The first thing that you 39 ll need to understand is that writing at university level is for the most part a particular kind of writing, called academic writing. While academic writing can be defined in many ways, there are three concepts that you need to understand before you write your first academic paper. As a university student, you will be engaged in activities that scholars have been engaged in for centuries: you will read about, think about, argue about, and write about great ideas. Of course, being a scholar requires that you read, think, argue, and write in certain ways. Your education will help you to understand the expectations, conventions, and requirements of scholarship. academic writing is devoted to topics and questions that are of interest to the academic community. When you write an academic paper, you must first try to find a topic or a question that is relevant and appropriate.

But how do you know when a topic is relevant and appropriate? first of all, pay attention to what your professor is saying, as he or she will certainly be giving you a context into which you can place your questions and observations. Second, understand that your paper should be of interest to other students and scholars. In other words, you will want to write something that helps your reader to better understand your topic, or to see it in a new way.

This brings us to the third and final point: academic writing should present the reader with an informed argument. To construct an informed argument, you must first try to sort out what you know about a subject from what you think about a subject. Or, to put it another way, you will want to consider what is known about a subject and then to determine what you think about it. If your paper fails to inform, or if it fails to argue, then it will fail to meet the expectations of the academic reader. Provision of this course will be tailored, where possible, to demands: that is, one course would be tailored more for biomedical researchers, one for health science researchers, one for psychology researchers, etc. Participants are expected to submit samples of their own research writing 2 3 pages each session , extracts of which will be used for discussion and analysis.

Course setup: 8 sessions x 2 hours frequency: 2 to 3 times per year per domain group size: min. 12 participants criteria for passing: active attendance at minimum 6 sessions, and submission of 5 samples of own work ca. Credits: to be awarded by fhml for fhml phd students at the discretion of the participant’s faculty for phd students at other faculties. thesis and research writing workshops advanced writing skills for research workers. Each participant submits a paper or part thereof in turn in advance of the session to all other participants. The tutor acts as manager of the process rather than assessor , and provides linguistic feedback.

Workshop setup: 5 6 sessions depending on number of participants x 2 hours group size: 5 or 6 participants frequency: 1 per month for the randwyck sciences for the humanities and social sciences inner city faculties and schools, depending on demand. 15 pages , and critical feedback on others’ papers attendance at 4 5 sessions depending on whether there are 5 or 6 participants. Peer point provides free research assistance to students studying at maastricht university. Peer point is staffed by students trained at responding critically and constructively to the work of their peers. Peer point is a service offered by the maastricht university library for the student community.

It is staffed by students who are very interested in academic writing and research. Since november 2011 we are being trained how to find relevant and suitable sources among the books, journals, databases, bibliographies and audiovisual material which are offered by our university library. And really, it is a jungle out there! peer point is an helpful tool for clarify your doubts concerning research and use of the sources. The individual face to face meeting approach makes your spent time really valuable.

And is free! every student struggles with an assignment at one time or another, whether it’s for his thesis or answering a research question. Peer point is your emergency line for any difficulties you encounter while doing research for an assignment, a paper or your thesis. We can show you how to make use of the library resources effectively, help you create a research strategy or refer you to other people who can offer valuable support in your writing process. After i met peer point i got the clue and i tried to follow exactly what they said and it really helped. To guarantee you a basically effortless access to peer point you can contact us through various channels. Just choose what suits you best: send us an email at peerpoint [email protected] contact us via facebook via skype: peerpoint ub in case of need, e.g. Once you got in touch with us, we will assess if we can help you with an email or if it would be more effective to meet you in person.

The main goal of the writing studio is to support maastricht university students and help them reflect on their thinking, searching and writing process. It is a joint effort from information specialists from the university library and teachers from the language centre. Here’s what some students who got help from the writing studio think of this service: as a student of the sbe faculty the writing of a thesis is really difficult as this is the first research i ever did.

I studied applied sciences before and therefore never had courses in quantitative methods. Joining the writing studio i received help in better structuring my thesis, formulating and thinking about a good research question ,and learning how to better look where for what information. Student in msc international business to me the biggest challenge is the language use. I am student from a non english speaking country so when it comes to the issue of academic writing, language skills count as an obstacle to develop a good paper.