Learning Support

Writing is a skill required in many contexts throughout life. However, at the university level, you will need to acquire “academic writing skill” rather than conventional personal writing skill.

Academic writing does many of the things that personal writing does not, and it has its own set of rules and practices. To assist our students in understanding what academic writing is and how to acquire the skill, we conduct a series of workshops that cover different aspects of academic writing.

Workshop I: Essentials of Academic Writing

• Understand Academic Writing Style
• Distinguish between Common Genres of Academic Writing – Reports, Essays and Literature Review
• Understand the Requirements of Assignments
• Familiarise with Academic Conventions: Plagiarism, Referencing

Workshop II: Structuring and Writing Essays

• Writing and revising/editing paragraphs
• Structuring Essays
• Summarising, Paraphrasing and Synthesising materials for course assignments

 
Workshop III: Developing and Supporting an Argument

• Include information from your research in your assignments
• Choose between different techniques to include this information
• Differentiate your own “voice” from that of your sources
• Avoid unintentional plagiarism

 
Workshop IV: Report Writing and Literature Review

• Structuring and Writing Reports
• Writing Literature Reviews

Workshop V: Citation and Referencing (Harvard / APA)

• Make use of the APA/Harvard referencing format
• Increase the credibility of your arguments
• Easily locate sources relevant to a topic
• Avoid plagiarism

As you embark on a new academic programme, you may find certain subjects challenging and demanding. This programme assists students in adapting to and transiting into university life by organising weekly sessions led by PAL Leaders, who are senior students.

They can help you work through common problems and develop your learning strategies. They will also share essential study skills and help you learn to be self-directed and independent in your learning. Additionally, these sessions are opportunities for you to network with your peers.

Programme Structure

• PAL is a peer-led group study facilitated by PAL leaders who meet students in small groups (ranges from 5 to 15) for 1 hour each week. There are 4 slots every weekday (Mondays to Fridays)
  • 12pm to 1pm, 2pm to 3pm, 5pm to 6pm and 7pm to 8pm
  • You will be asked to choose at least 3 slots based on your availability and we will try to match you with a PAL Leader.
• As the PAL programme encourages collaborative learning, students are expected to participate actively and learn by unpacking difficult concepts and encourage them to be independent learners.
• PAL Leaders are senior students who have completed specific subjects and are selected to be trained as PAL facilitators. They are not teachers and their role is to help students to understand the subject better by guiding them to arrive at their own answers.
• They will encourage discussion in the group to enhance understanding of lectures already attended; not to impart new knowledge.
• Sessions are conducted weekly by a fixed PAL Leader. The typical PAL Leader to Learner ratio is 1:10, though the number could go up to 1:20 depending on the subject and demand.
• PAL session covers materials in earlier lectures. PAL Learners are encouraged to ask questions about the topics that the group can discuss together.
• Our PAL Leaders will facilitate the discussions, provide practice questions and share their experiences such as their study skills with the PAL Learners. In short, the PAL sessions are interactive and PAL Learners are encouraged to question and discuss as a group to have a better understanding on the subject.

Registration Details

• Tentatively, registration should be opened about 2 weeks after your semester starts. An email will be sent to your MyMail email when registration opens.
• If you wish to join us, be it as a PAL Leader or PAL Learner, you can send an email to us at Learning@sim.edu.sg or visit us at the Student Learning Centre.

 

Students are often challenged with projects and assignments that require them to critically analyze information and data, prepare reports and present their findings. These challenges are also found in companies when graduates start working.

We have developed several workshops to meet these challenges.

The Art of Powerful Presentation

1. Know how to cope with presentation anxiety
2. Identify presentation objectives
3. Create impactful opening and closing slides with impact

Study skills are an important set of transferable life skills. We have developed a series of workshops for you to learn how to tackle the different aspects of learning.

Speed Learning and Visual Thinking

• Use visual tools to take notes
• Understand various effective ways to summarise content using visuals
• Use visuals to enhance learning

Learning Tips and Strategies

• Know how to strategize and ace your studies
• Use metacognitive learning strategies to become a more efficient and effective learner

Learning with Critical Thinking

• Gain knowledge of basic critical thinking skills
• Understand various types of arguments
• Apply critical thinking skills in course of study

Critical Thinking: The Next Level

• Learn the principles of analysis to help in thinking more deeply.
• Learn what insightful thinking is and how to develop it.

Critical Reading

• Understand and differentiate reading strategies
• Know the different techniques in scanning and skimming a text passage
• Apply reading strategies for assignment and exam preparation

Organise 2 Memorise

• Explore tools to organise and memorise information
• Learn the use of apps to digitise memory techniques