Academic Writing 3223-AMMS-AR
The course is aimed at practicing various skills crucial for writing academic essays, research reports, articles and dissertations as well as other types of academic writing. Apart from analysing the structure of the most typical academic texts, the participants will practise stylistic, lexical and grammatical measures characteristic of academic discourse, e.g. qualification, concession, hedging, expressing multifarious degrees of certainty. The classes will also be focused on training the editing and reviewing skills such as critical approach to the argumentation, hypotheses and findings of other authors and one’s own as well as attention to both linguistic and stylistic aspects of writing.
The course will revolve around the following topics:
● academic register and vocabulary,
● revision of punctuation rules the most useful grammatical structures,
● reviewing and editing one’s writing (the most common error types),
● style: unity and coherence, qualification and concession, degrees of certainty, hedging,
● structure and types of academic essays (process essay, cause and effect essay, comparison essay),
● structure of an academic article/ thesis, C.A.R.S. model,
● source selection and referencing (quotation, paraphrase, summary),
● citation and reference list formats,
● critical writing, argumentation, academic discourse, literature review,
● ethical issues in academic writing: plagiarism, political correctness, plain language.
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge: the graduate knows and understands:
-at an advanced level the complex nature of language, its intricacy and changeability
-concepts and principles in the field of protection of individual property and copyright
Skills: the graduate is able to:
-prepare written works in the field of multilingualism and multiculturalism in English (including works bearing the features of a scientific text)
-search, analyse and utilise information using available sources
-recognize different genres of texts and conduct their in-depth analysis and interpretation using various methods
-argue substantively using the views of other authors and formulate conclusions
-integrate knowledge relevant to multilingualism and multiculturalism
Social competences: the graduate is ready to:
-recognise the importance of knowledge and seek expert advice when problems arise
-critically assess knowledge and skills in the field of multilingualism and multiculturalism
-recognise the principles of research ethics and to respect all participants in the research process
Assessment criteria
The final mark consists of the following components:
● continuous assessment (class attendance, active participation and being prepared for the classes);
● average of the grades for written home assignments and in-class writings.
The grades will be awarded on the basis of the following scale:
60%–69.9% = 3
70%–74.9% = 3.5
75%–84.9% = 4
85%–89.9% = 4.5
90%–100% = 5
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: