Communication Skills for

University Success
SSL101 – MOOC 4
 Communication Skills for
University Success

• Participating in University Discussion Contexts

• Interpreting, Researching & Planning Written

Assignments

• Writing Effective & Concise Written Assignments

• Giving Persuasive & Engaging Presentations
 1.1. Participating in Lectures &
Tutorials
• Lectures:
– Preparation: Review readings before and after the lecture
– Participation: Take nots and ask questions, if appropriate
• Seminars:
– Preparation: Read in detail; prepare questions and
observations (Brick, Herke & Wrong, 2016)
– Participation: Actively participate in discussions; set small,
achievable personal goals to build your confidence.
• Tutorials:
– Preparation: Keep up with course content; be aware of
your areas of difficultty
– Participation: Complete activitives and problem sets; ask
questions.
1.2. Participating in group work

• Purpose: To pratice working effciently and

cohesively in teams
• Group work is a joint activity; mutual goals
are carried out through communication to
establish joint commitment, done in
projective pairs (Clack, 2005, 2006, 2012)
• Two types of first actions: proposals and
announcements
Group Work

• Think back to high school, or work, and identify an

occasion where you had to work in a group.

• Was it successful or unsuccessful?

• What kinds of issues did you have, and how did you try
to resolve them? If you didn't resolve them, what would
you have done differently now you have the benefit of
hindsight?

• What made the experience positive?

2.1. Interpreting Essay Questions

• Analyse the question!

– Key concepts
– Other terms, parameters, contexts, processes
• Explore the question: what are you meant
to do?
2.2. Understanding and Interpreting
Report Assignments
• Professional reports
– Designed to acquaint you with writing in your field
– Imagined audience may have different expections
• Research reports
– Designed to help you learn research methods in your
field
• Researching your report's rhetorical situation
– Number of authors, structure, audience
– Ask your lecturer, or check quetion or outline
Understanding the question
Consider the following assignment question from an introductory course on
ecology.

Analyse the ecological threat of the common European rabbit on Australia’s

diverse ecosystems. What are the benefits of using conventional methods of
control, such as baiting and trapping, over biological controls? Consider both
environmental and economic issues in your response. Outline a plan to deal
with the issue of European rabbits in one of Australia’s national parks.

1. What kind of text is this question asking you to write? Can you tell? Explain
your choice. If you aren’t sure what kind of text it is asking for, explain what
your next step would be if you were given this assignment question.

2. Write a list of “spoken language” questions (who, what, where, why, how)
that you could ask when analysing this question.

3. Look at one other person’s post and comment on their response.

2.3. Conducting Research for Essays
• Organise yourself & make a plan
• Always comes AFTER you have understood,
analysed & generated OWN ideas
• We research in order to:
– Support, explain or clarify certain points
– Add detail to or more accurately define specific ideas
– Research concepts, aspects, expert opinions or
issues that we don't know
– Build and focus arguments
(Cottrell,2013; Greeham,2013; Sowton, 2008; Van Geyte, 2013)
2.4. Conducting research for reports &
proposals
• Research report
– Use original data along with primary and secondary
sources
– Original data presented in middle, and other sources
presented at beginning and end of report
• Professional reports
– Amount of research often lower than essays and
research reports
– Research justifies or supports activities or solutions
– Research usually presented in the beggining
(Nesi and Gardner, 2012; Swales and Feak, 2012; Yeung, 2007)
 How do you use research in essays,
according to lesson 3.3a?
Check two options.
a. To add authority to our arguments.

b. In order to copy the other sources’ text and use it in our own.

c. To clarify our main ideas

d. To make it look like we have read a lot.

Researching
Consider the following assignment question from an introductory
course on ecology.

Analyse the ecological threat of the common European rabbit on

Australia’s diverse ecosystems. What are the benefits of using
conventional methods of control, such as baiting and trapping, over
biological controls? Consider both environmental and economic issues
in your response. Outline a plan to deal with the issue of European
rabbits in one of Australia’s national parks.

1. If you received this question in a course, what would you do first?

2. What kind of research would you need to do in order to answer this

question?
Essays - Deductive arguments
• Title
• Intro
– Explain your position
• Body
– Least persuasive argument supporting position
– Persuasive argument supporting position
– Most persuasive argument supporting position
• Conclusion
– Reestates your position (somtimes with adaptations)
• References
(Brick et al., 2016; Cottrell, 2013; Greetham, 2012; Reinders et al.,
2012; Thomson & Droga, 2012)
Planning Reports and Proposals

• Research reports
– General - Specific - General
– Introductions - Methodology - Results -
Discussion/Conclusion
• Professional reports
– General - Specific
– Opening - Identification of problem -
Presentation of data - Processing of data -
Closing
(Brick, Herke & Wrong, 2016; Nesi & Gardner, 2012)
Drafring Essays
• Start where you feel the most comfortable
• Edit for language, style & length
– Introduction
• No more than 10%
• A map, a microcosm & a marketing tool (Sowton, 2012)
• Body
– A series of linked paragraphs that convey main arguments
– Integrated references
• Conclusion
– Last thing your audience reads
– State how your arguments lead to your conclusion: answer
(Alexander et al., 2008; Brick et al.,2016; Cottrell,2013; Greetham, 2013;
Reinders et al., 2002)
“‘For all its revolutionary gestures, Fight Club ultimately reinforces a
conservative, hegemonic model of masculinity.’ Do you agree or
disagree?

Which of the following is the best example of a thesis statement

for this essay question?

a. Subject positions allocated to male characters range from the patriarchal and hegemonic
through to the highly feminised.

b. Despite the masculine themes of Fight Club, the movie contains a significant feminist
subtext which questions rather than reinforces a hegemonic model of masculinity.

c. Possibly Fight Club’s most striking scenes are the fight scenes in the ‘fight club’ itself.

d. A conservative, hegemonic model of masculinity can be seen in both the narrator’s

relationship with Tyler Durden and in the activities of the fight club itself.
Formatting & Proofreading Written
Assignments for Submission
• Paragraph
• Font & line spacing
• Images
• Quotations
• References
• Grammar, spelling & punctuation
• Your detail
(Behrens & Rosen, 2010; Burke, 2013; Sowton, 2012)
Formatting?
Consider the following example assignment. (Note: it is
written in Lorem Ipsum, a nonsensical, improper version of
Latin, so don’t try and understand it!)

Identify three (3) issues with the formatting.

You will find the word document attached. See if you can fix
the formatting and then post it as an image with your
comments below. Have a look at how other people have
changed it!
Understanding and Researching
Presentations

• The rhetorical situation

– Media: Face to face, one way interaction;
presentation slides; handouts; whiteboard
– Place: Classrooms
• Research varies with purpose and
structure; generally based on course
materials
(Cottrell, 2013; Dannels, 2000; Edwards, 2004 cited in
Alexander et al., 2008)
You are studying a unit titled ‘Pedagogy and Professional Practice’ as
part of your education degree. 10% of your final mark is a reflective
blog, where students must reflect on course content and relate it to
their experiences in the classroom. Students are also expected to
respond to others blog posts.

What is the purpose in this rhetorical situation?

a. To write a blog

b. To reflect on your own and other students’ ideas and experiences

c. To assess students

d. To gain marks
Planning presentations
• Plan before software!
• Basic structure: introduction, body, conclusion
• Specific structure options:
– Chronological order
– Narrative structure
– Comparing points of view, or Residues approach
– General to specific
• Storyboard: don't use software!
• Then create slides & notes with presentation
software & review
(Andreson et al., 2004; Duarte, 2010; Morgan, 2011; Reynolds, 2012)
Preparing Visual Aids for Presentations
• Purposes of visual aids: to make complex ideas
clearer, to provide evidence, to entertain
• Greater ranger of visual aids in presentations
• Think carefully about the readability of text and
images
• Organise information within and across slides
• Consider the purpose of information graphics
(Anderson et al., 2004; Duarte, 2008; Tufte, 2006)
Academic spoken language?
Look at the following paragraph taken from the same essay we looked at in Module 4:

ANHS1600 Foundations of Ancient Greece

“What are the different contexts in which poems given in the course reader were performed? What is
the relationship between content and occasion? Should we interpret these pieces in this light?”

Word limit: 1,500

Pindar diverges from typical Anacreon poetry as there is a much greater emphasis on choral poetry in
his extant oeuvre, which, while broadly classified as similar to monody by many scholars, can differ
quite greatly; Kurke, for example, suggests that there is an “immediately perceived shift in formal
features and level of style, as well as in occasion and social function” (2000, p.79) between monody
and choral poetry. The most obvious difference between the two forms of poetry is that choral poetry
was performed by a chorus, rarely a single person, and usually on stage to a large audience rather
than the small, intimate gatherings of the monody. Due to this plurivocal nature choral poetry is often
more intricate and complicated in its structure and style than monody, and it is these characteristics
that are abundantly clear in Pindar’s Pythian VII.

Have a go at re-writing this paragraph to sound more like the kind of spoken language appropriate for
an academic presentation?

Comment on at least one other person’s post!

Writing your script

• Language
– Balanced between academic & informal
– Not complicated
• Structure
– Explicit & clear
– Use signposting throughout
• References
– Necessary!
• Script -> Notes!
(Reinders et al., 2008; Cottrell, 2013; Reynolds, 2012)
Practising your Script
• Using information
– Emphasise important words
– Use step ups and step downs
• Practice
– Manage time
– In front of friends and family
– Record yourself
– Put points and take aways on small piece of
paper
(Anderson et al., 2004; Burke, 2013; Cottrell, 2013;
Hewings, 2007; reinders, et al., 2008)
Delivering engaging presentations

• Make sure your technology works

• Check pronunciation
• Specify question time
• Breathe
• Engage your audience
• Use the space
• Act confident
(Burke, 2013; Cottrell, 2013; reinders et al., 2008; Renolds,
2012)
Presentation styles
• 1. Have a look at some of the presenters mentioned in the lecture
for 5.4b, check out some of the popular Ted Talks or watch a
recording of your favourite public speaker.

• What aspects of their presentation styles do you like the most?

• Check out what some of the other people in the course have said!

• 2. Describe your presentation style. If you haven’t done many

presentations, that is OK – just describe it theoretically!
Audience Engagement & Finding your
Own Style

• Use quizzes or discussion questions to engage

your audience
• Plan responses to possible questions
• Try not to be defensive
• Ask for repetition or pause before answering
• Throw a question back to the audience
• Prepare controversial questions for dicussion
(Burke, 2012; Cottrell, 2013; reinders, Moore & Lewis, 2008; Reynilds,
2012)