With very few exceptions, your work will be assessed through your writing. It is therefore important that you develop a confident and versatile academic voice. If you’re new to Higher Education, academic writing can feel difficult; many students use their assignments to show off their vocabulary or write in long, complex sentences. However, this is not always necessary; good academic writing is clear and concise. These resources will guide you through the craft of academic writing and help you build positive writing habits.
Resources
Introduction to Academic Writing Mini Module
Workshops
Introduction to Academic Writing
The Introduction to Academic Writing workshop is an introduction to the importance of certain practices within academic writing such as structuring, editing and proofreading your work. It highlights some of the conventions that are useful to adopt within academic practice as well as warning against practices that are not seen as academic. Introduction to Academic Writing is a good starting point for students hoping to improve their written work, we encourage students who have attended this workshop to attend the critical writing workshop to continue to build on what was learnt.
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.
Developing Your Academic Voice
Developing your academic voice workshop focuses on the use of proficient academic language essential for clearly articulating and communicating your thoughts in both your spoken and written assessments. This will enable you to express yourself with more confidence whilst noticing what makes a good example of an academic voice.
How to Write an Argument
When it comes to expressing your ideas and exploring your research, language is everything. This workshop introduces students to the fundamentals of academic writing, and dispels some of the common misconceptions around the subject. Using practical examples, this workshop encourages students to find their own voice and to write in a way that makes the most of the available space. It explores fundamental concepts of structure of tone, gives guidance on comparison and synthesis, and acts as a primer to the conventions of academic writing.
Reflective Writing
Reflection is a major part of any degree. As part of your assignments you may be asked to draw on your experiences and reflect on your learner journey so far. This interactive workshop will guide you through the process of how you can link reflective theorist to your practice and will provide practical tips for meaningful reflection.
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.
Paragraph Structure
In this workshop we will discuss how you can begin to express your ideas effectively by constructing coherent and cohesive paragraphs. We will explore the variety of ways you can compose a paragraph and provide you with time and space to practise constructing and linking paragraphs that convey your arguments clearly.