English academic writing for PhD candidates

Introduction

Key terms: publishing skills, clear and structured English phrasing, organizing an academic paper, introductory course, relevant for students in any PhD phase.

ECTS: 2.5 
Number of sessions: 9
Hours per session: 2

Would you like to produce a clear and reader-friendly dissertation? Do you need to find out more about your strengths and weaknesses as an academic author? 

During this nine-week course, you will practice the skills that are needed to write and edit an academic paper for publication. Participants will practice their writing skills through discussions and diverse exercises, and by peer-reviewing the work of other students.

The classes consist of a mix of live interaction and individual work. Aside from the class meetings, participants are expected to spend approximately two to three hours a week on preparation and self-study.

These courses consists of nine group sessions and one individual session at the end of the course. Please note that during the course participants will be asked to submit different parts of an article for (peer) review. Please be aware that these assignments are part of the course requirements before enrolling in the course. 

Attendance is compulsory. Please note that you will need a laptop in all sessions to make notes and assignments.

Entry level and relevance

The course is useful for PhD candidates in all stages of a PhD project, and in all research disciplines.

It is geared towards PhD candidates at CEFR level C1, but the course convenor will adjust the course contents when necessary to best suit the specific needs of the participants.

Researchers who want to improve their general English language skills can follow one of the English proficiency courses at the EUR Language & Training Centre (LTC) before enrolling for this course.

Relations with other courses

There are no distinct relations and no significant overlap between this course and other courses offered by the EGSH.

Sessions and preparations

Session 1: The writing process, genre and style
In this session the following topics will be discussed:

• Writing strategies
• Academic style
• Readability issues

Preparation: Participants will be asked to write a short text about the research they are currently doing (400-500 words). This should be sent to the course convenor one week before the start of the course.

Session 2: The structure of a research paper and paragraph organisation
In session 2 we will look at the following topics:

• Sections of a paper
• Topic sentences and signposting 
• Old-new information flow
• Cross-paragraph linking

Preparations for sessions 2 to 9 will be explained in a course programme that participants will receive at the beginning of the course.

Session 3: Introductions and the 'main idea'

• Verb tense in introductions 
• Problem-solution writing 
• Clause construction and sentence length 

Session 4: Literature review

• Plagiarism
• Paraphrasing
• Reporting verbs
• Evaluative language

Session 5: Methods

• Verb tense in methods
• Describing a process
• Justifying the process
• Passive voice
• Linking words

Session 6: Results

• Verb tense in results
• Data versus results
• Captions
• Parallel structures
• Punctuation

Session 7: Discussions

• Moves in discussions
• Verb tense in discussions
• Hedging

Session 8: Editing and the complete picture

• Alignment between sections
• Language sources
• Conciseness

Session 9: Titles and abstracts

• Getting to the essence
• The language of abstracts 
• The grammar of titles

Session 10: Individual session

For the last individual session, participants are asked to submit an academic text (max. 3 pages) to their tutor for individual feedback.