ACADEMIC & PROFESSINAL WRITING

Subject Outline

Course code
HUM 121
 Academic & Professional Writing

Course Description

The course aims to initiate students into the world of academic and professional writing. It focuses on the fundamentals of academic
writing with the goal of improving academic language skills essential for a successful academic career. It elaborates writing as a
multistage process which requires planning and structuring. It emphasizes the use of appropriate vocabulary, academic expressions,
citation, methodology and avoidance of plagiarism. Further, it aims to develop analytical skills and critical approaches that are
required for conducting research. The emphasis throughout the course is on learning, improving and mastering academic and
professional writing.

Course Goals

The course enables the students to:

- develop an understanding of the purpose, audience and characteristics of academic writing
- write well-structured essays
- become effective and critical readers
- avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing and summarising
- use documentation styles effectively for academic writing

Course Objectives

At the successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

 examine purpose, audience and tone of an academic text
 analyze the requirements of different academic writing tasks
 explain the writing process
 demonstrate rhetorical strategies in writing
 develop effective arguments
 write well-structured paragraphs and essays
 analyse and evaluate research writing
 write abstract, problem statement and literature review for research writing
  incorporate material from different sources into their own writing through quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing
 use different citation styles accurately

Course Contents

Week Session Topic SLOs

Understanding Academic Writing Students will be able to:

▪ define academic writing
▪ identify different purposes and audiences of
• Thinking About Purposes: Informative,
academic writing
1 Persuasive
▪ determine genres and characteristics of
• Thinking About Audience
academic writing
• Genres & Characteristics of Academic Writing

Critical Reading Students will be able to:

▪ identify different purposes of reading
 Reading at University Level: Focused Reading ▪ apply strategies for critical reading
and Reading Techniques ▪ practice reading academic texts critically
2 ▪ read an academic text critically
 Reading for Literal Meaning
 Reading for Inferences
 Reading for Evaluation
 Practice Critical Reading Exercises
3 Academic Word Lists Students will be able to:
 explain the importance of learning academic
• Academic Word Lists vocabulary for academic writing
• Useful Academic Expressions  utilize resources for academic vocabulary
• Practice Exercises based on Essential Academic  use academic words and expressions in their
Vocabulary writing
 Writing Process & Academic Writing Structure Students will be able to:
 explain the writing process
• Planning, Drafting, Editing & Proofreading  use planning, editing and proofreading
4 • Writing Well-structured Academic Essays by strategies
writing proper introductory,  write well-structured academic essays
body/developmental and concluding paragraphs

Writing Effectively Students will be able to:

 describe unity, coherence & cohesion in writing
 Creating Unity in Academic Writing  use strategies to create unity, coherence and
5 cohesion in academic writing
 Strategies for creating Coherence
 Strategies for creating Cohesion

Rhetorical Patterns in Academic Writing Students will be able to:

 determine the key features of different rhetorical
 Cause & Effect patterns in academic writing
6  Process  write paragraphs using these rhetorical patterns.
 Compare & Contrast
 Practice the Patterns by Writing Paragraphs

Students will be able to:

 list the steps in the research process
Structure of a Scientific Research Paper
 identify the key parts of a scientific research
paper
7  Research Process
 describe the purpose and characteristics of each
 Structure of a Scientific Research Paper
part of the research paper
 analyse the characteristics of a given research
paper
 Students will be able to:
 determine the purpose and structure of abstracts
Abstract & Problem Statement Writing
and problems of statement
8  analyze the characteristics of given abstracts
 Abstract Writing
and problem statements
 Problem Statement Writing
 write effective and well-structured abstracts and
problem statements
9 Mid Term Examination
Using Sources in Academic Writing Students will be able to:

 Avoiding Plagiarism  classify different types of plagiarism

10  Quoting  apply strategies and techniques of quoting,
 Paraphrasing paraphrasing and summarizing
 Summarization  paraphrase and summarize the given academic
texts

Writing Literature Review Students will be able to:

 Characteristics of an Effective Literature  classify different types of literature review

11 Review  identify the characteristics of literature review
 Finding Sources for Literature Review  find sources for literature review
 Writing an Effective Literature Review  write an effective literature review on a given
topic

12 Documentation – I Students will be able to:

 Identify different documentation styles which
 APA – Style Documentation are in academic writing (APA, MLA, etc.)
 Formatting guidelines  Apply the key formatting guidelines for
 Reference List preparing academic documents (font size, font
 Practice Exercises style, line spacing, title page, content list,
headings, figures, paragraphing etc.)
 Prepare a reference list according to APA 6th
 Style

Documentation - II Students will be able to:

 Create paraphrased and direct quotations
 Signal Phrase & Parenthetical Style correctly in their academic texts
13  Use integrated and direct quotations in their
 Direct and Paraphrased Citations
academic texts
 Integrated & Block quotations
 Use signal phrase and parenthetical citation
 Practice Exercises styles correctly in academic writing
Students will be able to:
Writing in Different Disciplines
 Determine the characteristics of writing styles
14 in different disciplines
 Writing in Different Disciplines
 Adopt an appropriate style for writing in social
 Writing in Social Sciences
sciences
Academic Writing Portfolio Submission

 The portfolio will include paragraphs, essays

15
and literature review written during the
semester.

Resources:
Creme, P. and M. Lea. Writing at University: A guide for students. Open University Press, 2008.
Bailey. S. Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. London and New York: Routledge, 2015.
Oshima, A. and Hogue, A. Writing Academic English. Addison-Wesley, New York, 2005.
Swales, J.and C. Feak. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Skills and Tasks. Michigan University Press, 2012.
Writing for Success. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2015. http://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. http://owl.english.purdue.edu

Read Write Think. http://www.readwritethink.org

Writing Commons. http://writingcommons.org

Assessment Details:

Marks Distribution
Marks Head Frequency Total Marks
Quizzes 3 15

Assignments/Project 3 20

Mid Term Exam 1 25

Final Exam 1 40

Total Marks 100

Assessment Details
1. All written assignments should be typewritten.

2. Assignments/Writing Portfolio will be assessed according to the following criteria:

- How well the students have narrowed down the topic

- How well the students deal with the topic
- How well the students justify their points/arguments/thesis
- How clear the students are in their expression
- How logically the students express their views
- How well the students use paragraphing
- How well the students use a documentation style
- How well the students use outside sources