Academic Writing Skills - Einzelansicht

Course Title
Academic Writing Skills

Duration
2 SWS (1 x 90 minutes per week during the lecture period)

Learning Objective
Improving academic writing skills.

The focus is on the writing of academic texts that require citation and the synthesis of information from diverse sources. This course raises awareness of cross-cultural differences in academic writing patterns and instructs students in the norms of academic writing within an English-language academic context. Nonetheless, the skills from this course are transferable to writing within a German academic context. This course is recommended as preparation for students who plan to write theses as well as those who will be required to write academic essays.

Please note that this course does not cover job-related skills such as writing basic business emails and CVs.

Requirements
Placement test: At least 80 points or UNIcert III/1 completed.

Course Format
Course includes seminars and workshops with a focus on writing skills. Students should expect to share their writing and comment on the writing of others.

Test Format
An in-class written test plus submission of an essay or one section of an extended academic paper. The text will be required to be submitted in stages for feedback.

Assessment
In-class written test: 50%
Academic essay or section of an extended academic paper: 50%

Course Content

The course will cover:

• An introduction to cultural differences in academic and research communication
• Sentence structure
• English and American rules of punctuation
• Academic reading
• Paragraph construction
• Creating coherence within and between paragraphs
• Plagiarism, citation and paraphrase
• Use of referencing styles and referencing software
• Academic and non-academic language
• The macro structures of academic essays and theses
• Editing skills

Course Materials
Course material supplied by teacher, including exercises and links on the course Moodle.

Language
Course offered in the English language.