Academic Writing for Healthcare Students in Higher Education
Discover the academic writing fundamentals to help you achieve success in your healthcare-related undergraduate degree.
Duration
3 weeksWeekly study
3 hours
Academic Writing for Healthcare Students in Higher Education
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Boost your confidence in academic writing with help from expert educators
Academic writing forms a significant part of your healthcare degree, and is key to your success at university.
This three-week course from Kingston University and St George’s, University of London will give you the tips, strategies, and tools you need to develop your academic writing skills. In honing your skills, you’ll boost your confidence and be able to focus on your course content to become a motivated and independent learner.
Develop your writing style to use throughout your healthcare course
Your writing style has an impact on the interpretation of your assignments. This course will help you sharpen your English grammar and vocabulary and develop your academic voice to write clearly and concisely.
You will also learn methods to structure and plan your assignments to create comprehensive and effective work.
Understand how to use sources accurately to showcase your critical thinking
The sources of evidence that you utilise are crucial for your assignments.
On this course, you’ll be taught how to find and select sources that are credible, reliable, and that support your writing. In learning this, you’ll be able to elevate your assignments and demonstrate your creative thinking skills through the selection and analysis of appropriate research evidence.
Reflect on your editing and writing skills and evaluate your progress
On completion of this course, you’ll have gained the knowledge and skills to assess and improve your academic writing and editing skills.
With the help of the educators at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, you’ll be able to evaluate your progress in academic writing and continue honing your skills to pursue your success in studying healthcare.
Syllabus
Week 1
Taking the first steps
Introduction to the course
Welcome to the course! Introduce yourself, meet the educator and understand what we mean by academic writing skills. Find out how the material in the course has helped other students.
Getting your grammar right
In any written work, it is important to get your grammar right! Find out why and practice your skills with some practice activities.
Introduction to reflection
Reflective writing is important in most healthcare assignments. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses will help you to develop your skills as an academic writer.
End of week summary
A summary of the first week and look ahead to next week's topics.
Week 2
Developing your voice: style and skills
Academic writing style
In this activity, we will be discussing academic writing styles which focus on being clear, concise, and structured.
Effective reading and note-taking
Effective note taking is a key skill that must be mastered to demonstrate a good level of knowledge. It involves developing effective ways to record and retrieve information.
Using your own words
Using your own words when highlighting the main points from academic sources is one of the most important features of academic writing.
End of week summary
A summary of the second week and look ahead to next week's topics.
Week 3
Building your answer to the assignment brief in stages
Understanding the assignment
We consider how you can unpack the assignment question and really understand what it is asking you.
Planning the assignment
We look at the process to plan your assignment, building on the outline, paragraphs and maximising your critical thinking.
Using sources for success: what, where and how
Referencing is key in any academic writing! We will look at referencing and get you to practice referencing.
End of week summary
A summary of the final week of the course and reflecting on our learning experience.
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Apply an academic writing style, appropriate for healthcare
- Demonstrate competence in the use of essential English grammar
- Produce well-structured assignments that address a range of assessment questions
- Demonstrate reflective writing skills
- Apply appropriate sources of evidence with accuracy to demonstrate critical thinking skills
- Reflect on your progress as an academic writer
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for healthcare students in higher education who need to build or refresh their academic writing skills.
It would be beneficial for students to complete before or during the early stages of their healthcare course to maximise their potential from the offset.
This course is part of a partnership between City St George’s, University of London and FutureLearn that is coming to an end. As a result, this course will retire on 24 August 2026.
Please note that the course content, data and materials are no longer being actively updated and may not reflect the most recent developments in this subject area.
We encourage you to enrol on course before the retirement date if you wish to take part.
Who will you learn with?
I am a senior lecturer at Kingston University, St George's University of London where I teach academic writing and study skills to healthcare students.
Who developed the course?
City St George's, University of London (formerly St George's)
City St George’s, University of London (formerly St George’s) School of Health and Medical Sciences is a leading provider of education in the fields of healthcare, medicine and psychology.
Kingston and St George's Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education
The Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education is a joint enterprise of Kingston University and St George’s, University of London.
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn
Join the conversation on social media
You can use the hashtag #FLacademicwriting to talk about this course on social media.