Effective Academic Communication

How to write and speak clearly and coherently in an academic context

This course will systematically develop your writing and speaking skills so that you will be able to communicate much more effectively in an academic context.  Essential not only for international students but for native speakers, this course will transform your ability to communicate.  Learn to speak with new confidence and fluency, expressing your ideas with impressive clarity and eloquence; learn how to write coherent, concise and convincing assignments, dissertations, theses and articles.   Academics, too, can discover how to deliver lecturers that will better engage, inspire and inform.   

Learning to communicate well is a long process. There are no quick fixes. Prolonged practice is the only method. However, practice is only effective when it is based on a thorough knowledge of the principles and techniques of effective speaking and writing. This course provides such a basis.  Unit 1 examines the huge differences between written and spoken discourse, demonstrating that, to be understood, ideas must be structured completely differently in a talk than in an essay.   Unit 2 develops your writing skills: planning, drafting and redrafting; constructing sentences, paragraphs and larger structures of coherence; semantic marking, citing the works of others and creating emphasis and momentum.  As you work through the course, you will begin speaking and writing more clearly and confidently, but, more importantly, you will understand the fundamentals of good communication and will have learned techniques that will enable you to continue improving for the rest of your life.