The course offers students an opportunity to acquire and develop academic writing skills as pertains in the context of the social sciences.
Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Expose students to the various stages of the writing process, including pre-writing, writing and re-writing;
- Develop rhetorical knowledge and practices for studying and writing within discipline-specific contexts
- Develop ability to critically evaluate all information sources, formulate analysis and skills to write for an academic audience
- Apply structure and skills of academic writing to the whole genres: thesis/dissertation, review and research articles, proposal, conference papers etc.
Content
The course aims to help students to write clear, grammatically accurate and well-organised academic English. Students will learn the language used to express the main communicative functions used at all levels of academic discourse. The course will further expose students to critical thinking and the general features of academic writing (style, conventions, phraseological patterns, use of the genre approach) as well as some key linguistic/rhetorical theories, and concepts underpinning academic writing. The epistemology and ontology of Social Science Research will be taught in addition to other practical issues in research writing and publishing. The course involves a practical training component, which mandates students to undertake article reviews and develop part-genres (abstract, acknowledgement, literature review methodology, conclusion, annotated bibliography).
Mode of Delivery
The course applies a combination of online lectures, group discussions, self-reading and directed study and seminar presentations.