Academic Writing

The course aims at providing understanding of the writer’s goal of writing and to use that understanding and awareness for academic reading and writing. The course objectives are to:

• Learn academic writing skills
• Acquire argumentative writing techniques
• Understand referencing the sources
• Learn the technical aspects of referencing

Mid Term: 30 Marks

Final Term: 50 Marks

Assignment & Presentations: 20 Marks

Time : Moday & Tuesday (8:00 to 9:30 AM)

Contents

• Academic vocabulary
• Quoting, summarizing and paraphrasing texts
• Process of academic writing
• Rhetoric: persuasion and identification
• Elements of Rhetoric: Text, author, audience, purpose, setting
• Sentence structure: Accuracy, variation, appropriateness and consciousness
• Sentence skills (choice of words, passive, structures, nominalisation)
• Appropriate use of active and passive voice

• Types of writing

• Persuasive
• Argumentative
• Analytical
• Comparing and contrasting
• Explaining Cause and effect
• Commentaries and opinion pieces
• Personal Profiles

• Paragraph and Essay Writing

• Organization and structure
• Logical reasoning
• Transitional devices
• Development of ideas in writing

• Letters

• Of Invitation
• Of Regrets
• Of sales/Persuasive letters

• Official Writing

• Joining /Leaving Reports
• Notifications
• Meeting Notices
• Minutes of meeting

• Technical and Scientific Reports

• Styles of documentations (MLA and APA)
• In- text citation
• Plagiarism and strategies for avoiding it

• Issues in scientific Writing (plagiarism, authorship, Ghost writing)

Resource Books

Worthington, D. Fitch-Hauser, M (2018) Listening Process, Functions and Competency (2nd ed). Routledge