As a student, you can contact the Academic Language Programme (ALP) with two types of questions surrounding the writing of your thesis.
Writing problems
First of all, you can get help with writing problems, for example if you get stuck, if you have trouble creating a clear structure in the text, or if you find it difficult to use a good scientific tone in your thesis. Help is provided by student coaches: master's students who have received training in coaching conversations, common writing problems, and characteristics of scientific writing. Rather than correcting the text, the student coaches will help you improve your own text. Thus, the responsibility for the text will always remain with you. In addition, the student coaches will not be concerned with the content of the text either.
Language problems
You can also come to us with language questions. This is not a correction or a course, but a kind of 'first aid' for language questions. Here the emphasis is not so much on text correction by the teacher, but on increasing your skills and knowledge. The questions can involve Dutch language problems as well as English language problems.
When and where?
From April until mid July, every Wednesday and Thursday, between 14:00 and 16:00, you can come to the Thesis Workshop for guidance from student coaches as well as the language teacher who can help you with language questions. Sign up to make an appointment by sending an email to: alp.fgw@vu.nl. Interviews take place in a consultation room in 2A.
ALP Thesis Coaching
Writing a thesis or dissertation is a challenging task, and you may well find that you ‘get stuck’, and cannot see the way ahead, for whatever reason. When this happens, it can be very helpful to talk to someone who can help you to understand why you are stuck and can give you tips and tricks to get unstuck. A coach can help you to regain an overview of what you are doing, or to work out what steps you have to take to make progress again.
Contact Academic Language Programme
For VU staff: you can contact us about ALP courses for you or your students or with questions about language policy or communicative skills.
For students: for questions or information about a course, workshop or coaching, contact us at