Communicating Geographies: Development and application of a communication instruction manual in the geography discipline of an Australian university

This paper reports on the development, application and review of a written teaching and assessment manual intended to promote the development of communication skills amongst geography students at The Flinders University of South Australia. The manual provides advice to students on presenting talks, writing essays and research reports, preparing posters, and communicating graphically. Also included in the manual are carefully developed assessment schedules associated with these forms of communication. These schedules had been intended to form the basis of a system of criterion-referenced assessment, but practical and pedagogic problems prevented this. Nevertheless, the package-in the form of a communication instruction manual-has been implemented across the discipline at Flinders University during 1994. Preliminary reviews suggest that the manual is popular and useful, especially amongst particular student groups. There is also scope for further application and extension of the document.