Open workshops

Despite what you might believe, there is no great secret to creativity. All it requires is a brain and some techniques. You bring your brain, and I'll provide the techniques. I don't promise you'll be composing sonnets by the end of the session, but you will leave with some clear approaches to being more creative in your work.

Want more from your dissertation? Think about a publication!

Your dissertation requires a substantial amount of time and effort from you, so how can you get the most out of it? One way to make your dissertation work for you is to publish it. Many dissertations represent significant additions and advancements to their field. Publishing is a way to get your work noticed and can lead to surprising opportunities. And it doesn’t have to be just journal articles!

This 1 hour, online interactive workshop will discuss strategies for producing a range of publications from your dissertation. It is open to online and on-campus students.

This workshop does not include

• Referencing and formatting
• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice

This session will take place via blackboard collaborate (virtual classroom). Booking is required in order to receive the workshop link and further information about how to join the session.

This workshop is open to all postgraduate taught (PGT) students.

Getting started writing your dissertation can be a daunting task. It can be difficult to get started and really easy to put off! But no-one else can write your dissertation but you…

So how do you start, and maintain, writing your dissertation?

This online interactive session will give you practical strategies for thinking about writing, planning your writing and actually starting to write your dissertation.

This workshop does not include:

• Subject or discipline-specific referencing, formatting, or advice
• English Language advice

This workshop is open to all postgraduate taught (PGT) students.

A dissertation is a serious investment of time and energy. It is the defining feature of a Masters so it is worth thinking about what it is you really want to do with it and what you really want to get out of it.

This online interactive session will give you strategies to start thinking about the subject and focus of your dissertation as well as practical tips for project managing it. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues.

This workshop does not include:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice

As our careers grow and develop we can often find ourselves in positions where we have a great deal of responsibility and perhaps not too much authority.   This is where our ability to Lead and Influence becomes paramount. 

These elements come naturally to some, but they are just rules in a game that can be learned and assertively applied. 

This session will focus on building an understanding of how to effectively influence people around us.   We’ll also consider a few basic elements of how to lead in an authentic way – and not simply rely on a badge that says ‘in charge’.

This will be achieved through a blend of situation-based discussion, tutor input, paired work and real-life problem solving.

By the end of the session, participants will

• Have built a toolkit of influence skills and techniques.
• Understand how to assertively influence with confidence.
• Establish some rules and tools for leading, influencing and dealing with challenging individuals.

Cancelling: If you need to cancel your booking, please do so at the earliest opportunity and at least 3 working days before the event.  Someone else may be able to take your place, but we need time to contact them. Also, although you are not charged for an event, there are costs we incur (eg photocopying) which relate directly to places reserved.

What makes writing ‘academic’? Content (what you choose to include) and structure (how you organise it) are both key, and the two are closely related. In this workshop you will reflect on what research publications share in terms of content and structure, and explore how that affects your dissertation writing.

This interactive workshop is open to all PGT students and is not discipline-specific. You will be invited to engage and respond via the chat function, and encouraged to ask questions.

This workshop is open to all postgraduate taught (PGT) students.

A dissertation is a significant piece of academic writing and the defining feature of a Master’s degree, so it is worth taking time to consider your structure.

This interactive session will help you step back from the detail of your writing and take an overview of your dissertation.  It will suggest practical ways you can isolate the main themes of your work and develop a convincing order to present your ideas.  We will also discuss the purpose of key sections of academic dissertations.  

This session will not cover:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice
• Feedback on individual pieces of work
• Proof-reading or editing of individual pieces of work

This session will take place via blackboard collaborate (virtual classroom). Booking is required in order to receive the workshop link and further information about how to join the session.

In order for academic reading to be effective, it needs to be a combination of efficient (in terms of speed and retention), strategic (in terms of appropriately targeted) and critical.  This focused webinar will give you a number of tools to help you to read more quickly, more strategically and more critically.  

This workshop (and practice afterwards) will help you to increase your speed and effectiveness of reading.  You will learn practical tools to help refine and improve four key areas:  

Strategy – considering your reading strategy and learning some practical ways to improve information selection and absorption 

Speed - Techniques to increase speed of reading, and applying these with more dense and difficult material 

Criticism – Acquiring methods and questions to improve your critical reading strategies 

Consistency – Discover how to build consistent reading habits that will improve your efficiency, retention and recall.

Pre-coursework

There will a small amount of pre- coursework sent to you around two weeks before the course.  This will not take long and is nothing that you should not naturally be doing anyway.

This workshop does not include:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice

You were determined to start writing today – yet find yourself doing something else. Sounds familiar? In this workshop, we will look why so many doctoral students delay writing. You will work with some tools and exercises that bypass procrastination to help you start writing that review, chapter or paper.

This highly interactive workshop is open to all PGT students and is not discipline-specific – the techniques can be applied in any subject.

Participants will be required to engage with the session via the chat function, and encouraged to ask questions.

A literature review contextualises and motivates research; that makes it a key component of any publication. In this workshop, we take a step back and look at what’s involved in the process of developing a review. Keeping in mind the core qualities of a good review across disciplines, we will explore how you can approach relevant tasks without feeling overwhelmed.

This interactive workshop is open to all PGT students and is not discipline-specific. You will be invited to engage and respond via the chat function, and encouraged to ask questions.

When it comes to effective revision, what works and what doesn’t? This online workshop will focus on revision techniques that have been demonstrated to be effective and how you can use and adapt your current habits to incorporate them.  

This session is informal, friendly and includes discussion in a supportive atmosphere.  You are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues.

This workshop will not cover:

• Subject or discipline-specific examination formats
• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice
• Referencing

Are you prepared for your exams?  Do you want to improve your writing under pressure?  This trouble-shooting session will help you develop strategies to write more effective long answers in your exams.

This workshop will focus on:

• Strategies to practise during revision and to use in exams;
• Writing under pressure;
• Ways to break down questions;
• Answer planning techniques.

This session for undergraduates and taught postgraduates is informal and friendly. You are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues in a supportive atmosphere.

This workshop will not cover:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice
• Referencing

This online workshop will be an hour session focusing on how to manage your exams by improving your exam technique.

The session will focus on issues raised by participants and so could cover, for example, exam preparation and participation; i.e. how to cope with stress, practicing your exam technique and a review of exam strategies.

This session is suitable for any taught student who wants to improve their exam technique.

This session is open to all UG, PGT, PGR and Online Students who would like to get help or advice for using Endnote to keep a database of literature sources and create reference lists easily in essays and other written work.

Learning outcomes are tailored to fit your aims and queries submitted when you register, but sessions in the past have covered:

• Why use EndNote (or any bibliographic manager)
• Getting started
• Adding records to EndNote
  • Manually
  • Exporting from literature databases
  • Creating citations in Word from EndNote
    • Inserting citations and reference lists
    • Changing the formats of citations and reference lists
    • Added value – managing your literature sources
      • Attachments to records
      • Adding your research notes
      • Alternatives to EndNote

EndNote is installed on all on-campus open access computers (like the Library) but you can get your own copy of EndNote desktop version via the UoE Licence https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/computing/desktop-personal/software/main-software-deals/endnote    Comparison chart of EndNote and other bibliographic management software options http://www.docs.is.ed.ac.uk/mvm/BiblioManagersTable.pdf

This session is intended for all UG, PGT, PGR and Online Students who would like to get help or advice for using Zotero to keep a database of literature sources and create reference lists easily in essays and other written work.

Learning outcomes are tailored to fit your aims and queries submitted when you register, but sessions in the past have covered:

• Why use Zotero? (or any bibliographic manager)
• Getting started
  • Overview: browser, web and standalone options
  • Registration & installation
  • Intalling plugins
• Adding records
  • Manually
  • Importing pdfs and using watched folders
  • Exporting from literature databases
• Creating citations in Word
  • Inserting citations and reference lists into Word
  • Changing the formats of citations and reference lists
• Added value
  • Searching records & attached files
  • Adding your research notes
  • Organising into collections, sharing with groups, using tags
• Zotero: comparative strengths & weaknesses

 *Before* the workshop, you should

1. Sign up for a Zotero account https://www.zotero.org/user/register/

2. Download Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/download/

 3. Follow these video tutorials for getting started https://www.zotero.org/support/screencast_tutorials

 4. Try to use Zotero before the tutorial – you’ll get more out of the tutorial if you do.