Communicating with the Nonscientist

Microteaching for science research postgraduates

“…One major challenge science graduate students encounter is to read and write academically—that is, they need to learn the register and genres that are widely accepted by a particular science community in order to communicate well with the professionals in the field (Cargill, O'Connor, & Li, ; Snow, ). It has thus become a pressing task for tertiary institutions to provide academic literacy training in particular to graduate students who speak English as a second language (ESL) (Brownell, Price, & Steinman, ; Davis, Davis, & Dunagan, ; Tomazu & Powell, ). Besides reading extensively and churning papers out for publication purposes during their time in graduate schools, graduate students have to become teaching assistants (TAs) in their home department.…”