While GCAC’s workshops are designed with graduate students in mind, all members of the University of Toronto community are welcome to attend as many workshops as they wish. We offer workshops in three formats: live online, in-person, and prerecorded (on-demand). Registration is required for all workshops. Live workshops are not recorded.
Please click the title of each workshop to reach the workshop description and registration link. Once you register, you will receive details on how to join each live or on-demand workshop you have chosen. If you are are not able to register online, please contact sgs.gcacreg@utoronto.ca to be registered manually.
GCAC’s weekly Listserv messages provide an easy way to keep track of what upcoming live workshops we are offering.
Live Workshops (Fall 2026)
Registration for all workshops is required. Please click the title of each workshop for a description and registration link.
Workshops are online unless otherwise stated, with in-person workshops taking place on the St. George Campus.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7761889
This workshop provides an overview of core concepts and writing strategies useful for crafting a competitive “Outline of Proposed Research” for a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Canadian Graduate Research Scholarship (CGRS). We will explore common questions related to writing NSERC proposals, such as: What does my proposal need to include? How should I structure my proposal? Who is my audience? How much detail can I include? This workshop is designed to provide condensed support to students who may have missed the more comprehensive Writing NSERC Proposals course.
Presented by Dr. Fiona Coll.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7761933
Many departments in the Social Sciences, Physical and Life Sciences require eligible incoming graduate students to apply for ‘CIHR awards.’ The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), which is funded by the Canadian government, offers Master’s and doctoral awards for graduate students conducting health research. Deadlines for the doctoral applications are set by graduate departments, and they are usually in late September or early October.
Good CIHR proposals are hard to write, and they are also hard to prepare during the busy beginning of term. This workshop aims to help students through the process.
Presented by Dr. Marvin Lam.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7762108
Many departments in the Humanities and Social Sciences require eligible incoming graduate students to apply for ‘SSHRC awards.’ The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), which is funded by the Canadian government, offers Master’s and doctoral awards for graduate students in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Deadlines for the doctoral applications are set by graduate departments, and they are usually in late September or early October.
Good SSHRC proposals are hard to write, and they are also hard to prepare during the busy beginning of term. This workshop aims to help students through the process.
Presented by Dr. Matt Jones.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766655
Graduate students write many proposals − federal grant proposals, travel grant proposals, thesis proposals − and every proposal has a potentially significant impact on a student’s ability to carry out specific research. The introductory workshop in this series provides an overview of proposal writing designed to get students thinking about the demands of, and the predictable variations in, this important genre of writing. We will examine the similarities and differences between thesis and grant proposals, consider the main questions that most proposals must answer, and see examples of answers to those questions in successful proposals. We will also consider common pitfalls in proposal writing, and strategies for getting started on writing a proposal.
Presented by Dr. Matt Jones.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766720
Like research papers and theses, thesis and grant proposals require graduate students to situate their work within the context of other research in their field(s). A well constructed literature review will help you to clarify key points for your reader such as why your work needs to be done, how it is original, and why your proposed method is appropriate. In this workshop we will examine characteristics of both short and long literature reviews, common mistakes students make when reviewing research in their field, and strategies for increasing the effectiveness of literature reviews. The material covered will be relevant to the literature-review segments of proposals, research papers, and theses.
Presented by Dr. Patti Luedecke.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766710
Despite their basic competency as writers, most new grad students end up feeling underprepared for the demands of graduate writing. In this workshop, we’ll start by discussing what graduate writing is and why it’s so challenging. The rest of the workshop will focus on three strategies for meeting those challenges. First, we’ll talk about using reading as a way to develop an understanding of the patterns and conventions of academic texts. Second, we’ll turn our attention to the importance of paragraphs in academic writing. Lastly, we’ll look at the benefits of using structural cues to guide the reader through a text.
The workshop is the 1st in the Graduate Communication Toolkit series. This series offers an overview of graduate communication and the supports offered by GCAC. Each workshop is designed to stand alone, and you are welcome to attend as many or as few as you wish.
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766721
The statement of teaching philosophy is a fundamental element of the teaching portfolio, which is required for applying to academic jobs. This workshop allows graduate students who have already had opportunities to instruct or assist with instruction to reflect on their teaching practice and market their unique outlook to potential employers. We will explore techniques to interrogate, identify and describe your approach to instruction and assessment. Beyond this, we will discuss how to support a teaching philosophy with evidence, even if your teaching experience is limited.
Presented by Dr. Samantha Jackson.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766722
Note-taking is a critical yet under-discussed aspect of qualitative research. Well-written and properly organized notes can help a researcher remember minor details within their research, help train their attention to important themes and questions during the research process, and make the subsequent process of writing one’s dissertation smoother.
This workshop will address ways of structuring field notes while offering practical tips for note taking. We will discuss different note taking strategies, how to expand one’s attention to the details of research, how note writing itself can help develop research concerns, and some of the ethical considerations around writing field notes.
Presented by Bradley Dunseith.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766724
Writers spend a great deal of time working with sentences. Despite this outlay of time, many writers worry that they lack a deep understanding of what makes a good sentence. In this workshop, we will consider what readers need for a pleasurable reading experience, focusing on writing energetic, concise, and balanced sentences.
The workshop is the 2nd in the Graduate Communication Toolkit series. This series offers an overview of graduate communication and the supports offered by GCAC. Each workshop is designed to stand alone, and you are welcome to attend as many or as few as you wish.
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766732
Early opportunities for graduate students to present their research come in the form of poster presentations at conferences, research days or other academic events. Presenting a poster can allow you to gain feedback on your research and initiate networking opportunities. In this workshop, we will discuss strategies for enhancing your ability to design a well-organized, informative and attractive poster. We will also consider common approaches to engage visitors and connect with individuals with shared interests.
Presented by Dr. Samantha Jackson.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766733
Interviews are the foundation of a lot of qualitative research methodology. This workshop will discuss strategies on how to conduct interviews for one’s own research, consider when to use structured, semi-structured, and un-structured interviews, and reflect on ethical considerations that go beyond getting approval from the Research Ethics Board.
Specifically, we will be focusing on how to draft the actual questions a researcher asks a research participant. What kinds of interview questions prompt dialogue and reflection? How best to avoid questions that elicit one-word answers? This workshop will explore ways of writing interview questions which reflect one’s research questions – and that produce meaningful interviews for everyone involved.
Please note: This workshop is not about preparing students to give interviews as job applicants. It is a workshop about conducting interviews as the researcher (interviewer) and not about being interviewed.
Presented by Bradley Dunseith.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766736
Academic readers generally want to move efficiently through the things that they read. To facilitate that movement, writers must grasp the connections among their ideas and then illustrate those connections for readers. In this workshop, we will look at strategies for organizing sentences and paragraphs in ways that move the reader forward. We will also discuss the hazards of relying too heavily on transition words to do that work.
The workshop is the 3rd in the Graduate Communication Toolkit series. This series offers an overview of graduate communication and the supports offered by GCAC. Each workshop is designed to stand alone, and you are welcome to attend as many or as few as you wish.
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766737
Moving from academia into a professional role means rethinking how you present your skills and experience to potential employers. This workshop will uncover how communication styles shift between academic and non-academic worlds. We will then focus on interview communications, examine how the style in a non-academic interview differs from that of a job talk for an academic position, and develop strategies for non-academic interviews, including how to adapt your tone, structure your responses, and frame your academic background to resonate outside university settings.
Presented by Zhen Wang.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766739
So much of academic writing revolves around revision; most writers require multiple iterations of their work to clarify their ideas and refine their prose. Writers often struggle, however, to manage the complex array of tasks that go into revision. In this workshop, we will explore six stages of revision: clarifying intent; tackling structure; tackling sentences; tackling movement; tackling technicalities; and letting go. Taken together, these strategies can help writers to transform a messy early draft into a polished final draft.
The workshop is the 4th in the Graduate Communication Toolkit series. This series offers an overview of graduate communication and the supports offered by GCAC. Each workshop is designed to stand alone, and you are welcome to attend as many or as few as you wish.
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766741
This workshop will help students formulate focused, analytical, and appropriate research questions for their project.
Presented by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766757
This workshop offers strategies for creating an effective abstract for an academic paper. We will consider the functions of an abstract and offer several models for making an abstract succinct, clear, and intriguing.
Presented by Dr. Matt Jones.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766767
Presenting outside academia means more than just simplifying your slides. It requires rethinking how you connect with your audience. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how institutional frameworks influence communication norms, and how to adapt your presentation for industry, government, non-profits, and other professional audiences. We’ll discuss how communication strategies for non-academic audiences differ from those used in academic conference talks and classrooms, and how to engage listeners through tailored messaging, compelling visuals, and effective delivery techniques.
Presented by Zhen Wang.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766769
Grad students can expect to make a wide range of oral presentations: a graduate seminar, an academic conference, an elevator pitch, a job talk, or a thesis defense. Despite this prevalence, oral presentations remain one of the most disliked forms of academic communication. This workshop will help grad students improve their oral presentation skills by discussing how to structure presentations, design visual aids, handle questions, and manage nerves.
The workshop is the 5th in the Graduate Communication Toolkit series. This series offers an overview of graduate communication and the supports offered by GCAC. Each workshop is designed to stand alone, and you are welcome to attend as many or as few as you wish.
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766770
This workshop walks you through common errors that are easy to make while framing your research project, provides guidance on how to avoid them, and provides a process for clearly presenting the concepts and theories by which a research project becomes intelligible.
Presented by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7766787
One of the key challenges of graduate study is balancing the many demands on your time; every graduate student needs to manage both increased workload and increased autonomy. One of the areas in which you’re most likely to struggle is being productive as a writer. In this workshop, we will discuss how and why making time for writing is so difficult and look at some strategies for establishing a productive writing practice.
The workshop is the 6th in the Graduate Communication Toolkit series. This series offers an overview of graduate communication and the supports offered by GCAC. Each workshop is designed to stand alone, and you are welcome to attend as many or as few as you wish.
Presented by Dr. Rachael Cayley.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7790855
Where do you find little-known (and low-competition) scholarships? How do you approach companies to fund your research? This workshop will focus on alternative funding sources for graduate students.
Topics will include: traditional funding categories (federal, provincial, and internal), how to choose which scholarships to apply for (e.g., stacking, quotas, estimating expected value), common pitfalls (e.g., internal/external deadlines, departmental nomination, where not to look for scholarships), and overcoming common excuses (low GPA, no publications, not enough time). Attendees will also receive a guide which outlines the steps involved in finding, applying for, and receiving alternative sources of funding.
Presented by Dr. Jay Olson.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7772334
Why should you attend an academic conference? This workshop is aimed at students considering applying to present their research at a conference. We will discuss finding a conference that’s right for you, getting the most of your conference experience, and preparing an application.
Presented by Dr. Matt Jones.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7772336
This workshop, aimed at doctoral candidates facing a defense within the next year, will guide students through the process of preparing for your dissertation defense. We will cover disciplinary differences in the defense, questions to ask your supervisor and department administrators, the defense presentation, and preparing for the question period.
Presented by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7772344
A book review is an excellent way to begin a publishing career. It allows you to share your analysis of new work in your field with colleagues in your field and gain experience working with editors of peer-reviewed journals. This workshop offers some suggestions for how to pitch a book review to editors and strategies on how to write one.
Presented by Dr. Matt Jones.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7772345
Interdisciplinarity is often considered a key element of successful research projects. This workshop will provide useful strategies in approaching Interdisciplinarity as it pertains to your research.
Presented by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7772350
Archival visits can be rewarding parts of field research, but advanced planning is crucial for making the most of a trip. This workshop introduces students to general principles for archival research in different disciplines. The workshop will discuss corresponding with archive staff, determining rules and expectations in advance, finding materials in unusual databases, and best practices for photographing, scanning, and organizing materials.
Presented by Dr. Matt Jones.
Click here to register: https://folio.utoronto.ca/students/events/detail/7772356
Like research papers and theses, thesis and grant proposals require graduate students to situate their work within the context of other research in their field(s). A well constructed literature review will help you to clarify key points for your reader such as why your work needs to be done, how it is original, and why your proposed method is appropriate. In this workshop we will examine characteristics of both short and long literature reviews, common mistakes students make when reviewing research in their field, and strategies for increasing the effectiveness of literature reviews. The material covered will be relevant to the literature-review segments of proposals, research papers, and theses.
NB: This workshop covers the same topic as Sep 21.
Presented by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires.
On-Demand Workshops
Please click the title of workshop series, then click the title of each workshop for a description and registration link. Workshop runtime is listed after the presenter’s name.
- Identifying Verb Tenses by Dr. Adeiza Isiaka (12 min.)
- Choosing Verb Tenses by Dr. Adeiza Isiaka (17 min.)
- Using Reporting Verbs by Dr. Adeiza Isiaka (12 min.)
- Identifying & Combining Clauses and Sentences by Dr. Adeiza Isiaka (26 min.)
- Using Infinitives by Dr. Adeiza Isiaka (12 min.)
- Using Gerunds by Dr. Adeiza Isiaka (13 min.)
- Definite and Indefinite Articles – The Basic Rules by Dr. Katie Fry (13 min.)
- Using Articles with Generalizations by Dr. Katie Fry (9 min.)
- Using Articles with Countable and Uncountable Nouns by Dr. Katie Fry (9 min.)
- Using Quantifiers by Dr. Katie Fry (10 min.)
- Using a Corpus to Check Grammar by Dr. Katie Fry (10 min.)
- Using Commas Effectively by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires (13 min.)
- Using Colons and Semicolons Effectively by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires (12 min.)
- Using Brackets and Dashes by Dr. Jordana Lobo-Pires (8 min.)
- Part One: Introduction to Using Corpora to Improve Your Academic Writing by Dr. Katie Fry (11 min.)
- Part Two: Consulting the Contemporary Corpus American English (COCA) to Improve Your Academic Writing by Dr. Katie Fry (24 min.)
- Part Three: Building Your Own Corpus to Improve Your Academic Writing by Dr. Katie Fry (25 min.)
- Preparing to Write a Grant Proposal by Dr. Jane Freeman (57 min.)
- Writing Effective Literature Reviews by Dr. Jane Freeman (66 min.)
- Developing Effective Note-Taking Strategies by Dr. Jane Freeman and Jeff Newman (69 min.)
- Quoting and Paraphrasing: Working with Sources in the Social Sciences and Humanities by Dr. Peter Grav (36 min.)
- Designing Graphics for Publication by Dr. Vaughn Mangal (50 min.)
- Community Engagement: How to Effectively Communicate Research to the Public by Dr. Giulia Rossi (28 min.)
- Writing a Personal Statement for PhD Applications by Stephanie Redekop (34 min.)
- Giving Feedback on Student Writing (for TAs) by Stephanie Redekop (33 min.)
- Building Community in the Online Environment by Dr. Cristina D’Amico (26 min.)
- Preparing your Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Presentation by Dr. Cristina D’Amico (56 min.)
- Strategies for Organizing Your Oral Presentation by Dr. Cristina D’Amico (24 min.)
- Connecting with your Audience Online by Dr. Cristina D’Amico (40 min.)
- Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations by Dr. Cristina D’Amico (28 min.)
- Four PowerPoint Techniques for Academic Presentations by Dr. Matt Jones (42 min.)
- Focus and Listening in Online Meetings by Dr. Matt Jones (37 min.)
- Making Requests Appropriately by Clare Nippard (24 min.)
- Disagreeing Respectfully by Clare Nippard (17 min.)
- Writing Emails with Your Audience in Mind by Clare Nippard (42 min.)
- Building Your Academic Vocabulary by Lina Balsamo (27 min.)
- Improving Your Graduate-Level Reading Skills by Dr. Katie Fry (38 min.)
- Creating and Designing Poster Presentations for Scientific Conferences by Dr. Vaughn Mangal (42 min.)
- Creating Effective Figures by Dr. Peter Sabatini (56 min.)
- Writing CIHR Proposals by Dr. Peter Sabatini (60 min.)
- Citation and Working with Sources in the Physical and Life Sciences by Dr. Peter Grav (26 min.)
- Science Dissemination by Will Staples (70 min.)
For students in Divisions 2, 3, and 4
- Writing Titles and Abstracts by Dr. Peter Grav (40 min.)
- The “I” in IMRD: Writing Effective Research Article Introductions by Dr. Peter Grav (52 min.)
- The “M” in IMRD: Crafting Your Methods Section by Dr. Peter Grav (41 min.)
- The “RD” in IMRD: Strategies for Successful Results and Discussion Sections by Dr. Peter Grav (48 min.)