Support for academic English is provided by the Higher Education Language and Presentation Support (HELPS) service at UTS. HELPS offers drop-in sessions, bookable consultations, writing review and feedback as well as a range of workshops. Visit the HELPS website(External link) for more information or view the HELPS online resources(External link) on writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills.
Reading
- Clarity Study Skills Success – Reading(External link): identify which reading strategy to use, scan to find specific information in a text, skim to assess whether a text is relevant and understand the main points of a text.
Writing
- Clarity Study Skills Success – Writing(External link): analyse essay questions; plan your essay: logical structure, introductions, conclusions; link ideas; and use academic styles.
- Academic phrasebank(External link) (University of Manchester) is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide examples for general academic writing as well as research papers or dissertations.
- AcaWriter (External link)is a software tool that helps you develop your academic and reflective writing by providing you with automatic feedback. It is available to all UTS students and staff.
Listening
- Clarity Study Skills Success – Listening(External link): predict words and ideas, listen for detail, listen for the main points.
Speaking
- Clarity English Study Skills Success – Speaking(External link): speaking out, giving opinions, giving a presentation, seminar skills.
Grammar
- Clarity English Study Skills Success – Grammar(External link): eliminate basic errors, improve your academic grammar, solve grammar problems.
- Clarity English Road to IELTS Academic module(External link) is organised around the four test papers: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. Each paper has four sections.
Critical thinking
- Clarity English Study Skills Success (External link)– Critical thinking: understand the argument, evaluate evidence, recognise problems with an argument, avoid plagiarism: using information from sources appropriately.
Note taking
- Clarity English Study Skills Success – Research(External link): principles for good note taking, the Cornell Note-taking system, and abbreviations.
Other English skills
- ABC: Learn English(External link) provides articles, video, and audio contents for anyone learning Australian English and culture.
- Clarity English(External link): a collection of interactive online activities to develop general and business English skills. The Road to IELTS V2 modules on Academic and General English have over 100 hours of interactive activities and video tutorials including hints and tips, and downloadable practice tests.
- English Central(External link): Register for free and develop your English listening and speaking skills. Video tutorials are provided for all levels. Categories include academic English, business English, career English, media English, social English, travel English.
