Coordinator: Ms. Melanie Zee
Course Description
(Subject to official approval)
This 6-credit English-in-the-Discipline course develops students’ professional and technical communication skills specifically for studies and careers in statistical sciences. The course focuses on two major components:
1. Case Study Report Writing: Structuring, analysing, and presenting statistical data and findings in written form for academic and professional audiences.
2. Professional Oral Presentation: Explaining statistical concepts, data trends, and justifying analyses and recommendations using audience-oriented spoken communication techniques.
Students will learn how to present and interpret statistical analyses persuasively in both written and spoken formats using a genre-based approach, with samples drawn from real-world case studies and professional reports.
Eligibility and Programme Requirements:
- From the 2025/26 cohort onwards, students admitted to the following majors under the School of Computing and Data Science (CDS) are required to take CAES9821:
- Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Applied Artificial Intelligence (BASc(AppliedAI))
- Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science (BSc(ActuarSc))
- Bachelor of Statistics (BStat) (Decision Analytics / Risk Management / Statistics)
- For students admitted to the Faculty of Science (including BSc and BSc&MRes: Decision Analytics / Risk Management / Statistics, as well as Mathematics majors):
- Students admitted in the 2025/26 cohort or earlier may take either CAES9821 or CAES9820 to fulfill their communication requirement.
- Students admitted to BASc(AppliedAI), BSc(ActuarSc), or BStat from 2025/26 cohort onwards follow CDS requirements and must take CAES9821.
Recommended Preparation:
While prior knowledge of linear statistical modelling (as covered in courses such as SDST3600 and SDST3907) is helpful, it is not assumed.
Note:
Students from other science disciplines outside the scope of CDS or the stated Faculty of Science majors should take CAES9820.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Present and explain mathematical and statistical data and trends using appropriate rhetorical skills in a case study report and an oral presentation
- Organise and articulate coherent ideas with appropriate language devices in a case study report and oral presentation
- Justify analyses and recommendations convincingly in a case study report and an oral presentation
Strategies
- Students are given a case study and asked to analyse a given dataset. They write up their data analysis, the results, and a discussion of the results in a case study report. Students work in groups for the case study and write a full report together.
- Students are asked to write up the introduction and data analysis sections of the case study report after doing some background research on the topic area and completing data analysis. While students can work with their partners when carrying out the research, the introduction and data analysis sections are written individually.
- Students, in groups of 4, discuss and prepare for a presentation on the case analysis where they present findings from data analysis and propose recommendations on plans and strategies to be adopted by their client(s) in the case scenario.
- Each presenter will present for up to approximately 5 minutes and respond to questions from the audience who play the role of the presenters’ clients. They will need to select what information to present and decide how to present it. They should use a range of rhetorical features of oral presentations in order to engage with the target audience such as effective use of visuals and voice. These features will be covered in the course.
- Students will need to collaborate effectively for both the case study report writing and the oral presentation.
Assessment Methods
(with breakdown of percentage weighting of the various methods)
- Other genres of writing (30%)
- Group learning work (30%)
- Oral Presentations (40%)