Study Skills - Short courses | Manchester Metropolitan University

Improve your written English, develop critical skills or prepare for Postgraduate study with our free short courses.

These are available for any Manchester Metropolitan-enrolled student and run throughout the calendar year. You will earn 40 Rise points for each short course you attend which will automatically be added to your Rise account. We recommend you only sign up to one course at a time.

How to book a course

See the full list of upcoming workshops and courses on Career Hub. You will be asked to log in using your student ID number and password.

The Writing Project: Standard Course
Purpose
This course is ideal if you want to upskill all areas of your academic writing, including your grammar and punctuation, structure and pace, and criticality.
Content
The topics the course focuses on are:
Introductions and conclusions
Paragraph and sentence structure
Cohesion and connective punctuation
Pace in academic writing
Formality and hedging
Using evidence effectively
Writing critically
Writing concisely
Editing and proofreading
Please note there is some crossover between the Standard and Essentials courses. We do not recommend signing up for both courses.
Delivery
Join online or on-campus versions of this course to suit your needs. There are 8 x 1 hour 30-minute sessions, which take place on a weekly basis.
What our students say
“I would recommend the Writing Project to other students as it was helpful in improving essays, it also enhances necessary skills such as: critical writing, referencing, summarising and synthesising researcher’s studies.”
“Every session was very useful to me, because the content cut across the whole process of writing.”
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The Writing Project: Essentials Course
Purpose
This course is ideal if you want a grounding in the core elements of academic writing, without committing to an extended amount of time.
Content
The topics covered are:
Sentence structure
Cohesion
Punctuation
Formality and hedging
Using evidence effectively
Writing concisely
Editing and proofreading
Please note there is some crossover between the Standard and Essentials courses. We do not recommend signing up for both courses.
Delivery
This is an online only course of 6 x 1-hour sessions. Some versions of the course run on a weekly basis, while there are also opportunities to sign up to compressed versions of the course.
What our students say
“I think I missed out on a lot of basic grammar and punctuation at school and this covered everything I needed to know. My use of punctuation has improved, as has my understanding of clauses and conjunctions.”
“It was good to refresh myself with different sentence types and the use of punctuation, it’s easy to get complacent with these things even when being an experienced writer.”
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The Writing Project: Stylish Writing Course
Purpose
This course is aimed at confident academic writers who wish to continue developing their writing and its sense of style. Through exploring a range of genres and perspectives, this course will encourage you to explore and solidify your own style of academic writing.
Content
The topics the course focuses on are:
Clarity and cadence
The language of criticality
Academic voice
Hooks
‘Breaking’ the rules of academic writing
Delivery
Join online or on-campus versions of this course to suit your needs. There are 4 x 2-hour sessions, which take place on a weekly basis.
What our students say
“Even as a masters student I want to improve my writing and I feel the stylish course has really helped me. Particularly with hooks it has given me the confidence to experiment and be more daring within my dissertation.”
“It offered many good choices to build up all writing and make it sound academic and somehow impersonal but still stylish.”
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The Writing Project: Mechanics of Writing Course
Purpose
This course will support you in developing your understanding of the mechanics that underpin academic writing. Through engaging in the course, you will be able to develop the accuracy and clarity of your written expression.
Content
The topics the course focuses on are:
Word types
Paragraph and sentence structure
Punctuation
Tenses
Grammatical voice
Introductions and conclusions
Editing and proofreading
Delivery
Join online or on-campus versions of this course to suit your needs. There are 4 x 2-hour sessions, which take place on a weekly basis.
What our students say
“I am confident that my English writing skills have improved by learning the rules of it. I have acquired some tricks not only on how to write better but also on how to check that what I’ve written is well-written.”
“I found it useful to go over voices again, and how to use them in academic writing.”
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The Writing Project: Scientific Writing
Purpose
This course is aimed at students undertaking scientific academic writing, including those on social sciences and health-based courses. It focuses on the principles of scientific academic writing, alongside the different forms that scientific writing may take.
Content
The topics the course focuses on are:
Types of scientific writing and their conventions
Hypotheses, methods, and data
Introductions and conclusions
Discussions and abstracts
Scientific writing beyond the report, including scientific posters, research proposals, and popular science
Delivery
Join online or on-campus versions of this course to suit your needs. There are 4 x 2-hour sessions, which take place on a weekly basis.
What our students say
“It is helpful for those wishing to understand the layout and functions of a scientific piece of work.”
“I have found the course to be very useful and have already recommended to several fellow students who feel they may be rusty with certain aspects of their writing.”
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The Criticality Project
Purpose
This course aims to develop your criticality skills for different forms of assessment, including essays, reflective writing, and others. Through using a variety of hands-on materials and techniques, you will be able to engage critically and reflect on how you can apply your learning to your own assessments.
Content
The topics the course focuses on are:
Models for critical thinking
Critical questioning
Reading critically
Critical analysis and evaluation
Synthesising ideas
Criticality in writing
Reflecting with criticality
Delivery
Join online or on-campus versions of this course to suit your needs. There are 6 x 2-hour sessions, which take place on a weekly basis.
What our students say
“We were given lots of structures for critical reading, reflecting and writing which were very helpful which can be used in different ways and assignments.”
“I thought it was a great course to help people enhance their criticality.”
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Essentials for Postgraduate Study

Delivery
Delivered as a webinar for 5 x 1-hour sessions.
Content
This short course is aimed at anyone studying at postgraduate level. It explores academic expectations of postgraduate study and will help you to develop your own skills.
The webinar series complements the self-access course on Moodle. Before each webinar, you should work through the relevant self-access Moodle section as this will contain the ‘core’ information for that topic. You will receive specific guidance on any pre-webinar tasks when you book. The complementary webinars will then build on this, as well as giving you a chance to meet and interact with other postgraduate students online!
Not able to attend the webinar series? Don’t worry! The resources on the Moodle area are designed for you to work through independently and you can work your way through the sections in your own time, and at your own pace.
If you need any further guidance, don’t forget you can arrange one-to-one support with an Academic and Study Skills Tutor.
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Other support

Our specialist tutors offer advice and support on a whole range of topics to support you in achieving your academic potential. This includes help with your academic writing, numeracy, specific learning difficulties, study skills and assistive technologies. Choose to access support through: