What is the Station?

Stumped by spelling? Grouchy about grammar? Befuddled with feedback?

The Academic Writing Station provides entry-level peer to peer writing support at weekly face to face and online drop-ins.

This service is open and available to UG, PGT and PGR students.

In person sessions cannot be pre-booked. If our facilitators are busy, please wait, and they will help as soon as they can.

The Station is part of the On Track series, a peer-led programme of workshops to help you maintain your work-life balance, and provide practical information and support for your academic development.

Contact lib-community@warwick.ac.uk for more information.

How to Find Us

• 11-12 every Friday during Term 3
• We're in the Co-creation space, on floor 2 of the Library
• You can also join us on Teams. However, you will need to book your online appointment here. Bookings can be made on the day

By Popular Demand

PGT and PGR students can also find us in the PG Hub from 4-5 on Tuesdays, during weeks 6, 7 and 8

Liked the Station?

• Find out about other Library events and services on Instagram
• If you found the Writing Station useful please let us know!

Online Courses

Before attending the Writing Station, we recommend taking our short Moodle course, Introduction to Academic Writing. This also provides a range of useful guidance to work through in your own time.

This is one of a range of Online Courses available from the Library, including Introduction to Referencing, Avoiding Plagiarism, and more.

Further Information

The Academic Writing Station offers students constructive and targeted support on particular issues or passages in their writing. You may bring one piece of work per session. This can be something that you are preparing to submit, or work that has already received feedback from a tutor (see below).

All session facilitators are current students at Warwick, and the advice they give will be general, and based on their personal experience. It remains the individual service user’s responsibility to ensure any writing adheres to department-specific guidelines, and conforms to all relevant expectations regarding originality and plagiarism (see the Library Avoiding Plagiarism course).

In order to get the most out of this service, we recommend that you come prepared with specific questions and writing samples.

Individual consultations should not exceed 30 minutes, and you should not attend more than two consultations per term. Facilitators are only available to support the service during advertised hours, and will not be able to provide additional or follow-up support beyond this.

Proofreading work that has not yet been submitted

If the work that you would like support with has not yet been submitted, then this is subject to the university Proofreading Policy. This states that ‘proofreaders are not expected to actively amend existing, or create new, content in draft work; instead they should support the student by identifying errors and/or making suggestions relating to – but not creating – content. The University considers the role of the proofreader is more akin to that of a mentor rather than a content producer or editor of the work.’

‘The University considers it acceptable for proofreaders to identify, but not make corrections to:

• common typographical, spelling or punctuation errors;
• formatting and layout errors and inconsistencies such as page numbers, line spacing, font size, headers and footers;
• grammatical and syntactical errors and anomalies;
• lexical repetition or omissions; sections of text where the meaning is ambiguous; minor formatting errors in referencing (for consistency and order);
• errors in the labelling of diagrams, charts and figures.

The University does not consider it acceptable practice for proofreaders to amend existing content – whether through addition or reduction and, in particular, it prohibits proofreaders to:

• Rewrite content where meaning is ambiguous;
• Add to existing content;
• Alter argument or logic where faulty; Re-arrange or re-order sentences to enhance structure or argument;
• Implement or alter a referencing system or add to references;
• Check or correct facts, data calculations, formulae or equations;
• Translate text drafted by students’.

The facilitators running the Station are familiar with this policy and will be unable to support you if you ask them to exceed or stretch the bounds of the policy.

Reviewing work that has already been marked

If the work that you would like advice on has already been marked, then facilitators will be able to engage in more wide-ranging discussion of writing and style, such as:

• Grammar and punctuation
• Sentence and/or paragraph construction
• Clarity and focus

They may also be able to assist in explaining handwritten feedback.

Facilitators will never be able to give you advice on subject-specific content, or particular referencing systems.

They will not be able to offer opinions on any potential or past mark or grade for your work.

Other Support

• Many departments offer tailored writing support, or guidelines to where this can be found. Please see departmental websites for advice
• If you're a postgraduate researcher, the Doctoral College provides workshops and guidance on a wide range of skills and other topics. Make sure to check out Researcher Development Online, including the Writing Support programme
• If English is not your first language, you may like to explore the In-sessional English support facilitated by Warwick Foundation Studies
• Find reflections on writing and other aspects of university life at the Library Study Blog and PhD Life Blog
• You can also filter for relevant events at MyWarwick