Student Learning Development

Helpful for improving your writing skills and for understanding what is expected of university students. - previous AWSP student

The Academic Writing Skills Programme (AWSP) is a writing course designed to allow you to get the most out of your academic writing.

University-level writing in the United Kingdom is very different from writing at school or college or in other countries and, as a result, the AWSP gives you the opportunity (without worrying about grades) to receive specific feedback and guidance on how we expect you to write at the University of Glasgow.

Run by us here in Student Learning Development (SLD), the AWSP is unique to the University of Glasgow.

Through completion of an online course and a multiple-choice assignment the AWSP lets you see the ways in which your writing matches what your markers will be looking for in assessments, and provides you with feedback on ways to improve your work.

The AWSP has two different elements:

• An online course, specific and tailored to your subject area, that takes you through three key areas for academic success:
  • Academic/scientific tone and style, and grammar
  • Academic integrity and plagiarism
  • The reading and research process
• An online multiple choice assignment
  • You have 70 minutes to answer a range of questions, based on the three topics from the course
  • The pass mark is 80% correct
  • You have an unlimited number of attempts to achieve the pass mark, and you'll receive immediate feedback on what you did right or wrong on each question

You can then choose to attend our lectures, our workshops, or attend a confidential one-to-one appointment to learn more about academic writing, conducting research for your submissions, and your other forms of assessment.

Students consistently review our classes as being excellent and informative.

'Overall, it was a good course. It felt like a mini or condensed writing course.' - previous AWSP student

'I'm surprised this has been the most enjoyable class I've been to in the last six weeks I've been at uni!' - previous AWSP student

It's rare to get the chance to talk in-depth about your writing, and about what we expect at the University of Glasgow from your writing, and so students value the one-to-one contact with our staff.

Compact, clear, concise. Everything was explained clearly. - previous AWSP student

All undergraduate and postgraduate taught students will be invited to complete AWSP in Semester 1 of the new academic year. For students starting in January, you will be invited to complete the AWSP when you begin your degree. You must complete it during the session to which you have been assigned.

You will be emailed with a link to the Moodle page for the AWSP at the appropriate time during the academic year. You will be enrolled on the course prior to receiving the course link.

Once on the Moodle page, you'll see all the information is available there to work through and complete the AWSP assignment.

Everything was clear. Amazing lecturer! Not time-consuming. - previous AWSP student

All of the key information on the assignment is here, but you are told that:

• You have one hour and ten minutes to complete the diagnostic (Moodle automatically times this, and provides a countdown timer in the top-right of the screen once the assignment has started)
• The pass mark is 80% correct on the multiple choice assignment
• You have an unlimited number of attempts to achieve the 80% pass mark
• You have a flexible deadline, and can pick one of three deadline options via Moodle
• If you require to submit in an alternative format, please email us at awsp@glasgow.ac.uk.

Email us at awsp@glasgow.ac.uk.

If you would prefer to access the diagnostic in a different format, or if you have any special requirements that you think we should know about, please get in touch.