Student Learning Development

Contact Us Student Learning Development
7-9 South Leinster Street
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland

View the contact page for more contact and location information

student.learning@tcd.ie Gaeilge

Studying through English

If you have English as a second language and feel the need to improve your skills, you can sign up for one of the English for Academic Purposes courses at the Centre for English Language Learning and Teaching in Trinity College.

Resources

Online Resources

English for Uni Website, University of Adelaide, Australia - an interactive tool that can help you with various grammar issues such as articles, conditionals, passive voice, prepositions and tenses, as well as tips for essay writing - http://www.adelaide.edu.au/english-for-uni/

English tenses - http://www.englishtenses.com

1st person vs 3rd person, Massey University - http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/1st-vs-3rd-person.php

Academic Phrasebank, University of Manchester - http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Dave's ESL Café - a comprehensive website where you can find information on grammar, idioms, phrasal verbs and pronunciation, as well as a forum where you can post your questions http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar.html

Books

Brandt, C. (2009) Read, Research and Write: Academic Skills for ESL Students in Higher Education, London : Sage.

Burt, A. (2004) Quick Solutions to Common Errors in English, 3rd ed. Oxford: How to Books Ltd.

Lowes, R., Peters, H., Turner, M. (2004) The International Student's Guide: Studying in English at University, London; SAGE

Harrison, V., Jakeman, M., Paterson K. (2012) Improve your Grammar. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan

Proofreading

At the moment there is no service within Trinity College Dublin that offers any proofreading support. However, there are several ways that you can go about ensuring that your assignment is well written.

Student Learning Development can help you with the essay writing process, how to structure your assignment, write in an academic style and develop your critical thinking and writing skills.

You can also edit and proofread your own work using the tips below.

University of Reading, United Kingdom give their 10 tips on how to proofread your own work. (https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/writing/proof-reading)

  1. Print it off - it's much more difficult to read onscreen and there's always the temptation to start doing major rewrites.
  2. Leave it a day - if you can, leave some time between finishing your full draft and proof reading. It's easier to read critically when it's not so fresh in your mind.
  3. Read aloud - small errors of expression and punctuation are more likely to become obvious if you read aloud.
  4. Punctuate your reading - put pauses in for punctuation when you read, timed differently for different punctuation marks - so take a breath for commas, come to a halt for full stops. This is a good way to see if your sentences are too long or too short.
  5. Take it slowly - if you have time to do a really thorough proofing, first read each sentence in a paragraph one at a time to make sure each makes sense. Then read the whole paragraph. Finally, when you've read all the paragraphs, read the whole essay through.
  6. Take care with cut and paste - if you decide to move things about, don't forget to check the whole sentence again afterwards to make sure all the tenses, genders and plurals agree. Using the grammar check tool in Microsoft Word can help to prevent any errors.
  7. Learn punctuation rules - make sure you know how to use commas, apostrophes, colons and semi-colons.
  8. Check your referencing - always check your course handbook for preferred conventions - if you have to reference something that's not covered there, be consistent.
  9. Get another view - ask a friend to read through your work and tell you if it makes sense (NOT correct it for you). Offer to do the same for them. Especially good if you can't leave time between writing and proofing - another pair of eyes will be fresher.
  10. Use your feedback - always read and learn from your academic feedback. Use it to make a list of the things you often get wrong. Look out for these especially. They should start to disappear as you get used to doing them right.

University of Oxford have put together this guide on editing and proofreading your own work.

Make sure to also check the OWL (Online Writing Lab) of Purdue University for their strategies and suggestions on proofreading - https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/1/.

While SLD doesn't offer support with proofreading, you can always make an appointment to discuss with one of the Learning Advisors how you can improve your academic writing skills.