Job Discussion Forums

[tarns051]

I am going to be teaching academic writing to postgraduate masters students this semester at my current university. Can anyone recommend a good textbook for teaching writing to postgraduate students?

[currentaffairs]

I would get cozy to the publishers (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman, and the local options) and their representatives. You can often get freebies and they all have some writing skills textbooks.

Something like this might be useful:

https://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/skills/effective_academic_writing_second_edition/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

You probably already know this, but I'll say it for the benefit of others:

Before you pick out a book, find out their majors. Post graduate writing entails writing criticism, historical research, scientific research and reporting, etc..

Each discipline requires different in-line citation methods, bibliography, annotated bibliography, and works cited forms. Then there are footnotes (quickly becoming a thing of the past, but still in use).

Then there are the different styles. For example, the sciences generally require that the text be written in the present tense (APA style). Journalism majors have the AP style. History usually adheres to the Turabian style. The various styles mentioned may have different names in the UK, but each discipline follows specific guidelines when written in the English language.

Teaching graduate and post-graduate writing generally goes beyond the five paragraph approach. Much of the success of this level of writing hinges upon not only mastery of the language and writing style, but technical form.

[spiral78]

I have taught postgrad writing for some years. As BudPowell points out, it is very field-specific, and the conventions of the field of study dictate aims to a large extent.

More generally, hedging and boosting, understanding academic verbs and how they frame the writer's stance toward their own work and the work of others, citation and referencing, nominalization vs. verb phrases/possessive forms, and other higher level items become very important. The courses we teach include native speakers of English as students on a regular basis.

The 5-paragraph essay is pretty much useless, and most postgrad writing does not value elegant variation in terminology, unlike IELTS, Cambridge, and other similar essay writing.

What field/s of study are they working in?

[currentaffairs]

Where are you actually teaching? To be honest, if in Asia/outside Europe then many students are going to need the 'nuts and bolts' and a lot of feedback, preparation, and guidance even to produce the simplest of form of written work. Even at universities in Europe (especially Eastern Europe) a lot of students will be at a relatively low level. I taught in Estonia for awhile and my university students were only at B1 level, and taking the PET exam at the end of the academic year..

[nomad soul]

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

[tarns051]

I am teaching at a University in Changchun. I have asked a Chinese teacher, she has said the students are different majors, and there is no set syllabus. I will have my first class on Monday afternoon, so probably wont know until then about the students majors.

[Non Sequitur]