Winter 2015 Writing and Research Workshops

The Graduate Writing Center offers a wide variety of writing workshops, ranging from general to more specialized topics, such as academic genres, writing in certain disciplinary areas, or writing English as a Second Language. We also provide information on workshops and services from other campus offices that provide assistance to graduate students. Special thanks to our campus programming partners: the UCLA Library, Writing Programs, the Institute for Digital Research and Education, Counseling and Psychological Services, and the Career Center.

General Writing Workshops

Strategic Reading
Alexandra Verini, English
Feeling overwhelmed by your reading lists? Concerned that you are missing the point of what you have just read? Are you taking pages of notes for every article you read? This workshop will cover effective reading and note-taking strategies so that you read more efficiently, assess your reading with a critical eye, and annotate each work so that important concepts are easily accessible. Nota Bene: This workshop does not teach speed-reading techniques.
Friday, January 9th, 12:00-1:30pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Dissertation Writing Groups, Support Groups, and Resources for Dissertators
Dr. Tanya Brown, Counseling and Psychological Services
Erin Brown, History
Marilyn Gray, Graduate Writing Center Director
The workshop will provide information about resources for dissertators and thesis-writers. It will present information on writing groups and support groups, including how to run your own dissertation writing group or writing partnership. Finally, at the end of the workshop, graduate students who are interested in being placed in a writing group will stay in order to form groups and discuss scheduling. If you are interested in being in a group, fill out the writing group questionnaire and bring it to the workshop.
Tuesday, January 13th, 5:10-6:45pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Academic Writing Skills Workshop for ESL Graduate Students
Alexandra Verini, English
In this interactive workshop, ESL graduate students will learn skills and strategies to build their fluency, accuracy, and comprehensibility in English academic writing. In addition, we will discuss useful on-campus, online, and print resources that will help students to work independently to improve their writing. There will also be time for questions and answers about ESL writing issues and concerns. Friday, January 16th, 12:00-1:50pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

The Art of Writing the Literature Review
Stacey Meeker, Information Studies
This workshop will cover strategies and best practices for writing a literature review, including note-taking strategies, writing process issues, and common organizational patterns. The workshop focus will be on literature reviews for original research projects but will be generally helpful for all literature reviews.
Thursday, January 22nd, 5:10-7:00pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Grammar & Punctuation 101: A Refresher Workshop
Rebecca Hill, English
What is the difference between "who" and "whom"? When should I use active or passive voice? When should/shouldn't I use a comma? Designed for both native and non-native speakers of English, this workshop will review sentence structure, punctuation, restrictive/non-restrictive clauses, dangling and misplaced modifiers, pronoun case, relative pronoun use, noun/verb agreement, and passive/active voice. Participants will practice editing for grammatical accuracy in addition to discussing methods and resources for self-correction.
Friday, February 20th, 12:00-2:00pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Teaching and Writing: What Teachers & TAs Need to Know
Bruce Beiderwell, Director, UCLA Writing Programs
Marilyn Gray, Director, Graduate Writing Center
This workshop, which is designed for TAs in the humanities and social sciences, will cover how to help students improve their writing and review how to teach writing concepts, such as thesis statements, organization, and summary versus analysis. The workshop will also cover appropriate ways to respond to student writing, including etiquette for commenting on student papers and best practices for one-on-one meetings with students. The workshop will also offer a few resources for writing paper prompts and integrating writing assignments into a course's design.
Thursday, February 26th, 5:10-7:00pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

An Introduction to Publishing Journal Articles
Lauren Slone, Psychology
Thinking about preparing an article manuscript for submission? Based on Wendy Belcher's workbook, Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks, this workshop will focus on the aspects of the process of getting an article published that most differ from other graduate writing projects, such as selecting appropriate journals and interacting with editors. We will discuss how to structure an article as well as the writing and revision process.
Thursday March 5th, 5:10-6:50pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Workshops on Writing Grants and Fellowships

Applying for the NIH Training Fellowship
Sarah Al-Hiyari, NIH Fellowship Recipient, Graduate Writing Center Consultant
This workshop will cover the basics of an NIH NRSA application including the application process and components. We will discuss preparation, documents needed, and writing strategies. The workshop will mainly focus on NIH grant F31. The workshop will also focus on how to find appropriate materials/resources for a complete application.
Friday, January 30th, 12:00-1:15pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Dissertation and Proposal/Prospectus Workshops

Strategies for Writing the Humanities Dissertation Prospectus
Erin Brown, History
This workshop is geared towards giving incipient prospectus writers the tools to write their prospectus over the course of two months. We will discuss literature review and argument development as well as how to turn the many different pieces of a prospectus into a coherent document. Nota bene: this is meant to be an addition to--not a substitution for--serious discussions with your advisor about what is expected of you in your home department.
Wednesday, January 28th, 5:00-7:00pm
Location: Bunche Hall, Room 6275

Strategies for Writing the Social Sciences Dissertation Proposal
Stacey Meeker, Information Studies
This workshop will give an overview of the main components of a dissertation proposal in the social sciences and cover strategies for writing the introduction, literature review, methods, and significance sections. These strategies should be adapted to your department's and advisor's expectations about the structure and content of your proposal. If you have preliminary drafts of an abstract or research questions, please bring them.
Thursday, February 5th, 5:00-7:00pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Sciences Dissertation Proposal Workshop
Lauren Slone, Psychology
This intensive workshop will cover dissertation proposal structure, writing process strategies, and time management. In addition, we will address issues related to the oral portion of the proposal. Please bring an outline of your proposal and an abstract if you have them.
Tuesday, February 10th, 5:00-7:00pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Humanities Writing Workshops

Social Sciences Writing Workshops

Science and Engineering Writing Workshops

ESL Workshops

Email Etiquette at the University
Alexandra Verini, English
A graduate student will write hundreds of emails while getting his or her degree—emails that invite professors to serve on thesis/dissertation committees, emails that ask for extensions on papers, emails in which graduate students introduce themselves to potential mentors or advisors. Designed for graduate students who speak English as a second or foreign language, this workshop breaks down the language necessary to make polite requests over email. It also covers basic email etiquette and includes opportunities to edit real example emails written by graduate students.
Friday, January 23rd, 12:00-1:50pm
Location: Conference Room 4, Student Activities Center (basement level)

Statistical Software Workshops and Consultation

Current and former workshops : http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/seminars/default.htm

For walk-in consulting information, Stat books for loan, and the most up-to-date listing of seminars, please see the Statistical Consulting Services web page of the Institute for Digital Research and Education. The Statistical Consulting Services also keep an extensive archive of past workshops.

Research Workshops

Click the link below for more information about the research and teaching support offered by the UCLA Library: http://www.library.ucla.edu/support

DISSERTATION WRITE NIGHT
Do you ever wish writing a dissertation weren’t quite so solitary a process? Do you sometimes think you could get more accomplished if you could just get out of your apartment? If so, then Dissertation Write Night might be just what you’re looking for!

During the winter quarter of 2015 the UCLA Library will hold a weekly writing night for graduate students. This is a place to bring whatever you’re working on (dissertation, master’s thesis, article, class paper, etc.) and write in a quiet, relaxed setting in the company of others who are engaged in similar projects.

You don't have to come to every session; there are no expectations for what you’ll produce. Just bring yourself and your laptop. You'll be surprised to discover how invigorating writing in a communal setting can be. And you'll be amazed at how much you get done.

When: Thursday nights, 7-9:30 PM / January 8 through March 12, 2015
Where: Presentation Room, room 11348, Young Research Library
(down the hall to the left of the circulation desk)

Refreshments will be provided.

Research Guides
Online research guides link to key resources and reference books for certain courses and disciplines. Subject guides, course guides, and general research guides are available.

Research Appointments
Graduate students are encouraged to contact the Library's subject specialists for more specialized and personalized assistance with research, library resources, and subject databases; find a complete list of all subject specialists here.

Copyright Questions
Contact the Library's copyright experts for assistance with copyright, publishing, intellectual property, and other related issues at copyright@library.ucla.edu.