Workshop 1 - Planning and Structuring your JRA Project

An introductory session to help you to define your research goals, manage your progress and articulate your achievements. It will also provide you with brief case studies of previous projects and some useful tools (online and on paper) to help you to successfully complete your research project.

Date and Time: Wednesday 3rd June, 10.00am - 11.00am
Location: Library Teaching Room (Library floor plan available here)

Workshop 2 - Making Progress: Strategies for Active Learning and Productive Research

An overarching session to assist you with the research aspect of your project, which covers: critical thinking skills and examples, note-making concepts & tools and how to focus on what matters via active reading.

Date and Time: Wednesday 1st July, 11.00am - 12.00pm
Location: Library Teaching Room

Workshop 3 - Academic Writing and Editing

Two academic writing sessions, each covering: general academic writing skills and creating an editing checklist (5-stage method), as well as subject-specific writing skills for your subject area and examples - based on which session you attend.

Business, Media, Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences
Date and Time: Wednesday 8th July, 10.00am - 11.00am
Location: Library Teaching Room

Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
Date and Time: Wednesday 8th July, 11.00am - 12.00pm
Location: Library Teaching Room

Workshop 4 - Academic Posters

Two academic poster sessions, each covering: JRA requirements (size, design, etc), discussion of goals and techniques for creating posters, as well as analysis of previous posters with subject-specific examples - based on which session you attend.

Business, Media, Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences
Date and Time: Wednesday 22nd July, 10.00am - 11.00am
Location: Library Teaching Room

Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
Date and Time: Wednesday 22nd July, 11.00am - 12.00pm
Location: Library Teaching Room

Workshop 5 - Delivering Presentations 

A final session focused on presenting your research, both in person and online, including: building confidence, planning and structuring your presentation and analysing example presentation techniques.

Date and Time: Wednesday 29th July, 10.00am - 11.00am
Location: Library Teaching Room

Drop-In Sessions

Additionally there will be several drop-in sessions, where further advice and guidance can be provided and any other queries or concerns can be raised. These sessions will also be held on a hybrid basis (other than those specificed as online only) and the Zoom links will be shared via email. 

Date and Time:

• Wednesday 3rd June, 11.00am - 12.00pm
• Wednesday 17th June, 10.00am - 11.00am (online only)
• Wednesday 15th July, 10.00am - 11.00am

Location: Library Teaching Room

Optional Library Training

Library workshops are an opportunity to develop the core skills that support successful academic research. As Junior Research Associates, building confidence in finding, evaluating, organising and managing information will help you work more efficiently, think critically and contribute more effectively to research projects.

Led by experienced Library staff, these practical sessions provide an opportunity to develop new skills alongside other researchers, explore useful research tools and make better use of Library resources. Whether you are new to academic research or building on existing experience, these workshops will support both your current role and future research opportunities.

• Introducing Zotero: This hands-on workshop will help you to stay organised and reference academic sources accurately using Zotero. Wednesday 3 June, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
• Note-taking with Zotero: Always losing track of your notes? This session will help you to use the tools in Zotero to annotate and reference accurately. Thursday 4 June, 11:00am – 12:00pm
• Advanced Literature Searching: This practical workshop will demonstrate how to effectively search for literature using academic databases. Wednesday 10 June, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
• Literature Searching with AI: Focusing on the literature discovery platform Elicit, this session explores how AI-powered search tools can enhance your research process. Wednesday 17 June, 11:00am – 12:30pm