Academic Writing
1 Course description
Status of course – optional
Target audience – 3rd year students of Bachelor Programme (Economics Department)
Length of course – 152 hours (52 in-class and 100 self-study hours)
Period – 2 and 3 modules
Credits – 3.5 (valid for cumulative rating only)
2 Course outline
The course is aimed at developing academic writing and study skills which make up an integral part of
academic life. Academic writing skills enable students to write concisely and argumentatively using
academically acceptable style, grammar, and vocabulary, to produce texts of different academic genres
(essays and extended essays), to write for personal communicative purposes (academic CVs, motivation
letters, presentations). Study skills facilitate writing process by enabling students to think critically,
search for relevant information, use prewriting and writing strategies, solicit peer and instructor feedback
for further editing, and assess other students' papers.
The course is designed in accordance with such official recommendations and documents as All-Russia
State Education Standards for Bachelor Degree (Economics), Autonomous NRU HSE's Education
Standards, and Foundations of English Teaching in NRU HSE.
At the end of the course students will be able to:
1 write for academic purposes (motivation letters, academic CVs, essays, extended essays, academic
presentations);
2 demonstrate knowledge of academic writing conventions and ethics;
3 use appropriate academic style, grammar and vocabulary in writing;
4 write powerful coherent and cohesive texts;
5 analyse their own texts and peers' texts for the purposes of revising and editing;
5 employ computer and Internet-based technologies for producing academic texts (search engines, data
bases, open-source reference management software, the British National Corpus, on-line dictionaries,
etc).
The basic forms of instruction include: lectures, discussions, presentations, peer-reviewing. In-class
activities include individual, pair- and small-group work. The special emphasis is given to self-study
activities which are held and controlled by the means of Learning Management System (LMS).
2
3 Syllabus
№
Topics
Total
In-class
Self-
Seminars
study
1 Introduction into academic writing at university
38
14
24
1.1.
8
2
6
10
4
6
10
4
6
10
4
6
64
30
34
14
6
8
16
8
8
Academic writing: Genres families
Study Skills for Academic Writing: Reading and understanding
instructions and assignments
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Key Nouns
Grammar for Academic Writing: Nouns: plurals, countable
versus uncountable. Genitive. Article.
Academic Style: being concise and removing redundancy
1.2. Scholar community and academic etiquette
Study Skills for Academic Writing: information sources: how to
find what you need
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Key Verbs
Grammar for Academic Writing: Passive vs Active
Academic Style: paraphrasing and avoiding plagiarism
1.3. What students write for academic purposes.
Study Skills for Academic Writing: how to become an effective
reader
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Adjectives
Grammar for Academic Writing: Comparative and superlative
forms
Academic Style: political correctness and ambiguity
1.4. How academic writing is different from other forms of
writing
Study Skills for Academic Writing: surveying material
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Words of Latin and Greek
origin
Grammar for Academic Writing: modal verbs
Academic Style: hedging language
2 Academic Writing in Progress.
2.1.
2.2.
Stages of academic writing: Prewriting strategies
Study Skills for Academic Writing: brainstorming ideas
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Linking words (I)
Grammar for Academic Writing: Relative Clauses (I)
Punctuation and spelling (I)
Academic Style: coherence
Stages of academic writing: Writing Strategies (I)
Study Skills for Academic Writing: note-taking and summarising
skills
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Linking words (II)
Grammar for Academic Writing: Relative Clauses (II)
3
Punctuation and spelling (II)
Academic Style: cohesion
2.3. Stages of academic writing: Writing Strategies (II)
Study Skills for Academic Writing: building an argument
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Defining, comparing,
evaluating and highlighting
Grammar for Academic Writing: Word order
Academic Style: Writing short sentences and paragraphs
Punctuation and spelling (III)
2.4. Stages of academic writing: Rewriting strategies
Study Skills for Academic Writing: writing a peer review
Vocabulary for Academic Writing: Differences between
American and British English+Useful phrases
Grammar for Academic Writing: Numbers. Acronyms and
Abbreviations
Academic Style: Anticipating possible objections, indicating
level of certainty, discussing limitations
Punctuation and spelling (IV)
3 Internet Companions to Academic Writing
3.1.
3.2.
Reference management Software
Study Skills for Academic Writing: references and quotations,
bibliography
Vocabulary for Academic English: introductory phrases for
quotations references
Academic Style: Documentation Styles (I)
The English Language Corpus: BAWE
Study Skills for Academic Writing: revising and proofreading
Vocabulary for Academic English: False Friends and Synonyms
Academic Style: Documentation Styles (II)
16
8
8
18
8
10
24
8
16
12
4
8
12
4
8
Teaching and learning materials:
Books
McCormack, J.,Slaght, J. (2005). English for academic study: Extended writing and research skills.
Garnet education: The university of reading.
McCarthy, M., O'Dell F. (2010) Academic vocabulary in use. 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press.
Murray, N., Hughes, G. (2008) Writing up your university assignments and research projects: A
practical handbook. Open University Press.
Swales, J. M., Feak, Ch. B. (2001). Academic writing for graduate students. 2nd ed. The university
of Michigan press.
Sowton, Ch. (2012) 50 steps to improving your academic writing. Garnet Education.
Internet Resources
4
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
https://the.sketchengine.co.uk/open/
http://www.zotero.org/
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/
http://library.hse.ru/e-resources/e-resources.htm
LMS
10940 Academic Writing for Economics students.
4 Prerequisite
To be able to join this course and get the most of its content students should know English at B2 level
according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
5 Author
Zakharova Anna Viktorovna (Senior Lecturer, English Language Department, Economics Faculty)
http://www.hse.ru/org/persons/64705
6 Examination type
Forms of assessment
Assessment
Continuous
assessment
Forms of assessment
3-rd year
2
3
1 Test
*
*
2 Homework (grammar and vocabulary
*
*
quizzes – LMS based)
3 Academic CV
*
4 Motivation Letter
Midterm
Assessment
(pass)
Final
assessment
(examination)
Parameters
*
5 Class attendance
*
Essay (compare-contrast)
*
Extended Essay (problem solving)
*
500 words
*
1000 words
Midterm and Final Grades are calculated in accordance with the following formulae:
Midterm grade = Continuous assessment grade x 0.6 + Essay x 0.4
Final grade = Continuous assessment grade x 0.6 + Extended essay x 0.4