Improve your academic writing and speaking skills during the session break. The workshops are free and open to all UTS students.
Mid-year Academic Skills Intensive Program
Intensive offerings in July 2023
From Wednesday 26 July to Friday 28 July, HELPS is offering a series of free sessions aimed at developing your academic writing and speaking skills.
Students must submit an application to join, as workshop places are limited!
To apply
Applications are now closed.
Improving academic writing skills: 26 to 28 July
On-campus and online schedule
WEDNESDAY 26 JULY | THURSDAY 27 JULY | FRIDAY 28 JULY | |
10.00am-11.00am | Workshop: Improving clarity in writing | Workshop: Planning and structuring your writing | Workshop: Writing critically |
11.00am-12.30pm | Writing practice session: Improving clarity in writing | Writing practice session: Planning and structuring your writing | Writing practice session: Writing critically |
Academic writing skills program description
Workshops:
Improve clarity in writing
This workshop will help you understand the core rules of sentence structures, which will allow you to start writing more clearly in your next assignment. You’ll also learn to identify and correct the most common errors in writing that lead to poor sentence construction.
Planning and structuring your writing
This workshop will examine how to analyse your assignment instructions in a way that will help you plan the structure of your assignment. We’ll discuss how to work out how many sections or how many paragraphs you’ll need in your assignment, and how to create great topic sentences that make it clear to the reader that you’re addressing all aspects of the task.
Writing critically
This workshop will focus on the differences between descriptive and critical writing, using practical examples. We’ll examine how to insert your voice into your writing to provide your own perspective on the topic, and give you some tips on what type of language to use when writing critically.
Writing practice sessions:
Improving clarity in writing
In this session, you will be doing exercises to improve your writing clarity with the support and guidance of a HELPS learning advisor. By the end of the session, you will have both the ability and confidence to express your thoughts on paper more clearly and academically.
Planning and structuring your writing
This session will give you the chance to analyse an example assignment to see how it is structured and what the writer has done to guide the reader through the text. You’ll also learn how to map the structure of an assignment, which is a very visual and useful way to plan the structure of your own writing.
Writing critically
This session will give you the chance to practise inserting your own voice into your writing. We’ll practise writing paragraphs that make clear to the reader what your perspective on the topic is, and how your perspective is based on evaluation of the evidence on the given topic.
Presentation skills programs: 26 to 27 July
Presentation skills - on Campus
WEDNESDAY 26 JULY | THURSDAY 27 JULY | |
2.00PM-3.30PM | Planning and structuring your presentation | Delivering effectively |
3.30PM-5.00PM | Creating engaging content | Putting it all together |
Presentation skills workshop description
Planning and structuring your presentation
This workshop will first discuss and then give you practice at planning a presentation that is clearly and logically structured in a way that helps your reader understand your main points.
Creating engaging content
What’s the point in giving a presentation if no one wants to listen to what you’re saying? This workshop will give practical strategies for creating content that engages your audiences and makes them want to listen to what you have to say.
Delivering effectively
This workshop will examine ways to reduce nerves and deliver your presentation confidently. We’ll also look at examples of various presenters to discuss what they do well and what they could improve on.
Putting it all together
Now that you’ve examined how to structure, present confidently and be more engaging, this workshop gives you the opportunity to practise and get feedback on what you’re doing well and what you need to keep working on.
Pronunciation and presentation skills for non-native English speakers -Online via Zoom
WEDNESDAY 26 JULY | THURSDAY 27 JULY | |
2.00PM-3.30PM | Pausing and chunking and starting a presentation | Word and sentence and delivering effectively |
3.30PM-5.00PM | How to be engaging with your voice and materials | Putting it all together |
Pronunciation and presentation skills workshop description:
Pausing and chunking and starting a presentation
Dividing information into chunks makes it easier for listeners to understand what you’re saying by highlighting information you think is most important. This workshop will give you the chance to practise when and where to pause and chunk your sentences to guide your listener.
In the second part of this session, we'll be looking at ways to plan and prepare for your presentations.
How to be engaging with your voice and materials
This session will cover the best techniques for delivering a presentation online to keep your audience engaged.
In the second part of this session, we'll discuss strategies for creating content that can capture your audience's attention for the duration of your presentation.
Word and sentence stress and delivering effectively
Using the voice to stress certain syllables in a word, and certain words in a sentence, is one of the most important speech tools used by English speakers to make pronunciation clearer and to communicate meaning. This workshop focuses on word and sentence stress, and gives you the chance to practise using stress to help convey the meaning of what is spoken.
In the second part of this session, this workshop will examine ways to reduce nerves and deliver your presentation confidently.
Putting it all together
Now that you have learned how to improve the clarity of your pronunciation, and how to create a more coherent and engaging presentation, practise and refined what you have learned and get personalised feedback.
How to apply?
Applications are now closed.
Please contact HELPS if you have any questions about the holiday programs or any other support programs.