PhD:AcademicResearchAndWritingCulture

Academic Research and Writing Culture

• Course name: Academic Research and Writing Culture
• Course number: FTD.V.02

Course Characteristics

• Instructors: Oksana Zhirosh, Ruslan Saduov
• Instructors’ emails: o.zhirosh@innopolis.ru, ru.saduov@innopolis.ru

Key concepts of the class

• Structures in academic writing: IMRaD and IMRaD-inspired structures, the logic of using the English language tenses in IMRaD;
• Paragraph unity: the cohesion and coherence of paragraphs;
• Research papers chapters - their communication purposes, structures, language.
• Referencing styles, APA and IEEE guidelines: primary sources and highlights.
• Avoiding Plagiarism: referencing, paraphrasing, and summarizing, quotations
• Numerical data representations;
• Peer review process;
• Publication strategy.

What is the purpose of this course?

This course aims to give the students theoretical knowledge and practical skills in academic writing. Specifically, students will learn to produce an academic paper compliant with international standards.

- What should a student remember at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to remember the conventions of academic writing:

• IMRaD structure; chapters content
• paragraph unity rules
• IEEE and APA referencing and style requirements
• techniques of avoiding plagiarism
• rules related to the representation of numerical data
• peer-reviewing basics
• publication strategy guidelines

- What should a student be able to understand at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to understand the conventions of academic writing:

• How IMRaD motivates different paper structures.
• How one can achieve coherence and cohesion of the paragraph.
• How one can use IEEE and APA guidelines for writing academic papers.
• How to avoid Plagiarism.
• How to represent numerical data in a paper.
• How to write peer-review and how to respond to it.
• How to plan publication activity.

- What should a student be able to apply at the end of the course?

By the end of the course, the students should be able:

• to use the IMRaD or IMRaD-motivated structures for an academic paper;
• to write coherent and cohesive paragraphs;
• to use IEEE and APA referencing and style requirements in their papers.
• to use the techniques of avoiding Plagiarism;
• to represent numerical data in papers;
• to perform peer review;
• to develop their publication strategy.

Course evaluation

Course grade breakdown

		Proposed points
Paper	50
Peer Review	30
Practice Quizzes	20

If necessary, please indicate freely your course’s features in terms of students’ performance assessment.

Grades range

Course grading range

		Proposed range
P. Pass	>80
F. Fail	<80

If necessary, please indicate freely your course’s grading features.

Resources and reference material

• Wallwork, A. (2016). English for Writing Research Papers. New York: Springer.
• Wallwork, A. (2016). English for Academic Research: Writing Exercises. New York: Springer.
• Wallwork, A. (2016). English for Academic Research: Vocabulary Exercises. New York: Springer.
• Glasman-Deal, H. (2010). Science Research Writing For Non-native Speakers Of English. London: Imperial College Press.
• Wallwork, A. (2016). English for Academic Research: Grammar, Usage and Style. New York: Springer.
• Zobel, Ju. (2015). Writing for Computer Science. New York: Springer.

Course Sections

The main sections of the course and approximate hour distribution between them is as follows:

Course Sections

Section	Section Title	Teaching Hours
1	Academic paper structure and text unity
	IMRaD structure	2
	Paragraph unity	3
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	1
2	IEEE and APA guides - Editorial Style Guide, Math Guide, and Reference Guide
	IEEE and APA guides	2
	Avoiding Plagiarism	3
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	1
3	Numerical data in academic writing
	Numerical data representation	2
	Numerical data representation	3
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	1
4	Publishing strategy and process
	Peer review	2
	Publication strategy	3
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	2
	Writing tutorials	1

Section 1

Section title:

Academic paper structure and text unity

Topics covered in this section:

Subsection 1. IMRaD (variations and tenses)

• Introduction to Academic Writing
• Course negotiation
• IMRaD structure
• IMRaD structure variations
• IMRaD tenses

Subsection 2. Paragraph unity

• Sentence types
• Punctuation in sentences
• Effective sentences
• Paragraph structure
• Known-new contract
• Transitions

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

No.	Form	YES/NO
1	Homework and group projects	1
2	Oral polls	1
3	Discussions	1
4	Peer reviewing	1
5	Academic paper writing	1

Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

• Self-introduction
• What is IMRaD, and why is it needed?
• What IMRaD variations are possible? Why would they be needed?
• Exercise: punctuation in various types of sentences.

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

• What difficulties have you encountered while writing your paragraph?
• How can you address the writing block situation?
• What are the steps of paragraph writing?
• What strategies could you use to draft an outline of the paper according to IMRaD structure?

Test questions for final assessment in this section

• Give several possible IMRaD structures for your paper. Defend it in front of your peers.
• Change ineffective sentences.
• Provide feedback to your peer’s paragraph.
• Check the use of tenses in your peer’s IMRaD paper.

Section 2

Section title:

IEEE guides - Editorial Style Guide, Math Guide, and Reference Guide

Topics covered in this section:

Subsection 1. APA and IEEE guides

• Academic writing style
• APA and IEEE referencing and style requirements
• Writing Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Abstract

Subsection 2. Avoiding Plagiarism

• Plagiarism defined;
• Referencing;
• Paraphrasing;
• Paraphrasing patterns and resources;
• Summarizing
• Quoting.

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

No.	Form	YES/NO
1	Homework and group projects	1
2	Oral polls	1
3	Discussions	1
4	Peer reviewing	1
5	Academic paper writing	1

Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

• Discussion: Avoiding Plagiarism;
• Discussion: highlights of IEEE and APA.

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

• Exercise: referencing;
• Exercise: paraphrasing;
• Exercise: summarizing;
• Exercise: quotations;
• Exercise: reference list.

Test questions for final assessment in this section

• Provide feedback to your peer’s referencing, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
• Provide feedback to your peer’s reference list.
• Check your peer’s paper for compliance with IEEE or APA.

Section 3

Section title:

Numerical data in academic writing

Topics covered in this section:

Subsection 1-2. Numerical data representation

• Representation of information in tables;
• Representation of information in figures.

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

No.	Form	YES/NO
1	Homework and group projects	1
2	Oral polls	1
3	Discussions	1
4	Peer reviewing	1
5	Academic paper writing	1

Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

• What are the goals of presenting data?
• How can you present and describe the information in tables?
• How can you present and describe the information in figures?

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

• Exercise: Present figures;
• Exercise: Present tables.

Test questions for final assessment in this section

• Present the provided data in a table.
• Describe the provided figure.
• Provide feedback to your peer’s numerical data presentation.

Section 4

Section title:

Publishing strategy and process

Topics covered in this section:

Subsection 1. Peer review

• Peer review process;
• Writing reviews;
• Keeping reviewers happy.

Subsection 2. Publication strategy

• Main steps in the publishing process;
• Choosing publication venues;
• Choosing appropriate publication form to report your findings;
• Ethical considerations of publication process;
• Being a part of scholarly community.

What forms of evaluation were used to test students’ performance in this section?

No.	Form	YES/NO
1	Homework and group projects	1
2	Oral polls	1
3	Discussions	1
4	Peer reviewing	1
5	Academic paper writing	1

Typical questions for ongoing performance evaluation within this section

• Why do you need to publish?
• How do you choose a journal to publish a paper?
• How does the choice of publication strategy influences one’s career development?
• Why does peer-reviewing matter?

Typical questions for seminar classes (labs) within this section

• Make a list of top journals in your area and describe their focuses.
• List funding opportunities for your research.

Test questions for final assessment in this section

• Peer-review your classmate’s paper.
• Outline networking strategy for your research.
• Draft an application to fund your research.