Meet Yiru, Gerard, Sujing and Art and find out how our academic language and communications skills services have helped them during their studies at the university.
We'd encourage you to read all the profiles, but you can also use these links to go to a specific profile:
Yiru Mao
Yiru is from China and studying an MA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the School of Education.
Yiru has taken multiple courses with us as well as booking one-to-one consultations and using our drop-in sessions for further support.
Academic languages and communications skills courses taken
- Academic Writing (for TESOL)
- Academic Writing: Synthesising Sources
- Academic Writing: Planning an Assignment
How have the courses helped with your degree studies?
I have gained a deeper and clearer understanding of the usage of academic writing vocabulary, sentence structure, and the organisation of essays, which has eased my confusion in subsequent paper writing and significantly increased my writing efficiency.
What has been the best part of the courses?
Teachers in the classroom combine theory with practice, by having us engage in hands-on exercises, both oral and written, to further stimulate our thinking and gain a deeper understanding of certain concepts. In addition to this, the teacher has provided me with a lot of guidance during class, as well as a wealth of resources outside of class, such as useful websites and books, which include an abundance of academic writing resources.
How did your tutors support you on course?
My tutors are very responsible. In our tutorials, we discussed my thesis outline in detail, which gave me a clearer idea for writing each section. In addition to this, they also provided me with extra advice on references, which made my thesis more substantiated. Whenever I encountered problems during the writing process, I would email them, and they would reply promptly, resolving my doubts. Overall, I am very grateful for all the help I have received from every tutor.
How did you use your one-to-one consultation time, what sort of work did you require help you with?
When I first started writing papers, I had very little confidence in my work. I was particularly worried about formal issues, such as citations, so I scheduled a one-to-one consultation. During the consultations, the tutors made detailed corrections to a portion of my writing, including grammar, word usage, and logical structure. They also explained these issues to me carefully, which gave me a clearer understanding of them and helped me avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
Gerard Celpa Fredes
Gerard is from Chile and studying a Master of Business and Administration (MBA) in Nottingham University Business School.
Gerard has supported his degree studying by completing the Effective Academic Presentation course.
How has the course helped with your degree studies?
The course gave me a global perspective on how I can design an effective academic presentation, from making a potent introduction to capturing the audience’s attention, highlighting key points and messages, and giving a conscious conclusion. Finally, the Q&A stage is also a crucial part of the presentation because it allows us to open the discussion and start to have a dialogue with the audience.
What has been the best part of the courses?
This course’s framework was not a typical lesson where you have to sit and start to pay attention to the tutor, and that part was my favourite. The tutor presented us with different cases, and we had the opportunity to analyse, discuss and acquire knowledge from them. Additionally, this course encouraged us to share our experiences and knowledge in order to apply them in a practical way for our future presentations.
How did your tutors support you on course?
I felt supported by my tutor in three different aspects. First of all, she always encouraged us to participate in the lesson in a very kind way that allowed us to share our opinions in a friendly and safe environment. Additionally, I received fantastic material in terms of theoretical approaches and applying them in a practical way. Finally, we also reviewed real presentation cases that allowed us to identify the risks and opportunities to improve our further presentations.
Why do you think students should take an academic language and communications skills course?
I believe students should take these courses because not only they can learn some specific content or subject, they also will have opportunities to develop their communication skills, improve their English and acquire other perspectives and points of view related to the topic selected.
Sujing Qian
Sujing is from China and studying an MA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in the School of Education.
Sujing has taken multiple academic language and communication skills courses, and also booked consultations for one-to-one support.
Academic languages and communications skills courses taken
- Academic Writing: Planning an Assignment
- Academic Writing: Synthesising Sources
- Academic Writing: Achieving Clarity
- Academic Writing: Grammatical Accuracy
- Academic Vocabulary Skills
- Effective Academic Reading
How have the courses helped with your degree studies?
I used to have little experience in academic writing and never had the opportunity to have professional academic writing training. After two terms taking academic writing courses, I acquired basic knowledge about academic writing, improved my writing skills and do not panic about English writing any more.
What has been the best part of the courses?
The best part of the courses...I must say the tutors. They are really lovely, patient and experienced. They prepare each lesson with their greatest effort and are always ready to help. Each week I completed my course, I got a feeling of fulfillment and I could clearly see my progress with academic writing.
How did your tutors support you on course?
Our tutors supported us by teaching us how to do academic writing from the very beginning. They taught us how to select appropriate materials to read, how to do reading effectively, the differences between general writing and academic writing, and so on. They also taught us new knowledge with supportive practice. In addition, the tutors supported us not only on delivering the course content, but also in helping students build confidence in language learning. I can remember one of my tutors once said, “you are good, you are excellent, believe in yourself and I believe in you, too!”
Why do you think students should take an academic language and communications skills course?
As international students, we are not familiar with the British style of academic writing but even students with English as their first language may not be good at writing academic papers. The academic language and communication skills courses are an excellent place for every student in the university to get assistance about academic learning. Since they are available to all university students for free, why not give it a try and enhance your study experiences.
How did you use your one-to-one consultation time, what sort of work did you require help you with?
I used to send part of my assignment writing to the consultation tutors for language improvement and advice. The tutors read my writing carefully and sent me their feedback before our meetings, so that I had enough time to go through my writing and discuss effectively with tutors within the limited time. They also offer me fresh and creative ideas sometimes that I can develop in my writing. With their help, I think I have become more confident and improved my academic writing skills consistently.
Art Adam
Art is from Thailand and is a PhD student in the School of Life Sciences.
Art has taken the Academic Vocubulary Skills course.
How have the course helped with your research work?
The course has enhanced my skills for choosing appropriate words for my academic writing.
What was been the best part of the course?
In my opinion, the best part was the task that asked us to make suggestions to improve an article because it showed how to implement class content in a similar way to real situations.
How did your tutor support you on course?
My class tutor was always open to the ideas of students and gave suggestions rather than judging. They also promoted active participation by encouraging discussion between students.
Why do you think students should take an academic language and communications skills course?
The courses provide many effective opportunities to enhance essential English skills. As English isn’t my first language, the course I took made English less frustrating for me.