The course is designed to prepare master’s level students to read critically and efficiently and equip them with the writing skills for academic literature reviews and articles. Towards this goal, students read and critically discuss scholarly articles and books, analyzing the structure, ideas and language of each. Proper use of sources is emphasized in this course. Students review writing norms in the social sciences, and work on developing appropriate vocabulary, sentence structures, paragraphs, and the language for an academic article, including titles, abstracts, introductions, literature reviews, methods, results, discussion, and reference sections. Spoken English is practiced in discussions and presentations.
Students are equipped with reading strategies and writing skills to succeed in their graduate studies.
| Week | Topics |
|---|---|
| 1 | Academic Reading and Writing for graduate studies - What is it all about ? Introduction to course teaching approach and grading criteria |
| 2 | Effective Reading strategies / R. Kaplan's cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education ( 1966; pp 1-20) |
| 3 | Assessing arguments in the assigned scientific literature / Differing facts from claims and opinions |
| 4 | Research methods and tools to collect data for qualitative research ( Paul Leedy and Jeanne Ormrod, Practical research; planning AND DESIGN, 2001, PP 149-156) |
| 5 | Source evaluation prior to drafting and writing process - Illustrative reading article by Taylor and Francis online - Post Covid 19 studies published in 2022 |
| 6 | Incorporating other's work in your research paper/ citation and reference styles- illustrative article Journal of International Organization, Cambridge University Press , 2020 ( international Relations after Covid -19) |
| 7 | Differing the features and functions of introductions, body analysis, conclusions, summary and synthesis in an article. |
| 8 | Coherence; Cohesion ; style of writing / Voice -Language awareness and thesis statement issues |
| 9 | Midterm exam |
| 10 | Writing Argumentative research paper/Writing position papers |
| 11 | Writing book review/article review |
| 12 | Writing Master Thesis research proposal and its literature review |
| 13 | Presentation of initial draft of research paper by students |
| 14 | Peer feedback and evaluation/ lecturer's and students evaluative inputs |
| Method | Qty | % Each |
|---|---|---|
| Homework | 3 | 5 |
| Midterm Exam(s) | 1 | 30 |
| Presentation | 1 | 10 |
| Term Paper | 1 | 45 |
Various updated illustrative articles from ECO/BUS/BAF/PIR to conduct a critical analysis of scientific texts. Umberto Eco (2015) How to Write a Thesis Literature from the Center of Academic Writing, Central European University, Vienna Literature from the Writing Center of the University of Purdue, USA John Swales and Christine Feak (2017) Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd Edition Illustrative academic articles for each program of study will be obtained from Jstore and other Scopus databases. Online public lectures and case studies from English-instructed universities will combine conventional readings from theoretical books.