Academic Essay Writing
The full Academic Essay Writing course in term 1 of 2020 runs for 6 weeks and aims to give students a clear idea of how to approach writing an academic essay. As well as looking at academic conventions connected with academic writing, the classes will also introduce strategies to ensure that writing tasks are completed effectively. The course will be very practical and will involve working through asynchronous online materials with writing practice as well as online synchronous sessions.
Areas covered will include:
- The academic essay- what is it?
- Analysis of essay titles
- Planning an argument
- Structuring an introduction and a conclusion
- Thesis statement development
- Supporting arguments
- Using and acknowledging sources
- Text cohesion and signposting
- Academic style and register
Workload
Courses are 6 weeks long and comprise 2 hours of self study activity per week (asynchronous) and one hour of meeting with your tutor online (synchronous).
Scope and syllabus
The course covers key lessons on planning and organising a typical SOAS essay (1000-5000 words) using counter-argument, writing an introduction and conclusion, writing a thesis statement, referencing using direct and indirect quotation, paraphrasing and summary writing, avoiding plagiarism, academic style and useful expressions in academic essay writing. Teaching takes the form of small classes of 10-15, with personalised workshop activities as well as general input sessions. Students are expected to do some writing in the course, but homeworks should not be too time-consuming. For the smooth running of the course, full participation and completion of homework tasks is expected.
Timetable
Times of different classes become available when the application form for each block is released. The Block 1 and 2 application form is released shortly before the start of term 1. Block 1 courses will run from weeks 2-7 and Block 2 courses will start in week 5 this year and run to week 10. Then Block 3 will run at the start of term 2.
Suggested reading
Arnaudet and Barrett (1990), Paragraph Development A guide for students of English. New York: Prentice Hall
Bailey, S. (2006), Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. London: Routledge
Day, T. (2013), Success in Academic Writing, Palgrave Study Skills. London: Macmillan
Greetham, B. (2013), How to Write Better Essays. Palgrave Study Skills. London: Macmillan
Swales and Feak (2004), Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Michigan: University of Michigan Press