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'Academic language … is no one's mother tongue'

(Bourdieu and Passeron, 1994: 8).

Academic Language Webinars are designed to help you with the language needed in a range of academic communication contexts. Attendance counts towards the Training and Development component of your RED Award. 

Practical advice which can be directly applied in writing an assignment.

Masters student. Henley Business School.

I was looking for some guidance with citing texts in my literature review. And this webinar was just what I needed. I think I'm much better equipped now to write a better literature review.

PhD student. Politics, Economics and International Relations.

The exercises were dynamic and kept me interested in the session.
Post-doc researcher, Mathematical, Physical and Computational Science.
Excellent support for students at any stage of their university studies.
A master's student on the 'Writing Critically - a focus on language' webinar, Autumn 2020.

Sign up a for an Academic Language Webinar

To sign up for webinars, you need to enrol on the Academic English Programme Hub Blackboard Organisation

To request access to the Academic English Hub, please complete this form.  You will need to be signed into your University account.

Academic Language Webinars

Grammar 
 
  • argue, argued, have argued - three important verb tenses in academic communication.
 
  • Writing successful sentences (1): Focus on structure and accuracy
 
  • Writing successful sentences (2): Linking your ideas
 
  • Writing successful sentences (3): Relative clauses
 
  • the or a or zero? - effective article use
 
  • Noun Phrases: the building blocks of academic texts
 
  • The passive - when to and when not to use it
 
  • may, might, can, could, should ... - An overview of modal verbs
 
  • Reporting Verbs

Open Grammar for webinar descriptions and details.

 

Vocabulary
 
  • Improve your Academic Vocabulary (1): Growing your Academic Vocabulary size
 
  • Improve your Academic Vocabulary (2): Using an online English Dictionary
 
  • Collocations: Finding the right words as you write

Open Vocabulary (PDF, 135KB) for webinar descriptions and details.

 

 

Building Blocks of Writing
 
  • Writing critically - focus on language
 
  • Language for Academic Integrity (1): Avoiding plagiarism
 
  • Language for Academic Integrity (2): Language for citing and referencing sources
 
  • Language for Academic Integrity (3): Language for paraphrasing and summarising
 
  • Language for synthesising sources
 
  • Language for writing definitions
 
  • Language for flow and clarity: writing coherent and cohesive texts
 
  • Successfully editing and proofreading your written work

Open Building Blocks of Writing (PDF, 177KB) for webinar descriptions and details.

 

Writing Genres
 
  • Not Just Essays: Types of university writing - a genre overview
 
  • Language for Effective Essay Writing
 
  • Language for Reflective Writing
 
  • Language for Writing up Experiments
 
  • University emails - communicating appropriately and effectively

Open Writing Genres (PDF,133KB) for webinar descriptions and details.

 

 

Dissertation Writing

 
 
  • Dissertations: Language for The Literature Review (all disciplines)
 
  • Dissertations: Language for Methods (STEM & Social Sciences)
 
  • Dissertations: Language for Results (STEM)
 
  • Dissertations: Language for Results (Social Sciences)
 
  • Dissertations: Language for Discussion (all disciplines)

Open Dissertation Writing (PDF,134KB) for webinar descriptions and details.

N.B. You can sign up for these webinars if you are a third-year undergraduate student doing a final Dissertation, a master's student doing a Research Project or Dissertation, or a PhD student.

 

Eligibility:

This year, these courses are open to all international/EU University of Reading students from campuses in the UK and beyond (e.g. Malaysia and South Africa).

Online courses for self-enrolment

A range of online academic writing courses designed for independent learning. These courses contain a mix of short video input and guided tasks you can work through at your own pace.

Consultations for writing and presentations

 Meet with our experienced academic language tutors, on a one-to-one basis, for individual advice and feedback on your academic writing or speaking,

Spoken language courses

Live spoken language courses to help you develop your confidence, fluency and accuracy when speaking.