Writing support when and how you want it! Check out our video content about all stages and phases of the writing process, including both quick tips and full workshop recordings.
Pre-writing & planning
Academic Writing Refresher
This 36 minute recorded webinar offers a quick overview of strategies and skills for successful writing, with returning/ transfer/ mature students in mind.
Better Paragraphs: Strengthening Argument & Organization
Clear, well-developed paragraphs generally have a certain set of characteristics, and you can learn what those characteristics are as a way to strengthen your writing! In this workshop, learn more effective ways to begin your paragraphs, create better flow, and avoid common paragraph errors. Strengthening your paragraphs also helps to provide an overall sense of organization in your writing and ensure that your arguments are clear and well-supported.
Outlining & Reverse Outlining
This 15 minute recorded webinar introduces an approach to outlining and reverse outlining to help you clarify your ideas, guide your research, structure your paper, and revise your drafts.
Parts of an Essay
A short (8 min) Student Learning Commons workshop designed to introduce you to the parts of an essay that university professors often expect. It explains common pitfalls and ways to approach writing introductions, paragraphs, and conclusions.
Top 5 Things to Know about Academic Writing
This 16 minute recorded webinar reviews the top 5 things to know about academic writing. Watch with your questions -- you’ll take away some answers, including where to find more help when you need it!
Writing an Expository Essay
Originally recorded for a World Literature 101w course, this 20 minute webinar explains the goals of the expository essay genre and the structure of an expository essay. It then provide strategies for both outlining and reverse outlining.
Writing Without Procrastination
This 44 minute recorded webinar takes a time management approach to the writing process. It is intended to help you break your writing up into steps and get started. It will also introduce useful writing tools such as the assignment calculator and the pomodoro technique.
Writing & drafting
Argumentative Essays: Templates to Strengthen your Writing
Effective argumentation is a core requirement of many writing assignments across the disciplines. Yet students are often unsure how to write a clear and compelling academic argument. It isn’t the same as arguing with your partner or your parents! In this 31 minute recorded webinar, learn the particular rules governing academic argument as well as tips for developing and defending a solid argument in your written assignments.
Compare and Contrast
This brief (6 minute) webinar provides some introductory information about the compare and contrast genre of academic essay. In also provides some tips for reading across texts in order to compare and contrast them. Finally, it discusses two approaches to structuring a compare and contrast paper.
Critical Argumentation & Critical Writing
Being critical isn't the same thing as being negative!
This 27 minute workshop introduces you to some key strategies for developing critical arguments for academic writing.
How to Build a Thesis Statement
How do you plan and draft a debatable, significant thesis statement?
This video preview links to the first of 4 short videos that will guide you through the process of planning and drafting a strong thesis statement.
Multimodal Writing
This 37 minute recorded webinar will introduce you to a number of different writing modes including blogging, podcasting, and webcasting. The session focuses on the principles that are unique to writing for each of these modalities, as well as on the aspects of writing that apply across the board.
Thesis Statement 101
A very brief (4 min) introduction to thesis statements, including differences in thesis statement writing across genres. Also provides a quick tour of SLC resources to support you with your writing.
Writing an Op Ed
Originally developed for ECON 220w, this 39 minute recorded webinar explains what an op-ed is (did you know it doesn't stand for "opinion editorial"?) and provides tips for how to write an effective one. We hope it will inspire some students to get out there and get published!
Writing in the Sciences
Writing in the sciences is different from writing in other disciplines. Scientific writing is intended to be concise, specific, and descriptive. This 16 minute recorded webinar explores the expectations in scientific writing, the components of a lab report, and the language and writing style used.
Writing a Research Paper
This 39 minute recorded webinar will introduce you to steps to help you effectively select and focus a topic and develop a research question. It will also introduce tips for writing a clear thesis for a research-based paper.
Post-writing & revising
De-Cluttering Your Prose
"Too wordy. Redundant. Be concise." If you've ever received these kinds of comments on your papers--or if you just want to take your style to the next level--this 24 minute recorded webinar is for you! Learn techniques you can use right away to help you pare your prose and write with greater clarity, succinctness, and power. Who knows, you may just find that your writing starts to bring you more joy as a result!
Ethical Source Incorporation:
In a nutshell
This four minute video will introduce you to the most important considerations to help you ethically incorporate sources into your paper.
Ethical Source Incorporation:
In a little more depth
Want to delve deeper into the ethics of working with sources? This 15 minute video provides more in-depth explanations about ethical source incorporation, including some examples.
Hot Tips for Revising
Congratulations--you've drafted your paper! What's next? This 26 minute recorded workshop overviews a technique of revising higher-order concerns before looking at the finer details of your piece. You'll also learn more about common errors that can trip up even strong writers.
Thinking about and celebrating writing
Readings from Plurilingual Prize Winners
"Differing Viewpoints: Cultural Perspectives on Canis lupus" by Audrey Heath
"A 'F@#$ You' to the French: Autochtony in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" by Siddhartha Minhas
"AI Translators and the International K-Pop Fandom on Twitter" by Judy Yae Young Kim
Watch recorded readings from three SLC Plurilingual Prize winners - maybe they will even inspire your own plurilingual writing practice!
Claiming our voices as multilingual writers
...video coming soon!
If you want to share these videos and are having trouble, please contact us at learning-commons@sfu.ca. We will be happy to share the URLs with you.
Co-curricular credits
Most Student Learning Commons workshops, including workshop recordings viewed online, are eligible for inclusion on your Co-Curricular Record.
To receive Co-Curricular credits, fill out the SLC's CCR Reflection Form.
Students cannot receive Co-Curricular (CCR) credits for a workshop if the workshop is already being used to receive academic credit in a course (ex. for bonus or participation marks).
