Academic Skills
ACADEMIC ENGLISH FOR DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS (8ALDS001W)
The module will run twice in 2024-25.
Semester 1 referral deadline: 7th October 2024
Semester 2 referral deadline: 20th January 2025
This is an accessible and inclusive module for all students who would benefit from extra support with expression in English at doctoral level.
The module is delivered in the first semester of each academic year. It is delivered in the form of seven taught group sessions followed by three individual tutorials. The latter will be based on your own written work.
The taught group sessions will take place from 2pm- 4pm. All classes will take place online via Microsoft Teams.
The module will run in Semester 1, 2024-25, as follows (all sessions run from 2pm – 4pm):
Week 1 15th October 24
Week 2 22nd October 24
Week 3 29th October 24
Week 4 5th November 24
Week 5 12th November 24
Week 6 19th November 24
Week 7 26th November 24
Referrals from DoSs will need to reach Richard Paterson by 7th October 2024. You will receive an emailing confirming your place on the module.
If you would like to register for the module in semester 1, you will need to be referred by your Director of Studies. They will need to complete the referral form and email it to Richard Paterson (r.paterson@westminster.ac.uk). Once you have been referred, you will be contacted to make sure that the module is right for you.
The individual sessions will be organised at mutually convenient times between the Module Leader and students during the second semester.
The module will be repeated in Semester 2 of 2024-25.
The taught group sessions will take place on the following dates from 2pm- 4pm. All classes will take place online via Microsoft Teams.
The semester 2 referral deadline is 5pm, 20th January 2025.
Week 1 28th January 25
Week 2 4th February 25
Week 3 11th February 25
Week 4 18th February 25
Week 5 25th February 25
Week 6 4th March 25
Week 7 11th March 25
The university also provides support around writing through the Academic Engagement and Learning Development Team. One to one sessions and Postgraduate Cafes are available through them. Information on all they offer can be found here
DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY
A new programme of sessions designed for doctoral researchers is set to run in 2024-25. More information will be published soon.
LITERATURE SEARCHING
28th October 2024
OR
4th March 2025
Not sure where to look for literature? Overwhelmed by endless, useless search results? Trying to read but nothing’s sinking in? Confused by your own notes that you spent ages writing? Don’t worry, help is at hand!
In this interactive workshop, we will show you various literature search tools and other resources that you have access to at Westminster and beyond. You will learn tips and tricks to use these to your advantage and find relevant sources for your PhD. You will discover reading techniques that will help you work through your reading pile effectively and efficiently. You will also learn note-taking tips that will help you extract the crucial information from the literature in a way that it can be smoothly integrated into your writing.
Learning Outcomes:
• By the end of this session you will be able to:
• Decide where to search
• Develop a search strategy
• Filter your search results to isolate the most relevant
• Use effective reading techniques
• Use effective note-taking techniques
• Know where to get further support
CRITICAL THINKING AND ARGUMENTATION
25th November 2024
OR
27th March 2025
To achieve a PhD you will need to master critical thinking. The workshop will review definitions and descriptions of critical thinking and will discuss how (and if) the notion of critical thinking changes across disciplines and according to the ontologies and epistemologies of different research philosophies.
The workshop will provide tools for critically analysing and evaluating information. Special attention will be given to the analysis and evaluation of research methods considering, among other things, sample representativeness and confirmation bias.
The workshop will help you demonstrate critical thinking in your academic writing by reaching conclusions from evidence, creating meaning, contributing to knowledge and presenting your arguments effectively.
This online workshop will be delivered in a friendly and interactive format, and we will welcome your questions and contributions!
EFFECTIVE USE OF SOURCES IN YOUR WORK
28th November 2024
OR
20th March 2025
Integration and synthesis of sources in postgraduate writing requires greater skill than at undergraduate level. One must master the literature within a given field, rank and organize sources in relation to one’s research question and deploy those sources strategically and judiciously, emphasizing crucial works and glancing over others. This session looks (briefly) at how to organise one’s research harvest, how to signpost the logical relationships between pieces of evidence and how to rhetorically integrate academic works into one’s presentation.
CREATING and MANAGING EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS for YOUR RESEARCH
20 November 2024
OR
TBC May 2025
In this workshop, we will discuss how we can best network with our colleagues, peers, publishers, funders, as well as the beneficiaries of our research and the wider public. Networking is all about building valuable relationships that can sustain and support us in our research journey. We will use this workshop as a space for you to develop your own individualised plan around networking, a plan that is tailored to your goals, needs, skills, and resources.
Through structured reflection both individually and as a group, we will help you identify your reasons for engaging in networking, the people and types of audiences you’d like to network with, as well as best practices for developing these relationships, from using social media and email, to striking up conversations in conferences, to presenting your research in a variety of venues, to building a public profile.
Please bring your laptop and, if you have time before the workshop, please reflect on your reasons for wanting to network more (or more effectively) and on the obstacles that you’re facing when doing so.
ACADEMIC VOICE AND LANGUAGE
4th December 2024
OR
3rd April 2025
What is a good academic writing style for your PhD? How can your writing add value and achieve depth while being clear and accessible? How can your writing be formal and sophisticated without sounding too dry and mechanical? What are the right levels of abstraction and concreteness?
This session will discuss these and other questions on academic language and voice.
The workshop will be delivered in a friendly and interactive format so we will welcome your questions and contributions!
DEFYING WRITER’S BLOCK: Using Mind maps to generate, visualize and structure ideas
12th December 2024
OR
18th March 2025
A mind map helps generate ideas before you make a formal plan and can reveal themes, gaps and links between ideas. This workshop will help you to develop a mind map on key words or themes so that you can use it as raw material for your earliest thinking and research. Mind maps are also a fantastic way to get started without the pressure of producing beautiful sentences, as such they can be highly beneficial in defying writer’s block. Additionally, they can also become the basis for creating a possible structure for your ideas!
Lunch will be available at these workshops at 12:30pm and will be followed by an optional Drop In Q&A session with members of the Academic Engagement Librarians Team.
WRITING FOR JOURNALS
These on-line workshops are for PhD researchers who want to develop a strategic approach to their publishing. Three weekly workshops explore benefits and challenges associated with developing a more strategic approach to publishing. They include a series of activities, guided reflection, discussion, and advice to help participants’ develop a writing and publication strategy which reflects their personal and career objectives. Workshop 1 will consider the benefits and pitfalls associated with writing in collaboration. Workshops 2 and 3 will explore approaches identifying and selecting appropriate journals and then delving deeper into the conventions and existing debates within those journals.
Week 1: Writing in collaboration or alone
25th February 2025
- How do we write?
- Exploring norms in different subject areas/specialisms
- Discussing the advantages and disadvantages of writing with supervisors or colleagues
- Collaborative writing – approaches to setting out the rules/norms
Week 2: Targeting and researching your journal
4th March 2025
- Understanding journal ranking
- Thinking about your research strategy – what are your personal objectives? What other factors are relevant?
- Starting to explore journals and select a shortlist.
Week 3:
Developing your message and a preliminary structure for your work
11th March 2025
- Selecting your journal
- Exploring the conventions of that journal
- Starting to design a paper specifically for that journal
- Reflections and feedback
WRITING YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW
11th March 2025
The main purpose of a literature review is to situate new research (to be described in detail later), within the existing body (or bodies) of published knowledge. This requires the author to first undertake an analysis of all the relevant earlier and current research. This analysis is concerned with first describing the established knowledge, and then with identifying and articulating the earlier and current debates, inconsistencies, and tensions in the published work.
The analysis is followed by a synthesis, in which the new research is integrated creatively with the existing knowledge. This requires the development of arguments for justifying the new research undertaking, in terms of its contribution to progress in the field. Given that there are no precedents for the new research being described, this necessitates a greater presence of the author’s unique ‘voice’ in the writing.
Whilst the literature review in journal papers may be relatively brief in some academic disciplines, in a thesis it is always a more comprehensive undertaking. This requires the researcher to work continuously, in terms of planning and writing the review. Initially this may begin as an annotated bibliography, but later on it takes the form of an outline review that will be revised, edited and updated continuously as the research progresses.
This on-line presentation will describe how to write a literature review in five stages, and examples will be shown of reviews from different disciplines. In addition it will provide information and examples of some of the pitfalls that have been observed in reviews from the perspective of the reader (i.e. examiner/peer reviewer).
UNDERTAKING FIELD WORK/DATA COLLECTION – AN INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
24th April 2025
When undertaking data collection/fieldwork through, for example, interviews or questionnaires, we are interacting with our informants. These interactions could be on-site or on-line. The willingness of our informants to contribute, the way in which they will interpret our questions and answer them, as well as a myriad of ethical aspects will be influenced by their cultural background. You might be doing fieldwork in a culture you are very familiar with or one that you know only from a distance. At the same time, the way you are framing and phrasing your questions or request for information is influenced by your own cultural background (and that of your supervisory team). This workshop is designed to help you reflect on these important aspects, in order to fully consider cultural perspectives and their implications for your fieldwork. The workshop is open to all doctoral students preparing for their data collection who have already submitted or are about to submit their ethics application.
WRITING RETREATS
Writing retreats are a fantastic opportunity for researchers to concentrate on writing in a supportive atmosphere in a way that can increase both productivity and confidence. The DRDP supports two different kinds of writing retreat – residential and on campus.*
Both kinds of writing retreat follow the model of the structured-writing retreat (Murray and Newton, 2009), and are facilitated by colleagues who have been trained in this method. The retreats are designed around a well-being model, and the aim is to provide and enforce writing time in a relaxed, supportive and peaceful environment. The group writes together, during prescribed time-slots.
The residential writing retreats are held twice each academic year (December and July). There will be 10 places available for doctoral students. Travel costs (train/taxi) will be reimbursed after the retreat.
Instructions on how to apply for the residential retreats will go out via email in the middle of the first semester for the December retreat and early summer for the summer retreat.
WINTER RESIDENTIAL WRITING RETREAT 2024-25
ON-CAMPUS WRITING DAYS
These take place monthly throughout the academic year. Lunch will be included. You can book as many of these as you wish.
If you cannot attend in person, you can book to join in online. Simply select the online option booking page in Inkpath.
- 11th October 2024
- 8th November 2024
- 6th December 2024
- 14th February 2025
- 14th March 2025
- TBC April 2025
- 16th May 2025
- 26th June 2025
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Where foreign language proficiency is deemed essential for carrying out doctoral research projects, the University will facilitate relevant training through Polylang, the university’s open language programme, which is open to all students as well as to members of staff, our alumni community and members of the public. All levels are catered for, from beginner to advanced. Doctoral researchers should seek advice from their Director of Studies and discuss support needs with their School DRDP Coordinator.
You may also want to learn a language beyond the demands of your doctoral research, but if you wish to learn a language beyond your research, you will need to cover the fees yourself.
For more information on what Polylang offers, see here.