Academic skills I: Academic Writing

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Jindřiška BLÁHOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s)

Jindřiška BLÁHOVÁ, Richard Andrew NOWELL

Department

Předmět zajišťuje Rectorate

Contents

This course invites Ph.D. students to rethink their approaches to academic outputs through the early adoption of professional standards of development and execution. Students will focus on six fundamentals of their craft: 1) process-driven writing, 2) writing style, 3) organization, 4) argumentation and positioning, 5) editing, and 6) introductions and conclusions. Their introduction to the rigors of international academic publishing standards, will equip students with the thinking and skills needed maximize the impact and quality of their theses, and furnish them with transferable skills that will facilitate their production of world-leading outputs across their careers.

StructureSix Seminars - 16.10 // 30.10. // 13.11. // 27.11. // 11.12. // 8.1 (TBC)

TimeWednesdays 17:30–20:30 (with built-in breaks)

Location Seminar Room 412, AMU, Dům U Bílého jelena, Tržiště 20, Praha 1 (entry via Hartig palác)

Contact. Richard Nowell / richard_nowell@hotmail.com

TOPIC 1 WRITING-AS-PROCESS Wednesday 9 October

If graduate students are to become professional academics, they must come to terms with the realities of producing professional standards of scholarship. And, while there is no magic formula, making this leap oftentimes involves rethinking how we produce our work. In this session, students will consider the need to replace the largely private-event approach typical of undergraduate and early-postgraduate work with the semi-public process of embracing redrafting and the solicitation of feedback. In so doing, this session lays a firm foundation for subsequent sessions, in which students will consider this process step by step.

Preparation:

•Recommended Reading: Becker, “Chapter One: Freshman English for Graduate Students … if We Start Off by Opening Up”, pp. 1-25.

•Homework: Please write a 250-word abstract of an essay or chapter you are writing or plan to write.

Targeted Learning Outcome

•To appreciate the extent to which transforming the production of academic outputs from private events to semi-public processes can maximize their quality and impact.

TOPIC 2 WRITING STYLE Wednesday 23 October

It is insufficient for professional scholars merely to produce comprehensible work. Rather, it might behoove them to aspire to the production of prose that boasts three qualities: clarity, economy, and elegance. In this session, students will focus on the development of such a style by approaching writing as a reader-oriented exercise in communication strategy, one designed to maximizing the impact of their ideas by making them as accessible as possible.

Preparation

•Recommended Reading: Becker, “Chapter Two: Persona and Authority”, pp. 26–42.

•Student 1 will revise and resubmit their abstract in preparation for group feedback.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

•The adoption of techniques geared to the production of precise, elegant, economic prose

•An appreciation of why such qualities maximize the standard and impact of academic outputs.

TOPIC 3 ORGANIZATION Wednesday 3 November

High quality scholarship is presaged on the sound organization of ideas. Accordingly, in this session, students will approach structuring their work at the macro and micro levels. They will confront the challenges of how best to organize an output into sections, how best to organize those sections into paragraphs, and best how to organize those paragraphs into sentences (please note introduction and conclusions will be approached in a later session).

Preparation

•Recommended Reading: Becker, “Chapter Three: One Right Way”, 43-67.

•Student 3 will revise and resubmit their abstract in preparation for group feedback.

Targeted Learning Outcome

•The adoption of techniques geared to the production of argument-driven paragraphing and reader-focused sectioning.

•An appreciation of why such qualities maximize the standard and impact of academic outputs.

TOPIC 4 EDITING Wednesday 20 November

The production of scholarly work is a process involving reflection, reconsideration, and revision. Accordingly, in this session, students consider how to edit their work, by soliciting the evaluations of trusted colleagues, responding to their own nagging doubts, asking tough questions of their work, and ultimately knowing when to stop.

Preparation

•Recommended Reading: Becker, “Chapter Four: Editing by Ear”, pp. 68-89.

•Student 3 will revise and resubmit their abstract in preparation for group feedback.

Targeted Learning Outcome

•The adoption of editing regimes geared to generating reader-friendly outputs.

•An appreciation of why such a quality maximizes the standard and impact of academic outputs.

TOPIC 5 ARGUMENTATION Wednesday 4 December

If precise, elegant, economical well-organized prose is a pre-requisite of top-quality scholarship, contributing to knowledge is its raison d’etre. Accordingly, in this session, students will consider how best to showcase argumentation and to positioning their arguments in relation to other work in the field.

Preparation

•Recommended reading: Becker, “Chapter Eight: Terrorized by the Literature”, pp. 135-149.

•Student 4 will revise and resubmit their abstract in preparation for group feedback.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

•The adoption of techniques that spotlight argumentation in academic outputs

•The adoption of techniques that position arguments in relation to their given field(s)

•An appreciation of why such qualities maximize the standard and impact of academic outputs.

TOPIC 6 INTRODUCTIONS & CONCLUSIONS Wednesday 18 December

Introductions and conclusions are perhaps the most important, yet for many the most challenging, parts of academic outputs. Accordingly, in this session, students will consider six key functions introductions and conclusions might serve. In so doing, they will be invited not only to consider how crafting these components can marshal their research and simplify writing. They will also consider whether the proves of revising their abstracts across this course has already provided them with the backbone of the introduction and conclusion to their proposed essay.

Preparation

•No Preparation: After the class, revise your abstract for final submission.

•Student 5 will revise and resubmit their abstract in preparation for group feedback.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

•The adoption of techniques geared to the production of introductions and conclusions that showcase six key functions

•An appreciation of why such qualities maximize the quality and impact of academic outputs.

Please note this structure is a guide. It is best imagined as potentially fluid. All topics will be covered, but individual sessions may bleed into one another if necessary, especially if fruitful discussions or exercises “over-run”.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students are expected to show growing competencies in:

•The production of academic writing in English

•The production of precise, economical, elegant prose

•The production of argument-driven scholarship

•The production of expertly structured scholarship

•The production of expertly structured paragraphs

•The production of introductions and conclusions showcasing key functions

•The adoption of practical editorial techniques

•The production of strategically positioned scholarship

•The production of professional quality abstracts likely to attract publishers

•Self-critique and peer-to-peer critique of academic outputs

Prerequisites and other requirements

N/A

Literature

Howard S. Becker, Writing for Social Scientests. London: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Evaluation methods and criteria

1. Participation (75 percent)

Given the practical nature and student-oriented approach of this course, it is essential that students are actively involved in all session. Accordingly, the breadth, depth, and relevance of their contributions will be taken in to account as will be their willingness to engage in constructive peer-to-peer evaluation.

1. Final Abstract (25 percent)

At the end of this course, students shall submit a “final” draft of the essay abstract they have been working on across the semester. This will be graded on the extent to which it reflects the qualities introduced across this course: clarity, precision, elegance, organization, argumentation, positioning.

Further information

This course is an elective for all AMU students

Schedule for academic year 2024/25:

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Composition (D) since 2023/2024 (Required subjects with the possibility of repeat registration)