Zentrum für akademisches Schreiben (ZefaS)
As part of the university library, ZefaS is your place to go for all questions relating to academic writing. We support you in all phases of your writing process (planning, formulating, revising) and with all types of academic texts that you write during your studies, e.g. term papers, final theses, project reports, experimental protocols, essays, etc. All our services are free of charge.
Individual writing consultations
We will be happy to support you with your specific writing project in a personal consultation in a confidential setting. Your project could be a term paper, a lab report, a bachelor's thesis or a similar writing task that you are working on as part of your bachelor's or master's degree. Together with a writing peer tutor, you will find individual answers and solutions to your questions and concerns in all phases of your writing process. Click here for the registration form. When registering, please note that appointments cannot usually be made at short notice due to high demand. If possible, please allow for at least two weeks' notice.
- Consultations by appointment in our consultation room AR-UB 209 in the main library on the AR campus: You can make appointments for an individual 1:1 consultation with trained writing peer tutors via our registration form. If you have technical difficulties filling out the registration form, simply send an informal email to zefas@uni-siegen.de. You should allow for approx. 45 minutes for a consultation.
- Online consultations by appointment: In case you prefer an online consultation, you can indicate this accordingly on the registration form.
In addition to the two leaders, ZefaS has a team of students with writing experience and who are trained in writing didactics who will support you in your university writing project and in your writing process. As part of their training as writing peer tutors, they have reflected on their own writing experiences and systematically applied various strategies relating to academic writing. In addition, they got to know different consulting techniques and tested them in concrete consulting situations.
- Learning from and with each other: In the consultation and learning situations, you will be advised by specially trained writing peer tutors who are still students themselves. This means we can meet in a relaxed atmosphere at eye level.
- Learning to solve difficulties yourself: We support you in developing your own writing strategies - but you are still responsible for your text.
- Sometimes talking can help: By telling an outside person about your writing project, many thoughts will sort themselves out. That's why we encourage you to talk about your own text.
- Learning as a process: In order for you to benefit from the consultation in the long term, the strategies taught are also suitable for use in your future writing projects.
- Individually customised: Depending on your writing project an on which type of writer you are, some strategies are more suitable than others. Let's work together to find out which ones best suit your strengths and needs. We consider each student with their very individual requirements and would like our consultations to contribute to a diversity-sensitive approach to teaching academic writing skills and to increasing equal opportunities in higher education.
A university writing project consists of numerous small steps that can take different amounts of time and do not always follow a clear sequence. In relation to these steps, we also speak of different phases of the writing process.
We offer support for every phase of the writing process. Here are a few examples of typical questions you can ask when you come for advice:
| Phase in the writing process | Typical questions |
|---|---|
| Planning phase |
|
| Formulation phase |
|
| Revision phase |
|
We would also be happy to talk to you about the use of AI in the academic writing process - from the stage of brainstorming to the revising phase.
Is your question not included? Or perhaps you don't yet know exactly about your specific concern? No problem, let's find out together!
- Under no circumstances do we replace the personal and professional support provided by the respective teacher of your seminar, i.e. we do not provide advice on the content of your text.
- Our writing consultation is not an editing or proofreading service, but we are happy to give you exemplary text feedback on text excerpts as part of a consultation. The amount of text depends on the type of writing project and can be discussed with us in advance.
- In case your concern is mainly related to language difficulties in the area of German as a second language or German as a foreign language, we recommend that you contact the writing advice service for learners of German as a Foreign Language at the Language Center of the University of Siegen.
- Do you have a specific question about a formulation in German, a grammatical form or a particular spelling? In case you have such questions about the German language, please contact the team at the Sprachberatungsstelle of the University of Siegen: sprachberatung@germanistik.uni-siegen.de
Writing peer tutor training
We continuously train students to become writing peer tutors, some of whom are then employed as student assistants at the writing center and can thus complement the existing writing peer tutor team. In case you would like to further your knowledge in the field of academic writing and would also like to support other students with their writing projects during their studies as part of the ZefaS team, then our writing peer tutor training is just right for you.
- Academic writing process and writing strategies
- Resources in the writing process
- Scientificity and subject-specificity of texts
- Reading in the writing process
- Multilingualism in the writing process
- Consultation strategies
- Principles of writing peer tutoring
- Exchange of experiences with participants from different subject cultures, mutual feedback
- Reflection on own working and writing strategies
- and much more.
The writing peer tutor training in the summer semester 2026 consists of three modules that cover the above-mentioned content:
- Participation in at least 8 sessions of the ZefaS workshop series: Schreiben im Studium - Kompetenzen vertiefen und weiterentwickeln from mid-April to mid-July 2026 and
- In-depth meeting on consulting skills and the basics of writing center work (in agreement with interested participants following the above-mentioned workshop series; presumably at the end of July/beginning of August 2026)
- As part of a possible employment as a student assistant at the writing center (from WS 26/27): Sitting in consultations, practical experience and further training
What we offer:
- Employment as a student assistant for 6 hours per week
- Work in a motivated team
- Internal further training and professionalisation
- Opportunity to help shape the further development of the writing center
Your central tasks at the writing center:
- Writing peer consultations on issues relating to the academic writing process
- Support for preparing and conducting workshops
- Instructing the open co-working space "ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit"
- Further development of working materials for consultations and workshops
- Supporting advertising efforts
If you have any further questions about working as a writing peer tutor at the writing center, please send an email to zefas@uni-siegen.de.
What former participants of the writing peer tutor training course say
ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit
Your co-working space
Are you looking for a place to work on your writing project (e.g. term paper, thesis, essay, report, etc.) in the company of other writers? Would you like a boost of motivation for your upcoming writing and reading tasks? Then why not try the ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit instructed by our trained writing peer tutors! This is an open offer: you don't have to register and can decide for yourself how often you want to come.
The focus is on your own writing project: whether you write a chapter of your term paper, evaluate literature for your Bachelor's thesis, develop an outline or a research question for your Master's thesis or something similar - all university writing projects are welcome. The ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit begins with a (writing) stimulus to warm up. You set yourself a specific goal for the writing and reading time and then work individually on your project in the company of other writers. The session concludes with a reflection to plan your next steps. During the breaks, you will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with other writers and informally find partners for writing groups and/or mutual proofreading. Our writing peer tutors are of course also available to answer your questions and exchange ideas.
Where does the ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit take place?
- usually twice a month in the self-study center of the university library (level 2) on the AR campus
- additionally once a month online via Webex
When does the next ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit take place?
- Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 2:15 to 3:45 pm in the Self-Study Center of the university library (Level 2)
- Monday, March 2, 2026, 2:15 to 3:45 pm online via Webex(Webex link, password: pkJmPcaVy733)
- Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 2:15 to 3:45 pm in the Self-Study Center of the university library (level 2)
Offers for pupils and prospective students
Studying at university requires numerous interrelated skills that students need to expand or acquire from scratch at the beginning and during the course of their studies based on their previous resources. In the transition from school to university, the Facharbeit or other written project work plays an important role as scientific propaedeutic achievements at Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen against this background.
To give pupils an insight into academic writing, the writing center offers the following free formats:
In the workshops, pupils are made aware that no sure formular exists for writing a scientific text, but that the writing process is rather very complex, underlies subject-specific conventions and depends on each individual's writing organisation and routine. In the workshops, pupils are given initial strategies and techniques to deal with the complexity of the writing process. The time frame and content of the workshops (e.g. finding a topic and a question for a research paper or project work, learning about the relevance of citing academic sources, etc.) is tailored to the needs of the respective group. The workshops are run by the two heads of the writing center and by the writing peer tutors. The contact between the pupils and the student writing peer tutors in particular can help to a) recognise the concrete benefits of acquiring academic writing skills for a degree course and b) reduce uncertainties regarding the transition from school to a degree course. The workshops can be held for smaller groups of pupils, for school classes and - with appropriate lead time - for entire grades.
The workshops can be combined with other offers at the university library (e.g. guided tours through the library, research workshops) and/or the Central Student Advisory Service (ZSB) (e.g. insight into selected lectures and seminars as part of a Uni-Praktikum, campus rally).
From November 2025 up to and including February 2026, the "Fit für die Facharbeit" format was offered for the first time to support pupils with their Facharbeit. Students received individual advice in consultation hours of up to 45 minutes.
Research consultation: answering questions and providing assistance with academic research using the online catalog, university library databases and on the topic of artificial intelligence and research, support with downloading, scanning or borrowing literature relevant to the subject of the Facharbeit from the university library's collection
Writing advice: support with interdisciplinary issues relating to the writing process, e.g. formulating a research question during the planning phase, integrating academic sources into your own text during the formulation phase, checking the line of argumentation during the revision phase, time management, writing and AI, etc.
Format: individual consultation sessions (also possible in pairs/thirds) up to a duration of 45 minutes
Registration: no prior registration necessary
Performers: employees of the University Library and the Zentrum für akademisches Schreiben (ZefaS)
Contact: If you have any questions, please contact either the Zentrum für akademisches Schreiben (email: zefas@uni-siegen.de) or the Central Information Desk at Siegen University Library (email: zinfo@ub.uni-siegen.de)
We will inform you about a possible continuation of the format here as soon as possible.
We regularly offer the workshop "Mein erster akademischer Text: Strategien für meinen Schreibprozess kennenlernen und ausprobieren" for pre-students of the Brücken ins Studium (BisS) program. The individual writing peer consultations at ZefaS and the co-working space "ZefaS-Schreib- und Lesezeit" are also open to this target group. Further information on pre-studying can be found on the corresponding page of the Central Student Advisory Service.
Offer for lecturers at the University of Siegen
Would you like to raise students' awareness of aspects of academic writing in your course and draw their attention to the interdisciplinary support services offered by ZefaS? We would be happy to come to your course to introduce ourselves and our services. On request, we can also prepare a suitable contribution tailored to your course (e.g. designed for a half or full seminar session).
Examples of possible topics that we can discuss with your students include
- What is academic writing anyway and what does the academic writing process look like?
- What strategies can help me to evaluate specialised literature?
- Why and how do I refer to other authors in my text?
- How do I use AI (Large Language Models) reasonably and thoughtfully in my writing process?
- What should I bear in mind when scheduling a writing project?
- etc.
If you are interested, please contact us timely as part of your semester planning: zefas@uni-siegen.de
About the ZefaS
Development of a cross-faculty writing center at the University of Siegen
2018 to 2022
Development and testing of writing peer tutor training as part of initial concepts for a cross-faculty writing center at the University of Siegen
2020 to 2022
Pilot projects: Deployment of Writing Fellows for close-knit writing support for courses in Faculty I and writing peer consultations for students of all faculties
11/2022 until 6/2025
Establishment phase of ZefaS (organizational connection to the Prorektorat Bildung and from 3/2024 to the Prorektorat für Studium, Lehre und Qualitätsmanagement)
since 7/2025
Longterm establishment under the umbrella of the Siegen University Library; expansion and further development of services
