WRITING SKILLS II

PROFESSOR: JUAN JOSÉ PRAT FERRER, PHD

DEGREE: ALL
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2012-2013
1º SEMESTER 2º SEMESTER
CATEGORY: FURTHER TRAINING
NO. OF CREDITS (ECTS): 3
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
TUTORIALS: 2 HOURS PER STUDENT
FORMAT: INCLASS
PREREQUISITES: B2 LEVEL OF ENGLISH OR GENERAL ENGLISH III

1. SUBJECT DESCRIPTION

This course is geared to put into practice the knowledge students possess about academic
language (grammar, syntax, vocabulary, use of discourse, academic register) and apply it to the
composition of written academic texts. The objective is to allow students to go deeper in their
development of competences and to face and solve with efficacy the complicated problems one
encounters when writing papers, articles or dissertations.

The composition of texts and the development of competences for written expression are
fundamental features of language learning at this level. We should help students in their
process of acquiring the resources offered by a given linguistic system, in this case, academic
English, in order to be able to use them appropriately and efficiently in the process of written
communication.

2. OBJECTIVES AND SKILLS

To know how to work with the different mechanisms that regulate and organize language in
order to express significant messages in a significant, appropriate and efficient manner.

To master the grammar structures and the techniques necessary for the construction of a
coherent discourse

To develop and consolidate expressive capabilities applied to academic discourse, paying

careful attention to the norms that regulate it and using the resources available.
To expand vocabulary and to improve its use

To know the basic knowledge tools in order to master the process of writing.
To master the use of sentence structures and the different ways of connecting clauses in order
to create a coherent, clear, precise and appropriate text.
To be able to develop an acceptable style for academic writing

Editado por el Departamento de Publicaciones del IE.

Última revisión, octubre de 2012.

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3. CONTENT

This course consists of 25 sessions organized as follows:

1. THE PROCESS OF WRITING: 1

2. RESEARCHING: 4
Sources: 5
The library: 7

3. RERSEARCH ON THE INTERNET: 9

Use of a dictionary: 10
How to record a source: 11
How to record textual information from a source: 15

4. IDENTIFYING THE PURPOSE AND LIMITS IN A DISCOURSE: 17

Skimming and scanning: 18
Looking for specific information: 20
Techniques for taking notes: 22

5. THE OUTLINE: 26
Explicit and implicit information: 28
Summarizing, paraphrasing, and synthesizing: 29
Revising your notes: 34

6. PREPARING TO WRITE: ADAPTING YOUR TEXT FOR THE READER: 35

The writer’s image through the text: 37
Purpose and means: 38
Types of academic texts: 40

7. WRITING THE PAPER: 45

Topic and thesis: 46
Selecting the material: 47
Sequencing materials: The outline: 51
Humanistic style: 51
Scientific style: 52

8. THE TITLE: 54
Supporting ideas: 55
Relating main and secondary ideas: 58
Focusing: 58
Text markers: 60

9. DEFINING: 61
Describing: 64
How to develop ideas through comparing and contrasting: 67

10.CHOOSING DETAILS: 68
Analysis: 69
Hypothesis and synthesis: 69
Statements and thesis: 70
Explaining: 72
Presenting data: 72

11.FROM THE GENERAL TO THE SPECIFIC AND VICE VERSA 74

Classifying 75
Organizing supporting evidence: 76
Clarifying through paraphrase: 79
The experiment: 79
Reservations: 80

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12.ARGUMENTATION: 80
Anticipating possible objections: 84
Counterarguments: 84
Debating and refuting: 85

13.CONCLUSIONS: 89
Closure: 90
The introduction: 91
State of the question: 93

14.THE SENTENCE AND THE PARAGRAPH

The sentence: 97
The paragraph: 101
Expository paragraphs: 102
Enumerative paragraph: 104
Mixed paragraphs: 106

15.ARGUMENTATIVE PARAGRAPHS: 109

Delimiting and transitional paragraphs: 112:
Size and organization of paragraphs: 114

16.PUNCTUATION
Period (.): 117
Colon (:): 118
Comma (,): 120
Question and exclamation marks (?!): 122
Ellipsis (...): 123
Parentheses and dashes (( ) — —): 123
Slash (/): 124

17.SQUARE BRACKETS ([ ]): 125

Apostrophe (’): 125
Quotation marks (‘’ “” «» ‘’): 126
Hyphen (-): 127
Italics: 128
Numbers: 129
Most common abbreviations: 130

18.THE PROCESS OF REVISING

Organizing main and supporting materials: 131
Economy and redundancy: 131
Concision and vagueness: 131
Objective language: 131
Ambiguity: 132
Style: 132
Computer revising tools: 134
Coherence: 134
Intent: 134
Acceptability: 134
Interest: 134
Intertextuality: 135
Appropriateness: 135
Revising the structure: 135
Spelling and punctuation: 136
The final outline: 136
Revising the title: 136 Quotations, notes and bibliography: 137
Second and third revisions: 138

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19.TRANSITIONS AND CONNECTIVES
Time & order: 139
Comparing, contrasting, conceding: 139
Adding & emphasizing: 139
Focusing, giving examples: 140
Conditions and purpose: 140
Reformulate, clarify: 140
Introducing or changing a topic: 140
Inferences, results, effects: 140
Focusing, giving examples: 140
Conditions and purpose: 141

20.THE MANUSCRIPT: 143

Font, pagination: 143
Spaces between words: 145
Use of illustrations, tables and figures: 145
Order and style in bibliographies: 146

21.ACADEMIC STYLES: 150

MLA: 15?
APA: 15?
The abstract 15?

22.REFERENCES:
Books
Articles in journals
Articles in periodicals
Article in an anthology or compilation
Part of a book
Speeches & lectures
Doctoral dissertations
Music scores and recordings
Electronic sources

23.QUOTES
What to quote
Precision in quoting
Length of the quote
Long and short quotes

24.CONCLUSIONS

25.EVALUATION

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4. METHODOLOGY AND ECTS WEIGHTING

Knowledge building and competences and abilities development are attained through the
Reading of texts, lectures, writing activities, debates and lots of writing. Students will work
individually and in groups, and through this work attitudinal and conceptual changes will be
expected to occur.

We favor a socio-constructivist approach to the process of learning and developing

competences. This methodology begins with individual work, continues with activities in small
groups to end up with general discussions in class. Then the teacher will offer explanations on
the issues that need more clarity.

The types of activities favored are those of searching for and transferring information. We will
also work on analysis and criticism of significant examples individually and in groups, as well as
exercises on synthesis, paraphrasing and other forms of communication through writing.

Students will practice the creation and elaboration of descriptive, narrative, expositive and
argumentative material in sessions where creation and correction will be constantly used.

Therefore this course is based on a combination of individual and collective effort to achieve
learning according with the paradigm adopted here. The goal is to allow students to incorporate
knowledge and abilities and generate positive attitudes about the process of academic writing;
students are expected to be able to transfer their competences to their own professional life.

The teacher will act as a model, source of knowledge and facilitator of learning, but the whole
process is based on the student. The main function of the teacher many times will be reduced to
posing the appropriate questions at the appropriate time. Nevertheless, there are traditional and
theoretical components that students must master, but the most important part of learning will
be focused on observing, meditating and practicing through communicative experimentation and
the imitation of models. Students and teacher will reflect on all activities, there will be self-
evaluating sessions and commented analysis performed in groups. Improvement in these areas
will allow students to overcome problems and experiment with new resources.

Type of activity Sessions

In class work (lectures and workshop) 25
Individual work (at home) 50
Tutorials 2

Credits according the ECTS: 3

5. EVALUATION SYSTEM

5.1. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

Evaluation will consist on practicing diverse in-class and at-home activities which will prepare
students for the final objective: the preparation of an academic research paper whose
characteristics will be negotiated between the student and the teacher.

5.2. EVALUATION AND WEIGHTING CRITERIA

The presentation of a paper will be the culminating point in a process of elaboration; that is why
the paper has an important weight, computed as 30% of the final grade. The student
performance in exercises and activities will weigh 50 %. The teacher will value aspects such as
attendance, active participation and in-class work up to a total of 20%.

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Active participation: 20%
Day to day work: 50%
Paper or project: 30%

The elements the teacher will take into account when evaluating the paper will gbe the
following:

Holistic evaluation (40%)

 Precision
 Clarity
 Interest
 Acceptability

Specific evaluation (60%)

 General presentation of contents (research, focusing ideas, adequateness to the reader)
 Organization of the information (selection of materials, organizing ideas, quality of
information, details that exemplify, use of authorities, quantity of information)
 Topic-thesis relation (analysis of materials, presentation of main ideas, support given to
ideas, logic argumentation)
 Mastering academic discourse (norms, resources)
 Paragraphs (construction, relation, relative size, introduction, closure)
 Language (grammar, spelling, use of text markers)

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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

6.1 COMPULSORY

Title: Writing skills

Author: Juan José Prat Ferrer
Publisher / Edition / Year:
ISBN / ISSN:
Medium: PRINT ELECTRONIC

6.2 RECOMMENDED

Title:
Author:
Publisher / Edition / Year:
ISBN / ISSN:
Medium: PRINT ELECTRONIC

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7. PROFESSOR’S BIO

JUAN JOSÉ PRAT FERRER

Juan José Prat Ferrer focuses his research on the study of verbal artistic communication, both
oral or written, and on the development of theories about oral and popular or folk cultures.

He holds a Master in Hispanic Literatures and Linguistics and a Doctoral degree in Philosophy
(University of California, Los Angeles) and a second doctoral degree in communication (IE
University).

His University work encompasses twenty seven years of dedication to teaching and researching
at universities in the US (UCLA, Yale University, Saint Louis University) and Spain (Universidad
Europea, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Universidad SEK). At this moment, he directs the
Language Studies Center at IE University.

Dr. Prat has taught Spanish and English language courses. He has written a book on English
learning for Spanish university students and various articles on methods for language teaching.
As for his research on verbal artistic communication, he has written some books and a good
number of articles about medieval narrative, the transmission of myths and legends in Western
cultures, as well as a book and diverse articles on the development of Folkloristics.
As for his work on academic writing, he has created a course in academic writing, first in
Spanish and then in English, he has developed a manual for writers, and right now he is
directing three doctoral dissertations.

Other information of interest:

Email:
[email protected]

Web:
http://ie.academia.edu/JuanJos%C3%A9PratFerrer

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