Training Schedule
The Information Commons has a ton of new workshops this semester to help you succeed. If you are logged into your mail.usf.edu account you can add the workshops to your personal calendar.
Add a single workshop to your calendar: Click the workshop title and select 'Copy to my calendar'.
Add all workshops to your calendar: Click the "+ Google Calendar" button at the bottom right of the calendar.
Improving College Writing
In his book On Writing, Stephen King suggests that “to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build enough muscle so you can carry it with you.”This series of workshops presented by USFSM writing consultant, Deb Kochman is designed to provide students with tools and strategies to be better writers, thinkers, and researchers.
- Grammar and Punctuation Refresher
- Active Reading and Critical Thinking
- Thesis Statements and Paragraph Development (including in-text citation and quote integration)
- Concision and Clarity(Using Active Voice to Reduce Wordiness/Improve Clarity)
- Revision vs. Proofreading
Technology Training
Acing Online Learning
The intended audience for this session is USFSM students, particularly those students currently enrolled in online courses and any student who anticipates taking online courses in the future. Led by a technology support staff member this session focuses on topics, such as navigating Blackboard, time management skills, and basic technology tools to help students succeed in on-line courses.
Embarrassed about Excel? Microsoft Excel
This session is designed to cover using formulas, functions, charts, and graphs. The intended audience for this session is USFSM faculty, staff, and students.
Get a Grapple on your Apple!
The intended audience for this session is USFSM faculty, staff, and students.The session will include segments about becoming familiar with your iPad, configuring Wi-Fi, adding email and calendar accounts, using the camera and editing functions as well as implementing educational and entertaining Apps.
Get Pointed in the Right Direction! Microsoft PowerPoint
The intended audience for this session is USFSM faculty, staff, and students and will cover creating PowerPoint slides, inserting pictures, audio, shapes, and templates as well as using graphic animations, timing, effects, and triggers.
Worried About Word? Microsoft Word 2010
The intended audience for this session is USFSM faculty, staff, and students and will focus on formatting a document using APA style documentation. The session participants will learn how to create headers and footers, set page layouts (i.e. margins, tabs, and fonts), insert tables and footers, and use clip art.
Panic to Paper Series
A series of workshops developed by USFSM Information Commons’ librarians, writing consultants, and technology support staff members to assist students at any level with research, writing, and technology as they develop a research assignment or academic project.
Let’s Get it Started!
Assessing the Assignment, Finding a Topic, and Developing a Research Question
Step by Step. Inch by Inch. This first session in our Panic to Paper series is intended for new and returning students, particularly seniors working on research seminar or capstone projects. A writing consultant will help students understand different types of research papers (i.e., analytical, argumentative, etc.), how to choose a topic and identify audience, and how to use pre-writing strategies to develop research questions. Tips and checklists to help students with time management and the writing process will also be provided.
APA Documentation – From Running Head to Reference List
Frustrated by APA’s running head? Confused by citing three authors, four authors, and six or more? Puzzled by DOI numbers? The second in our Panic to Paper series covers these pesky APA rules and more! Designed for both new and returning students troubled by APA documentation, this workshop begins by teaching students how to format a paper by creating default settings for an APA style document (i.e., running head, subsequent page headers, font, margins, and subheadings). Writing consultants and librarians will explain fundamental differences between MLA and APA, teach students how to correctly format a Reference list, and answer students’ questions about APA format and style.
Mastering MLA Documentation - From Thesis Statements to Works Cited
This workshop is intended for new and returning students who need a refresher in MLA documentation. In this workshop, writing tutors will review MLA format (i.e., header/page numbering, font, margins settings, and block/long quotes) and how to correctly set up a Works Cited page. A writing consultant will discuss writing introductions, thesis statements, and quote integration as well as answer students’ questions about using MLA style.
Research Basics – Finding What You Need to Know
You know what you need, but how do you find it? Learn to use library resources in this quick and fun overview.This session will teach students how to construct and refine Boolean searches using the online library catalogs for print and electronic materials, locate and request materials not locally available using Worldcat, Uborrow, and Interlibrary Loan as well as locate and use subject guides to select an appropriate database.
Articles for All – Finding and Organizing Your Sources
Articles can be one of the most valuable research resources, but finding them can be complicated.Building on Research Basics, this session teaches students tricks and techniques to find and organize research articles.Librarians will demonstrate how to locate and use subject guides to select an appropriate database, create and refine searches using Boolean search terms, use the “Find it at USF” tool to locate full-text articles, locate and request materials not locally available using Worldcat, Uborrow, and Interlibrary Loan, and how to export article citations into Refworks to organize citations and create bibliographies.
Annotated Bibliographies – Annihilating the Angst: Summarizing and Evaluating Your Sources
This session is intended for students who are not familiar with annotated bibliographies; however, students with strong research and writing backgrounds are encouraged to attend and share their knowledge and experience.Writing specialists will present information about the purpose and elements of annotated bibliographies including what constitutes an annotation. Examples with descriptions of types and styles for writing ABs in both APA and MLA will be provided.Students are encouraged to bring drafts of their work for a hands-on workshop during the later part of the session.
Organizing Your Thoughts and Discovering Your Writing Process
How do you write? What steps to you take from the blank page to the finished polished piece? Traditional outline or clustering? Freewriting or sketching? How many times do you revise your work? When do you proofread? Each writer develops his or her own “process,” but many struggle with organizing ideas on the page. In this session, writing specialists will share strategies and options to help students develop his or her writing process.
Developing Your Thesis/Statement of Purpose and Structuring Your Paper
This session is intended for new and returning students to help them produce effective college level essays. Writing specialists will discuss how to develop clear and effective thesis statements and statements of purpose, with particular attention to APA style documentation.The session will also include a review of how to develop paragraphs and integrate quotes using an easy to understand four step process.
Honing It - Active Voice, Revising, and Proofreading
Unclear. Awkward. Huh? If one (or all) of these words have been scrawled on your papers, this session focused on reducing wordiness and improving clarity will help strengthen your academic writing.A writing specialist will provide tips and advice about how to improve concision and clarity in academic writing as well as discuss the importance – and difference – between revising and proofreading.Students are encouraged to bring examples for discussion.
Advanced Research – Research Skills for Senior Seminar and Graduate Students
Researching for large or complicated projects takes special skills. Learn advanced search techniques and discover answers to your questions.This session will help students to use subject headings to refine searches, locate and use subject bibliographies to locate additional resources, use citation harvesting techniques to locate additional resources, and use Write-N-Cite to insert citations into papers.
Unraveling The Mysteries Of Math
Math workshops are interactive sessions led by faculty math consultant, Prof. Maymeskul and designed in conjunction with specific USFSM math courses. Workshops cover the following in a math lab setting: concept enhancement, problem-solving, review, mock quizzes/tests and question/answer sessions. Consequently, workshop hours function as focused study time to enhance your understanding of the material – and support your efforts to achieve high grades in mathematics courses.
Writers’ Block: Information Commons Collaborative Session
This workshop abandons the traditional classroom structure and invites students to meet with USFSM librarians, writers, and technology support starff – as well as fellow students and faculty – to discuss difficulties with research, writing, and technology. The “workshop” is designed to offer academic support in an informal setting with the understanding that Writers’ Block is more than a condition – it is a community of listeners, readers, and writers as well as a time and a place.