Academic Language Skills: Writing

MA level studies

English Philology

semester 4

full time studies

foreign languages
obligatory courses

(in Polish) Realizowany w sali

ECTS points in relation to student’s duties

total ECTS: 2

1 ECTS: 30hrs - active class participation

1 ECTS: 15hrs - homework + 15hrs - consultations

Course description:

The course in academic writing is addressed to students who finalise composing their MA theses. Its main aim is to support students in refining their MA theses as far as formal aspects of academic writing are concerned. The course is highly individualised

Course objectives:

The Academic Language Skills: Writing course is focused on further development of academic writing in the context of MA thesis writing. The students receive mentoring and tutoring regarding graphic formating of their MA thesis according to University regulations, organisation of content, referencing, bibliography accoring to MLA or APA standard formats. Attention is drawn to quotations, paraphrases, proper introduction to the MA as a whole but also to particular chapters, effective conclusion and suitable summary of the MA both in Polish and in English.

-----------------------

Course content includes:

• coherence-oriented text analysis techniques

• cohesion-oriented text analysis techniques

• text-editing techniques

• error correction

• covering students' individual needs

-----------------------

Methods of teaching: tutoring, mentoring, text analysis, writing tasks; ICTtools/MSTeams platform

Reading list

American Psychological Association. (2015). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Gibaldi, J. (2009). MLA handbook for writers of research papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America

used for self-study

Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching academic ESL writing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Swales, J.M., & Feak Ch.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Wilson, J. & J. Newbrook. (2004). New proficiency gold. London: Longman.

supplementary reading

Fisher, A. (2011). Critical thinking: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Leki, I. (1998). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Learning outcomes (PRK 2019)

Knowledge

The student knows:

1. academic discourse in the field representing their MA thesis focus (k_W06/P7S_WG)

2. rules of the protection of intellectual copyright (k_W08/P7S_WK)

Skills

The student can:

3. use academic discourse to carry out academic writing tasks (k_U01//P7S_UW; k_U04/P7S_UK)

4. use English at the level of C2 of the Common European Framework for Languages and in the scope of specialist terminology in their academic writing (k_U05/P7S_UK)

Social competences

The student is ready to:

5. act ethically in the context of academic writing including source documentation, paraphrasing and quoting (k_K05/P7S_KR)

Forms of evaluation of learning outcomes

active participation in classes (40% of the final grade - outcome 1,2,3,4,5)

writing tasks (15% each of the final grade - outcome 1,2,3,4,5)

The individual writing tasks include:

1. progress report on own MA research project including a front page (15%)

2. samples of long and short quotations and paraphrases with references to sources (15%)

3. samples of bibliography in MLA or APA style (15%)

4. a summary of MA thesis together with key words – English and Polish versions (15%)

Grading system:

active participation and two writing tasks - grade 3,0

active participation and three writing tasks - grade 4,0

active participation and four writing tasks - grade 5,0