Student Workshops: Spring 2015

Observing Punctuation Rules
Instructor: Miriam Neirick

Participants in this workshop will undertake an inductive study of the rules that govern the use of commas and periods. First, students will work to punctuate passages of text from which commas and periods have been removed. We’ll then compare those guesses with the original text, making observations about how commas and periods are used in each instance, thinking about why they are used, and attempting to formulate the rules that dictate their usage. Students will be encouraged to make observations about the use of punctuation in everything they read and to apply those patterns to their own writing, rather than simply memorizing complicated and abstract punctuation rules that writers at every level struggle to master.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Tips for Achieving a Productive Writing Schedule
Instructor: Tara Fahmie

This workshop will introduce students to strategies, drawn from the field of behavioral psychology that they can use to influence their writing habits. Participants will practice goal-setting, fluency-building, data-collection, and self-management strategies. Students will leave the workshop with several practical handouts and an increased knowledge for the management of productive writing schedules.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Untangling Your Sentences
Instructor: James Adams

In this workshop, students will learn how to revise their own sentences by working with a basic concept of subject + verb + object sentence structure. Participants will learn various ways this simple, easy-to-understand structure can help solve run-on sentences, awkward phrasing, lack of specificity, repetition, and various minor grammar issues that frequently plague student writing. After a brief, interactive whiteboard lecture on the core tenets of sentence writing, students will compare, revise, and write sentences both individually and as a group.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Writing an Empirical Research Paper
Instructor: Scott Plunkett

This workshop will focus on the structure of a paper that reports the results of an empirical study. Students will consider both effective and ineffective examples of each of the main sections of a research paper, including, for example, the abstract, methodology, results, and discussion. Participants will then work in groups to match excerpts from published articles to the correct section of an empirical paper, before examining two published articles, one from a basic research journal and one from an applied journal, to see the different emphases placed on each section. Finally, several templates will be provided to help students format, structure, and write the various sections of a paper for a research class, a thesis, a project, and a manuscript for submission to a journal.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Tips for Writing Introductions and Conclusions
Instructor: Rachel F. Giraudo

This workshop will explain the different roles of introductions and conclusions in framing the body of a paper, while providing suggestions for writing effective introductions and conclusions. Workshop participants will compare examples of strong introductions and conclusions and ineffective ones and then work together in small groups to revise a sample essay that suffers from a weak introduction and conclusion.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

How to Write a Literature Review
Instructor: Ed Jackiewicz

This workshop will introduce various ways of organizing a literature review using real examples. Participants will work to distinguish a literature review from a simple summary of sources and will learn how to use a synthesis matrix to organize their ideas.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Essay Writing
Instructor: Ryan Jones

CSUN almnus and social studies teacher Ryan Jones will introduce strategies that students can use to develop strong thesis statements, an essential component of any analytical essay. Students will discuss examples of strong and weak thesis statements and then practice writing their own.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

 Writing for Publication
Instructor: James Ballard

Participants in this workshop will be exposed to the art of publishing, socialized into the norms of publishing, and encouraged to express their fears and anxieties about publishing.  Discussion will include the various types of articles, use of social networks to get published, research triangles, strategies for peer reviewed articles, book chapters, books and even publishable community service projects.  Additionally, discussions on how to respond to peer reviewer/editor comments, targeting the right journal and the process of getting funding for their work will be incorporated into the workshop.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Writing in the Social Science Workplace
Instructor: Miriam Neirick

Revise, revise, revise
Instructor: Miriam Neirick

In this workshop students will work on revising a sample draft of an analytical essay. We will work toward improving the essay’s thesis, the logic of its argumentation, the evidence it offers, its structure, and the grammar and mechanics of its sentences.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

This workshop will introduce students to examples of writing in the social science workplace, including application cover letters, policy advocacy statements, funding applications, and web content for government agencies and non-profit organizations. We’ll examine examples of these forms of writing, identify the writing skills that they demonstrate, and think about how students can work to develop those skills in their social science courses at CSUN.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.

Writing in the Social Science Workplace
Instructor: Miriam Neirick

This workshop will introduce students to examples of writing in the social science workplace, including application cover letters, policy advocacy statements, funding applications, and web content for government agencies and non-profit organizations. We’ll examine examples of these forms of writing, identify the writing skills that they demonstrate, and think about how students can work to develop those skills in their social science courses at CSUN.

Communication services (sign language interpreters, note takers, real-time captionists, or assistive listening devices) are available for this event. Requests for services must be submitted at least five (5) working days in advance.