VV043 Academic Writing in English

Faculty of Informatics
Spring 2017
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Eva Rudolfová
Language Centre, Faculty of Informatics Division – Language Centre
Contact Person: prof. RNDr. Petr Hliněný, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Language Centre, Faculty of Informatics Division – Language Centre
Timetable
each odd Tuesday 8:00–11:50 A319
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
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.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2006, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2017, recent)
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