Academic Writing: How to Compose Your Seminar Paper, Research Article or Thesis

Writing at university can be a perplexing and demanding activity. This academic writing course demystifies the process, breaking it down into manageable parts and offers a structured and supporting environment to work on your own texts. It is suitable for students who are planning to write a text in the foreseeable future or who have already started their research and are writing a paper to submit to a lecturer, supervisor or publisher. The course follows the write – review – revise cycle to nurture productive writing strategies and ensure quality output. It combines the following components to help you turn concepts and/or data into a first draft or a readable manuscript.

Instruction by the lecturer
During input sessions, the lecturer familiarizes you with the structural and language-related requirements for each section of your text. You are introduced to templates, style guides and digital writing resources and supported in adapting them to your discipline and text type.

Structured and regular text production
Throughout the course you are motivated to grow your text by regularly writing parts according to goals and milestones you set for yourself.

Feedback from peers and the lecturer
Feedback sessions with peers and the lecturer develop your ability to formulate and receive constructive written and oral comments that improve the quality of texts and steer them towards completion.

Course information

Course level
C1
Date
  • Friday 18.10.2024, 14:15–16:30
  • Friday 01.11.2024, 14:15–16:30
  • Friday 08.11.2024, 14:15–16:30
  • Friday 22.11.2024, 14:15–16:30
  • Friday 06.12.2024, 14:15–16:30
15 Lessons
Lecturer
Stephan Meyer, MA
Credit points
1 ECTS
Registration deadline
Thursday 10.10.2024
Course fee
Students and PhD candidates: CHF 207.00
Members of staff: CHF 363.00
Alumni: CHF 363.00
Alumni FHNW: CHF 363.00

Target group

This course is for bachelor and master students across all faculties who want to develop their writing competence and work towards completing a longer academic text such as a seminar paper, a research article, or a thesis.

Course materials

The course materials will be provided by the instructor.

Requirements

To earn credit points, participants are expected to

  • not be absent at all,
  • participate actively in class,
  • submit four satisfactory written assignments of at least 500 words each (if an assignment is unsatisfactory, it may be resubmitted once),
  • read and participate actively in the discussion of other course participants’ texts.

Workload for ECTS:
In addition to class time, participants must plan to spend 1-2 hours per week on preparing and reviewing for class and on autonomous learning.

You can earn 1 credit point.
The course is graded with either pass or fail.

Certificate of attendance

Active participation is assumed. In order to receive a certificate of attendance for this course, you are not allowed to be absent at all.

Placement test

To gain entry to this course, participants must submit a writing sample on at least level C1. You will receive instructions in this regard shortly after registration.

Replacement date

The supplementary replacement date for lessons that might not take place is: 07.12.2024 from 10:00 - 16:00.

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