Workshops

Almost everyone feels nervous before an exam. Butterflies in the stomach and worrying thoughts are probably familiar to all students. In fact, a certain amount of nervous tension probably helps us perform to the best of our ability, producing a rush of adrenaline that helps us to feel alert and focused. However, too much anxiety can block thoughts, create a negative frame of mind, and lead to panic and poor exam performance.

These workshops provide an introduction to some practical suggestions about how to manage anxiety, and will include some simple relaxation techniques to help you practise staying calm.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This workshop will help you to develop a more efficient approach to note-taking. In the session you will hear about strategies that will help you to be more critical and purposeful when assessing and recording information. You will get the chance to try out a range of note-taking techniques and develop strategies that suit you. Finally, you will learn how to develop your critical analysis skills and deepen your understanding by returning to your notes to review and reflect on the material.

How to book on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Show Up and Study brings students together to revise and prepare for upcoming assignments or exams. Not only does this guarantee you a calm revision space during this busy period, but the session also offers the opportunity to work quietly and independently in a supportive environment with other students. The session is facilitated by library team members and will run over two hours, with the opportunity to use various study resources to aid your work.

Booking on

You are welcome to either book on in advance or drop-by on the day.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session you will use a model for critical analysis to inform your critical thinking and support your analysing of new information. The model will move you from observing a source to connecting it to your own knowledge, and guide you in critically examining the new knowledge in the context of what you already understand. We will have some examples to use on the day, but you are certainly welcome to bring a chapter, image or other item from within your own subject to practice with.

Booking on

This event will take place on the online video conferencing app Zoom.us. Booking onto the event is essential to receive the link and passcode to join. Select 'find out more' to book your place!

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Important information on Microsoft Teams:

All University of Manchester students and staff should have access to Microsoft Teams. For information on using Microsoft Teams, please visit the IT Services website:

https://www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/ourservices/popular/microsoft365/teams/

For general support using Microsoft Teams, please visit the following website:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/join-a-meeting-in-microsoft-teams-1613bb53-f3fa-431e-85a

Start your day feeling calm and focused at our 'Calm your brain and have a croissant' session, with some breakfast and the chance to join other students in a relaxing Headspace mindfulness session. You'll have the opportunity to connect with fellow students, whilst our friendly Library Student Team will be on hand to offer support and answer any questions.

To find out more about the Library's support offer this exam and assessment you can follow this link: Exam and assessment support.

There will be supported study sessions Show up and Study running between 13th-29th January 2026. Drop-in or book on via the My Learning Essentials webpage.

Relax and Recharge pop-ups hosted by the Library Student team will take place in the AGLC -104 training room and at Main Library: check Library Instagram and digital signage at Library sites for updates.

Booking on

You are welcome to either book on in advance or drop-by on the day. Please arrive 5 minutes before the session start time.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Writing an introduction can be tricky. A good introduction should be concise, brief and engaging, providing the reader with an overview of the topic. At this workshop you will hear about how to write and structure an effective introduction and discuss the different elements which can be included. At the end, you will also have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have related to introductions.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This session focuses on the development of ideas and the creation of connections between ideas and sources to produce a strong structure for written assignments. It works through a method of breaking down the question as an approach to planning a structured response. There will be the opportunity to work in groups to practise this, creating a response to a choice of assignments.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Do you find yourself losing marks for referencing, spelling or grammar? This session will highlight how proofreading a written piece of work to a high standard will improve your marks and increase your academic success. You will work with others to define the term proofreading and understand its place in the process of academic writing. Finally, you will get the chance to put what you have learnt into practice, working together as a group to effectively proofread a sample piece of work.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session, you will learn about what it means to read critically in the context of your studies. You will practice critical reading strategies and learn how to extract key information. You will make connections between sources and develop your analytical and evaluative skills, so that you will be able to select the most useful sources for your purpose. Youll also discover tips on how to aid comprehension and note-taking. Finally, you will reflect on your critical reading skills and how to apply them in future.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this workshop we will consider strategies and tools to help you stay focused on your academic work, despite the many other demands on your time. We will discuss how to effectively manage projects so that we work realistically within the time available to us, and discuss different strategies for prioritising tasks and commitments. You will work with others to discuss common challenges faced when trying to manage your time and will have the opportunity to work on developing an approach to time management that suits your needs and preferences.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This workshop will focus on how to reference sources in your writing. We will consider different ways of incorporating the work of others into your writing including using quotations, summarising and paraphrasing. We will also discuss how to find the right balance between the work of others (references and data), and your own voice in your academic writing by adding in your own analysis and connecting your ideas to your main argument in order to answer the assignment question.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

As Generative AI tools become embedded in many aspects of daily life, it may feel difficult to understand how to assess and potentially adopt these tools in your learning. This session will take you through some key aspects of these tools that might impact how and when you decide to use them. It will offer practical suggestions for ensuring that you use Gen AI tools in ways that help your learning and connect with academic integrity, effective learning practices and the ever-changing nature of this technology.

Learning outcomes

• To reflect on and apply critical thinking around GenAI tools and learning.
• To explore where use of GenAI tools may be most helpful for learning.
• To experiment with strategies that may help you use GenAI tools for learning.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place. This is currently a one-off session.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This workshop explores how sources are used within a literature review, with a particular focus on analysis and evaluation. Students will have the opportunity to practise constructing an argument through engagement with academic literature, identifying connections between sources and drawing out key themes, ideas, and questions. By the end of the session, students should feel confident in approaching synthesis in a way that enables their literature review to articulate a clear perspective and develop a coherent argument, rather than simply summarising existing research.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session you will use a model for critical analysis to inform your critical thinking and support your analysing of new information. The model will move you from observing a source to connecting it to your own knowledge, and guide you in critically examining the new knowledge in the context of what you already understand. We will have some examples to use on the day, but you are certainly welcome to bring a chapter, image or other item from within your own subject to practice with.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Perfectionism has a way of robbing us of that glow of achievement and ultimately making us miserable. Having high standards is good but not if they make everything in life so challenging that we are exhausted before we have even started!

If you find that you are never really satisfied with your achievements, spend a lot of time procrastinating rather than working and are increasingly self-critical, then this could be the workshop for you.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

This workshop will give you practical experience of producing a piece of reflective writing, taking you through one possible model of reflective writing (Gibbs 1998). In the session you will learn about the conventions of reflective writing and how it differs from academic essay writing, before having the chance to write a draft of several key elements of a reflective writing piece, working with and receiving feedback from others in the group.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this workshop, we will explore and experiment together with software to support your learning. You will work with other learners to investigate key features of these tools, with time to practice and ask questions. By the end of this session, you will have tested a range of tools that can help you with each stage of your work, from note making to planning and presenting. Laptops will be available for you to use, or you may bring your own if preferred.

How to book on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

We can all fall into unhelpful thinking habits, and when our way of life has changed so much since lockdown, unhelpful thinking habits can make things even worse.

This workshop is suitable for anybody who feels stuck or held back by their patterns of thinking. The aims and objectives are to:

• Develop a basic understanding of the interplay between thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
• Recognise how some patterns of thinking are unhelpful and lead to emotions and actions that are not in our best interests.
• Identify what your unhelpful thinking habits are.
• Consider alternative more helpful responses and how to practice these.

This workshop has been extended to be an hour and half.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

We all procrastinate to some extent. It may even be necessary to let things percolate in the mind before putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard. But when you find that you simply cant get down to work yet dream of handing in the perfect piece of work, that nagging guilt spoils your leisure time, that you are becoming increasingly self-critical about your abilities, then its probably time to tackle your procrastination.

We will seek to understand the causes of procrastination and look at practical ways to overcome it.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Are you unsure what journal articles are? Have you had some feedback to indicate that you should be including better quality literature in your assignments? Then this workshop is for you. In this workshop you will determine the key components of a journal article, building a list of criteria which will then enable you to effectively assess the credibility of an article. Applying this strategy to your University work will add strength to your arguments.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session, we will consider and have the opportunity to practice each step of the presentation-giving process, from planning to delivery. This session will look at how to structure a presentation effectively, while considering its purpose, message, and audience. Students will have the opportunity to work collaboratively to design and deliver short presentations, reflecting on how to present with confidence and deal with nerves. We will also look at tips and techniques for dealing with questions and receiving feedback from an audience.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place. Select 'find out more' to book your place!

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this workshop you will learn how to effectively plan and search for relevant information for an assignment topic. We will explore the different steps which can be taken in order to help refine your results and pinpoint relevant information and resources as quickly as possible. Interactive exercises will give you practical experience of structuring a comprehensive search and help you to develop your own strategies for searching by working through common difficulties.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

Knowing how to critically assess non-academic sources is essential for ensuring accuracy and reliability in your work. This workshop will guide you through the importance of evaluating non-academic sources, helping you make informed decisions about the content you use.

We will cover key criteria for evaluation, such as credibility, accuracy, relevance, and bias. You will have the opportunity to practise using evaluation frameworks to examine a variety of real-world examples such as TikTok videos, and government websites. We will also explore the use of Generative AI tools, and assess their effectiveness when evaluating sources

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Can't make this session? Talk to us online via Library Chat now, or send us an email: tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.

In this session, you will have the opportunity to reflect about the different assessment formats and ways of working that have or havent worked for you. You will get to explore why these have or havent worked for you and as a result, get to look at perhaps new or existing ways that you can work to support your assessments and studies going forward. In the final section of the workshop, you will have time to explore and practise some of the different techniques discussed in the workshop and think about how you can implement these into your own studies.

Attendees of this workshop may want to bring a digital device such as a laptop or smartphone to use for the activities, though this is not essential. Laptops will also be provided.

Booking on

Due to popularity, booking onto the event is essential to ensure a place.

Further support

Talk to us online via Library Chat now. Alternatively, you can email us for advice at tls@manchester-uk.libanswers.com.