The Basics of Academic Writing in English: Academic Writing 1 (101)

28 March 2025

Dr Jeannette Regan

Purpose:

This training course covers the importance of audience design, the paragraph as the basic unit of writing in English, and distinctions between academic English and other varieties of English. These concepts and their application are crucial for publishing in scientific contexts.

Target group:

The workshop is designed for doctoral candidates who are not native English speakers. Please review carefully the information below before you request registration.

The course is aimed at doctoral candidates who have reached the B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). To assess your level, please use the following tool based on the CEFR: ec.europa.eu.

Participants are strongly recommended to take this or an equivalent course as a first training course prior to Academic Writing 2.

Learning objectives:

The main aim of the course is to support the development of the individual writer's skill, confidence, and ease when writing texts necessary to complete their doctorate. By the end of the course, participants should be able to:

• better understand the writing process,
• target their writing to various specific audiences,
• distinguish the main features of general academic writing from other kinds of language,
• analyze basic paragraph organization by applying the principles of cohesion and coherence,
• start thinking about developing 'language friendships' with other CUSO doctoral candidates to continue improving their texts.

Training content:

Three topics will be included in the course: the importance in writing of audience, purpose, and tone; the key features of general academic style; and coherence and cohesion in paragraph organization. A fourth, the principles of text flow, will be included if time permits.

Preparation for the training:

The instructor would like to review each participant's writing prior to the workshop. Participants will be provided with a template with which to prepare a brief written language biography and a one-page summary in English of their doctoral work or current research project. Participants are requested to use tools to check their spelling and grammar before submitting their writing.

Participants will also select what they consider to be a 'model article' (in English) in their specific field of research. It should be an article from a high-impact international journal and the type of study should ideally be similar to their own. The model article will be used as a source of stylistic and linguistic information during the workshop.

The language biography, one-page research summary, and model article should be emailed to the instructor one week prior to the workshop date. Participants are asked to have ready access to their own copy of these texts during the workshop.

Form of the training:

The course will take two forms. Input will be followed by brief opportunities for practical application, questions, and discussion. During the time the instructor is speaking with each participant, the other participants will be provided with tasks relevant to the course content.

ONLINE!

Date: Friday, 28th March 2025

Schedule: 9:30 am to 18:00 with two hours and a half offline for lunch (from 12:30 to 15:00)

Location: Online

Trainer:

Dr. Jeannette Regan, freelance instructor, editor, and learning advisor to doctoral candidates and several Swiss doctoral programs (www.jeannette-regan.ch), formerly of the language centers at the Universities of Lausanne and Fribourg.

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