Open workshops

This workshop is open to all part-time 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

So, you’ve got an assignment due, and naturally you want to do your very best.  While you’ve written assignments before, have you ever stopped to think about how you go about planning them? 

In this session we’ll spend some time thinking about the planning stage.  Even if you already have your own way of going about this, it is always helpful to spend some time reflecting on what is working well and what could be done more efficiently.  This workshop will give you some things to consider.  

This workshop does not include:

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

Your aissgnment is due, and even though you’ve done the research, you’re finding it difficult to get started on the writing stage.  Rest assured, this is a very common problem, and it can be overcome. In this session we’ll spend some time thinking about starting to write and how to get words on paper.  Even if you already have your own way of going about this, it is always helpful to spend some time reflecting on what is working well and what could be done differently.  This workshop will give you some things to consider for the writing stage.  

This workshop does not include:

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

As a Masters student, you need to be critical… but how? And what exactly does it mean?

This friendly, interactive online workshop will give you some starter ideas on how to take a more critical approach to thinking generally for your masters.

Students are encouraged to ask questions and voice opinions during the workshop.

Students are asked to think about what ‘being critical’ means to them.

This workshop does not include:

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

As a masters student, you will have probably been asked to demonstrate critical thinking in your assignments. But what does this mean and how do you do it?

This interactive online workshop will give you some tips and strategies on how to practice and communicate critical thinking in your assignments.

It would be useful for students to have an awareness of their marking criteria and any feedback they have had from previous assignments.

Students are encouraged to comment and ask questions during the workshop.

This workshop does not include:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice

What does your supervisor mean when they tell you that your literature review is ‘too descriptive’ or ‘not critical enough’? How can you challenge or discuss the limitations of published work – does that mean you should be criticising it? In this workshop, we address these questions by exploring how ‘critiquing’ is based on a mindset that sits at the heart of scholarship.

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.

Writing ‘critically’ is a key academic requirement. How do you make sure your writing meets that expectation? In this workshop you will explore aspects of critical thinking that are central to academic discourse, and learn how to demonstrate critical engagement in 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.

The amount of reading you need to do for a Masters can be overwhelming. There’s a lot of information from a lot of sources that you will need to read, digest and then use to build your argument. Students often want to know how to speed read to get through it all. But is it about reading quicker or reading more effectively? And do you really need to read everything?

This workshop will focus on:

• Identifying the different purposes of reading
• Ways to prioritise reading
• Strategies for effective reading and note making

This workshop does not include:

• How to search for readings or literature
• Subject or discipline specific advice
• English Language advice

These sessions are designed for new online learners, but if you're in your Second or Third year, you're welcome to join.

The sessions will cover accessing and using Library resources. Before the session, you might find it useful to view information for online and distance learning (ODL) students: https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/using-library/library-services-odl

Learning outcomes – as a result of this session, you will:

• Know how to discover and find the resources available via the Library, including resources related to your subject area
• Know how to get your hands on readings and how to access full text articles or books from references you already know about
• Know techniques for planning your research and finding new publications on a topic.

If you find writing a challenge, you are not alone. There are a number of difficulties, but many writers find that their biggest problem is simply getting started.

In this friendly, interactive online session we will introduce some strategies that can help you to get started with your academic writing:

• Critical reading and thinking
• An example of clear academic writing
• Free writing

During this session, there will be some short tasks to complete, so make sure you have some paper and a pen/pencil handy.

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

Time. It’s the one thing noone ever seems to have enough of. It’s our most precious resource and yet we only seem to be happy when we’re wasting it!?  

Sometimes we can control how we spend our time and sometimes it is dictated to us; but in many ways the key to our academic and professional success is how we choose to use the time that we have.  

This focused webinar will provide you with some tools and ideas to help you to: 

• Reflect on your current actions and priorities

• Behave efficiently as well as effectively and so manage your time more productively.

• Prioritize and place your focus in appropriate areas

Are you a taught postgraduate student working on your assignments or dissertation? Or trying to write for publication?  Would you like an opportunity to be able to learn some writing techniques, and have create some time to practise them? 

The aim of the ‘writing bootcamp’ is to facilitate a time for you to write without the distractions of emails, Facebook, twitter and everyday life. 

The session will begin with a short Bitesize style workshop to offer advice on writing techniques and motivate you to write. Following this you will have a writing session.  No distractions, just writing. 

Thinking of signing up? You’ll need to do any necessary preparation before attending the mini writing bootcamp (guidance will be sent out prior to the session). 

As places are limited please only book a place if you are able to attend the session in full. 

This highly interactive and fast paced workshop will explore the key skills necessary to help you communicate your research to both academic and non-specialist audiences. We’ll focus on the latest research in communication studies and also explore what connects both online and offline. We’ll watch keynote TED talks and examine why the speakers succeed and what keeps us on the edge of our seats intellectually and emotionally.

As a Masters student and researcher you will need to engage a variety of audiences for a successful career(s).

This workshop will help you:

1. Build your core communication skills and confidence.

2. Prepare you for reviews, seminars and future conference presentations both on and offline.

3. Be a little more challenging, dynamic and engaging.

Finally we’ll help you explore your strengths as a professional presenter and create a short action plan for future presentations.

You will be expected to produce significant pieces of academic writing for your Masters e.g. reports, essays and your dissertation! They are a major investment of time and effort, so it is worth spending time polishing it by properly proofreading and editing.

This interactive online session will introduce useful tips and strategies to help you incorporate effective proof-reading and editing into your writing process.

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.

Most students know that they need to ‘reference’ in their academic work using a particular style. You may even have to use different systems for different courses. But what is it? How do you do it? And when do you do it?

This workshop is for students who are unfamiliar with or would like a basic reminder about referencing. We will look at:

• What referencing is
• When to do it
• How to do it
• Resources for referencing

This session is informal, friendly and includes discussion, and you are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues. It will include some short practical activities.

This workshop will not cover:

• OSCOLA/Edinburgh Law Review systems - there is specific support available from the Law School
• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice

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

A Masters programme is an intensive and demanding period. You have to fit a lot of challenging work in around your life, your work, your family etc. and try to keep the momentum going.

This online, interactive workshop aims to give you practical tips and strategies to working effectively during your masters.

Participants are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues they would like to discuss.

Pre-coursework

Participants are asked to think of their main challenges when it comes to time management – and be prepared to tackle it!

This workshop does not include:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice
• English Language advice

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.

Moving from essays and assignments to larger based project work such as dissertations can often feel like a step into the unknown. This workshop will help to clarify dissertation/project expectations and provide practical strategies that you can use to optimise your dissertation experience. Specifically it will cover:

• What does a dissertation/project look like?

• How do I choose a topic?

• How do I write a literature review?

• How do I bring everything together into a coherent thesis?

This session will not cover:

• Subject or discipline-specific advice

• English Language advice

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.