Julia

I can help you flourish as an academic writer and help you to actually enjoy it! I am a Lecturer in Professional Academic Communication at the Open University and author of Bloomsbury's 'What Makes Writing Academic: Rethinking Theory for Practice'. My PhD on Academic Writing from the University of Nottingham, where I also taught EAP (English for Academic Purposes) for 13 years, was jointly awarded in 2019 by the Department of Philosophy and the School of Education. I have an MA in Philosophy (St Andrews University), an MA in Education (The Open University), am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and am a qualified teacher of EAP (PGCTEAP). I am also an External Examiner at several UK universities and have published on academic writing.

Tutoring Experience

I have 30 years of experience teaching Academic Writing from A-level to PhD and I also teach Writing for Academic Publications at several UK and European universities. Currently, I teach academic writing to post-graduate students at the Open University. Between 2008 and 2021, I taught at Nottingham University's School of Education where I tutored and lectured in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and Academic Writing. Before this, I taught EAP, ESOL, and Adult Literacy at the University of Derby. Between 1995 and 2005, I taught academic English at the University of Padova in Italy. I also taught Business English for Benetton Group, Aprilia Motors and Diesel Clothing (in north-east of Italy).

Tutoring Approach

My approach to academic tutoring is entirely student-centred, meaning that your needs and assignments guide my teaching. This ensures that as your tutor, my priority is to get to know you and your assignments and to understand what motivates you to learn so that we can establish sustainable ways to help you write academically. There is infinite, bewildering and often contradictory advice online on how (not) to write academically (for example, when to use the passive voice and how to reference your academic sources) so my job will also be to help you critically navigate that advice and decide to what extent it may be relevant to your assignments. I am aware that there are also times when you simply have to get through an exam or assignment and that motivation and confidence can be low. My approach to teaching and learning in such cases is to work with you to create a motivational spark and to establish strategies for managing your time and breaking down your tasks so they feel less daunting. In terms of teaching methods, I draw on various approaches (e.g. task-based, communicative, text analysis) but these will vary depending on the purpose of our tutorial. I do not offer academic proof-reading or editing services.