Academic Writing is something that truly permeates into our daily studying and working, whether it's in high school or college, and especially in graduate or doctoral programs. Whether it's the analysis of academic articles, the reports of experiments in STEM fields, presentations in business courses, or even theses and dissertations, academic writing is a crucial component. Academic writing is an indispensable skill that has vastly different requirements and standards compared to narrative literature or creative writing. Moreover, having good oral presentation skills and a large vocabulary doesn't automatically translate to proficiency in academic writing; it requires dedicated study to master.
Academic writing is the key that unlocks the door to any discipline and majors in colleges. Unfortunately, many students only realize this after entering colleges, and then have to squeeze in writing classes into their tight schedules, making the learning experience stressful and challenging. This issue has become such a headache for universities and colleges that many of them, like New York University (NYU), mandate academic writing courses to all freshman students of every major, which ranging from six months to a year. At Messiah University where Professor Ye teaches, professors from various departments would convene at the end of each semester to discuss new teaching methods to enhance students' writing abilities.
Our "Academic Writing" course starts from the basics of academic essays, covering all the way from how to brainstorm, draft, revise, to finalize papers, detailing the entire process and framework. Then, we would delve into the critical thinking process involved in writing, the three major elements of academic essays, characteristics and differences of various academic essay genres, and specific writing techniques and tips. Lastly, we would discuss common academic bibliography styles such as MLA and APA, how to correctly cite others' work to avoid unintentional plagiarism, and the specifics of citation guidelines. These are all essential components of academic writing.
Below is the course outline for our "Academic Writing" course. The course consists of 30 hours in total, divided into 15 lessons, with each lesson lasting 2 hours.
15 Lessons
Table of ContentsTotal 4 chapters / 77 units
Lesson 1
Course introductionDocument design: A gallery of models
Sample e-mail message (PDF)
Sample Résumé (PDF)
Sample MLA formatting: essay (PDF)
Sample APA formatting: essay (PDF)
C1: Planning
C1-a: Assessing the writing situation
Lesson 2
C1-b: Exploring your subject
C1-c: Drafting and revising a working thesis statement
How to solve five common problems with thesis statements
