The academic writing course is a practice-based 7-step strategy developed by Dr Catriona Ryan SFHEA which turns the traditional approach to academic writing on its head. It has helped many students over the years (from undergraduates to Doctoral students) to overcome writers block and build confidence as academic writers. The focus is on argument construction and removing blocks that generate writing apprehension. As an academic Dr Ryan works in a PhD supervisory capacity guiding the PhD candidate’s development of a discursive framework for their chapters
In a typical 3-hour workshop the students will be encouraged to bring their research for a chapter or essay they intend to write. By the end of the workshop students will have a detailed plan (down to the last paragraph) of the structure for their chapter or essay with some parts written. The workshop focuses on strategies to enhance style and how to deal with the anxiety around that.
The workshop is very popular and Dr Ryan is now hosting similar workshops for academic staff; for example at UCL where the feedback registered a 28% increase in confidence. The workshop caters to all subject areas as Dr Ryan contextualises the method in terms of a qualitative approach and the IMRAD approach.