This course will help you reason more clearly and write more effective impact assessments.  Better arguments make key decisions more transparent and help reduce risks to projects.

Environmental impact assessment – like all technical writing – constantly uses reasoning to reach conclusions.  That process is called ‘argument’, which means to assemble a series of reasons, leading to conclusions, for a specific audience.

This course shares two sets of tools.  The first provides principles for creating clearer arguments that apply to phases of the IA process.  The second shows how to better present arguments in the written text of your documents.

This course shows how IA documents contain common errors in their arguments and weaknesses in their writing. Participants will assemble evidence and reasoning for several different kinds of arguments found in IAs.  We practice steps, and introduce computer-based tools, that show how to bring improved arguments to technical reports.  Participants learn a revised approach to planning, preparing, and writing documents that they can use immediately on the job.  More details are available at www.glennbrown.ca 

Dr. Glenn Brown has over 30 years of experience as an ecologist and educator specializing in environmental management.  He has worked on projects for industry, government and non-governmental organizations in Canada and other countries.  

He taught courses on Ecosystem Science and Management and Analytical Thinking and Communications for 16 years in the Environment and Management Program at Royal Roads University.

All course times are listed in UTC. Make sure to check that the time of this course works for you in your time zone. 

Registration instructions: Create or login to your Member Compass account. Register online using a credit card. To pay via wire, choose the invoice option at checkout. If paying via wire, please keep in mind that payment is due by the registration deadline, and wire transfers can take several days to process. Please plan accordingly. 

Please register early! The course will be cancelled if the minimum number has not been reached one week before the course start date. If the training course is cancelled at that time due to low enrollment, IAIA will notify you and provide refund information.

Payment & refund policies: Registration is not confirmed until payment has been received and a receipt has been issued. Pre-registration and pre-payment by individual course deadline is required. IAIA will refund registration fees upon written request received before the specific course deadline; a US$125 processing fee will be retained. After the course deadline date, no refunds will be issued for cancelations or no-shows. Substitutions for paid registrants may be made in writing without financial penalty.