This workshop offers graduate students in STEM a practical foundation in two key functions of language in research-based writing as these play out across STEM disciplines and high-stakes written genres: (1) our choices for representing things and human experiences (such as the spectrum between concrete, abstract and technical representations of reality) and (2) macro and micro patterns of information ordering in writing. Participants are introduced to these two functions of representation and organization as complementary systems in achieving context-appropriate writing; they are asked to analyze and reflect on how these functions are achieved in workshop samples of writing, samples of their own writing, and samples of STEM writing they admire.

The workshop is to be delivered via Zoom with the support of a Canvas site. The Canvas site URL and the URL to enroll are available below. The Zoom link will be sent out 1 day before the workshop.

To prepare for the workshop, participants are asked to complete approximately 1-hour of pre-workshop tasks on Canvas. These tasks will help prepare participants for focusing on their own writing and more discipline-specific writing during the workshop.

This is the first, foundational workshop in an integrated series of workshops including a second foundational workshop on the interpersonal functions of writing in STEM, as well as workshops on extending key writing skills and those focusing on high-stakes written genres in STEM.

Workshop CANVAS SITE: https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/89888. To enroll, visit: https://canvas.ubc.ca/enroll/Y7YC9M

Facilitator: Dr. Alfredo Ferreira is a Lecturer in Science stream of the Academic English Program at UBC Vantage College, where he is also the Chair of the Awards and Professional Development Committee. He has taught research-based academic writing internationally, including a number of workshops for the Faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC. His teaching and curriculum development are based on the concept of language as a dynamic system of meaning potentials and focus primarily on university writing and content-based language programming. In his research, Alfredo investigates apprentice academic writers’ development of capacities to regulate technicality and abstraction across writing contexts.

Date & Time: Thursday, July 22, 2021 10am – 12pm PT

Registrants receive the Zoom link 1 day before the workshop.