Academic writing for PhD students GFOK035

Number of credits: 3 HEC
Number of participants: 12

Aim
This course aims to refine and polish participants' academic and disciplinary written proficiency with a focus on the research article genre as well as to increase their ability to make discipline-specific and strategic choices within this genre in order to adapt articles for specific journal and community contexts.

Intended learning outcome
On completion of the course, successful students will be able to:
- apply a process- and genre-oriented approach to publication work implementing textual analysis and peer reviews as tools in the process
- expand their reading strategies for critical reading focusing on rhetorical devices in research-related texts
- receive and assess as well as provide informed peer response feedback to peers in the context of academic and disciplinary research-related writing
- write and revise a research article based on analyses of texts relevant for their purposes as well as the peer response they receive.

Admission requirements
To qualify for this course, you should be at least one year into your PhD program. Additionally, you need to have taken the course GFOK080 lntroduction to writing for publication or have appropriate experience of publication processes: ideally, you should have published at least one journal or conference article. Most importantly, you should be in the process of writing a research article during the course. If you are unsure about meeting the requirements, please contact the course teachers before applying.

Content
Overall, emphasis is placed on information structure through problematizing information transfer.
The following topics will be covered:
- general written language practice, vocabulary, grammar and textual organisation,
- writing a research article: formal, disciplinary and rhetorical aspects,
- different recurring rhetorical patterns in research-related publications are introduced, discussed and applied,
- providing and receiving peer response through repeated cycles of drafting in writing groups,
- discussion of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary aspects as introduced by participants in the seminar,
- sections of an article such as introduction, results, discussion, and abstract are written and revised during the course seminars.

Running schedule
Eight sessions including one tutorial/one-on-one.
One or two runs of the course will be run online every year.

Course leader and examiner
Andreas Eriksson, course leader/examiner (andreas.eriksson@chalmers.se); Raffaella Negretti, course leader (raffaella.negretti@chalmers.se); Magnus Gustafsson, course leader (magusta@chalmers.se)

Language
English

Literature
Swales, John & Feak Christine, Academic Writing for Graduate Students, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012
Recommended reading: Berkenkotter, Carol & Huckin, Thomas, Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication, Lawrence Erlbaum Ass. Publishers, 1995
Recommended reading: Björk, Lennart & Räisänen Christine, Academic Writing, Studentlitteratur, 2003 Additional material distributed during seminars.

Connection to other GTS courses
Early stage: GFOK080 Introduction to writing for publication
Advanced: GFOK085 Writing up for publication alternatively GFOK035 Academic writing

Assessment
- Active participation in class and in peer response work. Delivery of feedback in feedback groups is particularly important.
- Completed first and second draft of all the written assignments.
Examination in the enrolled courses can be acquired within one year from the start. After the expiration date no missing assignments can be admitted and a participant should re-apply to another course occasion.

Please register to one group only - all doublebookings will be removed.
***
- Stand-by list means that the course is fully booked but you may be offered a seat if one becomes available. In this case a notification will be sent to you.
- Cancellation of participation in the GTS courses should be done as soon as possible and one week before start at the latest via the link in the confirmation email. In case of cancellation less then 7 days before start, send email to genericskills@chalmers.se. Cancellations (less then 7 days) and no-showing up to the course will be fined.
- You may register to 1 ordinary seat and 1 stand-by seat.

Contact person:
GTS admin

Further information:

Schedule GFOK035