Welcome to Academic English: achieve your potential!

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This course is designed for you if you're looking to develop your academic English writing skills in order to achieve your full potential in your under- and/or post-graduate studies. You will benefit from this course whether or not you have existing experience in academia.

In this course, we explore the core skills required for each stage of the writing process, including developing a research question, reading efficiently, planning effectively, writing cohesively, referencing correctly, and editing effectively.

We look specifically at writing a research paper (such as an end-of-term essay). The skills you learn through this process will be incredibly useful later on in a dissertation or thesis.

There are 15 content modules. Each module covers a component of the writing process and includes the following elements:

• Key points on the topic
• A short video lecture discussing the topic in more dept
• An interactive quiz to reinforce important concepts
• A task to complete in a personalised portfolio
• A set of thought-provoking questions to reflect on

Time wise, it should take you around 45 minutes to complete each module. However, as we're all different, you should decide how long to spend exploring each concept, depending on your existing skills and your level of interest.

You can access this course on your desktop, tablet or mobile phone. All you need is an internet connection.

By working through each module (and you can follow them in any order you like), you'll create a solid foundation to achieve your full potential in your studies. Once you have the skills to write an academic paper, you can focus on more fully on integrating your unique voice into your writing.

The topics we'll cover in this course

Introduction

• Course overview
• Getting to know your course tutor
• The structure of a module
• Creating a portfolio as a learning tool, resource and showcase

Exploring academic genres

• Academic genres and their features

Building a foundation for your writing

• Choosing a research question
• Building an argument
• The basic structure of a term paper

Sharing your unique voice without plagiarising

• Plagiarism and how to avoid it

Developing critical reading techniques

• Finding and evaluating academic resources
• Strategies for efficient and targeted reading
• Strategies for efficient note taking

Giving your foundation structure

• Creating and expanding your outline

Creating a cohesive and evidence-based argument

• How to structure a cohesive paragraph
• How to strengthen your argument through hedging
• Appropriate quoting, paraphrasing and summarising

Citation and referencing correctly

• Citation and referencing

Promoting readability: introductions, conclusions and editing techniques

• Writing a strong introduction and conclusion
• Strategies for editing your work

Final thoughts and feedback