Academic skills I: Academic Writing

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Jindřiška BLÁHOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s)

Jindřiška BLÁHOVÁ, Richard Andrew NOWELL

Department

The subject provides Rectorate

Contents

This course invites Ph.D. students to consider how best to execute the written component of their research, whether they are undertaking academic or artistic research. Students will focus on six fundamentals of this approach: 1) Process-driven research; 2) Style; 3) Argumentation & Positioning; 4 Organization); 5) Editing; and 6) Introductions & Conclusions. Mastering these components will enable students better to understand the nature of their research generally, and how to convey its importance to others, thereby furnishing them with transferable skills needed across their careers.

StructureSix Seminars - 15.10; 29.10; 12.11; 26.11; 10.12; and either 17.12 or 07.01

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

TEACHING METHODS

This course comprises six biweekly seminars conducted in the English language. Each one will include a necessary but small amount of instructor-delivered content, which will outline the weekly topics in a manner geared to maximizing practical application and life-long learning. Sessions will mainly consist of student-oriented learning: discussions, self-evaluation, peer-to-peer evaluation, and practical exercises. Accordingly, students will work towards the production of an abstract that will come to reflect the cornerstones of the course.

Topic 1 RESEARCH-AS-PROCESS Wednesday 15 October

Conducting PHD research usually involves rethinking how we produce our work. In this session, students will consider the advantages of approaching their research as a semi-public process, one involving the solicitation of feedback and ongoing revision.

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

•Transforming work from private events to semi-public processes in order to maximize quality and impact.

Topic 2 STYLE Wednesday 29 October

Because PHD research deals with complex ideas, it can be quite challenging for us to understand what we are doing and explain it to others. Accordingly, in this session students focus on developing a communication style that meets these challenges, albeit in a rather unexpected manner.

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 Outcome

•The production of precise, elegant, economic expression

Topic 3 ARGUMENTATION & POSITIONING Wednesday 12 November

Knowing how to develop new arguments and how to relate them to broader ideas about out topics is a defining characteristic of top-draw PHD research. Accordingly, in this session, students will consider how best to showcase what their work has to say and why it matters.

Preparation

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

•Student 2 will revise and resubmit their abstract in preparation for group feedback.

Targeted Learning Outcome

•The adoption of argument-driven and suitably positioned expression

Topic 4 ORGANIZATION Wednesday 26 November

No matter how important and novel our arguments are, it matters little if we cannot organize them in an effective manner. Accordingly, in this session, students will approach how best to structure their ideas at the macro and micro levels in order to persuade interested parties that they matter.

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 production of well-organized expression

Topic 5 EDITING Wednesday 10 December

Producing the written components of a thesis takes time and patience. Accordingly, in this session, students consider how to edit their written work, by soliciting others’ perspectives, asking tough questions of themselves, and knowing when to stop.

Preparation

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

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

Targeted Learning Outcome

•The adoption of editing regimes that maximize impact

Topic 6 INTRODUCTIONS & CONCLUSIONS Wednesday 17 December

Or Wednesday 7 January

Introductions and conclusions are perhaps the most important but challenging parts of the written components of theses. Accordingly, in this session, students will consider how to build them around six key functions (ones they may already be quite familiar with!).

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 production of introductions and conclusions that showcase the six key functions of world-leading research.

Please note this structure is a guide. It is best imagined as fluid. All topics will be covered, but individual sessions will probably end up bleeding into one another from time to time, especially if fruitful discussions or exercises “over-run”.

Learning outcomes

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

•Process-driven thinking.

•Precise, economical, elegant communication

•Well-structured communication

•Practical editorial techniques

•Argument-driven communication

•Strategic positioning of research

•Composing introductions and conclusions

•Professional quality abstracts

•Self-critique and peer-to-peer critique

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.

Due Date: 21 January 2026

Further information

This course is an elective for all AMU students

Schedule for academic year 2025/26:

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Art of Dance and Nonverbal Theatre (D) since 2023/2024 (Elective subjects)
• Art of Dance and Nonverbal Theatre (D) since 2023/2024 (Elective subjects)
• Composition (D) since 2023/2024 (Required subjects with the possibility of repeat registration)
• Research and Theory of Audiovision 2025 (Elective subjects)