Lesson 1 Course overview and policies

What is academic English?

Writing in an academic style: qualifying and hedging; using passive voice etc.

Use of articles

Lesson 2 Planning a thesis

Structure and signposting language

Writing: the thesis proposal

Lesson 3 Writing: the thesis proposal (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Critical thinking: writing logical arguments

Writing: the abstract

Lesson 4 Writing: the abstract (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Structuring paragraphs: topic and supporting sentences; developing and

supporting claims with evidence

Conjunctions and sentence connectors, e.g. to express cause and effect

Writing: the introduction

Lesson 5 Writing: the introduction (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Punctuation: semicolons (;) and colons (:)

Summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting

Writing: a summary of an academic article (one paragraph)

Lesson 6: Writing: a summary of an academic article (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Synthesizing from source material

Reporting words

Writing: the literature review (one paragraph)

Lesson 7 Writing: the literature review (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Explaining methodology and rationale

Writing: the methodology section (one paragraph)

Lesson 8 Writing: the methodology section (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

The results section part 1

Discussing and interpreting research and data

Writing: the results section (one paragraph)

Lesson 9 Writing: the results section (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

The results section part 2

Discussing and interpreting data in figures, graphs and tables

Writing: a description of a figure, graph or table

Lesson 10 Writing: a description of a figure, graph or table (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Academic presentation skills: presenting a thesis in 5 minutes – “a spoken abstract”

Bullet points: effective use (spoken versus written English) and correct format

Lesson 11 Student thesis or research presentations and defence (5 minute presentations- “a spoken abstract”)

Summarizing

Writing: the conclusion

LESSON 12 Writing: the conclusion (text analysis; error correction; editing practice)

Student thesis presentations and defence (5 minutes presentations – “a spoken abstract”)

Review of key points