I know it can be scary to begin university, and in my case, being an international student meant that I was going to be away from family and friends, or in other words, home…
Going digital is the new normal. This could be about moving in-person services to the virtual space or adjusting from on-location work to remote work. As the world is adapting to the pandemic by transitioning online, we must also adapt our skills and job search to this change as well. This includes having to do co-op placements or jobs at home on your computers and having to be interviewed for those positions virtually with answers that highlight your digital skills.
Below we have compiled some key interview questions with helpful answers to get you through the interview successfully.
Last semester, Nikolay Videnov won the Best Presenter award at the University of Waterloo and the University of Strathclyde’s Virtual Research Colloquium. We love to see UW students succeed at presentations, so we thought we’d reach out and have a short conversation about how that presentation came together, and to pick Nikolay’s brain about the process.
A few weeks ago Elise Vist wrote about how tough writing is right now as part of her blog post about how to get the most out of the WCC’s Virtual Writing Cafés. Like many of you, I’m finding certain aspects of working from home challenging; it’s tougher than ever to research and write. But there is still writing to do: I have blog posts, grant proposals, and online workshops to finish and you might have course assignments, journal articles , or a dissertation to work on.
Alongside the rest of UWaterloo, the Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) has been working hard to transition our services into an online format for the Spring 2020 term. Our team is tirelessly striving to ensure that we can continue to support you as much as possible throughout the changes brought by the ongoing pandemic. As a result of these efforts, we are excited to announce that on June 1st, we will be launching the Spring 2020 WCC workshops on a new LEARN website!
It’s always hard to write. Even as someone who loves writing, I hate sitting down to actually do it. Especially now, with the paradoxical pandemic life of being exhausted, wired, busy, bored, lonely, and completely overwhelmed with Zoom-based social activities, it’s really, really hard to write my seemingly endless dissertation.
With campus closures and classes staying online, it can be hard to transition from the structured schedule of classes and other activities to large blocks of free time. Here are some of our tips for managing writing assignments while you’re home all day. We encourage you to mix and match techniques to suit your needs!
Have you ever tried getting Google Translate to rap before? It’s probably one of the funniest things you can do with translate, outside of totally messing with Disney songs. When I’m not using translate as a means to laugh though, I’m using it to revise my essay by having Google read it out loud to me. Granted, that usually is also very funny, as the automated voice has a habit for tripping over lengthy sentences as well as butchering incorrect spelling of words. Use that last bit with caution though, Google Translate does have a habit for pronouncing everyday words like “get” very wrong.
When I was younger, the more pieces of punctuation I could add to a written work, the more I felt like some sort of literary genius. “Yeah, I’m ten and can use a comma, period, exclamation mark, and question mark within two sentences. I’m just that cool.”
The Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café is a social writing group. Unlike traditional peer feedback-based writing groups, we don’t read each other’s finished writing: instead, we write together to create a community of writers who can cheer each other on during what is often an isolating, difficult journey!
Just like our Wednesday in-person grad writing cafés, the Black, Indigenous and Racialized Students' Writing Café uses the Pomodoro Method to organize writing sessions into smaller, more manageable chunks of focused writing with frequent breaks. As a participant, then, you’ll still get several 30-minute blocks of writing with short breaks to help you re-focus, stretch, get coffee/ tea/water, and chat with the other participants, but this group is designed specifically for Black, Indigenous and racialized students (at any level, grad or undergrad) and postdoctoral scholars.
This group is informed by anti-racist pedagogies and hosted by WCC staff who understand the intimate relationship between writing and identity first-hand. Join to connect to a supportive community of peers, share your challenges and successes, or just to get some focused writing done!
When: Tuesdays from 3:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. from May 12 to August 25 (no session May 26 and June 16)
Where: South Campus Hall (SCH) 228F