Category Archives: W&C Skills (501)

Writing and Communication Skills – 501 (Fall 2025)

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Course Overview

Course Description:
This course is offered by CGS to students enrolled in various graduate programs. This course aims to instruct and train students in scientific writing and presentations. Topics that will be covered include different types of scientific publications, scientific presentations (manuscripts, oral and poster presentations), research proposal preparation and writing, thesis writing including experimental design and data analysis, citations ad references, and ethical issues including plagiarism.

Course Credits: 3 (3-0-3): 36-40 hours

Learning Objectives:

  1. Conduct literature research skills using approved search engines and websites to identify recent published advances related to the research project of interest.
  2. Identify different types and components of scientific publications.
  3. Develop experimental designs for a research project.
  4. Prepare the research proposal for funding application from CGS.
  5. Prepare the research proposal for funding application Kuwait University research sector.
  6. Prepare reference list in accordance to APA regulation and the citations used.  Introduction and training on online software tools.
  7. Gain tools and skills for oral and poster presentations.
  8. Identify the elements needed to prepare for thesis writing and approach.
Text-book:
Scientific Presentation Skills: How to Design Effective Research Posters and Deliver Powerful Academic Presentations (Peer Recognized) Paperback, 2022. Martins Zaumanis.
Time and place: Wednesday 3:00-5:50 PM – (Sci-S) Room C2-115
General instructions:
  • Attendance is Mandatory. Only official medical excuses or urgent circumstances will be accepted.
  • Bring your laptops (personal computers) with you for all the lectures.
  • Submit all assignments via email. Make sure that you write (501 student) in the email subject.
  • Late submissions (1-2 days late) will be marked down and those later than two days will be rejected.
  • Make sure that you don’t copy texts into your submitted assignments. This will be considered plagiarism and the submission will be rejected.
  • Always name the your files as (20250923_Assignement#_Name).
Office Hours: By appointment! Office on DBS 4th floor # 101
Email: hassan.alhadddad@ku.edu.kw
Grade Distribution:
  • Attendance and Course Activity (10%)
  • Assignments (40%)
  • Seminar (25%)
  • Final Research Proposal (25%)
Students:
  • ASEEL EL-FARRA./
  • BESHAYER ALSHAMMARI./
  • DALIA ELSAID MOUSSA./
  • ARWA KHALIL./
  • AISHAH ALGHARIBAH.***/
  • MARIAM CHEHADEH.**/
  • LULWAH ALHABEEB.**/
  • FOUZ ALSAEED.*/
  • MALAK MAHMOOD.*/
  • DENAH ALKANDERI.*/
  • HUMOUD ALADWANI.*/
  • MESHAL ALKANDARI./
  • MUSAED ALSHAMROUKH.*******/

Schedule (3 hours meetings):

Meeting 1: (23/9/2025)
Topics:
Assignment: Download the papers from MS Teams and briefly skim them
Meeting 2: (30/9/2025)
Topics:
  • Primary research vs. review articles (Lecture 4)
    • Components
    • Structures
    • The good, the bad, and the ugly
  • Techniques in literature search (Lecture 5)
    • Search engines
    • Keywords, titles, and abstracts
Assignment 1:
  • Select a topic of your proposed thesis.
  • Identify at least five keywords related to the topic to be used for the search.
  • Conduct a search using at least four of the suggested search engines.
  • Save a copy of the original search output.
  • Filter the list by using more selective search queries (e.g., year of publication, location, language, specific references).
  • Compile a list of 10 references that you would select for your research project.
  • Design a flowchart showing your search and final output of the selected references (similar to the example given).
  • Your submission should include:
    • The keywords used in a list format.
    • Raw output of the different search engines (screenshots).
    • Refined output (screenshots).
    • Filter criteria used.
    • The search summary flowchart.
    • Must be submitted as one pdf or word file (sent by email).
    • Grade will be marked out of 5 points.
    • Submission deadline Tuesday 7/10/2025 – 2:59 pm.
Meeting 3: (7/10/2025)
Topics:
  • Analytics and metrics: journal, article, and author (Lecture 6)
  • Figures & Tables: Figure Illustration Software
Assignment 2:
  • Select publications in your research area (2 research articles and 1 review article).
  • I suggest that you select the articles that you will be using for your presentations and poster.
  • Provide the journal metrics using Scimago Journal and Country Rank.
  • Provide the article metrics using the journal website, google scholar, or ResearchGate.
  • Provide the corresponding author’s metrics using one of the following (google scholar, ORCID, ResearchGate, PubMed).
  • Your submission should include:
    • The pdf copy of the selected publications.
    • Analytics & metrics of each journal, publication, and suggested authors.
    • Must be submitted as one pdf or word file (sent by email).
    • Grade will be marked out of 5 points.
    • Submission deadline Tuesday 14/10/2025 – 2:59 pm.
Meeting 4: (14/10/2025)
Topics:
  • Oral Presentations: Spoken words with aid (Lecture7)
  • Tutorial on presentation design and practice.
Assignment 3:
  • Pick a review article from the your list of selected articles.
  • Prepare a 12-minute Power Point Presentation.
  • Start with a presentation of the selected article and its major components (title, journal, authors, abstract, keywords, journal impact factor, and etc.)
  • State and present the main objective of the review paper.
  • Present the contents of the review paper in an oral presentation aided with pictures and other material from the paper, your synthesis, or the internet.
  • Submit your presentation as a pdf (sent by email).
  • Submission deadline Tuesday 28/10/2025 – 2:59 pm.
  • Deliver your presentation on your assigned date.
Meeting 5: (21/10/2025)
Topics:
  • Tutorial on presentation design and practice (Continue)
Assignment 4:
  • Pick a research article from the your list of selected articles (not the one that you will use for poster presentation).
  • Prepare a 12-minute Power Point Presentation.
  • Start with a presentation of the selected article and its major components (title, journal, authors, abstract, keywords, journal impact factor, and etc.)
  • Present the research paper as if it was your own research.
  • Start your presentation with few introductory slides.
  • Explain the main objective of the research paper.
  • Briefly present the methods and results using figures and tables from the paper.
  • You can generate other diagrams to help you simplify and present the methods and results or select material from the internet.
  • Submit your presentation as a pdf (sent by email).
  • Submission deadline Tuesday 9/12/2025 – 2:59 pm.
  • Deliver your presentation on your assigned date.
Meeting 6: (28/10/2025)
Topics:
  • Student Seminar Presentations I (Review Article)
  • Presenters: Aseel, Arwa, Malak, Denah, Dalia
Meeting 7: (4/11/2025)
Topics:
  • Student Seminar Presentations I (Review Article)
  • Presenters: Beshayer, Meshal, Aisha, Mariam, Fouz, Lulwah
Meeting 8: (11/11/2025)
Topics:
  • Poster Presentation: Elements and philosophy (Lecture8).
  • Tutorial on poster design.
Assignment 5:
  • Pick a research article from the your list of selected articles.
  • Make sure that your article is different from the one that you will present in a seminar.
  • Note: make sure to add the names of the original authors and their affiliations and then under it stated designed by YOUR NAME.
  • Design a poster of your article based on KU-RS requirements of size and content.
  • Design the poster using powerpoint presentation and save a pdf copy.
  • Submitted as a pdf (sent by email).
  • Your poster will be graded out of 10 points.
  • Submission deadline Tuesday 25/11/2025 – 2:59 pm.
Meeting 9: (18/11/2025)
Topics:
  • Citations and References, Software Applications
  • Tutorial on using EndNote
Assignment 6:
  • Select 15 publications and 2 online resources in your research area.
  • Create a citation library that include:
    • Review papers
    • Primary research articles
    • Other publication types: books, thesis, and etc.
  • Using the references you selected, write an overview of the research idea and topic (500-700 words) using the references from the library.
  • Make sure that almost every sentence that you write has a reference.
  • Use Endnote reference manager to insert the citations as you write.
  • Prepare three versions of the document that you produced each with one of the following citation format:
    • APA Alphabetical.
    • APA Numerical.
    • The format of the journal (Science).
  • Notice the differences that happens to the text and list of references.
  • Create a pdf copy of the overview and list of references for each version.
  • Combine the three versions in a single pdf file.
  • Your assignment will be marked out of 15 points.
  • Submission deadline Tuesday 25/11/2025 – 2:59 pm.
Meeting 10: (25/11/2025)
Topics:
  • Elements and Approach for Research Proposal
  • Hypothesis, objectives, and Experimental Design
  • Discussion following consultation with supervisor
  • CGS Research Proposal Application Forms
  • KU-RS Research Proposal Application Forms & Letter of Intent
Assignment 7:
  • Prepare complete research proposal on a word document including all the required fields by CGS for students (Abstract, Introduction, Hypothesis & Objectives, Approach & Methods, Significance/Importance, Preliminary Results & Discussion, Budget and Time-plan, References).
  • Your proposal will be marked out of 15 points.
  • Write the letter of intent (Opening paragraph, Statement of purpose, Project activity, Expected outcomes, Closing paragraph).
  • Your letter of intents will be marked out of 10 points.
  • Combine your proposal and your letter of intent in a single pdf file.
  • Submission deadline Monday 22/12/2025 – 6:00 pm.
Meeting 11: (2/12/2025)
Topics:
  • Elements and Approach for thesis Writing
  • What is plagiarism and how to avoid it!
Assignment 8:
  • Run a plagiarism check for your writing for Assignment 6 using TWO free online software programs.
  • Plagiarism check resources: Scribbr, Quetext, Grammarly, Unicheck, Check-plagiarism, Plagiarism Detector, Pre Post SEO, Search Engine Reports, Small SEO Tools, DupliChecker, Plagiarismchecker.co, Writer.
  • Combine your original writing and the two reports in a single pdf file.
  • Your assignment will be marked out of 5 points.
  • Submission deadline Tuesday 9/12/2025 – 2:59 pm.
Meeting 12: (9/12/2025)
Topics:
  • Student Seminar Presentations II (Research Article)
  • Presenters: Beshayer, Meshal, Aisha, Mariam, Fouz, Lulwah
Meeting 13: (16/12/2025)
Topics:
  • Student Seminar Presentations II (Research Article)
  • Presenters: Aseel, Arwa, Malak, Denah, Dalia