HENK13002U Academic Writing for Graduate Students (CIP)

Volume 2024/2025
Content

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,
    - find and review relevant literature,
    - 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.

     

  • Practise writing and giving feedback. Draft four sections of your research paper: an extended definition of a key concept, annotated bibliography, argumentative synthesis and an introduction. 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)

 

Questions regarding the course content can be emailed to AcademicEnglish@hum.ku.dk.

Flipped classroom (online course room with a wealth of materials), writing (at home and in class), workshops, discussions (in small groups), peer reviews, reflective journal, individual study
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 28
  • Preparation
  • 180,75
  • Total
  • 208,75
Written
Oral
Individual
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio, 11-15 pages, A joint portfolio uploaded in digital exam.
Type of assessment details
The course will be examined by a portfolio exam consisting of a number of assignments to be submitted on set dates throughout the semester. The total number of pages will be 11-15, and all assignments must be written in English.
Activities, page limits and deadlines are as follows:

[1] 12 journal entries of 0,5 pages each (6 pages in total) submitted throughout the semester
[2] An extended definition 0.75-1 page submitted during week 4 of the semester
[3] An annotated bibliography 2 pages submitted during week 8 of the semester
[4] An argumentative synthesis 2 pages submitted during week 10 of the semester
[5] An introduction of 2 pages submitted during week 13 of the semester
[6] Peer feedback throughout the semester

If an assignment is not submitted on the set date, the student will not receive feedback, and will have to improve the assignment for the final portfolio without feedback.

All assignments must be included in the final portfolio submitted through digital exam.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

Portfolio, 16-20 pages.

At the make-up exam/resit, the portfolio must include a 4-5-page answer to an extra task set by the teacher. This answer is in addition to the required elements in the ordinary exam and will cover a topic or an angle that has not been treated in the required elements.

Criteria for exam assesment