Academic writing skills workshops
From Idea to Argument, Make Your Mark.
Explore our directory below to find your next workshop.
Academic writing workshops
- Academic Writing Essentials
Academic writing for university exams, essays, and dissertations requires a unique approach to structure, tone, and language to effectively communicate complex ideas and meet university marking criteria.
This workshop guides you through the entire writing process—from a blank page to a finished draft, exploring practical strategies to find your academic voice and structure your academic work.
- Academic Writing for Essay-Based Exams
Writing essays under time pressure brings unique challenges—from structuring clear arguments on the fly to managing physical fatigue.
This workshop breaks down what examiners actually look for, how to unpack complex questions, and simple planning techniques to keep your analysis sharp and stress low on exam day.
- Dissertation Planning Essentials
For final-year UG and Master's students, you may have lots of ideas of things you would like to explore in your dissertation; developing a well-structured and organised project is the key to preparing for your research.
This workshop helps you kick-start your dissertation by showing you how to focus your topic, ground it in research, and tackle common planning hurdles.
- Essay Structure and Planning
When writing academic essays a strong structure makes complex ideas easy to follow.
This workshop teaches you to decode prompts, map out your essay, and connect paragraphs logically to keep your argument flowing smoothly from intro to conclusion.
- Research Writing Momentum: Dissertations and Reports
Your dissertation or final project is likely the largest assignment you will tackle at university, requiring a clear, systematic approach.
This practical workshop breaks the writing process into manageable milestones, helps you map out intermediate deadlines, and shares strategies to beat procrastination so you can write naturally and stay on track.
- Scientific Writing and Lab Reports
Scientific writing uses established frameworks to communicate complex data and methodologies clearly.
Using the scientific lab report as a model, this practical workshop breaks down the standard IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion), offering best practices and top tips to help you write precise, professional lab reports for your degree.
- Writing a Literature Review
A literature review is more than just a summary of past research—it is a critical synthesis that positions your work within existing scholarship.
This practical workshop breaks down the core purpose of a literature review, teaching you how to integrate multiple sources, structure your analysis, and avoid common writing pitfalls so you can craft a clear, cohesive section for your dissertation or thesis.
- Writing a Research Proposal
A strong research proposal clearly defines what you will investigate, why it matters, and how you will execute it.
This interactive workshop walks you through a persuasive, proven proposal structure, helping you link your methodology to existing literature and refine your plan by evaluating real example proposals.
Can't find a workshop? Take a look at our online academic writing resources.
Critical writing workshops
- Critical Thinking and Writing
Critical thinking is an essential university skill, it involves looking at information carefully, checking the evidence, and weighing different arguments so you can reach smart, well-reasoned conclusions.
This interactive workshop breaks down what critical thinking really means, offering hands-on group activities to help you analyze arguments, evaluate evidence, and build well-reasoned written work for your degree and beyond.
- Developing an Academic Argument
Academic arguments are the heart of most academic writing, relying on a clear structure to communicate complex ideas effectively.
This workshop guides you step-by-step through structuring your paper, using evidence effectively, and crafting a persuasive argument from thesis to conclusion.
- Reflective Thinking and Writing
Reflective writing requires turning everyday academic experiences into meaningful insights and actionable next steps.
This step-by-step workshop breaks down the theory of reflective practice, introducing practical techniques to help you evaluate your learning, write critical reflections for assignments, and build action plans for future success.
Can't find a workshop? Take a look at our online critical writing resources.
Referencing, proofreading and formatting workshops
- Editing and Proofreading Your Own Work
Editing and proofreading are critical for polishing your academic work, but knowing where to start can feel overwhelming.
This practical workshop shares essential self-editing and proofreading techniques to help you refine your writing, spot mistakes, and boost the overall quality of your assignments.
- Paraphrasing and Using Academic Sources
Strong academic writing builds on existing scholarship while maintaining your own voice.
This practical workshop shows you how to quote, paraphrase, and synthesize sources confidently to build strong, plagiarism-free arguments.
- Referencing correctly and avoiding plagiarism
This session introduces the essentials of referencing, the concept of plagiarism and how it can be avoided, and gives you an opportunity to practice referencing in the style required by your programme. The session will also provide an overview of useful citation tools for this process.
- Using reference management software: an introduction to organising citations and avoiding plagiarism
This session looks at avoiding plagiarism, and referencing correctly using reference management software. You will gain an overview of the software and how to use it to manage your references, including editing the output where necessary.Book a place
Can't find a workshop? Take a look at our online referencing, proofreading and formatting resources.
Next steps
If you can't find the workshops you are looking for you can:
- view our full programme of upcoming workshops
- book a 1:1 appointment for study skills, maths or statistics
- browse our online how to guides for more information and resources