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Currently, I am finishing my statement of purpose, which I need to write in order to apply to graduate programs. In my statement, I want to describe my teaching experience (for a semester, I taught a course in Mathematics for undergraduate students; the classes had a form of seminars). However, I don't want to use a word "teach", because it is used many times in the very same paragraph. I found two possible options. The first is to say:

For a semester, I gave seminars in Mathematics.

The other possible option is suggested by my friend, who studies in the US:

For a semester, I led seminars in Mathematics.

However, neither of these options sound right - according to Google, they are not actively used.

I would like to wonder, what is the common way to describe teaching experience in this case? How to formulate the sentence I mentioned without using the word "taught"?

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    "I delivered seminars" is more formal than "I gave seminars" and is a suitable (though less widely used) alternative to "I taught seminars."
    – Chemomechanics
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 17:32
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    Were the seminars "taught" (most of the time you provided information to the participants), or was it a more open, discussion-type arrangement? If the latter, "led" or "facilitated" might be better choices. "Delivered" is a good choice as @Chemomechanics says - it's neutral in this respect.
    – ArchContrarian
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 17:41
  • @ArchContrarian, in this sense, these seminars were "taught" - most of the time I was delivering the material. Yet, any discussions in the process were welcomed. I suppose the best solution would be to use "delivered seminars". Thanks!
    – SpinningCat
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 17:48

1 Answer 1

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Held seminars

and

Conducted seminars

are often used, and have higher ngram scores than led or gave seminars, although two of the examples provided by the Cambridge online definition of Seminar both use give.

So it would appear perfectly acceptable to stick with ‘gave’, but if you wish to emphasize the involvement of others you might prefer ‘conducted’, which has a more sophisticated ring.

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