In 2022, the English Language Center (ELC) began offering English-language support to multilingual graduate students at the Data Science Institute. Communication in Data Science is a series of courses designed to assist students as they prepare for careers in data science by increasing students' proficiency and confidence in U.S. speaking and writing contexts.
Enrollment in the following courses is restricted to graduate students in Data Science.
Communication in Data Science I
Fall semester only: This highly interactive course offers students opportunities to develop oral and written communication skills for U.S. academic environments. Organized around foundational communication principles, the course allows students to practice through discussions, academic writing, data descriptions, and presentations. Students learn to build a consistent, authentic voice across both written and spoken contexts while developing essential skills for academic success in data science. For classroom tasks, students learn lexical phrases, discourse markers, and strategies to help enhance communication. Throughout the course, students will receive feedback on their speaking and writing and participate in individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Objectives:
The objectives of the course are to help students:
- Employ reading practices that enhance academic writing skills
- Participate in university course lectures and discussions
- Recognize the data science discipline and sub-disciplines as communities with distinct writing approaches and tendencies
- Develop techniques to improve listening comprehension
- Interpret and practice U.S. non-verbal communication
- Respond to communication expectations for visualizing, describing, and explaining data
- Identify and replicate the rhetorical patterns, characteristics, and styles of data science writing
- Emulate the grammar, vocabulary, and voice of data science writing
- Recognize and interpret how cultural assumptions and expectations can influence oral and written communication
Communication in Data Science II
Spring semester only: This highly interactive course offers students opportunities to develop advanced professional communication skills for U.S. workplace contexts. Organized around communication tasks related to data science careers, the course allows students to practice through presentations, professional writing, job search materials, and networking interactions. Students learn workplace conventions and storytelling with data while developing a consistent professional voice across communication modes. Throughout the course, students will receive feedback on their speaking and writing and participate in individual conferences with the instructor.
Course Objectives:
The objectives of the course are to help students:
- Model U.S. expectations for career-building communication
- Write with more flexibility and exactness
- Establish oral communication strategies for networking situations
- Adopt communication approaches based on audience and purpose
- Plan and deliver individual and team presentations
- Assemble resources that will support ongoing writing development
- Understand the structure and language of data science case studies
- Recognize and employ characteristics of professional communication, such as executive summaries, lightning talks, and progress reports
- Practice strategies for peer review
Questions?
For more information regarding course content, please contact:
Jim Cracraft, Associate Director
Tel: +1 (615) 322-0247
Email: jim.cracraft@vanderbilt.edu
For more information regarding enrollment, please contact:
Amber Douglass, Program Manager, Data Science Institute
Email: amber.douglass@vanderbilt.edu