Whether you’re returning to study after a break or juggling learning alongside work, building strong academic skills will help you feel more confident and prepared. From understanding how to reference correctly to managing your time and reading effectively, these skills are essential for success at any level.
In this section, we’ll introduce key academic practices that will support your assignments and wider CPD work. You’ll also find links to tools, guides, and workshops designed to help you develop these skills at your own pace.
Referencing is an essential part of academic work, and the library is here to help.
The best place to start is the Skills Hub Referencing Pages, which explain how to cite and reference accurately in the different styles used across the university.
Your module handbook or tutor will confirm which referencing style you need to use.
On the main Skills Hub referencing page, select your style to find:
Keep a record of sources as soon as you find them—this saves time and avoids having to track them down later. The easiest way is to use tools like Library Search to save results while logged in..
Tip: Note page numbers when taking notes—you may need them for your in-text citations later!
There are online tools to help with referencing. For CPD modules, you may not need a full reference manager, but a citation generator can be helpful. We recommend ZoteroBib, a free web-based tool that creates reference lists and in-text citations in your chosen style.
See our ZoteroBib Guide for step-by-step instructions.
Important: No tool is perfect. Always check your references against the official guidance and make any necessary edits.
The University of Sussex Skills Hub is a key resource for developing academic skills.
Skills Hub offers guidance on:
If you need help with academic writing, there are several teams at Sussex who can support you:
The Academic Skills team offers workshops on a range of skills, including academic writing. Attend in-person or watch recordings of previous sessions on their canvas site.
Find out more on the Academic Skills Workshops and Support page.
The RLF fellows are professional writers based in the library who provide one-to-one writing tutorials.
Our fellows can help with any aspect of the writing process, including planning, drafting, constructing an argument and editing. They can also provide feedback on the writing in a sample of your work before you submit.
Visit the 'One-to-one Writing Support with the RLF' section of our Academic Skills Workshops and Support page for more info.
For students whose first language is not English, ELAS offers support with writing in the form of workshops, drop-in sessions and bookable tutorials. Find out more on their Language and Academic Skills Support page.
Skills Hub also has a section on Writing and Assessments, with guidance on developing your argument, planning and structuring your work and writing both critically and reflectively.
Are you struggling to find relevant sources for your research? The Library’s Teaching and Learning team provides online training to support your research. You can explore these courses through our Skills Guides for flexible, self-paced learning.
If you’d like more tailored help, you can request a one-to-one session via our online booking form.
These sessions can help with:
Improving your search skills.
Finding high quality information for your subject area.
Using research databases and other library resources.
Finding grey literature, statistics and datasets.
Referencing and using reference management software.