HENK13001U Academic Writing for Graduate Students (CIP)

Good academic writing is creative, informative and persuasive. It helps us to think through our research and communicate our thoughts effectively. Our texts encourage conversations with peers not only in our field of study, but also in related disciplines.

This course, designed as a series of interactive workshops, offers you an opportunity to write in English within your own discipline and to discuss your writing with international peers. It also invites you to reflect on your writing habits and writer identity.

• Choose a research problem to investigate (for example, a subject in your major courses). As the semester unfolds, follow the stages of researching and writing as two interlinked processes:
  - focus your research question,
  - conduct the literature review,
  - collect the best evidence to argue for the importance of your research project.

• Read like a writer. Analyze model texts and sample texts written by your peers to better understand rhetorical strategies and stylistic conventions of selected academic text types.

   

• Practice writing and giving feedback. Draft three sections of your research paper: an extended definition of a key concept, literature review, introduction or discussion/conclusion. You will discuss these drafts with your peers and receive comments from your tutor.

   

  The semester of reading, writing and exchanging ideas with international peers from various disciplines will help you to become a better academic communicator. This course will assist you in your future writing, not only in English, but also in your other languages.

   

Testimonials

This course has changed my writing in general. It has also had a huge impact on how I read. I notice more often now when something is written very well or how well structured an article is.

Scarlett (MA, Germany)

Thanks to this course I have achieved more confidence in writing and I have started writing also for pleasure, and not only for academic purposes.

Valentina (MA, Italy)

This course definitely helped me with writing in my own field. In Germany we mostly use German literature and therefore don’t take English literature into consideration too much. I think that I am looking at my field of study from a broader perspective now. This has also effects on my writing: I am more conscious about the sources I use and I think more thoroughly about how I write.

Marie-Therese (MA, Germany)

My writing skill is better than it used to be. Also, my vocabulary has developed. I feel very pleased with the course materials, because if I have issues with my next academic assignment, then I know where to look. 

Mart (MA, Estonia)