Good communication skills are essential in today’s engineering world. Effective writing and the ability to get your point across orally can mean the difference between an average and an excellent thesis and often tip the balance in hiring choices.
Here are some options if you are interested in improving your communication skills.
Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC)
GCAC provides graduate students with advanced training in academic writing and speaking, offering five types of support designed to target the needs of both native and non-native speakers of English: non-credit courses, single-session workshops, individual writing consultations, writing intensives, and a list of additional resources for academic writing and speaking.
FASE Graduate Communication Initiative
FASE’s Graduate Communication Initiative offers workshops, short courses, guided writing groups, and writing-intensive programs that guide students through the development of engineering-specific communication skills. This initiative supplements the training available to all graduate students at the GCAC.
APS5500: Research Methods and Project Execution
Note: This course may not count towards your coursework in all departments, please check your degree requirements or consult with your grad administrator.
Course Exclusions: CHE1102, BME1450, BME1477 | Course for Research Students
Successful completion of your graduate program relies on strong research, critical thinking and communication skills. These qualities will continue to help you achieve success as you transition into the workforce, whether you enter industry or pursue a career in academia. This course provides training in these areas while focusing on your current research project, simultaneously providing you with future training and immediately applicable strategies to help you complete your thesis research project. Through facilitated activity-based workshops you will develop your research and project management skills, acquire strategies to identify and articulate a research hypothesis, set research goals and plan your research approach (including quantification of results and validation of quantitative metrics), and share research findings via oral, written and graphical communication.