GradWRITE: Seminars

Meet the demands of Grads & Postdoc academic writing

GradWRITE Seminars are designed to help graduate students and postdoctoral scholars meet the specific demands of academic and professional writing. Our seminars cover a variety of topics to help you learn about and successfully address the expectations involved in writing theses, dissertations, manuscripts, proposals, applications, literature reviews, abstracts, and more. Our goal is to help you become an effective writer and communicator in your academic discipline and professional field. You may register for all seminars or select just the seminar that interests you. All GradWRITE seminars are free.

GradWRITE seminars will return Fall 2026. Please check back for the schedule and registration links. Contact us at wsc@uwo.ca if you have questions.

Thriving In Graduate School

Learn strategies for a fruitful graduate school experience. We will address topics such as motivation, time management, reducing anxiety, well-being, writing strategies, and available resources.

The Writing Process: Organizing & Structuring Your Work

Explore strategies such as modelling, diagramming, and storyboarding to better structure and organize your written work. We'll address some common obstacles and how to integrate writing as a practice that accompanies the ongoing development of your intellectual identity.

Writing Clearly & Concisely

We'll address common misconceptions about the language and style of 'graduate-level writing' by arguing that clarity of ideas should always be every academic's top priority.  

Writing Your Literature Review

Examine the purpose of a literature review in proposals, manuscripts, and your thesis or dissertation. We'll look at how literature reviews justify your work, legitimate your approach, and define your scholarly identity. 

Writing Effective Research Proposals

A research proposal can determine your path through graduate studies, your potential funding, and your academic and professional future. In this seminar we’ll look at the components that make up successful research proposals. 

Refining Your Grammar Skills

This seminar addresses the more prominent differences between the casual tone and syntax of spoken English and the conventions of formal academic writing.

Summarizing Your Research Into An Abstract

They’re short. We all have to write them. In this seminar we’ll examine what it takes to represent your research, manuscript, thesis, dissertation, or conference paper, and your academic identity, in just a few hundred words.

Punctuation

Understand the functions of different punctuation marks in academic writing, including the colon and semicolon, the apostrophe, and a special emphasis on the varied uses of commas. This seminar also provides guidelines on how to incorporate references to numbers in written form.

Writing Your Thesis Or Dissertation

Set writing goals, find out where to find resources to demystify the process, and gain insights into the expectations of supervisors and committees. This seminar also addresses how to be active (instead of reactive) and take ownership of your work. 

Editing & Proofreading

Examine the different stages of the writing process with a specific focus on the revision stage. Strategies for identifying structural or mechanical problems in the writing are presented along with advice on such concerns as enhancing the flow of ideas in a document and avoiding the use of stilted or imprecise language.

Getting Published

Unpack the peer review process in this seminar. We’ll address how to write to your target publication, how to incorporate citations in a manuscript, the “so what?” question, and the merits of writing for audiences beyond your discipline.

Suggest a GradWRITE Seminar

If you don't see a seminar that addresses your writing needs or questions, let us know. Suggest a GradWRITE Seminar by emailing us at wsc@uwo.ca