Auhenthic materials used in the syllabus will be selected to suit the needs and interests of the students after Week I.
Week I: What Constitutes an Academic Text?
Materials for Week I:Though these materials will be printed for the benefit of the class, they may be read on-line.
Christopher Carbone, ‘Ancient Bubonic Plague Outbreak Might Have Been Exaggerated, Study Shows’, Fox News.com, 3 Dec. 2019
Peter Sarris, ‘New Approaches to “The Plague of Justinian”’ Past and Present (2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtab024
The article is very long, we will only read the abstract and introduction.
Topics covered during the semester will include:
Citation of sources
Types and styles of academic writing
Quotation and paraphrase
Structure and argument
Avoiding repetition
Error correction and proofreading
Skim reading for research
Close reading
Critical appraisal of information
Finding relevant sources
The course will guide undergraduate students through the process of producing a short academic text in
English. The course will teach students how to identify and produce academic writing in English in contrast to other types of text, by considering the style, the citation of sources and the reliability of the information contained within a text.