Academic Writing for Publication

Instructor: Angeniet Kam

Co-instructors for Session 1: Jan Beneš; Lyn Steyne

Overall objectives/aims

• Recognise and apply concepts in academic writing in English—such as genre, research question and thesis statement, disciplinary and interdisciplinary conventions, and components of journal articles—to your own writing
• Understand the principles of designing writing activities for your own teaching context
• Apply the principles of constructive feedback to a piece of academic writing

Session 1: Getting acquainted and creating a common vocabulary

Introduction of instructors, participants, and the course plan
Cultural, disciplinary, and interdisciplinary differences and requirements of academic writing in English compared to Czech/Slovak (instructors: Jan Beneš and Lyn Steyne)
Concepts: genre, purpose, audience, and the writing process

Session 2: Structural requirements of journal articles—a genre analysis approach

The components of research articles (genre analysis)
Introduction to research questions and thesis statements
Evaluation and comparison of your article with benchmark articles

Session 3: Incorporating writing activities into your own teaching context

Suitable writing activities for students of different levels
The benefits and obstacles of writing assignments
Understanding and using constructive feedback—an active exercise

Instructor: Eszter Timár

Overall objectives/aims

• Recognize and employ good practices in reading and writing introductions
• Recognize and employ good practices in raising research questions and formulating thesis statements
• Design and evaluate exercises for students that focus on raising research questions, making an argument, and structuring an introduction in your discipline

Session 1: The function and form of the introduction

The purpose of the introduction
The reader’s expectations
The elements and rhetorical moves in introductions (how to write an introduction)
Evaluation and comparison of your introduction with those in a benchmark article

Session 2: Research questions and thesis statements

A good research question (how to write a research question)
The relationship of the research question and the research methodology (disciplinary norms)
The thesis statement: its form and characteristics; its function—controlling the paper

Session 3: Incorporating the use of research questions, thesis statements, and introductions into your courses

Designing and presenting an activity to use in your own teaching context

Instructor: Lyn Steyne

Overall objectives/aims:

• Organise a journal article according to standard academic writing conventions
• Understand, recognise, and evaluate content for each section of an academic article based on their individual purpose
• Understand what is required to write an effective academic paragraph using a topic sentence and paragraph development

Session 1: How to organise your journal article

The title: its importance and relationship to the research questionIMRaD: The sections of a research article and their purpose
Outlining as a tool to develop your article

Session 2: How to write a paragraph

Characteristics of an effective English paragraph
The topic sentence
Paragraph development (coherence and cohesion)

Session 3: Incorporating writing skills into your courses for your benefit

Applying effective organisational, and coherence and cohesion strategies to academic texts
The usefulness of organisational, and coherence and cohesion strategies in your own teaching context
Designing and presenting an activity to use in a course you teach

Instructor: Agnes Simon

Overall objectives/aims:

• Recognize and employ good practices in citation
• Classify, analyse, and appraise the relevant literature so that it furthers the argumentation of your article
• Design and evaluate exercises for your students that focus on either the fair use of sources or the literature review

Session 1: Academic norms and Integrity

Academic norms and the practice of citations
Plagiarism and its consequences
Reporting ethically on other people’s work in your article

Session 2: The literature review

The function and purpose of the literature review
Making the literature review effective
The critical evaluation of literature reviews
Strategizing and working on revising your literature review

Session 3: Incorporating the effective and fair uses of sources and the literature review in your teaching

Identifying and pre-empting plagiarism in students’ work
Tips for effective exercise design
Designing an exercise for students on citation or reviewing the literature

Instructor: Jan Beneš

Overall objectives/aims:

• Better understand academic journals: writing for a specific journal, communicating with journal editors, and recognising predatory journals and predatory practices
• Apply skills acquired during previous sessions to writing and evaluating conclusions and abstracts, keeping the differences between Czech/Slovak and English conclusions in mind
• Discuss, brainstorm, and evaluate writing activities on conclusions and abstracts for use in your own teaching context

Session 1: Scholarly Journals’ Expectations

Q&A with the editor of a peer-reviewed journal
Expectations: how to choose a journal, how to prepare your article, journals’ expectations
Predatory journals: examples and how to spot one

Session 2: Academic conclusions and abstracts

The purpose of conclusions and abstracts
English vs Czech/Slovak conclusions
Summarizing, paraphrasing, outlining, and thesis statements in conclusions and abstracts

Session 3: Incorporating conclusions and abstracts into your teaching; Closing reflections

Strategies in teaching conclusions
Reflecting on skills learned
Looking forward: setting writing targets
Presentation of certificates

Bean, John: Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, 2nd Edition. Jossey-Bass: 2011.

Belcher, Wendy Laura: Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks, Second Edition: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing, 2019.

Birkenstein, Cathy, and Gerald Graff. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, 3rd edition. Norton, 2016.

McCarthy Michael and Felicity O’Dell: Academic Vocabulary in Use with Answers. Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Swales, John and Christine Feak: Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd Ed. Michigan, 2012.

Swales, John and Christine Feak: Creating Contexts: Writing Introductions Across Genres. Michigan: 2011

Swales, John: Research Genres: Explorations and Applications. Cambridge, 2004.

Faculty members currently doing research for publication and teaching in the social sciences and humanities at Comenius University in Bratislava and Masaryk University are eligible to apply for the course. PhD candidates from the same fields and institutions are also eligible. All PhD students who successfully complete the course receive 3 ECTS.
Each applicant must have a draft of a journal article in English at the time of application and should also have experience in writing for publication, in either their mother tongue or English.

Applications must be in English and include the following documents:

1. Curriculum vitae (1-2 pages) highlighting your teaching and research interests, and a list of your highest impact publications
2. Motivation letter (400-600 words) making sure to include the answers to the following questions:
   What has motivated you to apply for this course?
   How do you believe your work as a scholar and as a teacher might benefit from taking this course?
3. Draft of an academic paper written in English by the applicant (if incomplete, please include a 1- to 2-page description in English of the research, including any sources you are working with, and stating where you are in the process.)

Applications should include a CV, motivation letter, and the draft of the academic paper. They are to be submitted by completing the following form.

If you have any questions, please email the course team leader: linda.steyne@uniba.sk

We offer 10 places for teachers from Masaryk University. The following criteria will be used to select the course participants:

Applications will be evaluated on the following:

• The applicant’s level of interest in and motivation for taking the course
• Prior experience in writing for publication
• B2 minimum English language proficiency (this will be assessed based on the motivation letter)

Those accepted to the course will also submit three more documents at one time:

• The PDF of a recent peer-reviewed journal article in their field (published AFTER 2015) that they believe to be well-written
• A brief explanation (maximum of 300 words) on why they think that paper is well-written
• The currect revision of the draft they submitted with the application