Eurocompetence I: Academic Skills Workshop

Mastery of an academic subject includes not only the ability to gather knowledge but also the ability to express it. This workshop is designed to improve the participants’ communication skills, especially those skills most directly relevant to their current academic programme (classroom presentations and the IP presentation, term papers, IP paper, Thesis) and their future career paths (European Union, academic conferences).

Contents of the workshop:

1. The means of persuasion – 5 October 2023

Purpose & overview of workshop.

Exercise: Introduce yourself

Theory: Aristotle’s ‘three means of persuasion’

Speech: John F. Kennedy at Berlin

Suggested Further Reading: Aristotle: Rhetoric, Book 1

2. Visual Aids – 12 October 2023

Theory: PowerPoint presentation about PowerPoint presentation

Suggested Further Reading: Chapter 11: “Using Visual Media” in German, K (2017). Principles of Public Speaking, pp.175-190

3. Student Power Point presentations (group projects) – 19 October 2023

Suggested Further Reading: Burke, K. (1969). “The Range of Rhetoric” especially pp.19-29 & 35-46

4. Ethos – 26 October 2023

Theory: Ethos & Cialdini’s ‘six weapons of influence’ (heuristics)

Speech: Bhutto at Beijing

Speech: General Marius at Rome

Suggested Further Reading: Gibson, S. (2011). “Milgram’s obedience experiments: A rhetorical analysis”

5. Logos – 16 November 2023

Theory: Logos, logic, induction, syllogism, enthymeme, sorites

Speech: The Schuman Declaration

Speech: Thatcher’s “Bruges Speech”

Suggested Further Reading: Goldman, A. (1994). “Argumentation and Social Epistemology”

6. Pathos - 23 November 2023

Theory: Pathos, apologies, hate speech

Exercise: emotional broadcast

Speech: Juan Carlos in Madrid

Speech: Wiesel at the White House

Suggested Further Reading: Bickford, S. (2011). “Emotion Talk and Political Judgment”

7. Structure in speaking - 30 November 2023

Theory: Finding structure and building structure

Exercise: Scrambled speeches

Debate

Suggested Further Reading: Chapter7: “Organizing and Outlining Your Speech” in German, K (2017). Principles of Public Speaking, pp.105-123

8. Impact in academic writing: Something interesting and important to say

Discovering a topic, research question, and hypothesis. Overview of academic writing. Overview of the thesis process. Research questions and hypotheses.

Suggested Further Reading: Seashore, C. (1932). “Printer’s Copy for Master’s Thesis” pp.146-147

Lei, S. (2009). “Strategies For Finding and Selecting an Ideal Thesis or Dissertation Topic: A Review of Literature”

9. Why, Why, Why? Why theory? Why the literature review?

The source: where to find what in Krakow. Critical reading as a writing skill. Writing critical response/critique/evaluation ("How does who do what and why?").

Suggested Further Reading: Caulley, D. (n.d.) “The Critical Review of the Literature”

10. Moving from hypothesis to analysis

Evidence: anecdote, illustration, statistics, analogy, signs, and images. Logic and fallacies (analysis vs. argument). What evidence (questionnaires, tables, etc.) do I include? How? Types of analysis.

Suggested Further Reading: Miller, J. (2007). “Organizing Data in Tables and Charts: Different Criteria for Different Tasks” pp.98-101

11. Research ethics

GDPR, Open Source, Falsification, Plagiarism

12. Structure and formatting of your thesis

The stereotype Thesis structure. The reality of Thesis structure. How to write a title and an abstract. Introductions and conclusions. Basic formatting/printing issues.

Suggested Further Reading: Lester, J. (1999). Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide. New York: Longman. pp. 133-137, 142-145

13. Citation, sources and style

Paraphrasing, summarising & direct quotation. Styleguides: APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago. Verbs, mood and style. Jargon, wordiness, biased language. Plagiarism, fabrication, self-copying. Reference management software: Endnote, Zotero, etc.

Suggested Further Reading: Purdue “OWL” website (Chicago, MLA, APA)

14. Thesis & IP

Writing proposals. Submitting the Thesis. The roles your adviser plays. Student strategies for dealing with advisers. The defence.

Suggested Further Reading: CES Student Handbook, Jagiellonian University AP instructions

15. Letters and CVs - 9 November 2023

Basic business letter. Application letters. UK CV, US résumé, Europass. Interviews. LinkedIn, Academia.edu.

Suggested Further Reading: Handout materials, Utz, S. (2015). “Is LinkedIn making you more successful? The informational benefits derived from public social media”

1. The means of persuasion - 5 October 2023 - in-class

2. Visual Aids - 12 October 2023 - in-class

3. Student Power Point presentations - 19 October 2023 - in-class

4. Ethos - 26 October 2023 - in-class

5. Logos - 9 November 2023 - in-class

6. Pathos - 16 November 2023 - in-class

7. Structure in speaking - 23 November 2023 - in-c;lass

8. Impact in academic writing - 30 November 2023 - in-class

9. The “so what?” of your work: Why theory? Why the literature review? - 7 December 2023 - in-class

10. Moving from hypothesis to analysis - 14 December 2023 - in-class

11. Research Ethics - 21 December 2023 - in-class

12. Structure and formatting of your thesis - 11 January 2024 - in-class

13. Citation, sources and style - 18 January 2024 - in-class

14. IP & Thesis - 25 January 2024 - in-class

15. Letters and CVs - TBA