Upcoming workshops

Preparing for your assignments: workshop series

We’re running online workshops in term one to help you develop key skills needed to excel in your assignments. Our workshops are here to try and demystify key academic skills and provide practical ways of approaching them.

All session are online and will be recorded. Suitable for undergraduates and postgraduate taught students.

Reading and notetaking

This workshop will consider different strategies for reading effectively and taking active and useful notes for your assignments. 

Thursday 16 October, 12:00 - 12:45 (UK time)

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Getting started with your research strategy

This informal session looks at how search strategies can provide a handy structure to your research. We’ll explore breaking down a topic into keywords, exploring alternatives and how to use search operators to make database searches easier. 

Wednesday 22 October, 13:00 - 13:45 (UK time)

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Critical thinking for your assignments

This workshop will explore how to apply critical thinking to your assignments. It will cover:

  • What is ‘critical thinking’ and why is it important?
  • Structure and analysis of arguments
  • Creating strong arguments in written work

Wednesday 29 October, 13:00 - 13:45 (UK time)

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Planning an assignment

In this mini workshop we'll look together at how a student at the University of Birmingham plans their essays to give us some inspiration.

Wednesday 5 November, 13:00 - 13:45 (UK time)

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How to paraphrase

This workshop will look at the role of sources and reporting verbs in your writing and practice paraphrasing using a few simple steps.

Thursday 13 November, 12:00 - 12:45 (UK time)

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Writing concisely

This session will cover six methods that you can use to write concisely in an academic way. You will have opportunities to practice some of these and get feedback during the session.

Thursday 20 November, 12:00 - 12:45 (UK time)

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Commenting on the evidence

In this mini workshop we’ll be taking a closer look at what makes a really strong paragraph and how we can comment on things that we have read in interesting, analytical and evaluative ways.

Wednesday 26 November, 13:00 - 13:45 (UK time)

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Using Generative AI for study

This workshop is a great introduction to GenAI tools and how they can be used to enhance your study and learning. You’ll also have a better awareness of the risks and limitations of using these tools, whilst ensuring that you maintain academic integrity.

Thursday 4 December, 12:00 - 12:45 (UK time)

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Exams and revision

This workshop will help you prepare for your exams whether you're taking them remotely or in-person. It will help reflect on your own approaches to revision, consider different strategies for revising, and ensure you’re prepared on the day.

Wednesday 10 December, 13:00 - 13:45 (UK time)

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Research skills for dissertations

Research skills for dissertations

This online workshop, open to all UG and PGT students, will cover how to access and use key resources for your dissertation including journals, databases and other relevant sources of information. It will also cover the key principles of referencing so that you can confidently cite your sources correctly. It will be recorded.

Wednesday 12 November, 13:00 - 14:00 (UK time)

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PGT workshops

For workshops designed for postgraduate taught students, please see our schedule of support on our PGT workshops page.

Other workshops

Birmingham Scholars

The ASC run workshops for Birmingham Scholars. If you are a Birmingham Scholar you will have access to the following Canvas course and will be able to find information about our workshops.

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