Study skills hub

Structuring Paragraphs Effectively

Friday 6 March 2026 11am - 12.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

One of the most important areas of academic writing is being able to build clear paragraphs which develop a topic in a coherent and cohesive way. This session will not only focus on how paragraphs are structured and the different types of sentences paragraphs contain, but it will also look at how we can signal the link between paragraphs. It will also pay specific attention to how to write clear topic sentences. Find related online resources here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing

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Designing surveys

Friday 6 March 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Let's make badly designed forms and surveys a thing of the past!

In this session, we'll take a look at the principles of survey design, from what kinds of questions to ask to get the data you're looking for to how to choose question types and use logic. We'll then consider how put them to practice in the two main survey tools we have at York: Google Forms and Qualtrics.

Data: Gathering data

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How to Write an Argument

Monday 9 March 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

This workshop introduces students to the key components of effective academic argumentation. Participants will learn how to develop a clear position, support it with credible evidence, and structure their ideas logically. Through practical examples and guided activities, the session helps students strengthen their critical thinking, refine their reasoning, and communicate persuasive arguments in their academic writing. Find related online resources here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing

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Procrastination: What It Is and How to Deal With It

Tuesday 10 March 2026 1.30pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

In this workshop we examine procrastination, its possible causes and consequences, then look at strategies to try to address procrastination in creative and constructive ways.

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PGT Dissertation Writing: An Introduction

Tuesday 10 March 2026 3.30pm - 5pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Postgraduates

This workshop is for postgraduate taught students only. It will define what a dissertation is and show how it differs from other assignment types. It will then go to look at the opportunities writing a dissertation offers students and the academic skills that are needed to write one. Finally, it will briefly look at the different sections/chapters that can be included in dissertations and what type of information these sections/chapters typically contain.

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PGT Dissertation Writing 1: introduction and literature review

Wednesday 11 March 2026 10.30am - 12pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: virtual event
Open to: Postgraduates

This workshop is for postgraduate taught students only. It will look at the purpose of introductions and literature reviews and then go on to examine how they can be structured and the sort of information they typically contain. It will also focus on the academic skills and language needed to write these sections of a dissertation.

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Confidence to Speak and Listen (COSAL)

Wednesday 11 March 2026 1.30pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: LFA/144 Academic Skills workshop room (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Confidence to Speak and Listen workshops are open to all. They give you the chance to get to know others from different disciplines and to practise communicating. Each time we meet we engage in interactive activities involving your voice, your body and your ears! We discuss confidence from perspectives of both speaker and listener and identify communication strategies to take away and apply in different contexts. To get maximum benefit and build your confidence incrementally, we recommend coming to more than one workshop. These interactive sessions are not recorded. The content is different each time, as it is built by you on the day. Slides are not available.

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DIGITAL WEDNESDAYS: Microsoft Word for dissertations and theses

Wednesday 11 March 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

When producing a long piece of academic writing such as a dissertation or thesis, you will save time and effort if you take advantage of the most appropriate features in Microsoft Word. In this session we'll explore approaches to using Word that are particularly important when you need to produce material as efficiently as possible to match academic guidelines. We'll explore the power of using styles to make it easier to add outline headings, tables of contents and to make your document accessible. We'll also look at making the most of the tools available, such as adding automatic page numbers, tables of contents, and captions.

Creating documents

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Critically evaluating information: What makes a credible source?

Thursday 12 March 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

In this session we'll think broadly about what makes a reliable source of information. We'll start by considering online sources and how, given so many voices, and the growth of generative artificial intelligence, we can possibly hope to tell truth from lies. We’ll explore frameworks for evaluating information and determining credibility, and we'll consider why some sources are considered more reliable than others. We'll also start to look at how we might use such sources in support of an academic argument.

Being critical: Evaluating information Searching for information: Academic sources

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Bivirate Statistics: Correlations, T-tests, and Chi-square

Thursday 12 March 2026 2pm - 3.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

This session explores the essential statistics for analysing two variables or questionnaire responses. During the workshop you will be able to practice running correlations, t-tests and chi-square tests in your chosen statistical software, (e.g. SPSS, RStudio, STATA).

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Writing effective prompts for generative AI with Gemini and NotebookLM

Friday 13 March 2026 1pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Generative AI tools can be used effectively to work through problems or to develop your understanding of a topic, but you need to think carefully about the ‘prompts’ (the questions and commands) you're using if you're to get good quality results. In this hour-long bitesize workshop we will explore how to craft effective and safe prompts for the main AI tools we have at York — Google Gemini and NotebookLM — and how this compares to more traditional ways of finding academic information. We will also consider how to adapt and interpret your outputs, and how to make best use of advanced models and features within the tools.

This session will be particularly useful for taught students but is open to anyone at the University.

Generative AI: a Practical Guide

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PGT Dissertation Writing 2: Methods and Results

Friday 13 March 2026 3.30pm - 5pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: virtual event
Open to: Postgraduates

This workshop is for postgraduate taught students only. It will look at the purpose of methodology and results sections, and then go on to examine how they can be structured and the sort of information they typically contain. We will give a brief summary of the most popular software used to help you analyse your data and present it in your report. This workshop will also focus on the skills and language needed to write these sections of a dissertation

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Essay Writing

Monday 16 March 2026 1pm - 2.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How to understand correctly what essay titles are asking you to do, and how this can help you to adopt an appropriate essay structure and line of argument are the main focuses of this session. It will also introduce a range of essay structures and strategies for developing persuasive arguments. Find related online resources here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing

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Reference management

Tuesday 17 March 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

How do you manage your reading and keep track of the material you find? In this workshop, we'll take a look at how managing your reading fits into the academic reading and citing process, reflect on what might work for you, and explore options for keeping track of your reading. We'll then look at how reference management software can help you store, organise, and use citation information, looking at how specific features of Zotero and Paperpile can be used for this process.

Reference Management Practical Guide

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How to Use Feedback to Improve your Mark

Tuesday 17 March 2026 3.30pm - 5pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Sometimes, when we get feedback from markers, we are not sure which direction to take to make improvements. In this workshop, we will be looking at feedback on assignments from academic staff and identifying how this advice can be used to improve our writing. We will also consider what resources/sessions are available from the academic skills community to work on these areas for improvement.

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Academic Grammar and Vocabulary

Wednesday 18 March 2026 10.30am - 12pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

A range of grammatical structures that are commonly found in academic texts will be introduced, focusing on their function and form so that you can start using these structures in your own writing. We will also focus on academic words that occur frequently together in academic texts, such as ‘conduct research’, and how the use of these phrases (collocations) can make your academic writing sound more natural. Please find related online resources here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing

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How to run better Zoom meetings

Wednesday 18 March 2026 12.30pm - 2pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

Whether you are using Zoom for meetings, interviews, teaching sessions or looking to generally improve your video-conferencing skills: join us to look at all the settings and best-practice to follow to make your Zoom sessions run smoothly with confidence.

We will look at:

• Setting up your Zoom calls with confidence
• Managing participants, keeping on top of the chat and being a responsive host
• Common faux-pas, issues and troubleshooting
• Managing hybrid meetings effectively
• How to record and share your meetings
• Following accessibility best-practices

Video conferencing

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Explore handheld 3D scanning

Wednesday 18 March 2026 2pm - 4pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/103 Creativity Lab (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Let's create a high-quality digital twin of a 3D object. Starting with a chance to try out dedicated handheld 3D scanner, we'll then look at the considerations and challenges of trying to create a digital replica. We'll also share a whole host of ideas for how you could use 3D scans in your study, work or research; like animating them, or even 3D printing them. This session is open to anyone, including those who are interested in seeing how 3D models can help people engage with your work or area of study. If you have your own portable item you'd like to scan, bring it along!

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Finding academic literature - going beyond your reading list

Thursday 19 March 2026 1pm - 3pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Everyone

When you do a Google search or a search of the Library's resources, you will potentially be faced with a massive reading list. How do you choose which are the best texts? Who do you trust? Where do you get the most reliable data from? In this session you will learn some of the best places for finding academic information and how to select the most appropriate reading for the task you have to complete.

Being critical: Evaluating information Searching for information: Academic sources

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YorCreate: So you want to 3D print a D&D miniature?

Thursday 19 March 2026 5pm - 6.30pm

Organiser: Digital Skills & Creativity Lab
Location: LFA/132 YorCreate (Harry Fairhurst Building, Campus West)
Open to: Everyone

Have you ever wanted to create your own custom miniature figurines for tabletop gaming? In this session we’ll look at how you can digitally design a 3D miniature for Dungeons & Dragons and similar games, and we’ll share our advice for how to most-effectively 3D print your miniatures. We’ll also consider what other peripheral items we could print, such as dice towers and dungeon tiles.

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UG Dissertation Writing 3: Discussion & Conclusion

Friday 20 March 2026 11am - 12.30pm

Organiser: Academic Skills
Location: online
Open to: Undergraduates

This final session explores how we discuss our results and bring everything together in a compelling way. How do we find meaning in our results and relate them to the literature? What questions do our results raise, and how can we acknowledge and account for unforeseen limitations of our research? Finally we will look at how we tie the discussion section back to our introduction, and how to write a compelling abstract.

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