The Skills@Cumbria email service is staffed Monday to Friday 09:00 - 17:00 (apart from national holidays)
You can contact us via the Student Enquiry Point or email us via skills@cumbria.ac.uk with queries about referencing, accessing library resources and academic skills.
Turnaround times: In many cases - particularly in response to quick queries like referencing - we are usually able to reply within a working day or two. Please allow up to 5 working days for 500 word feedback requests. If you are seeking 500 words feedback, we encourage you to seek timely advice, eg we recommend being in touch 10 days before an assignment deadline. This allows for feedback turnaround time and also gives you time to process and apply any feedback as you see fit before your deadline.
We offer feedback on 500 words of a draft written assignment that has not already been submitted for assessment and/or assessed by a tutor. Please see our service guidance below. Our offer of feedback and appointments are subject to availability.
- We offer feedback once per module - which might be via email feedback OR via an appointment. Let us know if you are in resubmission, as we may be able to offer more flexible support.
- When requesting email feedback, please identify/highlight the 500 words section (or 2 sections of up to 250 words each) and share your assignment brief and learning outcomes. Tell us the areas of development you would like us to focus on, eg this might be paragraphing, referencing, academic sources, structure, writing critically, or whatever you would prefer. Or if you are not sure, tell us about your tutor or peer feedback and their suggested areas for development.
- It's really helpful if you include your reference list, even if it's not quite complete at that point in time.
- For dissertation/longer project work we can look at 2 different sections of up to 500 words (subject to availability). We suggest that you don't submit both sections for feedback at the same time. Instead, we recommend submitting the 1st section for feedback. Then, applying the feedback you initially receive to other parts of your assignment. After following this process, we then suggest submitting the 2nd section for feedback.
- We don't offer a proof reading service. We suggest tips and strategies to support your development and feedback is for guidance; it's your choice on what you do with the feedback offered.
- In line with academic regulations and to promote independent learning, generally, we don't look at the same assignment more than once for a 1st submission.
- We are happy to help you to understand and apply tutor feedback. However, as we're not subject specialists and don't assess assignments, we can’t suggest what grade an assignment might be worth. Tutors make final grade decisions.
Reference list feedback: we are happy to look over reference lists. We don't proofread whole lists but we will look at a sample of different types of sources (eg book, journal article, webpage/pdf, etc), comment on those and then encourage you to apply that feedback across the rest of the reference list.