Academic Literacy

In this blog post, we will be sharing the results of our research into student preferences around one-to-one academic writing appointments post-pandemic. The Writing@Liverpool scheme was launched in 2019, with all appointments taking place in-person in the university library. All the writing tutors are current PhD students at the university and are able to offer appointments at times which fit in with their studies. The service was initially popular, with over 600 appointments being attended in the first semester. However, when Covid-19 arrived in March 2020 and appointments moved online via Microsoft Teams, there was a big drop in bookings. […]

This #Take5 post is brought to you from Ed Bickle from the LDU at Bournemouth University and Ralitsa Kantcheva, a Study Skills Adviser at Bangor University. They are reflecting on their involvement in one of ALDinHE’s CoP (Community of Practice  – see https://aldinhe.ac.uk/networking/communities-of-practice/): The Research CoP. The Research CoP is a group of LDers on diverse contracts who came together to support themselves as researchers in the field of Learning Development. Key words: collaborative writing, learning development research, autoethnography, non-hierarchical Reflecting on participation in our research collaborative writing project This blog post offers the reflections of an academic non-hierarchical research collaborative writing […]

This #Take5 is brought to you from Dr Chris Little. Chris is a Learning Developer and Teaching Fellow in Keele University’s Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence and serves on the editorial board of Innovative Practice in Higher Education. Chris writes about the journal – with a special focus on their new poster section. Publish Your Poster Presentations with Innovative Practice in Higher Education Innovative Practice in Higher Education (IPIHE) is an independent online journal currently, and very kindly, hosted at Staffordshire University. The journal is an opportunity for any colleagues in HE to share their innovations in delivering teaching […]

This #Take5 post if brought to you by Carina Buckley, Debbie Holley and Sandra Sinfield. It is their take on a conversation held at Solent – and digitally across the nation – focussing on the possibilities of teaching academic literacies online. The authors have re-visited their initial recollections, to bring the discussion more up to date in a world of Covid. Teaching academic literacies online: revisiting our webinar in light of Covid-19 The Webinar took the form of a ‘blended’ Panel discussion, with three panel members sitting with Carina at Solent and two joining online – and with ALDinHE colleagues […]

Reflections of a journal editor.   The Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (JLDHE) is  ALDinHE’s flagship publication – and as we near the end of the brilliant LD@3 which has replaced #aldcon this year we wanted to bring you news of JLDHE and the way it is changing. This blog post is brought to you by Alicja Syska, the Co-Lead Editor at the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, based at the University of Plymouth. After taking over the Journal and overseeing the revamping of its online platform, she wanted to share her reflections on the journey […]

This #Take5 post is a follow up to all the fruitful discussions recently held on the LDHEN list about the 12-steps of the narrative – and the different ways that they can help us to conceptualise writing – and how we might use that in our work with students. This very practical and instantly useful blog has been written by Heather Dyer a consultant with the Royal Literary Fund who uses The Hero’s Journey in her writing workshops with dissertation students. You’re a Hero on a Journey We’re hardwired to see stories in everything: a relationship, a thesis, a life. […]

This #Take5 blogpost has been produced by Dr. Tiffany Chiu and Dr. Olga Rodríguez Falcón This project was conducted at UEL 2017, where we intended to address a growing concern over student transferable academic skills for employability in higher education. It aimed to implement and evaluate a dialogic approach to embedding academic literacy skills into the subject curriculum. As researchers and practitioners in higher education, we have observed that, very often, students have found it challenging to generate ideas/strong arguments for their assignments and present them logically in writing. We devised a range of writing exercises which are informed by […]

The what, why and how of the RLF Consultant Fellowship Scheme By Cath Senker, RLF Consultant Fellow Place ‘professional writers in higher education institutions to offer writing support to all students.’[1] This is the inspired idea behind the Royal Literary Fund Fellowship scheme, which has been sending authors into universities since 1999 to offer one-to-one tutorials to students. And it’s proved extraordinarily successful. Why? Writers face several of the same challenges as students: how to develop an idea into a piece of writing; how to plan and structure it; and how to edit a rough draft, smoothing out the bumps […]

The Thesis Boot Camp Thank you to Heather Campbell for this #Take5 post Take twenty-six PhD students, keep them in a room for 24 hours over a weekend, feed them, water them, motivate them and encourage them, and what happens? They write. In fact, collectively they write over 200,000 words towards their theses. Here at Queen Mary University of London the Thinking Writing team have just completed our fourth Thesis Boot Camp and the event seems to be going from strength to strength. The premise of providing the time, space and motivation for PhD students to write may be a […]

Managing academic writing: how managerialism puts pressure on academics’ writing practices By Sharon McCulloch of the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University Writing is central to what academics do, mediating almost every aspect of their work, including research, teaching, administrative and service work as well as public engagement. Much has been written about student academic writing, but less is known about the range of writing that academics do these days and how this might be changing in light of changes in higher education such as marketization and the use of managerial principles in higher education. This #Take5 […]