The Academic Writing Centre (AWC)

 

The Academic Writing Centre (AWC) provides one-on-one tutorials on essay writing. These are free and available to everyone, regardless of experience or grade average. Postgraduate students are very welcome as are undergraduate students. 

Students who need help with essays in Irish, can come during the following times:

Monday: 5pm - 7pm
Tuesday 11am -1pm 
Wednesday: 5pm - 7pm
Saturday: 11am - 1pm

What to expect from a session at the AWC?

You will work one-on-one with one of the AWC tutors, who are all postgraduate students at the University of Galway. The session will last approximately 45 minutes.

Together with the tutor, you will look at your recent work, which can be a current draft or a past assignment. You will discuss your ideas and the best way to express put them into words. Depending on your needs, you might work on the following areas:

·         Assignment structure

·         Use of secondary sources

·         Issues with the writing process (including writing block and writing anxiety)

·         Sentence level issues (including structure, grammar and punctuation, and vocabulary)

At the end of the session, you might identify specific areas of improvement or discover a new approach to writing your essays.

What do we believe?

We believe that writing is important. It is not just a technical aspect of your work; in many cases, it is the work. When you use writing to develop your ideas, when you express them in a way that makes your readers understand them, and when you engage with other people’s writing in a meaningful way, you are doing key work for anyone in academia. You are developing and refining your contribution to knowledge.

We also believe that writing is difficult. It can be enjoyable and rewarding, but it is not an easy process. Student writers may face many challenges including time management and time poverty, isolation, and writing anxiety.

We believe that writing problems are best solved together with another person. This is why we provide a non-judgmental space, where students can be free to explore their writing issues.

Where to find us? 

We are in the Library, on floor 2, and you can drop in during the following hours: 

Monday: 11am - 3pm and 5pm - 7pm
Tuesday: 11am - 3pm
Wednesday:  11am - 3pm and 5pm - 7pm
Thursday:11am - 3pm
Saturday: 11am - 1pm

What do we not do?

We cannot help in any way that infringes upon academic integrity or interferes with the work of your teachers. This includes the following:.

• We do not do the work for you. Instead we support you in becoming a better writer
• We do not work as proofreaders. However, we can teach you to proofread your work
• Assess essays or comment on the grades they received.

 What other work do we do besides the one-on-one tutorials?

 We provide workshops, writing camps, and online courses on writing. These are advertised throughout the year. Please keep in touch by registering here:

https://universityofgalway.instructure.com/enroll/46G6CT