1. SylabUZ
2. Faculty of Humanities
3. winter term 2023/2024
4. WH - oferta ERASMUS / Filologia angielska - First-cycle Erasmus programme
5. Academic essay writing

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Academic essay writing - course description

Aim of the course

The seminar aims to develop your abilities and skills to work with the academic text – to understand the ideas, analyse them and interpret them. The classes are to prepare you to plan, organise and manage your research supplying you with a repertoire of basic research methods and techniques within the field of English studies.

The independent academic search in critical text analysis is the basic skill of an educated person and our seminar supplements it with a skill to express ideas and communicate the discoveries in the academic discourse.

Prerequisites

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The problem-solving skill developed in your current academic career.

The ability to express your ideas in academic discourse in English.

The advanced skills of independent search for knowledge and development of academic skills.

Scope

The idea of the text.

The functions of text.

The diversity of academic texts.

The significance of text in English studies.

Research methods and techniques.

Problems and hypotheses.

Data collection and analysis.

Interpretation

Objectivity and subjectivity in communicating ideas.

Academic paper structure.

Abstract, summary, review, analysis, report.

Synthesis and paraphrase.

Resources.

 

Teaching methods

It is our mutual responsibility to search for new knowledge and develop our academic skills with a joint ambition to generate a model of diploma-year independent reflection and text studies. 

Learning outcomes and methods of theirs verification

Outcome description	Outcome symbols	Methods of verification	The class form

Assignment conditions

The purpose of a seminar is to enable you to improve your knowledge and understanding of a topic by engaging with key issues - participation is therefore necessary and successful participation involves preparation.

Your workload with all the consequences of being a member of the university community includes: 

Independent text studies.

Written assignments.

Project Reports.

Class presentations.

Managing group discussions. 

Leading a team.

Recommended reading

1. Gordon Parks, Flavio's Home.
2. Joan Murray, Someone's Mother. 
3. Langston Hughes, Salvation.
4. Kay S. Hymowitz, Tweens: Ten Going on Sixteen.
5. Eric Wilson, The Miracle of Melancholia.
6. Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie.
7. William Zinsser, College Pressures.
8. Paul Roberts, How to Say Nothing in 500 Words.
9. Caroline Rego, The Fine Art of Complaining.
10. Stephen Chapman, The Prisoner's Dilemma.
11. Stephen King, Why We Crave Horror Movies.
12. K.C. Cole, Entropy.
13. James Gleick, Life as Type A.
14. William Raspberry, The Handicap of Definition.
15. Mary Sherry, In Praise of the "F" Word.
16. Mark Twain, The Damned Human Race.

Further reading

1. Baggini, Julian. (2003). The Philosopher’s Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts. Blackwell, Oxford 
2. Cottrell, Stella. (2017). Critical Thinking Skills: Effective Analysis, Argument And Reflection.    Macmillan. London.                                                                      
3. Hult, Christine A. (1986). Researching and Writing. An Interdisciplinary Approach. Wadsworth. California. 
4. Miller, Morton A. (1987). Reading and Writing Short Essays. Random House. New York
5. Wiener, Harvey s., Bazeram Charles. (1988). Reading Skills Handbook. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston.

Notes

Modified by mgr Zbigniew Adaszyński (last modification: 18-06-2023 13:08)