Help for postgraduates

It is very important that you understand that we offer additional support on academic strategies. This is not a replacement for your academic supervisor, in fact we are more than happy to cooperate with them to support your studies.

Your undergraduate experience and success has paved the way to a postgraduate program. However, many students do quite well without understanding the key strategies used in advanced academic writing and publication. A conscious understanding of ‘academic’ writing strategies adds to your postgraduate studies, thesis writing and possible future publications.

Some key academic strategies used by successful academics include:

• producing a plan and time management

• creating appropriate overall structure for different text types

• designing clear paragraph structure

• establishing logical flow and clear development of your theme or argument

• incorporating evidence from others and from your research to support your argument or purpose

These strategies may be particularly important depending on your route to postgraduate study. Our service is personalised and ‘tailored for you’:

• a student engaged in the bigger task of thesis writing after earlier years writing essays and reports etc.

• an international student embarking on a postgraduate degree with English as an Additional Language. Your earlier studies may have been conducted in a different education system and/or a different language.

• a mature student concerned about adjusting because you have been working outside the academic sphere, caring for others, bringing up children. Your undergraduate degree may seem a distant memory or belong to a time when you were less serious about your studies….

• a graduate student entering a ‘graduate school of medicine’ degree from science, medical health, engineering, para-medicine and so on…

  • critical essays on social topics and reflections on practice may not have been common in your earlier studies.

  • the work and study load for examinations is intense in a medical degree so it’s important to improve your study strategies as much as possible.

Whatever your needs we can facilitate your learning to enable you to contribute to the wider community of knowledge.

If you are looking to complete a thesis or publish, our colleague Associate Professor Bert Peeters of the Australian National University offers a specialised academic editing and translation service. For more information follow this link.