FI:VV043 Academic Writing in English - Course Information

VV043 Academic Writing in English

Extent and Intensity

0/2. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).

Teacher(s)

James Edward Thomas, M.A. (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

Mgr. Eva Rudolfová
Language Centre, Faculty of Informatics Division – Language Centre
Contact Person: prof. RNDr. Antonín Kučera, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Language Centre, Faculty of Informatics Division – Language Centre

Timetable

Wed 12:00–13:50 A318

Prerequisites (in Czech)

SOUHLAS

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 11 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

The overriding aim of this course is to guide novice writers in aspects of discovery learning. It is important to understand the conventions of the academic writing genre at all levels: from the minutiae of language such as the use of prepositions, through clause and sentence structure, paragraph structure and up to full text. With the conventions being systematic, the task for novice writers is to discover the regular, standard features of usage and then employ them in their own writing. Searching large databases of relevant texts allows conclusions to be drawn from the findings.

Syllabus

• 1. Introduction: What is academic prose? Hierarchy of Language, Linear Unit Grammar
• 2. Academic Vocabulary: Academic Word List, Word Families, About verb patterns and noun frames, Pronunciation, Online tools
• 3. Verbs and their patterns: Academic verbs with a simple patterns including prepositions
• 4. Nouns and their frames: General Nouns, Nouns with adjectives, Nouns with articles.
• 5. Other Words and Phrases in the Message: multi-word units
• 6. Words and phrases of the Organisational Language: Academic Formulas list
• 7. General issues in Ac writing: Written vs spoken language, Sexism, Numbers, Authorial voice
• 8. Sentence Grammar: Structure of sentences, End weight, Comma splice, Punctuation, Subjunctive
• 9. Text issues: Topic sentences, Paragraph hooks, Sentences: linking, Superordinates, Topic sentences, Paragraph hooks
• 10. Sections of papers: Abstracts, Review of Literature, etc.
• 11. Mechanical Matters: Citation and Plagiarism, Footnotes and Endnotes
• 12. Writing: Developing a text from point form, Text flow

Literature

recommended literature
• ZOBEL, Justin. Writing for computer science :the art of effective communication. Singapore: Springer, 1997, xiii, 176. ISBN 981-3083-22-0. info

not specified
• GILLETT, Andy, Angela HAMMOND and Mary MARTALA. Successful academic writing. 1st pub. Harlow: Pearson, 2009, xxvi, 334. ISBN 9780273721710. info
• BAILEY, Stephen. Academic writing : a handbook for international students. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2006, viii, 260. ISBN 0415384192. info
• HAMP-LYONS, Liz and Ben HEASLEY. Study writing : a course in writing skills for academic purposes. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 213 s. ISBN 9780521534963. info
• BAILEY, Stephen. Academic writing : a handbook for international students. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2011, xx, 293. ISBN 9780415595803. info
• Academic writing and genrea systematic analysis. Edited by Ian Bruce. New York: Continuum, 2008, vi, 194 p. ISBN 0826498442. info

Teaching methods

The course is run as a seminar in which students are involved in analysing documents on macro and micro levels, analysing language phenomena in the British National Corpus and our very own Informatics Corpus, and of course, writing.

Assessment methods

Corpus study test, terminology test, various pieces of writing demonstrating the language concepts taught.

Language of instruction

English

Further Comments

Study Materials
The course is taught annually.

• Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2015, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fi/spring2015/VV043