Academic Writing
Data is displayed for academic year: 2023./2024.
Lecturers
Lectures
Course Description
Purpose and strategy of academic writing. Organization, style, and flow. Discourse-level cohesion; hedging. Text organization patterns: general-specific, problem-solution, compare-contrast, cause-effect. Argumentative structures and fallacies. Constructing a research paper. Data commentary. Summarizing. Reviewing and replying to a review. Typesetting tools (LaTeX and BibTeX). Typography guidelines and common mistakes.
Study Programmes
University graduate
[FER3-EN] Control Systems and Robotics - profile
Transversal Courses
(1. semester)
(3. semester)
[FER3-EN] Data Science - profile
Transversal Courses
(1. semester)
(3. semester)
[FER3-EN] Electrical Power Engineering - profile
Transversal Courses
(1. semester)
(3. semester)
Learning Outcomes
- Recognize the purpose and style of academic writing
- Apply common text organization patterns
- Differentiate between the types of academic documents (report, scholarly article, commentary, summary, review)
- Design an outline for a research paper or a MSc thesis
- Construct and sketch the content of a research paper
- Use the typesetting tools (LaTeX and BibTex)
Forms of Teaching
Lectures
Lectures according to the schedule.
Independent assignmentsIndividual writing assignments.
OtherDiscussing examples and own texts.
Grading Method
Continuous Assessment | Exam | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Threshold | Percent of Grade | Threshold | Percent of Grade | ||
Homeworks | 0 % | 40 % | 0 % | 40 % | ||
Class participation | 0 % | 20 % | 0 % | 20 % | ||
Mid Term Exam: Written | 0 % | 20 % | 0 % | |||
Final Exam: Written | 50 % | 20 % | ||||
Exam: Written | 50 % | 40 % |
Comment:
All homework assignments are obligatory. All homework assignments must have been submitted before the last week of lectures in order to be admitted to the (final) exam.
Week by Week Schedule
- Introduction to academic writing
- Academic style
- Text organization: writing notes and paragraphs (coherence and cohesion)
- Text organization: writing summaries
- Text organization: report writing
- Introduction to writing a research paper
- Introduction to writing a research paper (cont'd). Midterm revision
- Midterm exam
- Typesetting tools (LaTeX and BibTeX). Typography guidelines and common mistakes
- Writing a research paper: title and abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion
- Writing a research paper: graphs, figures and tables
- Writing a research paper: referencing and plagiarism
- Guidelines for writing a (MSc) thesis
- Discussion on mock research papers written by students. Final revision.
- Final exam
Literature
Kate L. Turabian (2009.), A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition, University of Chicago Press
John M. Swales, Christine B. Feak (2004.), Academic Writing for Graduate Students, Essential Tasks and Skills, 3rd Ed., University of Michigan Press/ELT (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes)
Robert E. Berger (2014.), A Scientific Approach to Writing for Engineers and Scientists, John Wiley & Sons
Justin Zobel (2014.), Writing for Computer Science, 3rd ed., Springer
Martin Hewings, Craig Thaine, Michael McCarthy (2012.), Cambridge Academic English, Cambridge University Press
For students
General
ID 222907
Winter semester
2 ECTS
L3 English Level
L2 e-Learning
30 Lectures
0 Seminar
0 Exercises
0 Laboratory exercises
0 Project laboratory
0 Physical education excercises
Grading System
90 Excellent
80 Very Good
70 Good
60 Sufficient