Writing Office

What is the Writing Office?

The library offers writing consultations and training courses on all aspects of academic writing. Here students will receive support with questions about literature research, the structure of a term paper, citation or academic writing style.

For individual consultation, please make an appointment with Steffen Lindemann.

We are happy to help you!

Topics

Zoom training sessions in German and English are held regularly during the lecture period. These can also be integrated into a seminar at the request of the lecturer. You can find more information on the current training courses under the heading ‘Workshops’.

Library basics
The library's services - from printing and scanning to borrowing books and e-books.

Scientific literature research - incl. AI-Tools
How to research effectively with OPAC, DBIS, OPUS, the SuperLiteratureSearch and AI-Tools for academic sources.

Literature management with Zotero
Organising sources with Zotero, optimising your own workflow and integrating Zotero into writing programs.

Scientific work with AI
How AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) can help with researching and writing academic papers.

How to write your thesis
Practical tips on time management, the structure of a thesis and the basics of academic writing.

Academic texts: Evaluate, read and understand
Critically examine sources, read efficiently and take systematic notes to help you memorise information.

As research is an extensive topic, we have set up a separate page for it.

Click here to find an overview for research.

Are you working on your seminar paper, term paper or thesis? In order to organize and cite the required literature effectively, we offer you helpful support: literature management programs.

Zotero is a free literature management program that can be used on all common operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, Linux).

With Zotero you can collect, manage and annotate literature. The bibliographic data is formatted according to the desired citation style and bibliographies are created automatically at the touch of a button.

You need the Zotero Connector to enter literature directly from the browser. A plugin for your word processor (Word, Libre Office...) is automatically installed together with Zotero.

Optionally, you can create a user account online to synchronize data between different devices and work collaboratively in groups.

For instructions, use Quick Start Guide von Zotero or attend one of our training courses, which we offer regularly via Zoom (more detailed information during the semester on the site Training Materials).

Weitere Informationen:

Various citation styles are used at the university. It is therefore advisable to always follow the official guidelines of the respective citation style. For a general orientation independent of individual styles, we recommend the following reading:

Can a journal be cited? In the narrow, scientific sense, only citations from journals that meet scientific criteria may be used. You can find a list of citable journals in the Master Journal List.

Unsure how to cite an article? Enter the DOI of the source in the DOI Citation Formatter, select the citation style and language and have the citation generated automatically.

HSOChat (HSO LLM-Proxy)
Search for "KI" on the intranet. In the "KI in der Forschung" or "KI am Arbeitsplatz" portlet, you will find access to the HSO LLM proxy. There you can start "HSOChat" and log in with your university Google account. This will give you access to various language models, including models that are otherwise subject to a fee. Each request results in model-dependent costs, which are currently covered by the university—this may change in the future. Details can be found on the LLM proxy homepage.

Consensus
Ideal for getting an initial overview of a research topic. Enter your research question in natural language and check whether the summary and selected sources seem useful to you. The number of free queries is limited per month, but should be sufficient for a bachelor's or master's thesis.

Elicit
Creates a detailed research report that provides a good overview of a research topic. This does not replace your own in-depth research, but provides a basis from which to approach the topic. The number of free requests per month is very limited, but should be sufficient for a bachelor's or master's thesis.

Research Rabbit
The tool shows how scientific articles are linked to each other (who cites whom). First, create a small collection of 4–6 articles on a related topic. Based on this, you can generate  three types of suggestions:

  1. Earlier Works – sources that your articles refer to
  2. Similar Works – articles with comparable sources
  3. Later Works – publications that build on your collection

Note: More recent articles from the last 2–3 years usually do not appear, as they have not yet been cited often enough.

NotebookLM (a Google service)
You can chat with uploaded PDFs or use them to create podcasts, instructional videos, quizzes, and more – also ideal for exam preparation with lecture material or your own notes. Copyrighted articles and e-books may be uploaded as long as you log in with your university Google account. The university has contractually agreements with Google that the uploaded data will not be passed on for AI training. Nevertheless, no confidential, company-internal, or private documents containing personal information may be uploaded.

DeepL Write
Known as a translation tool, DeepL also offers a writing assistant. This tool allows you to correct your own text or adjust its style. By clicking on a word, you can display synonyms or alternative phrasing. You can also choose to leave your text unchanged and only check it for spelling and grammar mistakes. However, always proofread for yourself whether the content of your text has been distorted by the changes. DeepL can also makes mistakes.