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The University of Southampton
Doctoral College

Writing Support Sessions

We have teamed up with the University of Southampton Writing Centre to provide a number of sessions to support you with your writing!

These sessions will be held in computer rooms but you are welcome to bring along your own devices if you wish.

All sessions listed below are bookable via Gradbook.

Book now

The Writing Process

10:00 - 12:00, 11 May 2017
Highfield Campus

10:00 - 12:00, 25 May 2017Avenue Campus

All doctoral researchers must write, so let’s write well! This workshop will give you the chance to take a step back from the actual content of your thesis, and instead reflect on how this content should be expressed and communicated.

We’ll cover the writing process in all its stages, from planning and outlining to crafting and refining sentences, so whether you’ve got a full draft of your thesis or haven’t yet written a word, this workshop is there to help you become a better writer.

You can discuss drafts of your work with your peers, and help one another to refine your thesis-writing, but you’ll also be able to pick the brains of some of our specialist writing tutors from the Writing Centre.

Forming coherent arguments

16:00 - 18:00, 16 May 2017
Highfield Campus

As a doctoral researcher you deal with some pretty complicated stuff. With so many complex ideas flying around your head it’s sometimes difficult to take those ideas and properly express them.

This workshop will help you to organize your ideas, and transform them into clear, coherent arguments. We’ll explore how to develop evidence and data into academic arguments, and how to structure a thesis and its chapters around those arguments.

We’ll also examine the concept of arguments themselves. What makes a strong argument and what makes an argument weak? You’ll have the chance to talk through your work with your peers alongside experts from Writing Centre, and to apply these ideas to your written work during the session.

Literature Reviews

10:00 - 12:00, 18 May 2017
Highfield Campus

In the words of Sir Isaac Newton, we are all standing on the shoulders of giants. The literature review is the story of your own personal academic giants, and we know from experience that it’s the bane of many a doctoral researcher’s early years.

This workshop will help you to step up and tackle the literature review. We’ll look at how to take a huge body of work and summarise it concisely whilst keeping all the important bits in place. We’ll explore how to identify themes and patterns in research, and how to frame your own doctoral research in relation to these themes.

Finally, we’ll go through some top tips for getting to grips with the state of all the literature without having to read absolutely all the literature.

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