ASC consultations

We welcome discussion on an assignment at the earliest stages of the planning and writing process. You might also benefit from ASC's learning events on Essay Writing.

Sure. It's always challenging to create a cohesive flow in a literature review. Also, you might consider our lecture on Writing a Literature Review.

Do the link.

We are happy to indicate ways you might have improved your essay, but we don't offer opinions on grades or enter into disputes.

Your essay will probably be less choppy, and flow more easily for the reader, if you paraphrase or summarise some of the quotations. We can talk over which quotations to omit — and why — in the consultation.

Let's review the assignment instructions and identify the basic argument you're presenting, and then it will be easier to see what can be omitted.

but my lecturer says "Use the first sentence of your essay to state your argument." What should I do?

Always follow your lecturer's instructions over the advice of a learning advisor. Let's look at how you've worded the introduction so far.

Referencing is a perennial problem for students, especially at postgraduate level when lecturers become less forgiving. We will show you how to access the relevant formatting instructions of the referencing convention you are using.

Grasping the principles of grammar and punctuation — and developing your own proofreading skills — is fundamental to progress at university. Consequently, we never proofread entire assignments, though we will have a look at short passages, explain the errors, and advise you to enrol in a learning event on grammar, punctuation and style.

Don't expect to be able to read absolutely everything. Instead, ask yourself what you should take from the readings and look for that. Begin by skimming over headings, introductions and topic sentences to find what is relevant to you before you read a section closely. Learn more in our Smart Thinking course.

Sure. I'll give it a quick read, then we can talk about its strengths and weaknesses, and we can take it from there.

Reading critically means distinguishing fact from opinion or interpretation; at its most basic level, it means questioning what is said in a text, how it is said, and why it is said. In a consultation, we can go through a range of questions that might be asked of texts that you are reading.