Academic Writing

What is Academic Writing?

Efficient academic writing is essential for most assessments and requires you to develop your academic voice, so you can write in a clear, confident and concise style.

You can improve your writing and subject understanding by reading carefully and using effective note-making strategies. Reading widely will also enhance your critical thinking, crucial for balanced, nuanced assignments.

The resources below will support all aspects of your academic writing.

Workshops

Introduction to Academic Writing

This workshop is an introduction to the importance of structuring, editing, and proofreading your work, highlighting some of the conventions that are useful and explaining what to avoid.

After this session you may want to attend: An Introduction to Critical Thinking

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Paraphrasing and Synthesising

Mastering these paraphrasing and synthesising techniques will strengthen your academic voice and thinking, and will also help you avoid plagiarism. In this workshop, we will explore the fundamentals of these techniques and provide clear guidance on how to use them, using a journal article as a worked example. When used correctly, these skills allow you to demonstrate the depth of your subject understanding and your ability to combine relevant material from many sources into a unified whole.

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Developing your Academic Voice

This workshop focuses on using academic language to clearly communicate your thoughts in your spoken and written assessments. We will explore techniques for academic writing, enabling you to express yourself with more confidence.

After this session you may want to attend: Academic Judgement, Reversing the Outline

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How to Write an Argument

This workshop introduces the fundamentals of academic writing, using practical examples to encourage students to find their own voice and exploring the fundamental concepts of structure, tone, and comparison.

Before this session you may want to attend: Approaching Assignments

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Reflective Writing

This interactive workshop will guide you through the process of using reflective models in your practice and will provide practical tips for meaningful reflection, to draw on your experiences and reflect on your learner journey so far.

Before this session you may want to attend: Academic Judgement, Developing Your Academic Voice

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Fundamentals of Writing

In this workshop we will explore the ways that you can begin writing clear and effective sentences using a range of punctuation marks and sentence structures. By the end of this workshop you will have learnt about the rules for writing sentences, but most importantly you will know how to interpret those rules in order to improve the clarity of your writing and the message you want to communicate.

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Paragraph Structure

In this workshop, we will discuss how you can begin to express your ideas effectively by constructing coherent and cohesive paragraphs, providing you a space to practise constructing and linking paragraphs that convey your arguments clearly.

After this session you may want to attend: How to Write an Argument.

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An Introduction to Critical Thinking

This workshop aims to provide students with a better understanding of how to progress from descriptive writing to a more critical discussion. The session looks at evaluating sources, argument construction and employing more critical language in your writing.

After this session you may want to attend: Critical Thinking and Writing, An Introduction to Academic Writing, Reflective Writing

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Critical Thinking and Writing

Have you been told, "your writing is too descriptive"? This workshop explores the focus, language and approach required to produce clear critical writing, providing a framework for students to interact with academic texts critically and with confidence.

Before this session you may want to attend: An Introduction to Critical Thinking

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Active Listening

Active listening is a key skills that will help you to improve note-taking, understand your lectures and seminars and get the most from verbal feedback. Join us to discover and practice effective listening techniques.

After this session you may want to attend: Notetaking, Time Management, Proofreading

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Note Taking

This workshop will demonstrate the process of understanding and memorising new concepts and information through effective note-taking, exploring different styles so that you can find the method that suits you best.

After this session you may want to attend: Approaching Assignments, Time Management

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Reversing the Outline – How to Edit Your Existing Work

In this session you will learn how to edit your draft starting from reversing its outline. Before joining this workshop, you will need to choose an existing piece of work to edit, either a draft or a resubmission paper. Be prepared to break down the paper into paragraphs, carefully consider the key topic of each paragraph and its relevance to the question; identify problems; identify themes; cut unnecessary parts and rearrange the whole paper together in an improved form.

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Generating Ideas (Getting Started)

This workshop will guide you through techniques and approaches to creative and original thinking, covering techniques like mind-mapping, discussion, free-writing, and other reflective practices to unlock your ideas for your assignments.

After this session you may want to attend: Reflective Writing, Understanding the Assignment

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Proofreading

This workshop is designed to help you with the last stages of completing your assignments. It aims to walk you through the process of proofreading your own work, providing you with some hints and tips to improve your proofreading ability.

After this session you may want to attend: Harvard/APA/OSCOLA Referencing Paraphrasing, A Guide to Synthesis

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