Academic writing 3502-DD-FAK-AW
The course lets students improve their analytical and compositional skills in the English language. Given time limitations, from a vast array of such skills there have been selected those having to do with identifying and presenting someone else’s claims and arguments; presenting one’s own claims and arguments in relation to someone else’s claims and arguments. Analytical skills have to do with identifying information structure (ordering) in texts. These skills are practised while getting to understand texts, writing home assignments and participating in homework assessment. Compositional skills have to do with presenting information in order; this is practised chiefly through writing home assignments. In addition, the course gives students an opportunity to improve their command of the English language through revision exercises of matters typically difficult to Poles who use English at an advanced level.
The scope of the course: Students will learn to control the register (style) of their exposition; to summarize various types of text by means of a number of techniques; correctly to distribute information at sentence, paragraph and essay levels; to identify and present different types of problem; to be clear, brief and precise in their writing.
The tools of the course. Students are not expected to rely on any fixed set of publications on writing or academic writing. Students are encouraged to make use of any such publications to which they might have access. However, the course is self-contained, insofar as both the texts that form the immediate basis for home assignments and explications of the details of these assignments, as well as guidelines to their assessment, will be provided by the instructor. Here, by way of example, is a short list of publications which, if used judiciously, may help: Dummet, M. 1993 Grammar & Style, London: Duckworth, Greenbaum, S. & J. Whitcut 1998 Guide to English Usage, London: Longman, Henze, G 1984 From Murk to Masterpeice, Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwi, MacPherson, R. 1994 University English, Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne,
McCrimmon, J. M. 1963 Writing with a Purpose, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Partridge, E. 1999 Usage and Abusage, 3rd ed. rev. by J. Whitcut,
London: Penguin.
The form of the class
Each class is a set of related stages:selected pieces of homework are discussed as examples of virtues and vices of written exposition; a new home assignment is given together with necessary instructions and explications. Assignments form a sequence, therefore, while working on a given piece of homework, students are expected to draw on what they have practised so far.
The rules of the class
The course is based on continuous assessment of students’ contribution to the class and their progress in perfecting their skills. Therefore students are required to be present at classes, take part in discussions, and submit their homework without delay. If someone misses a class, they are expected to do the home assignment for the class to which one comes after one’s absence (in other words: absence is not an excuse for not submitting one’s homework).
A provisional list of topics
The following is open to revision depending on students’ progress. Entries labelled ‘language matters’ may appear at any time, relative to the needs at hand. Two classes are left open (for delays, special assignments or students’ special requests). Basic concept of understanding. Typical academic structure. Introduction. Summarizing: informative/descriptive. Metalanguage/style. Abstract: conference/journal. Abstract vs. Introduction. Introduction vs. Ending. Problem identification and presentation. Disagreement/Agreement. Paraphrase (test). Language matters: the tenses. Language matters: complex sentences. Language matters: the articles. Language matters: punctuation. To be decided. To be decided
Type of course
Assessment criteria
The rules of the class
The course is based on continuous assessment of students’ contribution to the class and their progress in perfecting their skills. Therefore students are required to be present at classes, take part in discussions, and submit their homework without delay. If someone misses a class, they are expected to do the home assignment for the class to which one comes after one’s absence (in other words: absence is not an excuse for not submitting one’s homework).
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: