Mentors run informal workshops on seminars and presentation skills. Three second year mentor students organised one such workshop on Essay writing for the first year students. The organisers took only twenty minutes for their presentation and they stressed on the expected structure of an essay. First year students are required to submit essays on the topics assigned by the tutors in certain courses. Normally essays should be of 200 words and typed. According to them the introduction of an essay should to be 10-20%, main body of the essay 70-80% and conclusion should be 10% of the total content of the essay. They also stressed on writing of the bibliography by Vancouver and Harvard methods. Maximum time was spent on the discussion, how to do referencing and search of resources for information through library and accessing the online journals and books.
I suppose this workshop was even before any particular assignment is given. But, when specific assignments are given and students have to submit the essays for evaluation where do they go to get guidence on writing? Mentors would be different than writing centre.
ReplyDeleteIt is noteworthy that so much importance is given to the bibliography. But, in the photographs very few students appear. Seems a smaller workshop and, because of it, may be more effective.
No, This workshop was conducted on last Wednesday. Here at Sussex, the course outline,time table,course contents,assignments,assessment and its schedule,contact person (Tutor)are mentioned in the "Study Direct" of the respective courses in the beginning of the term/academic year. After the admission to the course, the student gets the access to the study direct.I have seen students prepare their assignments and first meet the concerned tutors. As per the tutors' suggestions they meet mentors or academic advisors if required.
ReplyDeleteMentors deal with the subject matter. Academic advisors may guide them to seek the help of "Sussex Centre for Language Studies". This centre provides academic development support for the International students. The centre conducts workshops,The workshops will focus on academic and English language skills and include subjects such as note-taking, summarizing and paraphrasing, structuring an essay, understanding and writing essay titles, paragraphing, referencing and writing a bibliography, introductions and conclusions and advanced language skills. The centre also conducts writing workshops.The students will submit examples of their writing in advance, and as a group it will discussed, analysed and improved.