Support for Classes

White text on a multicoloured background says Looking for custom workshops for your courses?

The WCC has researched and developed many interactive workshops on topics related to writing and communication. We can support your classroom, lab, research group, or student association live and/or asynchronously. We offer:

  • Live in-class workshops
  • Live virtual workshops
  • Online modules for your LEARN course
  • Q&As and Interactive sessions for our online modules
  • ...and more!

You can also direct your students to our current online workshops available through LEARN, or even add a specific workshop to your syllabus!

If you’re interested in having us join you this semester, fill out this form to get the conversation started:

Once we receive your request, we’ll get in touch to set up a quick meeting, where we’ll discuss your needs and identify how we can best support you.

What workshops can we offer?

We’ve researched and developed material across the writing and communication process that we can adapt to support your specific needs.

Depending on your learning goals, choose an overall topic (such as “Drafting and Revising”) and identify 1-3 sub-topics you’re interested in (such as “Building Body Paragraphs” and “Integrating Evidence Effectively”).

If there’s something you want that isn’t on this list, we’re happy to work with you to develop something new.

  1. Ideation and Planning

    • Productive writing strategies
    • Goal-setting and backwards planning
    • Developing a topic
    • Moving from topic to research question
    • Thesis statements
    • Outlining and mapping
    • Identifying your audience, purpose, and context
  2. Drafting and Revising

    • Understanding the writing & revision process
    • Building body paragraphs
    • Academic writing style (flow, clarity and conciseness)
    • Integrating evidence effectively (paraphrase and summary)
    • Creating context using the CaRS Model
    • Revising with Generative AI
    • Giving and getting peer feedback (includes a guided peer review session)
  3. Presenting and Publishing

    • Designing assertion-evidence slides
    • Confident delivery
    • Poster presentations
    • Communicating to listeners
    • Basic visual design
    • Answering questions
    • Publishing in academic journals
    • Responding to reviewer comments
    • Communicating with public audiences
  4. Common Genres

    • Literature Reviews
    • Proposals
    • Abstracts
    • Critical Analysis
    • Blog posts
    • Podcasting
    • 3MT presentations
    • ...and more!

If you’re not sure what best supports your group’s learning goals, fill out the request form to get the conversation started! We’ll book a meeting with you to make a plan that meets your needs.

Check out the online workshops we already have available on our WCC Workshops LEARN site.

When should you make your request?

We need 4 weeks’ notice to present one of our workshops to your group (synchronous or asynchronous). If you'd like something new or custom developed for your group, we'll need more notice -- approximately 4-6 weeks.

Make your request as soon as possible – we're a small team and our schedules can book up surprisingly quickly. Requests that come at the end of a semester are harder for us to support, though we’ll do our best. Fill out the request form so we can get started on the process.

Meet the CIS Team

Image of Elise Vist. They have short purple hair and wear glasses. They are smiling at the camera.

Elise Vist, PhD (they/them) | Workshops and Integrated Programs Coordinator

As the Workshops and Integrated Programs Coordinator, Elise is responsible for the development, implementation, and facilitation of virtual and in-person workshops and seminars to support the writing and communication activities of undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.  Elise maintains a highly collaborative process and coordinates with campus partners and faculty to design and deliver customized workshops and seminars for departments, research institutes, and other campus groups. Additionally, they ensure that the values of equity and inclusivity are embedded in the practices and programs that the Writing and Communication Centre supports. 

Headshot photo of Emma Dunn. She has shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes. She is sitting in front of books on a bookshelf, is looking into the camera, and smiling.

Emma Dunn, PhD (she/her) - Writing and Communication Advisor, Workshops and Integrated Programs

Emma is an experienced instructor and developer of writing and communications programming. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication & Culture from Ryerson and York universities (joint program), M.A. in English (Brock University), and B.Ed. in Intermediate/Senior education (Brock University). Her doctoral work spans the fields of feminist media studies, health humanities, and youth literatures and cultures. 

Emma has experience working with a wide range of writers in her previous capacities as university writing centre consultant, part-time college Professor, undergraduate lecturer, and OCT-certified secondary school teacher. In addition to her teaching background, Emma has professional experience as a communications specialist for several organizations in the public sector and has published her work in both industry and peer-reviewed academic contexts. Emma is committed to supporting new and seasoned writers at any stage of their writing process, helping them develop their confidence, technical skills, and unique authorial voice.