Someone wrote to our ‘academics’ mailing list just now,<\/p>\n
\nI’m behind in my email, but I noticed that Biochemistry at USyd got a poor mention in yesterday’s Column 8.<\/em><\/p>\n \nMy reply:<\/p>\n \nDo you mean this bit<\/a> ?<\/p>\n \n“Further on the subject of “actually, like, you know” etc (Column 8, for some days), we warn exponents of sloppy discourse that some listeners are not only appalled, but keeping notes. “In first-year medicine at Sydney Uni a couple of years ago,” recalls Belinda Errington, of Mortdale, “a nervous rookie lecturer managed to say ‘basically’ 94 times and ‘essentially’ 63 times within one hour. Biochemistry is still fundamentally boring, though.” With lecturers like that, it’s hardly surprising.”<\/p>\n \nThere’s a serious point hidden in there. I lost count of the number of ‘um’s a guest speaker said during his preamble. As far as I can see, there is no formal training for lecturers or researchers in giving lectures or seminars, and the failure to speak clearly and articulately in front of hundreds of people never gets addressed. In the School we do at least get Honours Students to give talks, and start training them from then, but I suspect most of us have had no formal training, no chance to have someone sit down with us and say “you need to \/must not do such-and-such” and then have another go at it.<\/p>\n \nAnd then we get to the stage where we’re too busy for training courses.<\/p>\n \nWhat do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Someone wrote to our ‘academics’ mailing list just now, I’m behind in my email, but I noticed that Biochemistry at USyd got a poor mention in yesterday’s Column 8. My reply: Do you mean this bit ? “Further on the … Continue reading