Academic writing 2

obligatory courses

Course description

The course is designed to develop students' C1-level writing skills. It introduces advanced writing, grammar and vocabulary activities. It aims at helping students write their BA theses.

ECTS points in relation to student’s duties: 2

1 ECTS – 30 hours in class,

1 ECTS – 15 hours preparation to and completion of assignments, 15 hours of tutorial and counselling sessions

Contact: dr Tomasz Gadzina (tgadzina@uni.opole.pl)

Course objectives

The aim of the course is to familiarise students with and give practical advice on how to compose, rewrite and proof read their theses to meet their supervisor’s requirements. Students will be provided with practical help in editing their dissertations. They will receive guidelines on how to format text, paragraphs and the layout of their electronic documents, in particular, the title page, summary, conclusions, and bibliography, as well as on how to make in-text citations and cite quotations properly.

Course content

The course will focus on developing students' skills in:

Style and content, electronic document formatting, summary and conclusion writing, in-text citations, bibliography in different styles and formats, plagiarism.

Reading list

A. Obligatory reading (to get a credit):

A.1. used in class

1. Leki, I. (1998). Academic Writing. Cambridge UP.

2. Wallwork, A. (2013). English for Research: Usage, Style, and Grammar. Springer.

A.2. used for self-study

1. Dziekański, P. (2013). Przewodnik dla studentów: jak pisać pracę dyplomową? Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego.

2. MacDonald, S. (2010). Professional academic writing: in the humanities and social sciences. Southern Illinois University Press.

B. Supplementary reading

1. Teitelbaum, H. (1998). How to write a thesis. ARCO.

2. Hamp-Lyons, L. (1989). Study writing: a course in written English for academic purposes. Cambridge University Press.

Knowledge

Graduate knows and understands how to

1. recognize and compare formal and informal style of writing (k-W-4, s-W-1),

2. logically arrange arguments to maintain coherence (s-W-1),

3. choose appropriate layout, style, and grammatical and semantic structures (s-W-1),

4. have the knowledge of intellectual and industrial copyright laws (k-W-7).

Skills

Graduate can

1. apply the rules of written communication in practice and use appropriate methods and tools to prepare specific documents (k-U-2, s-U-1)

2. seek, analyse, assess, select and use information from written sources (s-U-1),

3. use the English language in writing with relative fluency, accuracy and communication efficiency (k-U-6, s-U-2)

Social competences

Graduate is ready to

1. critically assess their philological knowledge and recognize the importance of knowledge of the language in solving practical problems (k-K-1),

2. pay particular attention to vocational work ethics (k-K-3),

3. shape their views on the basis of their general knowledge acquired during studies (s-K-2).

Forms of evaluation of effects

Writing assignments 100% (students have to submit selected parts of their theses)