Ling 402: Academic Discourse Practices
Course Aims and Objectives
This is a course on which we hope you will learn about approaches to
‘study skills’ developed at Lancaster, alongside developing
your own. The sessions in the programme are entirely optional: you are
welcome to attend the whole programme, to attend as long as you need,
or to drop in to some parts of it (though if you do that it will not always
be possible to fill in on what you have missed).
The workshops are open to all Linguistics MA students.
Course Content
TERMS 1 and 2: Developing a Critical Approach to Study
In these two terms we focus on aspects of academic reading and writing, with workshops covering topics which are likely to be relevant to you as you prepare for and reflect upon your first postgraduate written assignments.
Workshops will include topics such as:
• Consciousness-raising about the writing process
• What makes a good MA assignment
• Developing critical reading practices
• Getting started on an assignment
• Relating reading to writing
• Argumentation
We are also open to suggestions from the group and would like to discuss issues which arise from your own needs.
TERM 3: Dissertation Writing
A number of workshops to explore some of the issues involved in writing a dissertation.
Self-Access Materials
We have included a set of self-access materials on this website. The topics covered are:
- Analysing essay titles and brainstorming your first assignment
- Respecting referencing conventions
- Writing introductions
- Writing conclusions
- Preparing the final draft
27 October, 2005