On track for your Masters

It’s that time of year when Master’s students dig deep and get to writing their dissertation.

Oona Ylinen, Academic Support Librarian tells us about On Track for your Master’s, the Library Services workshop programme designed to support Master’s students with their research and writing skills.

On track 

On Track for your Master’s is a programme of free workshops which runs 12 to 23 June 2023 aimed specifically at Master’s students at Essex to help them find literature or data, manage references, and write their dissertation effectively. 

Library Services run the On Track programme annually each June at the point where Master’s students identified they needed the most help with researching and writing their dissertations.

Workshops are delivered in-person and online, and sessions cover the dissertation process from starting research to preparing for publication with the Essex Student Journal. 

Publishing in the Essex Student Journal means that Master’s students can complete their studies with a publication to their name.

What’s on?

Workshops are delivered by staff and practitioners from the Library Services, Skills for Success, IT Services, and external speakers. There are over fifty workshops covering a variety of research and writing based topics, including:

• Conducting literature searches and finding open access sources
• Analysing data and statistics
• Referencing, paraphrasing, and avoiding plagiarism
• Structuring and writing your dissertation
• Using different academic platforms and artificial intelligence tools

There is no limit to how many workshops Master’s students can attend.

The full programme for On Track for your Master’s can be found on the Library Services website.

How to book

On Track for your Master’s is open to all Master’s students at Essex, but students are encouraged to book as some workshops have limited availability. Book via CareerHub! 

Master’s students should have full access to CareerHub. Filter the event type to “academic skills workshop” to find the full list of On Track for your Master’s bookable workshops.

For those who cannot access CareerHub, head to the Library Services website and register with your Essex email address.

You don’t have to register or book a place beforehand, though we would recommend doing so to avoid disappointment as we have a limited number of spaces for our in-person workshops and advance booking for online sessions allows you to keep a record of your learning and ensures you get the slides from the session even if you end up unable to attend.

If you can no longer attend, you can always cancel your booking – especially for our in-person workshops to allow other people to make use of the spot.