VV043 Academic Writing in English

Faculty of Informatics
Spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Antonín Zita, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Dana Otychová (assistant)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Eva Rudolfová
Language Centre, Faculty of Informatics Division – Language Centre
Contact Person: Ada Nazarejová, DiS.
Supplier department: Language Centre, Faculty of Informatics Division – Language Centre
Timetable
Tue 16:00–17:50 A321
Prerequisites
TYP_STUDIA(D) || SOUHLAS
At least B2 CEFR level and some experience with 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 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 5/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
There is an increasing need among doctoral candidates to publish their work in various types of academic publications and engage with a wider range of academic, professional and public audiences. The goal of this course is to familiarize doctoral candidates with different approaches to scientific writing, take their academic writing skills in English to a higher level and offer them a range of tools to adapt their focus of language to address their target readers at specific, multi-disciplinary and general levels. The course addresses firstly the context of scientific writing to situate the styles of writing that doctoral candidates 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 thesis and journal article writing.
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 text styles and structures; write successful titles, abstracts, paragraphs, and individual sections of a thesis or journal article; and provide and respond to peer feedback.
Syllabus
  • Academic style
  • Academic and technical vocabulary
  • Plagiarism and referencing
  • Paragraphing
  • Academic text types
  • Summarising and paraphrasing
  • Writing a critique
  • Peer review
  • Abstracts
  • Sections of a thesis and journal article
  • Editing and proofreading
Literature
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Libor. ACADEMIC WRITING. 2013. 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, 2012, xiv, 418. ISBN 9780472034758. info
  • ZOBEL, Justin. Writing for computer science :the art of effective communication. Singapore: Springer, 1997, xiii, 176. ISBN 981-3083-22-0. info
Teaching methods
The course will consist of weekly seminars organised around group and individual writing tasks, problem-solving and discussion activities. It will also include online activities and peer review.
Assessment methods
A portfolio of texts written during the course and an extended piece of academic writing submitted in the exam period.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2006, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2024, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fi/spring2024/VV043