The increasingly diverse backgrounds of today's graduate students have resulted in a wide range of ideas about what graduate school actually entails and what is expected of the students. Therefore, a graduate course titled "Theory and Methods of Research" was developed and is required for all chemical engineering graduate students at Michigan Technological University. The goal of this course is to systematically present many of the common skills that make up the graduate school experience. These skills include communication, research, and professional topics. Frequent and effective student/advisor communication is also emphasized. (Contains 3 tables.)