The Graduate Writing Facilitators of the GRIC are graduate students of the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez that come from various concentrations and disciplines of study. They have been trained to offer academic services of oral and written communication in English. The multidisciplinary diversity of our Facilitators is meant to attend to the needs of every graduate program of UPRM and its students.
Services:
Support in the development of ideas and outlines for writing drafts (pre-writing).
Assistance in the revision and editing of academic work in English, such as: articles, proposals, abstracts, posters, personal essays, cover letters, theses, dissertations, resumes and curriculum vitae, etc.
Mentoring and support in oral communication in English through practice sessions, in preparation for professional interviews, academic presentations, talks, workshops, seminars, speeches, thesis and dissertations oral exams, etc.
Individual sessions in regards to aspects of oral or written communication in English, such as: grammar, style, tone, audience, various styles, organization, structure, etc.
Writing clinics in English scheduled during the academic year over different topics, such as: the academic writing process, preparing academic abstracts, the inclusion of evidence, references and citations in academic writing, preparation of posters, tone and audience in scientific writing, revision of literature, etc.
Context: The University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus
Graduate students at UPRM are by and large Spanish-dominant students with varying degrees of competence in English. Graduate programs that expect their students to write, present and publish their research in English should consider the following:
There is no standard requirement of evidence of English proficiency for admission into graduate studies at UPRM. Some programs require that international students provide scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in their application package but do not establish a minimum score for admission. Most programs do not require the TOEFL, and, at present, no graduate program requires that students submit their Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. As a result, the only measure of a student’s English proficiency considered in the applicant evaluation process is the writing sample, which is not required by all programs.
Graduate curricula at UPRM do not include required courses in scholarly communication in English. Students are generally expected to learn these conventions as they are learning course-specific content with minimal guidance on how to effectively communicate that content to an academic audience in their own writing and presentations.
The English Department at UPRM offers an English course for international graduate students. It is highly popular and well regarded but basic in scope and unable to provide the support that many international students, and many students who are from Puerto Rico, need in order to overcome the challenges they face when expected to produce academic work in English.
As a result, students who are required to demonstrate their mastery of their respective fields of study in a language (English) and a style (academic, scientific, scholarly) that they do not fully command seek sources of support outside of their programs of study.
Likewise, faculty and advisors who expect their students to produce scholarly work in English, urge graduate students to pursue additional training and assistance in order to develop the communicative skills needed for scholarly at success.
The Graduate Writing Facilitators (GWFs) at the Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC) have been chosen and trained to provide individualized, peer-consultations, in a collaborative learning environment, to UPRM graduate students who are working to improve their scholarly communication abilities in English.
About the Sessions
The sessions should be scheduled by appointment.
Each session with a Facilitator has a maximum duration of 50 minutes and it must be held in the GRIC.
Each student can reserve a maximum of two (2) sessions per day and four (4) session per week.
The sessions should be reserved forty-eight (48) hours in advance.
If a user wishes to cancel a session for whatever reason, this should be done no less than twelve (12) hours before the actual session.
Coordinating Sessions
The user should choose the Facilitator that they wish to coordinate their visit.
To coordinate an appointment based on a certain hour and without any preference to the Facilitator, press the button at the end of this section.
To coordinate an appointment with a Facilitator, press the button “Schedule Appointment” which appears in the box of the selected Facilitator.
Choose the day you are interested in having a session and then verify the availability of the chosen Facilitator.
Select the hour that better suits you.
Fill out the rest of the application.
Press “Confirm Appointment.”
You will receive an email confirming the appointment with the Facilitator.
First Session:
To ensure that the we are ready to welcome users for their first session, we request that users complete the following form prior to meeting with a Graduate Writing Facilitator of the GRIC: https://uprm.libwizard.com/f/registrogwf
Remember that users must have access to the GRIC to use its services. For more information, please revise the section Access to GRIC in the Instructions tab.
Second and Following Sessions:
In the template used to request a session, users should indicate the purpose of their visit. This will help the Facilitator to better serve them.
Users must remember that if it is their first time having a session in the GRIC, they must complete this form; otherwise, the appointment will be canceled.
AbstractAdvisorGPT
Dr. Luisa Feliciano Cruz, an original member of the GWF team, created a custom GPT model called AbstractAdvisorGPT that analyzes your abstract and provides suggestions on how to improve it. The suggestions are based on recommendations offered in the GWF clinic “Mastering the Art of Abstract Writing: A Workshop on Crafting Effective and Compelling Abstracts”.
You must have a ChatGPT account to use AbstractAdvisorGPT. The free account will do. If you do not have an account, you can follow the link provided above and click the "Sign up" button.
These are resources recommended by the GWF that address 10 aspects of the academic research and writing process. At the bottom of the list you will find a video that explains the usefulness of each of these resources.
Preparando tu defensa: Ideas, estrategias y herramientas (16 de abril de 2024)
La meta de tu carrera académica es presentar y defender la tesis, propuesta doctoral o disertación ante el comité graduado. Este taller guiará a los participantes a través del proceso de defensa de tesis, les proporcionará herramientas e ideas para estructurar sus presentaciones y les aconsejará obre hábitos efectivos de presentación verbal y no verbal útiles para la defensa y el futuro.
Overleaf Workshop(September 28, 2023)
By the end of this workshop, you will be equipped with the essential skills needed to create polished resumes, engaging presentations, well-structured research articles, and properly formated theses and dissertations, complying with OGS requirements.
Captivating Your Audience: The Power of Visual Design in Presentations (April 13, 2023)
This GWF clinic was designed to help participants improve their presentation design skills and create more engaging and effective presentations. Participants learned about the key principles of visual design, including color theory, typography, layout, and use of images and multimedia. They learned how to use design elements to create a cohesive and compelling narrative, and how to avoid common design pitfalls that can detract from the impact of their presentations. Participants also learned how to use design tools and software to create professional-quality presentations. By the end of the clinic, participants had a clear understanding of how to use visual design principles to create engaging and effective presentations that communicate their ideas and research effectively to diverse audiences, along with the skills and confidence needed to create visually compelling presentations that leave a lasting impact on their audience.
This clinic was held in Spanish with slides in English.
Designing Effective Poster Presentations Strategies for Engaging Audiences & Communicating Research (March 23, 2023)
Posters are a popular format for presenting research at academic conferences, and they require a unique approach to design and communication. In this workshop, participants will learn about the key elements of effective poster design, including layout, color, typography, and visual hierarchy. They will also learn strategies for creating engaging and informative content that effectively communicates their research to a diverse audience. The workshop will include hands-on activities and peer review sessions to give participants practical experience in designing and presenting their own posters. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the skills and confidence needed to create visually compelling and informative poster presentations that effectively communicate their research to a wide audience.
Tableau: Intuitive, Visual Analytics for Academia (November 22, 2022)
Are you wondering how to make your research data more interesting, dynamic, and relevant? Go beyond Excel and bring your data to life! If done well, data visualizations in Tableau tell an interesting story. They can also shine a light on hidden information that you wouldn’t uncover in a spreadsheet or bar chart. This clinic discusses visualization basics in Tableau through simple examples. You will also learn where to find additional resources to make your research data come alive.
To request a free, one-year Tableau student license, use this link: tableau.com/academic/students Install the software on your personal computer and then practice by viewing the clinic and following along.
Top 10 Tools for Better Academic Writing (November 3, 2022)
Are you drafting a journal article but are stuck thinking about aspects such as tone, style, transitions, and word choice? Are you wondering how these aspects influence the peer-review process? This clinic presents the top 10 tools the Graduate Writing Facilitators (GWFs) use every day to help students like you improve their academic writing skills.
To access a list of the resources mentioned in the video, visit https://libguides.uprm.edu/gricen/gwf and click on "Key Academic Writing Resources".
Literature Review: Objectives and Guidelines (October 27, 2022)
Your graduate school success depends partly on your ability to critically read, summarize, and review relevant literature in your field. In this clinic, you will learn how to search for, compile, and organize your sources in order to tell your own research story in a coherent, engaging, and appealing way. The session is formatted as an interactive workshop to give you the opportunity to practice these skills in a safe, collegial environment.
Preparing for your Thesis Defense: From Manuscript to Presentation (April 18, 2022)
La meta de su carrera académica es presentar y defender su tesis ante su comité graduado. Este taller guiará a los participantes a través del proceso de defensa de tesis, les proporcionará herramientas e ideas para estructurar sus presentaciones y les aconsejará obre hábitos efectivos de presentación verbal y no verbal útiles para la defensa y el futuro.
Writing a Journal Article Critique (April 12, 2022)
Writing effective journal article critiques is a useful skill in graduate school and may even be a requirement for obtaining your degree. This workshop will provide an overview on how to critically read a piece of research, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and assess the effectiveness of the author's arguments.
Writing for STEM (March 24, 2022)
Research articles and proposals are how scientists communicate research findings and obtain funding. This clinic will introduce basic concepts of scientific writing with the aim of highlighting the importance of effective communication. Participants will learn about draft creation; additionally, we will discuss pointers on how to write clearly and coherently.
Overleaf versus MS Word Templates 101 (March 14, 2022)
Una de las metas de su carrera académica es presentar y defender su tesis ante su comité graduado. En este taller, discutiremos la estructura de tesis y disertaciones. Cubriremos temas como el formato de la portada, las secciones principales y los encabezados. Además, discutiremos errores comunes de formato. Se presentarán dos plantillas, una en formato MS Word y otra en Overleaf (LaTeX), para facilitar la creación de su documento.
Your credibility as a scholar depends on your ability to employ relevant, recent, and reliable sources. Finding and reading them is the easy part; the challenge is having them handy when you need them and citing them appropriately in your writing. This workshop will discuss how to use Mendeley software to create in-text citations and bibliographies. Participants will follow a step-by-step guide beginning with program and plugin installation, followed by strategies to digitally organize your sources and ending with tips on using Mendeley in conjunction with Microsoft Word and Latex.
Making Your Abstracts Pop (February 10, 2022)
Make your work stand out! In this clinic, we will share tips on how to write abstracts that grab your readers' attention with thoughtful, concise, and well-composed lines of text. We will also talk about the essential information you must include to convey an accurate idea of the elements of your study and your findings.
Your credibility as a scholar depends on your ability to employ relevant, recent, and reliable sources. Finding and reading them is the easy part; the challenge is having them handy when you need them and citing them appropriately in your writing. This workshop discusses how to use Mendeley software to create in-text citations and bibliographies. It starts by explaining program and plugin installation, followed by strategies to digitally organize your sources and ending with tips on using Mendeley in conjunction with Microsoft Word and Latex.
Visual Design when Presenting Research
Visual aids can be powerful tools to enhance your impact and appeal when presenting your research. Words and images presented in different formats can make your scholarly products stand out and capture your audience’s imagination, while also adding clarity and emphasizing crucial points. In turn, cluttered visual design can be extremely detrimental, as it detracts from the focus of your message and prevents effective communication of your findings. In this GWF clinic, we discuss how to incorporate visual aids effectively in oral presentations, posters, articles, and other research outputs.
Overleaf vs MS Word: Templates 101 (October 7, 2021)
En este taller se presentan dos plantillas para la creación de tesis y disertaciones, una en MS Word y otra en Overleaf (LaTeX). Estas herramientas sirven para facilitar la creación de tu escrito, ayudándote a cumplir con todos los requisitos de formato. Se cubren también temas como la estructura general de las tesis, el formato de la portada, las secciones principales y los encabezados.
Making Your Abstracts Pop
Abstracts are required for most projects graduate students will undertake during their academic and professional careers. In this clinic you will learn about the different types of abstracts that are commonly used in academia, the ones that are most pertinent to your discipline or field of studies and the steps that you should follow to produce a polished, professional and publishable informative abstract. The clinic is formatted as an interactive workshop to give you the opportunity to practice your skills in a safe, collegial environment.
Your credibility as a scholar depends on your ability to employ relevant, recent, and reliable sources. Finding and reading them is the easy part; the challenge is having them handy when you need them and citing them appropriately in your writing. This workshop will discuss how to use Mendeley software to create in-text citations and bibliographies. Participants will follow a step-by-step guide beginning with program and plugin installation, followed by strategies to digitally organize your sources and ending with tips on using Mendeley in conjunction with Microsoft Word and Latex.
Mastering Poster Presentations
Poster presentations are an engaging and visually appealing method of scholarly communication. They help you promote your research, generate interest, and network with peers in your field. In this clinic, you will learn about the poster designs appropriate for different fields of study, the process of preparing your poster, the importance of time management from design to production, and some of the programs available for poster design.
Overleaf versus MS Word: Templates 101 (February 24, 2021)
En esta clínica se presentan dos plantillas, una en formato MS Word y otra en Overleaf (LaTeX), para facilitar la creación de tu tesis o disertación. También se discute la estructura básica de tesis y disertaciones. Cubrimos temas como el formato de la portada, las secciones principales y los encabezados. Además, discutimos errores comunes de formato.
Writing for STEM
Research articles and proposals are how scientists communicate research findings and obtain funding. This clinic will introduce basic concepts of scientific writing with the aim of highlighting the importance of effective communication. Participants will learn about draft creation; additionally, we will discuss pointers on how to write clearly and coherently.
Your credibility as a scholar depends on your ability to employ relevant, recent, and reliable sources. Finding and reading them is the easy part; the challenge is having them handy when you need them and citing them appropriately in your writing. This workshop will discuss how to use Mendeley software to create in-text citations and bibliographies. Participants will follow a step-by-step guide beginning with program and plugin installation, followed by strategies to digitally organize your sources and ending with tips on using Mendeley in conjunction with Microsoft Word and Latex.
Your graduate school success depends partly on your ability to critically read, summarize, and review relevant literature in your field. In this clinic, you will learn how to search for, compile, and organize your sources in order to tell your own research story in a coherent, engaging, and appealing way. The session is formatted as an interactive workshop to give you the opportunity to practice these skills in a safe, collegial environment.
La meta de su carrera académica es presentar y defender su tesis ante su comité graduado. Este taller guiará a los participantes a través del proceso de defensa de tesis, les proporcionará herramientas e ideas para estructurar sus presentaciones y les aconsejarásobre hábitos efectivos de presentación verbal y no verbal útiles para la defensa y el futuro.
Research articles and proposals are how scientists communicate research findings and obtain funding. This session will review and build upon basic concepts of STEM writing discussed in part I of the clinic. Participants will learn about draft creation and revision, in-text and reference citation methods, tables and figures, and pointers on how to write clearly and coherently.
The undertaking of an advanced degree program that requires the writing of a thesis or dissertation can be a daunting task. This clinic will help students overcome the challenge of developing writing skills to meet the demands of preparing a successful research thesis. It will provide guidelines to help graduate students from all disciplines plan, outline, structure and draft their thesis manuscripts, while helping them build confidence as apprentice academic writers.
Research articles and proposals are how scientists communicate research findings and obtain funding. This clinic will introduce basic concepts of scientific writing with the aim of highlighting the importance of effective communication. Participants will learn about draft creation and revision, correct citation methods, use of tables and figures, and pointers on how to write clearly and coherently.
Your success in graduate school depends partly on your ability to critically read, summarize, and review relevant literature in your field. In this clinic you will learn how to search for, compile, and organize your sources in order to tell your own research story in a coherent, engaging, and appealing way. The session is formatted as an interactive workshop to give you the opportunity to practice these skills in a safe, collegial environment.
Poster presentations are a legitimate and increasingly more frequent mode of knowledge dissemination in academic contexts. They help you promote your research, gather interest in it, and network with peers in your field. In this clinic you will familiarize yourself with basic poster designs and their suitability for specific disciplines and fields of study. Moreover, you will learn about poster organization, readability, accessibility and appeal. Practice exercises will employ existing on-line resources for academic poster design.
Research articles and proposals are how scientists communicate research findings and obtain funding. This clinic will introduce basic concepts of scientific writing with the aim of highlighting the importance of effective communication. Participants will learn about draft creation and revision, correct citation methods, use of tables and figures, and pointers on how to write clearly and coherently.
Written communication in English is essential to achieving academic success in graduate school and beyond. Whatever your immediate and long-term academic and career goals might be, you will benefit from reviewing the basic elements of English grammar in order to ensure that your writing style is polished and professional. This interactive workshop will help you sharpen your writing skills and learn (or review) the proper use and rules of grammar in concrete contexts of reference and with relevant practice exercises.
Visual aids can be powerful tools to enhance the impact and audience appeal of your presentations. Words and images presented in different formats can complement your presentation and appeal directly to your audience’s imagination, adding clarity and impact to your spoken words. In turn, cluttered visual design can ruin your presentation and detract from the focus of your message.
This clinic will discuss the foundational skills and knowledge that graduate students need to prepare and deliver effective oral presentations. Students will learn how to plan, organize and structure a presentation for an academic audience. Drawing from basic speech communications principles, the workshop will discuss expository and persuasive organizing patterns, the importance of synthesis and audience appeal, verbal and nonverbal communication skills, etc.
Effective academic writing is logically organized, coherently connected, and smoothly developed. Transitions are key to accomplishing these writing goals; they include words, phrases and sentences that connect one topic or idea to another in order to sustain your reader's attention. This interactive workshop will discuss different types of transitions and how to adequately employ them in course assignments, thesis proposals, theses, and other types of academic writing.
Effective academic writing is both informative and persuasive. Its ability to engage the intended target audience and convince it of the author's claims depends not only on the quality of the evidence provided but also on the clarity of the argument.
Written communication in English is essential to achieving academic success in graduate school and beyond. Whatever your immediate and long-term academic and career goals might be, you will benefit from reviewing the basic elements of English grammar in order to ensure that your writing style is polished and professional. This interactive workshop will help you sharpen your writing skills and learn (or review) the proper use and rules of grammar in concrete contexts of reference and with relevant practice exercises.
Your success in graduate school depends partly on your ability to critically read, summarize, and review relevant literature in your field. In this clinic you will learn how to search for, compile, and organize your sources in order to tell your own research story in a coherent, engaging, and appealing way.
Are you thinking of a way to impress your employer on the day of your job interview? Perhaps you want to make an impact on multiple companies at the annual job fair? Are you planning on visiting your top school for PhD and impress faculty members? Learn how to effectively present yourselves, your research ideas, and your curriculum in this interactive writing clinic. The clinic will allow participants to learn writing strategies on how to prepare an elevator speech and give space to practice it among fellow graduate students.
Clear, intelligible written communication in English is essential for success in graduate school and beyond. Whether you need to refresh some of the fundamentals of grammar, improve your writing process, and/or polish your writing style, this interactive workshop is for you! You will sharpen your writing skills by learning how to use proper grammar and transitional phrases to make your academic writing more effective and appealing to readers.
Being able to identify your target audience is essential when addressing the public in presentations, writing professional letters and even networking emails. In this clinic, you will learn about style, tone, diction and voice which are crucial components in writing. Through hands-on activities, you will learn to quickly determine your target audience and assure the adequate approach.
STEM students are not only required to successfully complete their research, they must also report their findings in clear, cohesive and appealing written reports. This clinic will discuss specific conventions and requirements for effective writing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We will address how to write the introduction, methodology, results, and discussion/conclusion sections of academic products such as abstracts, posters, and reports. Participants will improve their understanding of the writing process (from content selection and organization to editing and proofreading) for academic purposes
Poster presentations are a common and acceptable means of knowledge dissemination in academic contexts. They help you promote your research, gather interest in it, and network with peers in your field. In this clinic you will learn about the poster designs appropriate for different fields of study, the process of preparing your poster, the importance of time management from design to production, and some of the programs available for poster design.
Your success in graduate school depends partly on your ability to critically read, summarize, and review relevant literature in your field. In this clinic you will learn how to search for, compile, and organize your sources in order to tell your own research story in a coherent, engaging, and appealing way.
The workshop covers different techniques and strategies to effectively integrate academic sources into STEM based writing. Participants will learn how to select appropriate sources to support their research, how to incorporate these sources in their writing and how to cite them for academic audiences.
Abstracts are required for most projects graduate students will undertake during their academic and professional careers. In this clinic you will learn about the different types of abstracts that are commonly used in academia, the ones that are most pertinent to your discipline or field of studies and the steps that you should follow to produce a polished, professional and publishable informative abstract.
If you receive GWF support in the preparation of your written work, we encourage you to acknowledge this assistance by including a statement like the ones included below in your document.
"I also want to acknowledge the support and guidance provided by the Graduate Writing Facilitators of the Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC) at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus, whose input to the revisions of this thesis was crucial in the final stages of its completion."
"I also want to thank the Graduate Writing Facilitators of the Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC) at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus for their support in helping me improve my English academic writing skills and revise my manuscript.”
"I also want to acknowledge the Graduate Writing Facilitators of the Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC) at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus for their valuable input during the revision of this document."
"I also want to acknowledge the Graduate Writing Facilitators of the Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC) at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus for their constructive comments during the revision of this document."
“I/We are grateful for the support and guidance provided by the Graduate Writing Facilitators of the Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC) at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez who provided insightful comments and revisions for this manuscript.”
Collaborators, alongside GRIC staff, faculty, advisors and mentors in the ongoing process of developing UPRM’s graduate students’ competencies in scholarly English.
Graduate students at UPRM, enrolled in graduate programs in English, Engineering and Science.
Fully bilingual (English-Spanish) speakers and writers with previous experience in college-level tutoring, teaching and/or in academic research production in English (conference presentations, panel presentations, paper writing, etc.).
Trained to facilitate academic English writing and oral communication consultations with peer graduate students at UPRM.
Trained and supported to design, develop and conduct workshops on a plurality of topics pertaining to the development of scholarly communication skills of graduate students at UPRM.
The GWFs are committed to:
Responsibly and professionally provide consultation services to graduate students at UPRM following the guidelines established in (cite libguide).
Ensuring that graduate students regard GWF consultations as a peer-mentoring process in which both facilitator and students are engaged in the revision and learning processes.
Creating a comfortable collaborative learning environment in which the student feels free of judgment and eager to learn.
Helping students develop scholarly English communication skills by actively learning from peer consultations so that they can become better editors of their own writing.
Working together to plan and prioritize students’ English communication needs so they can: (1) take account of their strengths and shortcomings; (2) actively engage in the process of overcoming the latter on their own and by their own initiative; (3) responsibly prepare for consultations with GWFs; (4) maximize their learning during the consultations; (5) be accountable to their own learning process by taking ownership of their work.
Recommending additional resources and activities to help students improve their academic English communicative abilities.
Providing, in collaboration with GRIC staff, workshops for graduate students on diverse topics pertaining to academic English communication.
The GWFs are not:
English-as-a-Second-Language or English-as-a-Foreign Language teachers trained to provide general English education to UPRM graduate students.
Language instructors capable of improving graduate students’ English language proficiency in the context of time-limited consultation sessions (each consultation lasts a maximum of 60 minutes).
Experts in the fields of study of the graduate students who seek their services. Disciplinary content-based revisions are the responsibility of the student, in collaboration with his/her mentor or advisor.
Authorized to revise manuscripts in absentia, nor to assume authorship of the manuscripts brought to GWF consultation sessions.
Professional copy editors or proofreaders who revise or rewrite student drafts in order to “perfect and polish” them as final submissions.
Accountable for students’ inability to understand that improving their scholarly communication abilities in English is not limited to attending consultation sessions but depends on their active participation in their own learning process with the support of their mentors or advisors.
Responsible for the fact that student manuscripts are not flawless after they have attended one or several GWF consultation sessions. (Please see the Context section.)
The GWFs understand that graduate students at UPRM have varying degrees of competencies in scholarly English. We urge faculty to consider realistic expectations for each one of their students as well as to support and guide each one of them in their respective processes of becoming discipline and/or field specific scholarly writers in English.
Biblioteca General
Graduate Research and Innovation Center (GRIC)
Universidad de Puerto Rico
Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez
Call Box 9000 Mayagüez, PR 00681