English Language Support

Develop your academic writing and English language skills through courses and study materials designed for international students.

What is it?

This short course commencing in Week 1 is provided specifically for MSc students in the School of Biological Sciences. The course provides self-access materials to help improve your academic writing skills for your programme, and provides the opportunity to submit your writing for feedback.

What do I need to do?

You will be required to write a short essay (broken down into three sections each of which is a separate assignment) set by your Programme Director. You will be supported in doing this by English Language Education tutors before being given feedback on your final essay by someone in your programme.

Why is this useful?

This course gives you feedback on your strengths and areas you may need to improve on as a writer within the context of your programme. It is non-credit bearing.

Who and how do you register?

The course is available to students on certain MSc programmes. You will automatically be enrolled on this programme in Learn if you are taking one of the participating programmes. 


What is it?

This workshop explores how to create a clear, concise and stylistically appropriate Research Project Proposal. You will examine the expectations of the assessor, how to create a reader-friendly structure and narrative flow, integrate graphics and synthesise the literature to support your proposal.

Who and how do you register?

This workshop is available to all SBS MSc students. You will receive an email a few weeks before the workshop is due to take place. The workshop usually takes place in March. 


What is it?

The 1-1 writing tutorials give students some writing help and advice prior to writing their dissertations. Students will have the opportunity to share and discuss writing feedback that they have had on assignments and to explore ways in which they might improve their writing.

The dissertation writing workshops is an in-person workshop to help students in preparing to write their dissertation. 

Who and how do you register?

These sessions are available to all SBS MSc students. You will receive an email a few weeks before the 1-1 tutorials and the workshop are due to take place. These sessions usually take place at the start of June. Please note there are a limit on the number of individual 1-1 tutorials that are available. 


Further courses offered by English Language Education

The University’s English Language Education centre offers a number of English language courses. Details of the courses can be found on the ELE website.


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