Learning Resources
The Learning Centre has developed online and print based learning resources to help students with a range of academic skills. The following resources are available:
SWOT (Sydney Welcome, Orientation and Transition) Lecture Notes
These notes are for new first year undergraduate students.
- Strategies for Successful Learning
- Successful Essay Writing in Your First Year
- Developing Critical Thinking Skills
- Collaborative Learning
- Successful Report Writing at University
- Lectures and How to Use Them
- Learning About Plagiarism
- Oral Presentations: effective communicative events
Online Resources
- The Clearer Writing site is an on-line interactive course to improve the clarity of your writing, with a particular focus on well-structured and coherent paragraphs.
- The WRiSE (Writing a Report in Science and Engineering) site is an online learning environment designed to help you develop and improve your report writing skills in science and engineering.
Links to Other Sites
- Annotated links to Australian or overseas websites which not only inform, but try to instruct or teach academic writing skills. These sites can help you develop different aspects of the academic writing skills you need as a University of Sydney student.
- The Write Site provides online support to help you develop your academic and professional writing skills. There are modules on grammar, using sources and structuring assignments.
Essay Writing
- Guidelines for Referencing
- Analysing an Essay Question
- Analytical Writing
- Developing and Supporting an Argument
- Planning and Structuring an Essay
Help with Report Writing in the Sciences
- Report writing in biology
http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/learning/resources/biology_literacy/ - Report writing in biochemistry
http://www.mmb.usyd.edu.au/report/BCHM3
http://www.mmb.usyd.edu.au/report/BCHM2 - Report writing in psychology
http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/teach/studentresources/writingguides/writingguides.html - Writing a report in science and engineering (WRISE)
http://learningcentre.usyd.edu.au/wrise/
Study Skills
Resources for Postgraduate Research Students Students
This document provides models and guidelines for writing a thesis proposal with particular emphasis on the introductory stage and the expression of aims, research questions or hypotheses.