Writing support

If you need advice about your academic writing, you can get individualised writing and study support from Study Zone in Exeter, and ASK Academic Skills in Cornwall. Please note that University services do not offer a proofreading service.

Students on our Exeter campuses: Come to a Study Zone drop-in or book an appointment.

Students on our Cornwall campuses: Book an appointment online or in-person with ASK Academic Skills.

Study Zone and ASK Academic Skills are open throughout the year so please do use these valuable University services as you prepare for your summer submissions.

If English is not your first language, you can find Guided Independent Learning lessons covering different skills areas from academic reading and writing to listening and speaking skills. You can also get one-to-one guidance on your writing by booking a one-to-one tutorial:

• Devon students
• Cornwall students

You can also use a range of online resources to help with your writing, including:

• Study Zone Digital – the University’s academic skills service also provides online guides for a range of study-related skills, including academic writing.
• Further support and guidance - there is a wide range of academic support available to you at the University in addition to the support we offer at Study Zone. Read more about further support and guidance.

If you're a postgraduate researcher, the Doctoral College can support you with all stages of your research, including writing. Find out more about how the Researcher Developer Programme (RDP) can help you.

There are a number of free online tools that can help to support your writing. Remember when using any study aids to follow any instructions provided by your tutors, and that any work you submit should be your own.

• MS Editor runs in your University Word for Microsoft 365 account to analyse your document and offer suggestions for spelling, grammar, and stylistic issues, including making sentences more concise, choosing simpler words, and writing with more formality. You can also install a browser extension for Edge and Chrome.
• Grammarly is a free online grammar checker. Paste your text or start typing on the website to pinpoint grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and punctuation inaccuracies.
• Hemmingway analyses the readability of your writing using colour coded highlights. Use it to identify lengthy, complex sentences and common errors.
• Quillbot is a free tool that helps you to understand how to paraphrase better, and includes a function to generate basic summaries. Includes add-ins for Word and browser extensions for Chrome and Edge.