Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast A Wee Blether About...

In this episode, Linda and the Academic Skills team discuss the new Virtual Learning Environment that you will be using at UWS- Brightspace!

Welcome to the academic year 2026-27. 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, Linda chats with the UWS Academic Skills team about some of the free digital tools out there that can help you with your reading and Academic Writing.

In this episode, Linda chats to the UWS Academic Skills about how best to prepare for exams.

A special episode today as A Wee Blether celebrates 5 years since the podcast launched. Linda is joined by Carly, John and Mairi to discuss how academic skills have changed during that time and what academic skills might be like in another 5 years' time!

In this episode, Linda chats with the UWS Academic Skills team again about the crucial proofreading stage of assignments.

In this episode, Linda chats to John and Carly about the term 'Academic Resilience' and how you can develop it at university.

In this episode, Linda and the team chat to 3rd year Nursing student Sukai Secka about her experience of using Academic Skills.

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.

The UWS Academic Skills team take a deeper dive into the topic of academic writing.

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.

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 Advisers 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, John and Carly talk about how to make group work work!

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 Linda and 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 End 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.

Linda and John are joined by Cat from the UWS Wellbeing team to discuss the art of studying online.

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, Ben and Kevin discuss strategies for tackling exams.

In this episode Linda and Kevin spoke to a former UWS student Margarita Michael about her dissertation writing experiences.

In this episode, the team discusses plagiarism, what is it, and how to avoid it.

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.