
Learning Outcomes:

• Identify sentences using passive voice and understand its impact on your reader's comprehension
• Understand the problems passive voice cause in academic writing and when it is ok to use
• Learn how to revise passive sentences to produce sentences with clear action and actors