The Academic Community of Excellence (ACE) team
The Academic Community of Excellence (ACE) team provide guidance for degree apprentices alongside regular classes on topics such as academic style, critical analysis, relating theory to practice, research skills, reflective writing, referencing, and much more.
We assist learners in three main ways:
- Academic skills resources for self-study, available here on the Learner Portal.
- Workshops to practise and develop academic skills - book your place here
- One-to-one tutorials to discuss your assignments - book one here
ACE workshops schedule July – September 2024
*ACE is currently a service for degree apprentices only*
Resource categories
The Academic Community of Excellence (ACE) Team have many years of experience providing academic guidance to students on subjects such as how to write in an academic style, how to read smarter rather than longer, and how to reference accurately. Find out more using the categories below.
New learners
Getting started
Study skills induction for new learners
Preparation
Planning, reading, and finding sources
Getting started on your assignment
Reading critically and evaluating sources
Content creation
Writing assignments
Critical analysis
Relating theory to practice and reflection
- Relating theory to practice - quick guide
- Reflective models - quick guide
- Advanced reflective analysis - quick guide
- Reflective writing 1: Introduction to reflective models - workshop slides
- Reflective writing 2: Advanced reflective analysis - workshop slides
- Reflective writing 2: Workshop texts and tasks
Structuring your work
Editing your work
Academic method
Academic style and language
Paraphrasing
Coherence, being concise, hedging, and useful vocabulary
Sources and citations
Referencing, appendices, tables, and figures
Referencing
Referencing (QA Harvard)
- QA apprenticeships Harvard referencing - full guide
- Writing a reference list (QA Harvard) - quick guide
- QA apprenticeships Harvard referencing - workshop slides
Referencing (Solent University)
Appendices and tables and figures
Analysis
Research projects and dissertations