What the Skills Enhancement Program Offers
You may feel some concern about how your written skills match up to postgraduate program requirements. If so, wouldn't it be a good idea to air these concerns to an experienced teacher and academic editor so that you can receive reassurance when you need it? This alone is a good reason to make use of the Skills Enhancement Program at least once, if not more regularly. Here are some other reasons to see Jo, coordinator of SEP.
- Come and introduce yourself, find out what the program can offer your particular needs and receive a free text, Cambridge University Press's English Grammar in Use. If you produce a sample of your writing for me to look at, I can direct you toward those units of the text most likely to offer the sort of information and practice you need.
- If, after a chat, you and I think additional help is necessary, we can arrange a suitable time for regular weekly consultations in the course of which we can focus on your specific pattern of needs while covering the essential skills necessary to good academic written style.
- Or, if you prefer, we can make just one or two appointments during which we can discuss, line by line, your written English expression in one or more marked academic assessments to see how your expression could have been made clearer to allow your ideas about course content to make a better impression. Many students use the program in this way and find that their academic English improves as a result.
- Less formally, many students who study in the computer labs near my office drop in to ask a quick question about grammar, academic approach or referencing if they see that I'm free, something all students are welcome to do.
- Toward the end of their programs, students sometimes ask me to help them to practise for the written part of the IELTS test or polish job applications.
SEP provides an opportunity to improve your written skills in a range of ways adapted to suit particular skill needs and practical circumstances.