Academic Writing

Garant předmětu:

Kryštof Beták

Lecturer:

Kryštof Beták

Tutor:

Kryštof Beták

Supervisor:

Institute of Language Studies

Synopsis:

The ability to produce texts is a necessary skill of every university student. The goal of this primarily practical seminar is improving student’s academic writing skills with focus on correct usage of vocabulary, grammar and the ability to structure academic texts correctly. Practical exercises will be included as well as some more theoretical remarks on what is academic English, how it differs from other varieties in form and function and how it has changed over time.

Requirements:

•Active in-class participation, participation in discussions

•Handing-in regular written assignments and homework

•Final written assignment

The same requirements also apply to students who participate in professional internships in companies during the semester. Attendance is excused during the internship.

Syllabus of lectures:

Syllabus of tutorials:

1.) Course information. What is academic English?

2.) The register perspective: Academic English and what makes it different from other varieties.

3.) Analysis of academic texts – typical language features of research articles.

4.) What are the main parts of research articles? (Introduction, main body, conclusion).

5.) Focusing on clarity – removing redundancy, expressing yourself clearly. Citing secondary literature.

6.) The vocabulary of scientific writing – specialised vocabulary, preference for nouns over verbs etc.

7.) Grammar of academic writing – passives, extraposition, tenses etc.

8.) Grammar of academic writing – cont. Typical mistakes of non-native speakers of English. English as academic Lingua Franca.

9.) Cohesion and coherence – building and connecting paragraphs, using connectors etc.

10.) Correct usage of punctuation.

11.) Expressing personal stance of the author, hedges, expressing uncertainty etc.

11.) Describing and interpreting data. Visual representation of data.

12.) Academic writing across disciplines and time – How and why has it changed?

13.) More practical exercises.

14.) Consulting final written assignment – a brainstorming session.

Study Objective:

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

•Understand what is academic English and how it differs from other varieties

•Use more correct and suitable vocabulary

•Produce the correct structure of academic texts, organize the text into coherent units

•Use grammar typical of academic style correctly, avoid typical mistakes of non-native speakers of English

•Give their English generally more accuracy in terms of grammar, vocabulary and functional language

Study materials:

Compulsory:

•Hewings, M. (2012). Cambridge Academic English (Upper-Intermediate; B2). Cambridge: CUP.

•Swales, J. M. and Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic Writing for Graduate Students. 3rd edition.

Recommended:

•Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

•Biber, D., Conrad, S. (2019). Register, Genre and Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•Collini, Stefan (2017). Speaking of Universities. London: Verso Books.

•Holborow, M. (2013) “Applied Linguistics in the Neoliberal University: Ideological keywords and social agency”. Applied Linguistics Review (4)2, 229-257.

•Hyland, K., Jiang, F. (2019). Academic Discourse and Global Publishing: Disciplinary Persuasion in Changing Times. London and New York: Routledge.

Note:

Time-table for winter semester 2024/2025:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon	roomDEJ:402 Beták K. 10:45–12:15 (parallel nr.101) Dejvice Učebna
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri

Time-table for summer semester 2024/2025:

Time-table is not available yet

The course is a part of the following study plans:

• B-EM-P prezenční studium od 20/21 (compulsory elective course)
• B-EM-P prezenční studium od 21/22 (compulsory elective course)
• B-EM-P prezenční studium od 22/23 (compulsory elective course)