Monika Smith

Since coming to Canada, first as a graduate student and then as an instructor with the English Department, I’ve spent many years specializing in teaching first- and second-year academic and technical writing courses. If you enroll in one of my writing classes, you can expect lots of support and individual guidance informed by an enthusiastic “can do” attitude rooted in the science of teaching and learning. My approach is hands on: I believe that with the right kind of support, anyone can become a strong reader, an effective writer, and a confident public speaker. Moreover, because I see these as life skills, not just academic skills, I feel passionate about helping you build confidence in each of these areas.

My goal is to equip you with critical thinking skills and a set of practical rhetorical tools that you can use in any situation to present your ideas and information in clear, accessible, persuasive ways. For example, you’ll gain skills in analyzing and evaluating sources, so you can determine credible from non-credible information, enabling you to write strong essays and reports based on credible, objective, reliable information – an approach that will also enable you to make good evidence-based decisions for yourself and others. I believe you’ll find the skills you learn in my courses to be personally and professionally empowering: they can help you move forward on your learning journey as a student and as a responsible citizen of the world.

Selected faculty publications

I’m always excited to explore wise pedagogical practices to support your learning in my courses. For instance, aside from presenting at conference venues, I’ve engaged with the following studies and writing projects related to the scholarship of teaching and learning:

Smith, Monika. Entry. “Task Analysis.” Constructing the Threshold: An Encyclopedia of Concepts at the Intersection of Cognition and Writing. Eds. Thomas Skeen, Sherry Rankins-Robertson, and Duane Roen. Fort Collins, Colorado: WAC Clearinghouse. Forthcoming 2024.

Smith, Monika. Chapter. “Writing for Clients, Writing for Change: Proposals, Persuasion, and Problem Solving in the Technical Writing Classroom.” Technical Writing for Environmental Action. Ed. Sean Williams. New York, NY: SUNY Press, 2023. pp. 195-218. https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/Technical-Communication-for-Environmental-Action.

Chelvan, Ilamparithi Thirumarai, Monika Smith, and Sajib Ghosh. “Review, Revise, and Reflect: Using Checklists to Improve Students’ Lab Reports.” Published on IEEE Xplore Database. pp. 85-90. [Online]. 2021. Available https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9793453 .

Smith, Monika. “The Active Voice: Report Writing.” Chapter. The Active Reader: Strategies for Academic Reading and Writing. Eric Henderson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2022. pp. 104-107.

Smith, Monika. “Successful Oral Presentations.” Chapter. Technical Writing Essentials: Engineering Communication. Suzan Last. BC Campus Pressbooks: Open Source Educational Resource (OER), 2018. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/

Smith, Monika. “Active Reading.” Chapter. Academic Writing Essentials. Department of English. Toronto: Pearson Education, 2017.