Academic writing courses

Writing provision linked to the ESA

Before the Early Stage Assessment* (ESA)

Preparation for Academic Writing helps doctoral students who score level 1 on DACR A1 reach the level required to start Academic Writing 1.

Academic Writing 1 and Academic Writing 2 are sequential core courses to help doctoral students who score level 2 on DACR A1 prepare for writing the ESA report.

Academic Writing 1&2 (Condensed) is a fast-track, condensed course for doctoral students who score level 3 on DACR A1 to develop their academic communication before the ESA. 

After the Early Stage Assessment (ESA)

Improving Academic Writing is an opportunity for guided and targeted writing support to enable doctoral students scoring level 1 or 2 on DACR A2 to work on their writing and boost their progress.

‌*Please note that because these courses are progressive, you can only take 1 of them per term.

Other writing provision

Available in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year

Our Successful STEMM Writing (formerly Advanced Academic Writing) guided activity sessions are for those who wish to improve the effectiveness and all-round readability of their STEMM research writing. This series of sessions will help participants understand how their own science can be presented in a more logical, impactful and reader-friendly way.

Our Writing a Successful Research Paper guided activity sessions are for those who are at the stage of writing papers for publication. This series of sessions specifically focuses on training participants to use research papers in their own field as input to create effective writing models and identify relevant language features.

In collaboration with the Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI), the Thesis Writing Retreat provides a focused opportunity to make major advances in writing the doctoral thesis in a supported, structured environment.

To better understand how our writing provision ties in with the doctoral milestones, please refer to our Imperial Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement flowchart.

The Business School requests that their students and staff contact their Global Skills Development team about their equivalent to the Centre for Academic English provision. 

CfAE term dates

Autumn term

21/10/24 - 13/12/24

Spring term

27/01/25 - 21/03/25

Summer term

06/05/25 - 27/06/25

Vacation term

07/07/25 - 29/08/25