Academic texts are a hurdle for many students. The learning workshop of the Central Student Advisory Service - a permanent institution at the university since January - helps with reading and, above all, writing your own scientific papers.
A virgin sheet of paper, a blank page on the screen - the beginning of all texts, whether in science or elsewhere. This was also the beginning of Manuela's Master's thesis. But it stayed that way for too long: "I sat there, with a blank page in front of me, and after an hour of distraction I still had a blank page," recalls the 25-year-old. So time passed until the library was about to close and it was no longer worth starting to write. She kept sorting through her collected material "completely haphazardly" - "but in the long run, that wasn't productive," she says today with a touch of self-deprecation.
Manuela is grateful to the learning workshop at the Central Student Advisory Service (ZSB) for the fact that she managed to get started writing and has now formulated the first ten pages. In their writing counselling session, she developed an outline "that I'm totally happy with and that I can really get to grips with," says Manuela. "Totally amazing, actually," she adds almost incredulously. She also spoke to Anke Görres about the introduction before writing.
Anke Görres is the head of the ZSB learning workshop and basically personifies the learning workshop - as its only employee. A facility that has been a permanent institution at the university since the beginning of 2015 by decision of the Presidential Board. "Writing workshops are now established at most German universities, and in the USA anyway," says Görres. Prof Dr Gunilla Budde, Vice President for Studies and Teaching, believes that "it has proven valuable to help students make the leap from collecting ideas and material to writing an academic text - regardless of the subject".
Demand has increased: Compared to 2010, when Görres started with a quarter-time position in the still young learning workshop, her working hours have tripled. "More and more students are seeking advice on academic writing," says Anke Görres. It's primarily about structural issues, the structure and the logic of the argument. Last year, Görres coached 150 students in individual appointments and almost 350 took part in workshops on learning and reading strategies, presenting and writing. Görres offers office hours on Mondays in her office and on Tuesdays in the library, based on the realisation "that a conversation can clarify many things - and that only talking creates thinking". When writing, many students lack such a counterpart.
It was similar for Martha. The 28-year-old felt downright "overwhelmed" by the task of dovetailing the empirical material for her Master's thesis with the theory and panicked. Following a tip from a friend, she went to the learning workshop, hoping "that there would be someone there who could help me sort my head out a bit and structure the process". That was encouraging and enriching. "Mrs Görres may not be familiar with the topic at all, but she can use her wealth of experience to make the transfer very well."
For Görres, the variety of topics is part of the programme. "The range from education, English and German studies to economics and ecology is really exciting," she says. At the same time, she gains an insight into the course of study. For example, that of Martha, who hoped in vain for methods courses on her Master's degree programme, and for whom the usual written presentations - instead of "real" seminar papers - were not enough theory. Or the course of Anna's studies, who only managed to complete two seminar papers in her two-subject bachelor's degree in humanities - and failed.
Görres is particularly surprised "that there are degree programmes in which individual students have not written a single seminar paper before their Bachelor's degree". In an endeavour to collect credits for their degree, some apparently do not take or have the time to delve into a topic academically. Many have deficits in researching, in linking reading and the writing process. "Some also lack the awareness of what I'm actually doing here, what science actually is." She would like to see the "key competence" of writing given appropriate importance for everyone from the start of their studies.
German scholar Prof. Dr Albrecht Hausmann can only underline this. He sees writing as "part of the scientific cognitive process", as crucial for a successful degree programme. However, it is possible that the constant examination situation in the Bachelor's/Master's system reduces the learning effect of seminar papers: Some students lack interest in feedback as soon as they have received their credits. Many are also unsure of what academic writing is, believing that "the main thing is to be complicated", whereas "the main thing is to be reflective".
Historian Budde observes not only a decline in writing skills but also a decline in reading skills among students. "Some can't even name a favourite book, very few read newspapers, many only get information online," she says. "Information intake has become diffuse." This is reflected in her writing. She organises targeted practice in text entry points and recommends reading good texts. "We want to give students the sense of achievement of their own academic work - the satisfying feeling of putting their thoughts on paper."
