WRITING SUPPORT CENTRE (WCS) 

• offers academic and professional writing support to students and staff, including writing for publication support
• organises semester-long courses and workshops/events
• offers consultancy in the areas of text production, teaching academic writing, and writing for publication support
• provides support in both Czech and English
• cooperates with colleagues from the Central Library
• guarantees and teaches selected courses for the PhD Academy

HOW DO WE VIEW WRITING IN WSC?

We believe that there is a lot of work behind a good text, and you need to learn different skills to produce it. In WSC, we view academic writing as a means of thinking and learning, as well as a means of communicating and participating in the many communities to which we belong. As such, we view writing as a recursive and ongoing process that allows us to continually shape and reshape our ideas. Each of us can continually improve our writing (as well as other skills). For this to become a reality, it is not enough to talk about writing; we must first and foremost write. However, this means that we have to learn and improve in a range of skills, as the term 'writing' here does not mean just mechanical handwriting or hitting the keyboard.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY 'WRITING'?

A good academic or professional text builds on previous research and knowledge. So we need to learn to identify publications that are related to our topic. We learn to formulate keywords in different languages and to search databases. We also need to develop our ability to read and evaluate texts critically. It helps our own writing if we understand how different genres are structured and how they 'work', as genres can vary from discipline to discipline. Through research and study, we can identify which questions remain unanswered and deserve further exploration. Only then can we formulate research questions and/or hypotheses that are set in the context of previous and current research. Next, we learn to build on this research by referencing sources and paraphrasing. We choose different citation styles and methods to do this. In addition to the above activities, we learn to plan, create and give and receive constructive feedback on a text. Last but not least, we revise the text based on the feedback. In the case of research articles, we may need to learn how to devise a publication strategy, select appropriate journals, and communicate with editors and reviewers.

We all have a lot to learn!!!