Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Learning Development Tutors

Learning development tutors in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offer support in developing the skills you need to succeed in your degree – everything from academic style to research methods. We are also proud to be hosting Stephen Mollett, our Royal Literary Fund fellow.

Royal Literary Fund Fellow at University of Portsmouth

Stephen Mollett is a professional writer, sponsored by the RLF to offer one-to-one advice in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The aim is to help students at all levels, from first-year undergraduates to final-year PhD candidates, improve their writing practice.

Stephen can help with a wide range of issues including how to:

• Express your ideas more clearly
• Sharpen your argument and structure
• Find the right voice and tone
• Consider the language and vocabulary you are using
• Use punctuation and grammar correctly
• Add polish and shine to help raise your mark further

School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (SCCJ)

The Learning Development Tutor in SCCJ can help you develop skills in the following areas:

• Writing in an academic style
• Helping you to make the most of the feedback you receive from your lecturers
• Developing your presentation skills for talks, seminars or poster presentations
• Critical analysis
• Time management
• Referencing and citations

Distance learning students

We run online drop-in sessions every fortnight on Wednesday evenings for undergraduate distance learners. To find out more, visit the SCCJ Learning Development Tutor Moodle page.

School of Education and Sociology (EDSOC)

Our School of Education and Sociology has 2 Learning Development Tutors. They can help you in 1-to-1 sessions or small group sessions.

Support is available for skills including:

• Writing in an academic style -Planning, structuring and editing assignments
• Using and referencing others’ thoughts
• Effective note-making from lectures
• Tackling your reading list
• Analysing rather than describing research
• Making the most of feedback
• Presentation and group work skills
• Organising and planning your workload
• Effective revision techniques and exam preparation

School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (SLAL)

The Learning Development Tutors in SLAL offer 1-to-1 and group tutorials, personalised guidance, online support and a programme of workshops.

Support is available for skills development including:

• Writing in an academic style
• Dissertation and Project planning and writing
• Making the most of lecturer feedback
• Critical analysis
• Time management

School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature (SASHPL)

The Learning Development Tutors in SASHPL offer 1-to-1 sessions, personalised guidance and a workshop programme for all SASHPL students.

They can help you develop your academic skills in the following areas:

• Essay writing
• Planning and researching for assignments
• Development of academic language
• Critical thinking skills
• Referencing
• Organisation and planning your workload
• Delivering effective presentations
• Effective revision techniques

Research skills support

Our Learning Development Tutor in Quantitative and Qualitative Social Research Skills offers all students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences guidance and support with statistics, quantitative and qualitative data analysis. 

You can get help with:

• Research planning and development
• Literature review; systematic reviews; meta-analyses
• Understanding statistical concepts and assumptions
• Understanding applications of statistics
• Support with the use of technical software, to collect research data remotely
• Support with ethics applications (in addition to your supervisor, where needed)
• Experimental design; survey design; psychometric measures
• Secondary data analysis
• Qualitative data analysis
• Mixed methods
• Data coding and mining
• Data entry
• Data cleaning
• Descriptive and inferential analysis using SPSS
• Writing up your data analysis in a report, dissertation or publication
• Interpreting statistics
• Validation and verification
• Research skills for employment and professional development