The DCU Writing Centre
The DCU Writing Centre offers guidance with academic writing through individual appointments, workshops, and online resources. Our service is free, friendly, nonjudgemental, and available to all DCU students.
Our mission is to help all students become confident and competent writers at third level and beyond.
Our supports
The Writing Centre is currently closed but will reopen in June.
Glasnevin in person | St Patrick's in person | Online via Zoom
Appointments become available to book 2 weeks in advance.
You will meet with one of our Academic Writing Coaches and receive expert advice on any stage of the writing process: planning an assignment, writing a first draft, or revising and editing a document.
Appointments are free of charge. Our Academic Writing Coaches are studying at PhD level and are trained and supervised by the Learning Skills Advisors.
How a Writing Centre appointment works:
- Appointments are 30 minutes long.
- Online appointments are held via Zoom. You will receive the meeting link in your booking confirmation email.
- In-person appointments are held in the O'Reilly and Cregan libraries.
- Have you booked an in-person appointment but can't make it to campus? If you are available to meet online, email us and ask for a Zoom link.
- Before your appointment, please email your assignment brief or question and any work you've done so far to writingcentre@dcu.ie. If you are not working on an assignment but would like to discuss a particular aspect of academic writing, please let your coach know by email.
- The Centre is not a proofreading or editing service, but rather works with students to strengthen their abilities as writers, and encourages them to become editors of their own work.
- We kindly ask that students make no more than one appointment per week and a maximum of five per semester. This is to keep the limited number of appointments open to as many students as possible.
- Please note: support with citing and referencing is provided by the DCU Library.
Our 45-minute workshops are free and open to all DCU students. Most sessions are delivered online via Zoom.
Places are booked centrally via My Events Hub. Just log in with your DCU credentials below to view all upcoming workshops and to register with one click.
Log in to My Events Hub
During the academic year we provide the following highly demanded sessions:
- Establishing your Academic Writing Process (Seven Steps to Success!)
- Beyond Summary: Writing Critically at University
- Beyond Opinion: How to Build an Argument
- Reflective Writing
- Mastering the Literature Review
- Beating Procrastination and Managing your Time
- Creating Effective Presentations
- Groupwork Success Tools
- Preparing for Essay Exam Questions
- Preparing for Interactive Oral Assessment
We offer bespoke interactive courses, guides and video tutorials on all aspects of academic writing, available 24/7 on Loop. If you can't find an appointment or workshop time that suits you, you will find equivalent resources below.
You can browse the full Writing Toolkit on DEVELOP (Loop) or select a topic: