Student Handbook 2024/25

The Queen Mary Critical Thinking and Writing course (CTWL) is a specialised series of classes with the exclusive aim of improving the accuracy and quality of PG Law students’ writing and research in Law. CTWL classes also lay the foundations for more meaningful participation in seminars and help students approach their exams and dissertations with added confidence and heightened chances of success.

A Pathway to Success for all PG Law Students

Academic writing within a specific discipline at postgraduate level is a skill that needs acquiring as student assessment is carried out in the form of exams, essays and dissertation writing. Bearing PG Law students’ needs in mind, the Language Centre, in collaboration with the PG School of Law, has designed two modules alongside a series of supplementary sessions to help students improve their research and writing skills, and provide them with the confidence necessary to succeed in their studies.

The purpose of Critical Thinking and Writing in Law is three-fold:

1. to help students who have been accepted on a conditional offer meet their language requirement (see section 1 below).

2. to give students opportunities to deepen their understanding of the learning strategies required at postgraduate study.

3. CTWL aspires to guide and assist students through the different stages of the writing process of their essays and dissertations.

In order to achieve these three goals, the programme offers two ten-week modules, together with some one-off sessions to assist students with the writing of their proposals as well as sessions to help students approach their exams.