A Student Writing Project in the Faculty will pilot a system of postgraduate tutoring to support undergraduates whose ideas are let down by communication on paper.
Led by the Centre for Lifelong Learning and the History Department, the Writing Project has employed four postgraduate tutors to help History students act on feedback about the grammar, fluency or structure of their essays. The tutors get a chance to develop this particular expertise during their PhD study, teaching in small groups and individual tutorials, and working to enhance www.liv.ac.uk/ilearn with self-help tools for students.
The first undergraduates to use the Writing Project will book in during Week 6, to follow-up on feedback from their first History essay at Liverpool.
This project offers expert help in implementing academic feedback, because our students have often found it hard to follow up on advice to improve their grammar or prose style. Lecturers are good at coaching students to improve their argument but aren’t trained in teaching syntax or punctuation, so I hope this pilot will lead to a specialist Writing Centre, on the model of American universities, for all degree subjects. - Dr Richard Huzzey, lecturer in History