EFS 698C - STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Writing and Presenting Research

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EFS 698C: Writing and Presenting Research
Winter 2018 
Tuesdays 3:00-5:50      Room: 160-318
 

Instructor: Phil Hubbard
260-302G
(650) 725-1557
efs@stanford.edu  
www.stanford.edu/~efs/698c

Introduction.  The course helps you become more comfortable and competent at presenting your research in both oral and written forms appropriate for your own field of study and for broader audiences. By the end of the course, you will have improved significantly in both oral and written English communication and be aware of areas needing further work, along with resources and strategies to continuing working on these areas your own.

Prerequisites. This course was originally designed as a followup to EFS 698B, Advanced Graduate Writing, and EFS 691, Oral Presentation. However, if you have not completed 691 and/or 698B and are not required to do so, you are welcome.

Course content. The course will have two roughly equal parts, focusing on writing up research for publication and presenting research. However, in addition to the formal work, there will also be tasks centered on making your research comprehensible in both oral and written formats to a wider audience and more informally. The course content will include work in both of these areas, analyzing model papers and presentations for strengths and weaknesses as well as your own papers and presentations and those of your classmates. In terms of language, we will be identifying aspects of your spoken and written work that may interfere with your intended meaning or fall outside the conventions of academic English and the specific expectations of your field. We will also look at correcting persistent patterned errors. Note that most language issues will be handled in the individual meetings.

There is no textbook required for the course. Materials will be drawn from online sources for writing and presentations as well as the work of you and your classmates.

Requirements. The major requirement for receiving credit in this course is to show clear improvement in your writing and presentation performance. There are several more specific requirements for a grade of S (Satisfactory).

1) Attendance. You must attend at least 90% of the scheduled classes and all of the scheduled individual meetings. Please contact me by phone or email if you have to cancel a scheduled meeting for some reason or if you know you are going to be absent from class.

2) Homework. You must complete all the course assignments completely and in time for class discussion of them. I expect you to be able to work on the assignments independently, but if you are having problems, be sure to let me know ahead of time so that I can help. If you miss class, you should bring your homework to our next meeting.

3) Individual meetings. You will meet with me individually to go over your writing or videos of your presentations. Depending on your specific needs, you may want to focus more on either writing or presentation. Meetings will be offered weekly, but you must sign up for and attend at least five to receive class credit, with a minimum of two in each skill area. All of your individual assignments should relate to work you are doing for other academic or professional purposes. I assume that in most cases this is research aimed at professional publication and presentation at conferences or other settings such as job talks. However, if you are submitting a paper or making a presentation for credit in another class, it is your responsibility to get the professor’s approval to receive my assistance to avoid the possibility of an Honor Code violation. See me individually if you have questions about this point.

Please note the following with respect to the individual meetings:

• Please send any written work you want to discuss as an attachment to efs@stanford.edu by 6:00 PM the day before the meeting. Note that I cannot read any formats besides MS-Word and PDF. Please do not send LaTex or Postscript files. Be sure to double-space so that there is room for my inline comments.

• Remember that my job is to be your writing instructor, not your editor. Any work you turn into me should represent the best you can do on your own. That way, we can focus on what you really need help with and you can make the greatest progress.

• I will normally review a maximum of 10 double-spaced pages per session. If you submit more than that, please indicate what is most important, as the rest will not get read closely. There is no set minimum.

• In general, I will review all aspects of the paper (organization, style, grammar, word choice, etc.). If you want me to ignore certain parts and focus more closely on others, please let me know and I'll try to accommodate your request.