Courses
Academic English
- Pronunciation: improve your English pronunciation
- Advanced writing for master students: learn to write better academic texts in English
Academic Dutch
- Academic Dutch Plus: improve your Dutch language and writing skills
Dutch for international students (organized by VU-NT2)
- Basic Dutch on Campus
- Dutch for work and study
- Dutch for work and study SPRINT
- Professional Dutch 1 en 2
Writing Centre
The ALP Writing Centre offers support to bachelor’s and master’s students who are writing essays or a thesis, in English or Dutch.
Workshops
These short workshops (1 hour and 45 minutes) focus on specific topics relevant for writing texts in English and Dutch. They take place on campus, in groups of up to 15 participants.
About English texts (in English)
- Top 10 grammar and language issues: treatment of the most common errors in English texts.
- How to sound like an academic: the characteristics of the right tone and style in English academic texts.
- How to create a clear and logical structure for your text: tips and tricks for improving text coherence and sentence structure.
About the writing process (in English/Dutch)
- The writing process: how to begin and never stop writing: for students who want to be more effective in their writing tasks, regardless of the language they are writing in.
About Dutch texts (in Dutch)
- Lastige taalkwesties in het Nederlands: a crash course on common questions about sentence structure and vocabulary in Dutch.
- Hoe schrijf ik in een academische stijl? For when you hear that your Dutch writing is ‘too informal’ or ‘too popular’.
- Hoe zorg ik voor een duidelijke structuur in mijn tekst? For when you struggle with creating a coherent text and a logical storyline in your Dutch text.
- Zelfstandig verbeteren van je academische schrijfvaardigheid: check and improve your own Dutch text based on a list of textual characteristics.
Individual coaching sessions about your thesis
Writing a thesis or dissertation is a challenging task. If you ‘get stuck’ or cannot see the way ahead, it can be useful to talk to an experienced writing coach. The focus in the coaching sessions is not on the content of the thesis, but on the writing tasks or specific language problems. Read more about coaching for thesis.
Language check for your thesis
For master’s students who want to make sure the language of their Dutch or English thesis is correct, the ALP offers an editing service. The ALP editors provide feedback on the correctness and clarity of your Dutch or English text and help you to write in an appropriate academic style (such as academic vocabulary and perspective). Read more about the ALP editing service.
Minor English
Do you want to learn even more about the English language? The department of Language, Literature and Communication offers a university minor in English (30 EC), which looks at the role of English in an international context, and in particular in an academic context. In addition, you can improve your English writing and speaking skills. You can also take the writing and pronunciation courses separately. For more information, see vu.nl/en/education/minor.