Academic skills I: Academic Writing

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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.

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 2022/23:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans