Course Details

Academic Writing

Academic Year 2023/24

VYA002 course is part of 2 study plans

Elective Courses Summer Semester

Elective Courses Winter Semester

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