XPX_ACAD Academic writing

Faculty of Economics and Administration
Autumn 2020
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 8 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Daniel Gerrard, M.A. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.
Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Mgr. Jana Nesvadbová
Supplier department: Faculty of Economics and Administration
Timetable of Seminar Groups
XPX_ACAD/01: Fri 14:00–15:50 S309, D. Gerrard
Prerequisites
The minimum level of English is B2 CEFR level, some academic skills, ability to actively participate in class discussions, basic experience in academic writing.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Writing an MA thesis in English is a requirement in programmes taught through the medium of English. The goal of this course is to familiarize MA students with different approaches to academic writing, take their academic writing skills in English to a higher level and offer them a range of tools to address their target readers at specific, multi-disciplinary and general levels. The course addresses firstly the context of academic writing to situate the styles of writing that MA students are working with. It will discuss aspects of clear and concise writing style, and lexical and discourse relationship patterns in academic text, along with functional perspectives for positioning and structuring information and argument in the wider scope of an MA thesis. The course structure takes the participants through different stages of the preparation and writing of an academic text with the aim to increase their chances of being successful in writing their MA thesis in English in the future.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will be able to: use academic and technical vocabulary; read and analyze texts to make use of them in writing; understand different genres and text types; write successful titles, abstracts, paragraphs, and individual sections of a master's thesis; evaluate strengths/weaknesses of written work.
Syllabus
  • 1. The writing process
  • 2. Introduction to academic writing
  • 3. Academic style and vocabulary
  • 4. Plagiarism and referencing
  • 5. Summarising and paraphrasing
  • 6. Paragraphing and information flow
  • 7. Academic text types
  • 8. Descriptive vs. critical/analytical writing
  • 9. The structure of a master's thesis
  • 10. Writing the introduction
  • 11. Writing the abstract and title
  • 12. Tutorials
Literature
    recommended literature
  • BAILEY, Stephen. Academic writing : a handbook for international students. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge. xx, 293. ISBN 9780415595803. 2011. info
  • SWALES, John and Christine B. FEAK. Academic writing for graduate students : essential tasks and skills. 3rd ed. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press. xiv, 418. ISBN 9780472034758. 2012. info
Teaching methods
The online course will consist of weekly group and individual writing tasks, text analysis, peer review and discussion activities.
Assessment methods
A portfolio of texts written during the course and submitted for evaluation.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
General note: This course is due to COVID 19 measurements instructed only ONLINE in the autumn semester 2020. You can contact the teacher of the course about organizational matters.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Autumn 2021, Spring 2022, Autumn 2022, Spring 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2020, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/econ/autumn2020/XPX_ACAD