Learning Advisers

Learning Advisers

Learning Advisers are highly trained and experienced academic writers who are available to assist all students, with a focus on students undertaking research projects. 

An appointment with a Learning Adviser can give you in-depth feedback on your writing from a non-disciplinary perspective, providing a fresh view of your argument, structure, paragraphs and sentences. You can chat to an Adviser about other aspects of your work, such as project milestones, research proposals, reading strategies, thesis structuring, chapter writing, seminar presentations and journal article preparation.

Appointments are primarily for research (HDR) students or students with long and complex written tasks (e.g. Honours theses and ANIP reports). Appointments are made through our online booking system and are available throughout the year.

Please note that there are limits to our Academic Skills booking system to ensure an equitable distribution of appointments among ANU students. Therefore, the booking system will only allow you to book an appointment with Academic Skills once per week and three per calendar month.

Also note that Learning Advisers can review up to 10,000 words (or one thesis chapter) per appointment booking. Learning Advisers cannot review and discuss an entire thesis in one appointment.
 

Appointment types

In-person appointments (synchronous) - please upload your draft (if applicable) to our Wattle site by 9 am on the day of the appointment so the Adviser has time to review it before your appointment. Check your confirmation or reminder email from Academic Skills as to the location of the in person appointment. They will take place in the Chifley or Hancock Libraries. 

Zoom appointments (synchronous) - just before the appointment time your Adviser will send you a link for the Zoom meeting. All you need do is click on the link and enable your microphone and camera. We ask that you upload your draft to our Wattle site by 9 am on the day of the appointment so the Adviser has time to review it before your appointment.

Written feedback (asynchronous) - during your appointment time, the Adviser will read your submitted draft and provide feedback via Wattle. The feedback will be available at the end of the appointment. Use the instructions on our "Upload your draft" page to upload your draft and view your feedback. The focus of our feedback will be on the argument and structure of your draft. 

If you have any particular information you'd like your Adviser to know, or any specific questions you'd like answered, you can include that message at the top of your draft. Also, please included the assignment instruction. Combine your assignment instructions and your draft into the one document.

If you are in the early stages of drafting and only want advice on a structure for your essay / report, or only have some questions, or only want to run a few ideas by an Adviser, please upload those in a Word document, and we'll do our best to give you helpful feedback. An in person or zoom appointment is the best option if you want to talk through ideas.

Note: Even if your draft is incomplete, it will still be very useful to go ahead with the appointment. You can submit some dot points and some questions for the Writing Coach if you'd like. The appointment will assist you through the writing process.