Welcome to the MOOC course Writing in English at University! This course has been designed as a resource for university students who are currently involved in writing assignments or degree projects as well as for students who wish to learn about academic writing in order to prepare for future writing at university. Although the course will provide guidance and useful tips and tricks to all student writers, it is specifically useful to those who are writing in second language contexts and whose native language is not English.
Structuring your text and conveying your argument
In module 1 we looked at some of the aspects that you will need to consider before embarking on an academic writing project. In module 2 we will build on this knowledge when we explore issues of building and shaping an academic text. In this week’s module you will learn about argument, types of essay structure, and also how to structure information within paragraphs and sections. Structuring a text so that it is coherent and makes sense to your target audience requires a great deal of thought, and we will guide you through the decisions that you will have to make in composing a text. Though the information in this module will be of interest to anyone looking to improve their academic writing competencies, you will find the material here especially helpful if you have a particular writing project of your own in mind to reflect on, and to which you can apply the ideas that we present here.
Using sources in academic writing
Academic writing does not happen in a vacuum, but rather builds on scholarly work that has come before. When you compose a piece of academic writing, it is necessary to show that you have done your homework and read up on the subject. Sometimes you will be given specific texts to read, and sometimes you will need to go and find these sources for yourself. The kinds of sources that you will be expected to use, and the manner in which you use them, will vary depending on the discipline that you are writing within and the level at which you are studying. Though a Master’s level student will be expected to have acquired a more sophisticated approach to using secondary sources than, say, a student on an introductory undergraduate course, the basic set of skills required is the same. Using secondary sources in your writing relies on developing this particular set of skills. In this module, which has been developed in collaboration with the librarians, we will talk about how to go about acquiring these skills. The competencies that we discuss here are ones that require practice, and you shouldn’t expect to simply acquire them overnight. However, the tasks that we have set are designed to set you on the right path to honing your skills. This module is divided into three separate lessons. In the first lesson you will learn about reading strategies. In the second lesson, called "Integrating sources: positioning and stance," we will explore how to situate your own arguments and ideas in relation to secondary sources. In the third lessons, called "Referencing and academic integrity," we will explore issues surrounding referencing, academic integrity and plagiarism.
The writer’s toolbox: Editing and proofreading
Welcome to module 4 of the course. In this module, we will focus on editing and proofreading a text. In our earlier discussion of the writing process in module 1, we have seen that many experienced writers view revising and editing as important parts of the actual writing process, and they intend to revise and edit virtually everything they write. Instead of only correcting mistakes in a piece of text, revising and editing are ways for writers to evaluate their ideas, to generate and test new ideas during the writing process, and to polish and tighten the overall argumentation and presentation. Although revising and editing are parts of the creative process, we recommend that you save them until you have a piece of text – a section, subsection or paragraph – that you view as complete, in that the ideas you discuss and the organization into an introduction-part and a body-part (for sections) or a topic sentence followed by development (for paragraphs) are relatively stable. That way, you do not end up wasting your time correcting mistakes in a piece of text that does not seem to fit in or serve a purpose, and is therefore likely to be deleted later. Before you start revising and editing a passage, you should also have clarified to yourself how important the passage in question is going to be for the essay as a whole. If the passage contains ideas that are directly relevant for your research question and thesis, you should allow yourself enough time to revise and edit and possibly rewrite the text several times. A passage that only contains extra information that is not directly linked to your thesis will need less time and attention, and some cases you may get away with only proofreading such passages quickly. This module is divided into three lessons, all of which focus on issues that you should be aware of, when you revise, edit and proofread your text. The first lesson, "The need to revise and edit one’s text," introduces you to issues that require both large-scale and small-scale revision and editing. Following, the lesson "Revising and editing for language" focuses on issues that affect the style and tone of your writing. The third lesson, called "Some tips and tricks on common errors," gives you practical advice on issues that are often problematic for writers.
Profesores: Satu Manninen, Ellen Turner and Cecilia Wadsö Lecaros
Certificado: No
Utilizamos cookies propias y de terceros para ofrecerte el mejor servicio. Si continúas navegando, entendemos que aceptas su uso.AceptoRechazarAjustesLeer más
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Cookie
Duración
Descripción
na_tc
This cookie is set by the provider Addthis. This cookie is used for social media sharing tracking service.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Cookie
Duración
Descripción
d
3 months
This cookie tracks anonymous information on how visitors use the website.
YSC
session
This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie
Duración
Descripción
__gads
1 year 24 days
This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
_ga
2 years
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gid
1 day
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie
Duración
Descripción
ab
1 year
This domain of this cookie is owned by agkn. The cookie is used for targeting and advertising purposes.
CMID
1 year
The cookie is set by CasaleMedia. The cookie is used to collect information about the usage behavior for targeted advertising.
CMPRO
3 months
This cookie is set by Casalemedia and is used for targeted advertisement purposes.
CMPS
3 months
This cookie is set by Casalemedia and is used for targeted advertisement purposes.
CMST
1 day
The cookie is set by CasaleMedia. The cookie is used to collect information about the usage behavior for targeted advertising.
DSID
1 hour
This cookie is setup by doubleclick.net. This cookie is used by Google to make advertising more engaging to users and are stored under doubleclick.net. It contains an encrypted unique ID.
IDE
1 year 24 days
Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
KADUSERCOOKIE
The cookie is set by pubmatic.com for identifying the visitors' website or device from which they visit PubMatic's partners' website.
KTPCACOOKIE
1 day
This cookie is set by pubmatic.com for the purpose of checking if third-party cookies are enabled on the user's website.
mc
1 year 1 month
This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
test_cookie
15 minutes
This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
uuid
3 months
To optimize ad relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites such as what pages have been loaded.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
5 months 27 days
This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.