Academic English support and workshops

Develop your confidence in using academic English with our free workshops, courses and advice appointments that you can attend alongside your studies.

The Language Zone also provides free support, activities and resources to help you improve your English language skills independently.

Support for undergraduate and Masters students

Workshops and webinars

Skills@Library offers free workshops and webinars to all undergraduate and Masters students.

If you use English as a foreign or second language, these workshops will help you to revise key language points and develop your confidence in writing clearly and successfully.

Academic English support from your School

Your School may offer workshops and academic English support specific to your area of study.

Find out about workshops and learning opportunities from your school.

Advice appointments

Book an appointment with a Learning Advisor who will work with you to develop your academic skills and strategies on a range of topics, including academic writing, critical thinking and finding information.

Writing Space

Our Writing Space is an informal space for you to work on assessments and develop strategies for improving your academic writing.

Our friendly student academic writing mentors can help you to get started on your written assignments. There is no need to book – just turn up.

Online academic skills resources

In addition to workshops, Skills@Library has online resources and materials that can help you with writing essays and reports.

Discovery theme modules (undergraduates only)

If you're an undergraduate student whose first language is not English (and you have not previously studied in an English-speaking country), you can choose to study one of the following modules to develop your skills:

  • English for Academic Study
  • English for Communication
  • English through Interpersonal Communication
  • Language through Literature and Place: Reading Yorkshire
  • Using Writing

You will find these modules under the subject 'English Language Unit'. Find out more about discovery modules.

Support for postgraduate researchers

During your first year of study (pre-transfer and ideally in the first six months), you can take optional courses or workshops to help with your academic English language development.

Core language skills workshops

We offer the following core language skills workshops throughout the year. Each workshop is two hours long.

  • Grammar review A
  • Grammar review B (to be completed after Grammar review A)
  • Writing purposefully
  • Working with words
  • Becoming a doctoral researcher 
  • Reading critically to write critically
  • Reading to improve writing
  • What is proofreading?
  • Speaking about your research

Book your place on a workshop

Core language skills courses

We run the following six-week language skills courses througout the year. Courses consist of a weekly one-hour class and fortnightly individual writing consultations.

  • Academic Writing Skills course level 1 
  • Academic Writing Skills course 2 (Science)
  • Academic Writing Skills course 2 (Arts)

Book your place on a course

One-to-one writing appointments

Book an individual advice appointment with an academic writing tutor to discuss a writing issue.

International students