Syllabus
Lesson 1 Course information; Academic English style and grammar conventions
Course overview, requirements and policies
What is academic English?
Writing in an academic style: qualifying and hedging, use of passive voice, nominalisation
Use of articles
Lesson 2 Thesis structure; Supporting arguments with evidence
Thesis structure and signposting language
Critical thinking: writing logical arguments
Structuring paragraphs: topic and supporting sentences; developing and supporting claims with evidence
Writing homework: the thesis proposal
Lesson 3 Summarizing; Paraphrasing; Referencing
Writing: the thesis proposal (recognizing academic style, editing)
Conjunctions and sentence connectors, e.g. to express cause and effect
Summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting
Avoiding plagiarism
Referencing overview (covered in the course on qualitative methods)
Lesson 4 The literature review
The literature review: structure, content and language
Synthesizing from source material
Reporting words
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1: the literature review (one page)
Lesson 5 The methodology section
Writing: the literature review (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)
Explaining methodology and rationale
Midterm test review
Lesson 6 Midterm test; The results section (the findings)
Midterm test on lessons 1-5: academic style, use of articles, qualifying and hedging, passive voice, nominalisation, conjunctions and sentence connectors, paraphrasing, reporting words
The results section: structure, content and language
Discussing and interpreting data in figures, graphs and tables
Optional writing homework: a description of a figure, graph or table
Lesson 7 The discussion section (evaluation and discussion)
Discussing and interpreting research and data
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2: the conclusion of the results section (2-3 paragraphs)
Lesson 8 The thesis conclusion
Writing assignment 2: the conclusion of the results section (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)
The thesis conclusion: structure, content and language
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 3: the thesis conclusion
Lesson 9 The thesis introduction
Writing assignment 3: the thesis conclusion (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)
The thesis introduction: structure, content and language
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 4: the thesis introduction
Lesson 10 Academic presentation skills; Punctuation
Writing assignment 4: the thesis introduction (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)
Punctuation (colons, semicolons and commas)
Academic presentation skills: presenting a thesis in 5 minutes – “a spoken abstract”
Signpost language
Bullet points: effective use (spoken versus written English) and correct format
Lesson 11 The abstract
Abstracts: purpose, structure, content and language
Student thesis or research presentations and defence (5 minute “spoken abstracts”)
Lesson 12 Presentations; Review
Student thesis or research presentations and defence (5 minute “spoken abstracts”)
Review of key points
Annotation
The course is designed for students writing their thesis or interested in improving their English academic writing skills. The focus will be on academic English language use and structure since the methodological and thesis seminars deal with content. Students should have a B2 level of English.
The structure of the course is based on the parts of a thesis. Students who are currently writing a thesis will be encouraged to write in their topic area to develop their vocabulary and writing skills in their field of interest.