Possessing academic writing skills is equally important as other soft skills not only in the academic arena but also in professional life. Writing skills enhance a student’s critical thinking, general and subject-based knowledge, research ability, and communication skills, which are considered to be the vital factors of success in today’s complex environment. Therefore, to equip students with such invaluable skills, the KDIS Writing Center has been providing, among other services, monthly workshops, editing of final year projects, and face to face (1:1) consultation services for students, which are delivered by trained and skilled editors.

Types of Workshops

The Writing Center’s monthly writing workshops are divided into two types namely; Standard and Flipped. For the flipped workshops, students are required to watch several pre-requisite videos, which are provided through E-education, before attending the workshop. This enables the students to participate actively in group discussions during the workshop. On the other hand, the standard workshop does not require any prerequisite and the students may join the workshop directly on the specified date and time. These workshops cover a variety of topics in both academic and professional fields, ranging from APA style, writing an effective literature review, formatting an essay, and report writing, to research proposal writing, executive summary writing and grammar. 

In addition, on average the Writing Center provides ten workshops per month through an online platform (typically Zoom). For instance, in the month of May (including spring break), 14 workshops are planned to be held by the Writing Center. The workshops are interactive; the participants receive an intensive lecture on the topic first and this is then followed by a class activity/exercise on the topic, under the supervision of an editor. At the end of the class activities, the editor shares answers to task and wraps up discussion by inviting answers and questions from the participants. Moreover, by considering the busy lives of students at KDI School, for those who are not  able to attend the workshops online, the Writing Center allows them to access to the workshop materials three days after the workshop date through the Writing Center’s workshop page https://url.kr/zp5ns3.

What Students think about Workshops?

According to the recent data for spring 2022 (February–April), the average number of participants for both standard and flipped workshops was approximately 6 and 10, respectively. The satisfaction rate was high for the spring 2022 workshops reaching 4.7 out of 5. In line with this, interviews with some of the participants show that they are satisfied with the content of the workshop. For example, one of the students stated that “This weekly writing workshop helped me on how to perform correct APA-Style citation, how to avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing and summarizing, and how to write a brief research proposal.”  Another student believed that the workshop he had attended during the pre-spring period assisted him in choosing his final year project. Likewise, another participant replied that “The services of the Writing Center are the best, and they helped me on how to write a comprehensive policy brief and also they enabled me to write excellent term papers for my classes.” 

Purpose of the workshops

Indeed, the main purpose of monthly writing workshops is to enable students to strengthen both academic and professional writing skills. It is worth mentioning that besides the workshop series, the Writing Center offers other services as well such as proofreading of students’ papers (any type of written paper is acceptable, including term papers, theses, CVs, SRPs, etc.) and providing feedback and advice on ways to improve their writing—from structure and logic to grammar and citations. However, it is important to note that editors cannot write papers for students. Students can attend three sessions (by appointment) per semester with the right to request extra services if needed. The 30-minute sessions are held online, either through Zoom or email. Please visit https://www.ekdis.ac.kr/mod/page/view.php?id=40490 to make an appointment.

Are you worried about writing your final paper? Are you not sure if you are on the right track with your writing process? Are you still facing issues on how to citation and reference correctly? To answer these questions and more, why not attend the Writing Center’s workshops or make an appointment with a Writing Center editor? The Writing Center’s services are designed to be used, so make use of them during your time at KDI School!

If you have any inquiries or concerns, please email us at writingcenter@kdis.ac.kr or call at 044-550-1193.