Student Handbook 2023/24

CTW for all students  

As stated CTW is mandatory for students arriving with a condition. However, the Programme is open to all PG Law students irrespective of their entry status. This extends to native English speakers who have been regular attenders of this Programme over the years. 

Semester 1 (Teaching Period A23) - EAL4791 CTW: Literacy Development 

Reading is a central focus of the first half of this ten-week module as students are obliged to read extensively around their module topics. The module at this stage is designed to help them do this constructively as well as to develop knowledge and awareness of the layout, organisation and sequence of a variety of legal texts. The importance of reading extensively and selecting potentially useful material for their respective needs with greater efficiency, speed and confidence, is also addressed. The second part of the module is concerned with the requirements of exam writing and the preparation of a proposal for their dissertation. Both Teaching Periods provide students with an opportunity to write and receive feedback on their work. 

Semester 1 (Teaching Period A23) - Dissertation Proposal Writing  

As PG Law students are required to write and submit their dissertation proposals by the end of November/early December, the Language Centre offers a one-off supplementary session to all students in November to cover this requirement. The session addresses the components, approach and style of what is conventionally required for the QM proposal. Exact date/s and time/s will be available in the CTW section of the QMplus Dissertation Support Noticeboard. 

CTW in Teaching Period B23 is also available to all students. The overriding purpose in Teaching Period B23 is on the development and honing of writing for the dissertation. Students will be given the opportunity to learn and practise the skills needed to allow them to progress effectively and independently throughout this final, taught- stage of the programme being studied.  

Semester 2 (Teaching Period B23) EAL4792 CTW: Dissertation Writing 

Almost all PG law students are required to write a dissertation as well as submit coursework essays. Writing papers of this length accurately, while adhering to the formality and style required by Queen Mary, is a challenging undertaking for both foreign and English-speaking students alike. Accordingly, this ten- week module addresses some of the areas of dissertation writing that have regularly been a source of student difficulty in previous years. Students are provided with the opportunity to work through the process of planning and structuring their dissertations and apply academic writing skills for law that were developed in Teaching Period One. For Dissertation writing classes students attend one 2-hour class per week for 10 weeks between February and April. 

Students are welcome to take up the offer of a tutorial to help with the dissertation writing process from a member of the CTW staff. However, this option is not continuously open throughout all the weeks and months leading up to submission but is instead available within carefully arranged “windows” to which you will be notified in due course. In the first instance, students should contact their dissertation supervisors to initiate the tutorial process.  

Semester 3 (Teaching Period C23)

The CTW tutors will provide students with tutorial support to help them with their dissertations. This is in addition to any support that they may have from their PG Law tutor(s). Assistance will be in accordance with relevant School of Law policy. 

Registering on CTW Modules 

All CTW classes will be delivered online. Registration for the CTW module in Teaching Period A23 will open on 18 September 2023. Classes, however, will begin in the week beginning 2 October 2023.

To register for these CTW modules please use the In-sessional Course Bookings task available on MySIS - the online view of SIS, Queen Mary's Student Information System available at: https://mysis.qmul.ac.uk/  A list of all classes of EAL4791 (CTW: Literacy Development) with times and teaching locations will be available on MySIS for students to choose according to when they are free. Students are advised to enrol early as certain time slots can fill up very quickly. Class sizes are limited to 20-25 students and enrolment works on a first come first served basis.  

Teaching Period B23 classes will be notified prior to the start of the Teaching Period and registration for these classes may open in early December 2023 for Teaching Period B23 and will resume after the exam period in early February of 2024.