All Language Centre courses

Building a cohesive and logical argument is a key element of academic writing. Often, feedback from supervisor will tell us that argumentation needs to be improved. In this workshop we examine what precisely is meant by argumentation and look at ways to improve the quality of argumentation in our own academic work.

Kick off the new term with this short, sharp workshop that’s designed to get you writing more quickly and painlessly. You’ll leave the session with a variety of strategies for getting your ideas out of your head and down on paper.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to produce clear, concise and compelling documents in a professional setting. You’ll pick up techniques for quickly identifying, honing and communicating your key message — whether it’s for day-to-day emails, longer reports or a persuasive pitch.

Learn the secrets for producing clear, concise and compelling business writing. Whether it’s a day-to-day email or a persuasive pitch, you’ll pick up techniques for quickly identifying your key message — and engaging your reader. The workshop works as a standalone session or as a follow-on to last term’s class on report writing.

There is nothing to do before the workshop

We all know that academic papers should be clear and concise. But how can we achieve this in our own writing? In this workshop we will explore various ways to develop clarity in academic writing, and we will work through a number of example texts in order to gain practical experience of improving the clarity of written work.

No explicit preparation is required for this workshop, but you may find it useful to bring a piece of your own writing with you.

If our writing is cohesive and coherent, there are logical connections between words, sentences, paragraphs and sections. This workshop explores different techniques for increasing cohesion, which should make your writing easier to read and more effective.

This workshop builds on topics covered in the previous session, partly by analyzing excerpts from published journal articles for their cohesion. Although attending the previous workshop is an advantage, it is not a prerequisite.

This workshop builds on topics covered in the first workshop on Cohesion last term. It introduces another technique for improving cohesion and analyses excerpts from published journal articles for their cohesion. Although attending the previous workshop is an advantage, it is not a prerequisite.

This workshop builds on topics covered in the first workshop on Cohesion last term. It introduces another technique for improving cohesion and analyses excerpts from published journal articles for their cohesion.

Although attending the previous workshop is an advantage, it is not a prerequisite.

The final chapter of a dissertation / thesis can have various titles including ‘conclusion’ and ‘discussion’. This workshop looks at the typical contents of a final chapter and also cautious language (hedging), which is commonly found in a conclusion. It involves a video to watch and exercises to complete before an online Zoom workshop.

In-Sessional English Conversation Hours

For the last workshop of term, we will be preparing doctoral students for life after their first-year reports, as they begin to think about putting their full thesis together. Strategies suggested in this class should be transferable for any students writing a longer piece of work.

Editing a piece of written work should be regarded as an ongoing process rather than a single event. But what does the editing process entail? How should we edit our work? In this workshop we will get to grips with these questions, modelling effective techniques for editing our own work.

Students are encouraged to bring samples of their own written work to the workshop to edit in the session.

Punctuation plays a pivotal role both in shaping meaning and in ensuring readability in written texts. In this workshop, we will explore how to utilise punctuation effectively in academic writing.

No preparatory work is required for this workshop.

This workshop provides an overview of different aspects of writing which contribute to good academic style. We will contrast different ways of writing and discuss which is most appropriate in different contexts. We will also discuss how best to incorporate good academic style into our own written work.

No preparatory work is required for this workshop.

This session covers the basic principles of academic style. Learn how to make your writing more formal, persuasive, and precise, and how to use the passive voice and tentative language (hedging) to good effect.

This workshop discusses the basic principles of academic style, helping you to write more formally, persuasively and precisely. Learn how to attain clarity and accuracy and how to use the passive voice and tentative language (hedging). Students will apply their learning to practical examples.

Across disciplines, academic writing uses a repertoire of patterns of language to organise and create fluent and coherent texts. Evidence from large databases (corpora) of academic writing shows us how grammar and vocabulary follow regular patterns to create fluent information focus.

We continue to work with patterns and chunks in writing, based on academic corpus database statistics. We look at patterns of language used after nouns in ways typical of academic writing, and how chunks are used to link ideas and arguments in a fluent way. This is a practical workshop with tasks to complete before and during the Zoom workshop.

Making the distinction between when to use the infinitive form of the verb (‘to run’) and the gerund (‘running’) is difficult for non-native speakers. This workshop will identify some general rules and some avoidable pitfalls.

There is nothing to do before the workshop.

The correct use of articles (the / a / an) is one of the trickiest aspects of English grammar for non-native speakers, whether their language uses articles in a different way from English or maybe manages to get by without any articles at all. This webinar will set out clearly the ways in which English uses articles, and will hopefully offer some conceptual keys to help students correct their own usage. Students will then be asked to complete some exercises online.

The correct use of articles (the / a / an) is one of the trickiest aspects of English grammar for non-native speakers, whether their language uses articles in a different way from English or maybe manages to get by without any articles at all. This webinar will set out clearly the ways in which English uses articles, and will hopefully offer some conceptual keys to help students correct their own usage.

The most significant grammar mistakes that foreign students make are usually those that greatly change the meaning of the sentence. Modals, such as can or would, are often used to indicate the position of the writer in academic writing, so their inaccurate use can easily give a very different meaning from that intended. For this workshop, students will first watch a video and complete some exercises on Moodle. In the real-time webinar, students can ask questions and discuss areas of difficulty.

The most significant grammar mistakes that foreign students make are usually those that greatly change the meaning of the sentence. Modals, such as can or would, are often used to indicate the position of the writer in academic writing, so their inaccurate use can easily give a very different meaning from that intended.

The most significant grammar mistakes that foreign students make are usually those that greatly change the meaning of the sentence. Modals, such as can or would, are often used to indicate the position of the writer in academic writing, so their inaccurate use can easily give a very different meaning from that intended.