2023/2024
Критическое чтение и академическое письмо
Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для Вашей будущей карьеры»
Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для расширения кругозора и разностороннего развития»
Лучший по критерию «Новизна полученных знаний»
Статус:
Дисциплина общефакультетского пула
Кто читает:
Школа филологических наук
Когда читается:
3 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
36
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course develops and refines academic English skills of those students who specialize in Arts and Humanities. By combining the basics of academic style, punctuation, and grammar with critical reading and academic writing, this course enables students to gain an awareness and understanding of the key features of writing about research. In particular, the course focuses on the genre of an academic review and its conventions; by the end of the course, students will be able to write a good academic review essay. Pre-requisites: to fulfill the requirements of the course students need to have a good command of written and spoken English (required CEFR language proficiency level is from upper-intermediate (B2) to advanced (C1)).
Learning Objectives
- To introduce students to the basic principles of academic writing and to raise their linguistic awareness, comparing conventions in Russian and English writing.
- To prepare students for further academic activities in English as part of their HSE bachelor’s programme (i.e., disciplines in English, Academic English course in their final year of bachelor’s studies, MOOCs etc.) and in a wider English-speaking academic environment.
- To develop and practise students’ skills in the areas of critical reading, review writing, citations, and research.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Students know the basic principles of English punctuation and the most important differences between Russian and English punctuation and employ these principles appropriately in their own writing.
- Students know the basic principles of English academic writing and the most important differences between Russian and English writing conventions; know and apply principles of critical reading; organize and adapt texts appropriately for audience, purpose, and type of task; identify the author’s main claims and supporting points; reduce the text to main ideas; evaluate arguments and evidence critically; use writing processes to explore, think, and learn.
- Students recognize and apply the rhetorical conventions of academic discourse (i.e., paragraph structure, unity, coherence, argumentation); produce clear and appropriate topic sentence as well as supporting sentences; write a well-rounded paragraph conveying their argument to a general reader.
- Students are familiar with the lexical conventions of academic discourse and employ them appropriately in their own writing; know how to develop one’s lexical range in the academic sphere on their own and how to avoid Runglish.
- Students are familiar with the stylistic conventions of academic discourse and can employ them appropriately in their own writing.
- Students know the basic features and functions of the critical review as a genre and recognize its main elements.
- Students articulate and assess the author’s thesis, purposes, audiences, writing strategies, contexts, biases, and credibility; write a critical review essay according to the genre conventions and instructions given.
- Students find and analyze academic texts to assess their relevance to their own research; synthesize appropriate source material from both print and electronic environments; signal and integrate basic quotes, paraphrases, and summarized ideas; avoid plagiarism; document and cite sources according to their disciplinary conventions.
- Students demonstrate their professional skills and assess both their own writing and their colleagues’ writing through peer review.
Course Contents
- Week 1. Course introduction
- Week 2. Paragraph basics
- Week 3. Developing one’s range of disciplinary language
- Week 4. Style and register
- Week 5. Syntax and punctuation
- Week 6. Critical review
- Week 7. Language for reviews
- Week 8. Using sources
- Week 9. Finalizing one’s review essay
Assessment Elements
- Ungraded written assignmentsAccording to the principles of exploratory low-stakes writing (see Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. 2nd ed., Jossey–Bass, 2011, p. 120 ff.), the course develops students’ skills via a number of ungraded written assignments such as exercises, peer reviews, reading journals, glossaries, and other formats. Instructions will be given electronically per assignment. Even if a student’s absence is excused, they are still responsible for turning in their assignments on time; because they will have at least a week’s lead time, the due date for these remains the same regardless of one’s absence. Thus, students should meet assignment deadlines by all means. In case one’s assignment is late, they lose 50% of their grade.
- QuizzesQuizzes are compulsory and final; it is not possible to retake them. Make-up of missed work is allowed for excused absences only. Otherwise, one’s grade is a zero. An excused absence is an absence due to a number of accepted reasons such as a medical or personal issue beyond one’s control, participation in a significant extracurricular university event, conference etc. Students should inform their instructor about their excused absences before the class (not after) by email, and provide the doctor’s notes and other documents about them. Students will have an opportunity to make up any quizzes missed for full credit on a date agreed upon by the student and the instructor before the end of the course.
- Critical Review EssayThe purpose of this assignment is to evaluate the usefulness of a scholarly text one has read and to write a critical review of that text as a service to potential readers of the work. Instructions will be given electronically in advance. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. For each plagiarized sentence, the student loses one point (for example, 8 → 7). If there are more than three plagiarized sentences in one’s work, the grade for the essay is a zero. The essay should be uploaded before the deadline. If one’s essay is late, it is not accepted or assessed – the grade is a zero.
Interim Assessment
- 2023/2024 3rd module0.4 * Critical Review Essay + 0.2 * Quizzes + 0.4 * Ungraded written assignments
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Bailey, S. (2017). Academic Writing : A Handbook for International Students (Vol. Fifth edition). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1650435
- Murray, N. (2012). Writing Essays in English Language and Linguistics : Principles, Tips and Strategies for Undergraduates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=438550
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- MacDonald, S. (2010). Professional Academic Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Vol. Paperback ed). Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=367965
- Murray, R., & Moore, S. (2006). The Handbook of Academic Writing : A Fresh Approach. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill Education. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=234234