A Wee Blether About...: Recent Episodes
Academic Skills - UWS
Join the University of the West of Scotland's Academic Skills Team for a 'Wee Blether About' various academic skills topics
In this episode, the UWS Academic Skills team discuss both how Generative AI could be used to help with assessments and things to be careful of when using it.
We welcome a special guest, Dr Kate Cotter from the School of Business and Creative Industries, to talk about what Academic Integrity is and how the Academic Integrity panel works at UWS.
In this episode, the Academic Skills team discuss what 'academic writing' is and give their advice on how to write at university.
Linda and the UWS Academic Skills team take a look at the new Cite Them Right 13th edition book published in the summer of 2025 and run through any referencing style updates you need to know about.
Welcome to the academic year 2025-26. In this podcast, the Academic Skills team introduce (or re-introduce) themselves and explain how you can use the service this year.
In this episode, the UWS Academic Skills team talk about the different types of 1-to-1 appointments that can be booked.
In this episode, Linda is joined by Mairi, Carly and John to discuss a key element of academic writing. They look at what successful paraphrasing involves and offer some advice on how best to go about it.
In this episode, the Academic Skills team discuss Artificial Intelligence and how developments in the past couple of years are affecting university assessments. Making his first appearance on the podcast since series 3, Dr Kevin Wilson from the UWS Learning Transformation team joins John, Mairi and Carly for a chat.
Or 'How Not to Annoy Your Markers'! As ever, Linda is joined by the UWS Academic Skills Team to chat about how to do the basic things right when working on your assessments.
In this episode, Linda talks to Dr Alan Walker, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, and Academic Skills Adviser John about how you can access numeracy, mathematics and statistics support at UWS.
In this episode, Linda is joined by Carly and John to talk all things notetaking- why it is so important to do in the first place and strategies to deal with it.
In this episode, Linda, Carly and Mairi are joined by Lindsay from the UWS Careers team to talk about how all the academic skills you gain at university can help you in the workplace.
In this episode, Linda is joined by John and Carly for a quick tour around the new UWS Academic Skills website and a behind-the-scenes look into the making of it!
In this episode, the UWS Academic Skills team offer their top tips on how to deal with a presentation task. They discuss how to structure your talk, the language you should use, incorporating references and how to deal with nerves.
In this episode, Linda is joined by John, Carly and Mairi to discuss a useful tool that can help improve your academic writing- the Academic Phrasebank from the University of Manchester.
In this episode, the Academic Skills team discuss the all important final phase of the assignment writing process- the proofreading stage.
TextAid is a literacy tool available to all UWS students. In this short episode, the Academic Skills Adviser discuss their favourite functions within TextAid- have a listen and see if any of these might benefit you whilst working on your assignments.
In this short episode, UWS Academic Skills Adviser John chats to host Linda about the PEAS model, which is a great way to go about organising your paragraphs in your writing.
Ahead of the new term starting, UWS Academic Skills Adviser Carly tells host Linda about her top tips for getting back into good study habits in a shorter than usual podcast.
In this mini-episode, UWS Academic Skills Adviser Mairi chats to host Linda about her top tips for academic writing. A great listen for both new and continuing students.
In this episode, Linda and the team are joined by Andy Carrell, a current UWS student, to talk all things Academic Skills. Andy has studied at UWS since his undergraduate days and is currently embarking on his PhD. As a result, he is perfectly placed to talk about his experience of using the service and offer some great tips.
In this episode, Linda, John, Carly and Mairi discuss Turnitin, which you will almost certainly use to submit assignments at UWS. They explain what a similarity report is and how best to interpret the results from that.
In this episode, Linda, Carly and Mairi share their tips for how to study more effectively.
Time to re-introduce ourselves given that there have been a number of changes since we last did an introduction podcast two years ago, above all new members of staff! As ever Linda hosts and is joined by Mairi, John, Carly and Christa to introduce themselves and talk about what the service can offer you in 2024.
A special guest joins us for this episode. Dr Chloe Maclean is a lecturer at UWS and has written about the concept of 'imposter syndrome' in higher education. She joins Linda, John and Carly to discuss what this means and how to change this way of thinking.
In this episode, Linda, Carly and John discuss OSCOLA, which is the referencing system that Law students at UWS use. Carly mentions the OSCOLA guide which can be found at www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola
In this episode, Linda, John and Carly discuss the important matter of referencing (again!), looking particularly at how to use the book Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide.
In this episode, Linda, Carly and John respond to a listener's request for an explanation of how to tackle assignment briefs with the words describe, analyse and evaluate in them.
Our very good friends, The Careers Team join us to chat about their work at UWS. In this episode, Uuganaa joins and Linda Carly for this episode. To contact the careers team, please email careers@uws.ac.uk
In this episode the academic skills advisers have a wee blether about using Ent Note at UWS
Sarah joins the team to tell us all about the work the international team do to support students at UWS
Kim from the Disability team joins the podcast to share how the Student Services Disability Team are here to support students at UWS and how we work closely alongside the team too.
In this episode Linda, John and Kevin discuss some of the issues students may have to consider when resitting a university assignment.
In this episode Linda, John and Kevin discuss feedback - what it is, why it is important, and how to make the most of it.
In this episode Linda, John and Ben discuss academic language and offer some advice on how to use it in university assignments.
In this episode Linda and Kevin spoke to a former UWS student Margarita Michael about her dissertation writing experiences.
Not sure what a supervisor's role is? In this podcast, we give you advice on how to make the most of your relationship with your dissertation supervisor.
Unsure of how to approach this section? Have a listen to your Academic Skills Team offer their friendly advice on discussing your results in your dissertation for UWS Students.
In this episode, we discuss methodologies within your dissertation. For lots of hints and tips on what this section of your dissertation can entail - have a listen!
Joining UWS from further education can be daunting. In this episode, the team share their advice for students transitioning from further education.
In this episode, Kevin, Ben and Linda chat about returning to study after a break. Listen to their experiences and advice on returning to education!
In this episode, we discuss research with our colleague from our London Campus, Oliver! Oliver is a librarian and an academic skills adviser based at the London Campus. He joins the team to chat about all things research at University.
Following on from our last episode, the advisers talk all things critical writing at university.
Critical thinking is essential at university and many students find it challenging. The Academic Skills team give their hints and tips for critical thinking in their usual friendly way in this episode.
For our tenth episode, we thought we'd introduce ourselves! Find out more about your Academic Skills Advisers at UWS.
In this episode, the advisers discuss reflective writing which is a common style of writing at university. Listen for some friendly informal advice from the Academic Skills Team at UWS.
Presentations can be extremely stressful but are commonplace in university and in work, Listen to this episode to hear the academic skills advisers offer their top tips and also their own experiences of delivering presentations.
Time management is an essential skill when studying at University level. Many of you will be juggling university with work, placement and caring responsibilities. Our academic skills team share their top tips for managing your time at UWS.
At UWS all students have access to Office 365 for free - yay! In this episode, the advisers share lots of hints and tips to allow you to get the most out of Office 365 at UWS.
Today, the Academic Skills Advisers talk all things group work. Listen to Kevin, Linda and Ben share their own experiences of group work at University while also sharing their top tips for making it a positive experience.
In this podcast, the team talk about the range of software we have available for students at UWS for free to support their studies.
Part 2 of the Academic Writing Episode. Ben, Linda and Kevin continue their chat about Academic Writing. This podcast has lots of advice, hints and tips for writing at University.