Course "Fundamentals of Academic Writing: From Paragraph to an Academic Text"

This course is designed for those who are just beginning to write research papers and who would like to know more about the basics of academic writing. The course suits those who are familiar with the principles of forming English sentences and clauses, and have basic skills of using cohesion devices, but experience difficulties in building a logical and cohesive academic text. The participants will learn how to develop the thesis and how to build an argument through explanation, exemplification, and actualization of cause and effect relations in the text. The participants will also get acquainted with the structure of an academic text and will develop the understanding of how to use this structure to establish logic.

* The course is the second part of a program consisting of two consecutive courses. You can also register for the first course Fundamentals of Academic Writing: From Sentence to Paragraph.

Trainer: Natalia Ivanova-Slavianskaia, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the School of International Relations  of Saint-Petersburg State University, a teacher of General English and ESP, the author of courses on academic writing. In 2018 Natalia completed a M.Sc. course in Applied Linguistics (Teaching English in University Settings) at Oxford University, having explored the problem of Russian learners’ self-regulating writing strategies as the topic of her Masters dissertation. Since 2010, Natalia has been working as a speaking examiner for Cambridge Assessment.

Dates: December 2 – December 24 (24 a/h); 2 Zoom sessions on December 10 and 17 at 19:00
Format:  online

English level requirement: B2

How do I get accepted? You should be a full-time employee from teaching or research staff at the HSE.

The course is offered on a competitive basis. Please, fill out an online registration form and write a motivation letter in English (about 300 words). Please name the types of academic texts you have to write in English, describe the difficulties you have faced when writing an academic text and explain how new skills are relevant to your teaching and / or research.

For more information on how to write a strong motivation letter, please read the AWC blog.