Duration: Nine weeks

Aims and objectives

This course helps you to:

• understand the differences between spoken and written academic English and the reasons for those differences
• practise varying your language for assignments and presentations
• improve your grammatical accuracy in spoken and written contexts

Duration: Nine weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of this course is to improve your active and passive vocabulary knowledge. It will help you to:

• develop strategies for learning new academic vocabulary
• improve dictionary and thesaurus skills for your degree study
• understand the basic rules for word formation
• develop an understanding of levels of formality in vocabulary
• become more aware of the connotations and associations of words and expressions 

Duration: Nine weeks

Aims and objectives

This course aims to improve your pronunciation. It will help you to give presentations more confidently and participate more successfully in discussions with staff and other students. Specifically, it will help you to: 

• identify and overcome difficulties with particular sounds
• practise sounds that are difficult in combination
• understand stress in words and sentences and the difference this can make to individual sounds

Duration: Nine weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of this course is to develop your speaking skills and provide the opportunity to practise in an unpressured environment. It will:

• help develop your confidence in speaking
• help develop your fluency in speaking
• extend your knowledge of vocabulary related to specific topics and give you the opportunity to practise discussing these topics in English
• enable you to become aware of certain strategies used by speakers to participate in discussions
• provide you with the language necessary to communicate in different situations on and off campus

Possible topics

• Getting to know each other
• Travel advice
• Family life
• Gender and stereotyping
• Customs and habits
• Idioms and common phrases
• Restaurants and food
• Superstitions and proverbs
• Work
• Extreme sports and risk taking
• Final session quiz

Duration: Nine weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to help you read more efficiently and quickly by:

• choosing what is important for you to read
• practising strategies that will help to save time
• practising techniques for speed reading
• extracting relevant information from texts
• taking a critical approach to reading

Duration: Five weeks

Aims and objectives

This course aims to introduce you to the language and communication skills of academic seminar discussion. It will enable you to notice how academics and students communicate with each other and give you opportunities to develop similar skills by engaging in seminar discussions on a range of topics. Specifically, it will help you to:

• develop an awareness of the role and importance of seminar participation in academic learning
• focus on the language used by speakers to communicate a range of discussion-related functions (for example disagreeing, interrupting, asking for clarification, supporting ideas/claims and such)
• build strategies and confidence for preparing for, participation in, and following up on seminar discussion
• build independence by encouraging you to reflect critically on your own and others’ participation and take responsibility for managing group discussion for the benefit of all 

Duration: Four or five weeks

Aims and objectives

This course will help you to build your confidence for delivering an academic presentation; in particular, to give you opportunities to:

• become more effective in delivering a presentation in English, in a seminar or similar setting
• raise your awareness of important aspects of successful presentations, such as organisation, using visuals, body language and use of voice
• focus on useful language for presentations 

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

This course aims to help you develop a clearer and more precise writing style, particularly in the areas of:

• correct expression of ideas for precise meaning
• appropriate formality of grammar and vocabulary
• effective relationships between parts of the text
• clear linking 

Duration: Nine weeks

Aims and objectives

You are invited to send part of your writing to the tutor in advance, perhaps from an annual report or from an article you wish to submit to a journal. As a group, we look at a paragraph or two from each person, discussing content, structure, clarity and accuracy. The class provides an opportunity to get ideas and feedback from your peers as well as a tutor.

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

This course will help you to familiarise yourself with the fundamental university requirements and expectations for academic coursework writing. The course helps you to:

• plan and organise academic assignments to suit different types of questions
• decide what it is necessary to include in academic essay writing
• keep your content relevant to the question throughout your answer
• use sources appropriately in academic writing 

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

This course aims to familiarise yourself with the university expectations for avoiding plagiarism, developing a critical approach, and maintaining academic style in coursework. The course helps you to:

• use information from different reading sources to support your argument, to develop your own ‘voice’ in academic writing, and to avoid plagiarism
• take a critical approach to reading/writing and use strategies for critical writing
• understand British academic conventions for referencing
• use academic style appropriately

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

This course helps you to:

• improve grammar and sentence structure in the context of assignment/thesis writing
• be more accurate in expressing yourself at sentence level when you are writing
• notice and correct the grammatical mistakes which lead to unclear meaning in your writing
• choose appropriate sentence structures and vocabulary for assignment or thesis writing

Duration: six weeks

Aims and objectives

This course helps you to familiarise yourself with requirements and expectations in scientific and technical writing. It helps you to:

• organise report sections appropriately
• describe materials and processes
• choose appropriate verb tenses
• write in a clear and concise manner

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

The purpose of this course is to help you to produce more effective argumentative writing within your science discipline. Key aims of the course are: 

• to develop familiarity with common features of scientific arguments through the analysis of examples
• to consider the reasons underpinning these features of scientific writing
• to provide opportunities for controlled practice in producing these features of scientific argumentative writing

Please note that while all students are welcome to attend, this course focuses on developing and communicating academic arguments within the natural and applied sciences, not the social sciences.

Duration: Three weeks

Aims and objectives

This course aims to improve your understanding of and response to the written assessment tasks and tutor feedback you are given. It helps you to: 

• understand what is required from different types of written assignments  
• understand what is meant by criticality 
• understand the importance of organisation and coherence of ideas 
• understand tutor marking schemes and how tutors’ comments link to these 
• develop a reflective approach to tutor and peer feedback 
• devise your own strategies for improving final drafts or subsequent written assignments  

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to help you develop your academic writing and provide support for your coursework.  Key objectives are to: 

• develop an understanding of the different text types which students may need to produce on the MA Education course
• highlight ways to use existing literature to help strengthen and clarify your arguments
• develop your ability to critically reflect on tutor feedback in order to improve your work
• begin to think about your dissertation so you can make informed decisions for your research proposal

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to help you develop your academic writing and provide support for your coursework.  Key objectives are to: 

• develop your confidence in writing in English
• develop your written accuracy and fluency in academic contexts
• develop your ability to self-edit and proofread your own work
• better manage the process of writing assignments 

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to help you develop your academic writing and provide support for your coursework. Key objectives are to: 

• consider effective strategies for reading critically
• develop understanding of what is involved in carrying out a literature review
• consider the importance of organisation at paragraph level
• consider effective ways of addressing feedback in your writing
• focus on the early stages of a dissertation and selecting an appropriate topic 

Duration: Eight weeks

This is a repeat of the Term 1 course

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to examine aspects of academic writing and exam skills at the postgraduate level, including writing critically, using sources appropriately and preparing efficiently for written examinations. 

Duration: Eight weeks

This is a repeat of the Term 1 course

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to help you become a more confident and effective participator in academic seminars and other contexts in which you may engage in academic discussion.

Please note the exact focus of each session may be subject to change. In addition, it is possible that the order of the sessions changes according to student needs.

Duration: Four weeks

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to help you develop your academic writing and provide support for your coursework on the PGCEi. Key objectives are to:

• understand the expectations of academic writing
• consider the relationship between reading sources and writing
• develop the structure and language of academic texts

Duration: Six weeks

Aims and objectives

The course deals with issues relating to writing at postgraduate level in law and content is flexible.