Course Details
Academic Writing
Academic Year 2022/23
VYA002 course is part of 2 study plans
BPC-VP Summer Semester 1st year
BPC-VP Winter Semester 1st year
An introduction to the canonical sections of a scientific paper of the type found in international journals and proceedings (IMRAD, etc.).
Explanations regarding how to structure a text and divide it up into paragraphs, as well as how to cite correctly and declare one's sources.
Practice in writing abstracts and short scientific papers.
Information on how to use academic vocabulary and phraseology precisely.
Course Guarantor
Institute
Objective
Introducing students to the methods of scientific text in English (goals, methods, style), structure and referencing
Knowledge
The students will be familiar with the process of writing scientific texts in English and will have active command of the frequent phraseology used in English scientific texts.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of general English at the B1 level according to the CEFR.
Language of instruction
Czech
Credits
2 credits
Semester
summer
Forms and criteria of assessment
course-unit credit
Specification of controlled instruction, the form of instruction, and the form of compensation of the absences
Extent and forms are specified by guarantor’s regulation updated for every academic year.
Offered to foreign students
Not to offer
Course on BUT site
Exercise
13 weeks, 2 hours/week, compulsory
Syllabus
1. CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
Students’ experience with academic writing – characteristics and genres of academic writing – register and style – abbreviations, initialisms and acronyms
2. RESEARCH ARTICLES: FORMAT + WRITING PROCESS
Format of typical research articles – the process of writing articles – phrases for defining – relative clauses
3. THE INTRODUCTION
Characteristics of an Introduction section – past simple vs present perfect simple – phrases for classifying – phrases for describing cause and effect
4. THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Characteristics of a literature review – phrases for being critical – phrases for giving examples – referencing, quoting and paraphrasing
5. VOCABULARY AND SPELLING
Academic vocabulary – confusable words – UK vs US English – dictionaries and corpora
6. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Characteristics of a Materials and Methods section – the passive voice – passive vs active in research articles
7. RESULTS
Characteristics of a Results section – phrases for describing trends – visuals – phrases for comparing and contrasting
8. COHERENCE AND LINKING
Giving a text coherence and clarity – summarizing and previewing sections – linking words and when not to use them – avoiding vagueness and confusion
9. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Characteristics of Discussion and Conclusion sections – phrases for describing quantities – modal verbs for deduction – hedging
10. TITLES AND HEADINGS
Titles, headings and subheadings – capitalization – the definite and indefinite article
11. ABSTRACTS
Characteristics of an abstract – conciseness (avoiding wordiness) – gerunds vs infinitives
12. REVISING AND EDITING
Revising and editing – punctuation – subject-verb agreement