Writing academic essays supported by reliable sources is a challenging task for university students. Students at a Foundation Program level are often used to writing opinion-based or narrative essays; research and integration of sources into formal writing is a novel concept. Similar to a scaffolded approach to teaching text structures and academic language usage, the way we introduce students to research may be more effective if it is also carefully scaffolded and embedded into a unit’s syllabus. In these slides, using the case study of international students in a Foundation Program at SIBT, Amanda Oppliger and Karen McRae provide an insight into curriculum design by explaining how they scaffold research and writing; how to read academic journals effectively and then adapt the knowledge acquired into an argument essay. The approaches shared in this session can be applied by teachers across all disciplines.

1. Amanda Oppliger – Unit Coordinator, SIBT
Karen McRae – Program Convenor, SIBT

2.  FNDS016: Advanced Academic Research & Writing
 core unit in the Standard Foundation Program
 English level entry: IELTS 5.5 (or equivalent)
 taken in session 1; completed in 13 weeks
 4 hours face-to-face + 6 hours self-study
 First steps
 “Alien environment” (Bamber & Tett, 2000)
 “Multiple starting points” (Kift, Nelson & Clarke,
2010)
 “A complex process of becoming” (Benzie, 2015)

3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 editing
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 reading journals
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3 research
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 referencing
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 essay

4. Lesson Content
1 Unit Overview + Academic Writing 1
• The Clause and Compound sentences
• Reading. Understanding a text: topic, purpose and main idea
2 Academic Writing 2
• Sentence Level construction - Complex Sentences
• Verbs/Tense
• Editing skills
3 Academic Writing 3
• Editing Skills– Work on samples and review your writing considering: clause
errors; sentence fragments, and run on sentences

5. Lesson Content
4 Research 1 – Why and how of research
• Essay question and brainstorming (Critical Thinking)
• Research – How to? Critical thinking as part of the research process.
• Journal articles - Purpose; Structure; Audience; Publication method/retrieval
Read Journal Article 1 for FINAL EXAM
5 Research 2 - Note taking; summarizing and paraphrasing
Read Journal article 2 for FINAL EXAM
• Read; Discuss; Answer questions; Write summary; quotation and paraphrase
• Write reference details as in a reference list
• Evaluate sources – Authority; Relevance, Currency
6 Research 3 – Summarizing; quoting/paraphrasing, & evaluating
Read Journal article 3 for FINAL EXAM
• Writing a summary & Evaluating sources & quotation and paraphrase
LESSON 7– fourth article as Assessment.

6. Lesson Content
8 Essay Writing 1
• ‘Essay’ structure
• Writing an Introductory Paragraph for an Essay
9 Essay Writing 2
• Writing a Body Paragraph for an Essay
• In-text citations – how is it done? Why is it done?
10 Essay Writing 3
• Writing a Concessional Paragraph for an Essay + in-text citation practice
• Writing a Conclusion for an Essay
• Draft your Essay Plan for FINAL EXAM ESSAY
11 Essay Writing 4
• Practice Essay Writing exercises & in-text citations exercises
• Work on and get feedback on your Essay Plan
12 &
13
Review and FINAL EXAM preparation
Write the FINAL EXAM essay – open book – summaries and essay plan permitted

7.  The block structures of the unit delivery allows for direct assessment of
skills learnt. Formative tasks built in.
TASK DATES & NOTES
Editing online task in Lesson 3
paper task in Lesson 5
Article reading & critical
analysis
Article 4 in Lesson 7
Research skills Part A of FINAL EXAM Essay Assessment (Lesson 9)
Essay planning Part B of FINAL EXAM Essay Assessment (Lesson 11)
Essay writing Part C of FINAL EXAM Essay Assessment (Lesson 13)
Participation & self directed
learning
Online tasks throughout the Session

8. Academic
skills
Research
skills
Writing
skills
Assessment
skills
The
student
growing as
a critical
thinker
Oppliger & McRae, 2018

9.  Essay question available from week 4
 Active Learning
 Pre-teach topic –
 video; quizzes; discussion forums; collocation
exercises
 Hardcopy journal and journal article
 Discuss why these are written.
 Full text journal article.
 Show students where this comes from and get
them to locate it on the library database; locate
the reference details

10. Explore Journal Article - find the author(s); article title; journal
title; volume no.; issue no; pages; DOI
Cloze + independent practice
 Repetition important - Cover 4 articles in the session
Reference List
Kulkarni, AA., Swinburn, ____ ., & ______________, J _________ . ‘Associations between
diet quality and mental health in socially disadvantaged New Zealand adolescents’,
European Journal of ___________________________________ , vol. __ no. ____ pp.____
- ____. doi: 10.1038/ejcn. ________. 130

11.  bit.ly/2LqdYeg
2.

12. Reference
(This is the full reference for the article that is written in the Reference List at the end of
an essay or assessment task)
Annotation
IN YOUR OWN WORDS summarise the key information in the article + evaluate the
relevance of the article for your essay.
Purpose of the article – why did the author(s) write this article?
Brief overview of the key findings or main arguments of the article – (Additionally, are
there any sentences that you might use? – write them here in quotation marks ‘….’ and the
page number)
Evaluation of the article
(Is it authoritative? Is it up to date? Is it useful for your essay?)

13.  Essay Question
For Against
Article 1 + very brief
summary of findings
Article 3+ very brief
summary of findings
Article 2 + very brief
summary of findings
Any other ideas from
research?
Article 4 + very brief
summary of findings
Any other ideas from
research?
Research skills Part A of FINAL EXAM Essay Assessment (Lesson 9)

14. SAMPLE ESSAY – a new essay question
Body Paragraph (2)
Topic Sentence = main idea in the paragraph
 Stress -> students and _________________
Explanation/examples/evidence + citation
 Burden of homework -> _______________________ cut short + thought of hwk – stressful
 hwk -> feelings of ______________________ + chn feel resentful & worried (Finkel & Jones 2012)
 Explanation: – child doesn’t understand class work + asked to do more of the same -> feeling ____________
 Hwk hard -> chn ask ____________________ for help
 Explanation: – stressor for parents with no time + other things to do. This can -> family _____________
 Add quotations/paraphrases and citations to sample essay
 Write an additional paragraph for the sample essay

15.  PRACTICE ESSAY – a second new essay question
 Summaries and references of 4 articles provided
 As a class brainstorm pros and cons to essay question
 Students write a plan
 Students write a paragraph/full essay
Body Paragraph (1)
Topic Sentence = main idea in the paragraph
Explanation/examples/evidence + citation
Introductory Paragraph
Background – can include: General statement; background info;
definition; quotation; lead-in statement.
Thesis – this is your answer to the question
Outline – 2 or 3 reasons for your Thesis. (your arguments in
support of your answer to the essay question)

16.  Essay Question
For Against
Article 1 + very brief
summary of findings
Article 3+ very brief
summary of findings
Article 2 + very brief
summary of findings
Any other ideas from
research?
Article 4 + very brief
summary of findings
Any other ideas from
research?
Essay planning Part B of FINAL EXAM Essay Assessment (Lesson 11)
Essay writing Part C of FINAL EXAM Essay Assessment (Lesson 13)

17. ENTRY SURVEY EXIT
SURVEY
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 editing
0
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6
8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 reading journals
0
5
10
15
20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 editing
0
5
10
15
20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 reading journals

18. ENTRY SURVEY EXIT
SURVEY
0
2
4
6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3 research
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 referencing
0
2
4
6
8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 essay
0
5
10
15
20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3 research
0
5
10
15
20
25
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 referencing
0
5
10
15
20
25
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5 essay

19. I really really really get a significant help from this unit
for research or essay writing.
I like the editing part & the essay plan part. Editing help me
to improve my grammar, essay plan teach me how to manage my essay.
This unit has helped me improved the writing
skills and understand how to write the reference.
I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about gramma & research

20. I have alway understood that my level of English is satisfactory but I learned a lot of new thing that
shattered the façade I have built around myself which is liberating.
I liked the mobile quizzes the most. They helped me in brain washing..and remind
me of my unit points.
Reading journal article in class and sharing ideas
with teacher or classmates.
Watching related videos before reading articles.
Wish could have after-class extra tutoring time.
...usually learning English is really boring
but for this unit it was really fun and helpful.
I can know how to research
the articles and write
reference, summary and
improve my essay skills.

21. Body paragraph 1
 Essay Question: Unquestioning internet use into the future is likely to cause
serious negative consequences for society. Discuss.
The first negative impact is cyberbullying can cause a lot of problem. In nowadays
more and more people using internet, so the cyberbullying will increase. Moreover,
cyberbullying can cause more psychosocial and psychiatric problem than the
traditional bullying, because the victim feel unsafe in anytime and anywhere, even
when they are going back to home. In addiction, cyberbullying can also cause the
victim more easy to addict to drug or alcohol use, because it can affect people brain,
so the people after doing it, they can feel happy or less stressed. According to
Sourander et al (2010 p, 3) say that ‘higher level of psychosocial or psychiatric
problem and substance use were correlated with a stronger association with
cyberbully status.’

22. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1 2 3 4 5 6

23.  Irregular pass rates – 50% - 100%
 100% - shows that the unit itself works
 Non-variables – teachers (same Unit Coordinator)
 Variables – students!
 Cohorts vary
 Young students – many succeed, some need to repeat,
some leave, some are excluded…
 Onshore/offshore student recruitment
 Moving away from having one final exam
 Scaffolded/formative learning… scaffolded assessment

24.  Be explicit
 With all students, across all units, all programs, all
teachers… (Gale & Parker, 2014)
 Train students to be
 critical thinkers
 online learners
 Versatility - equip students with ability to apply
these skills to any other context.
 First steps.. many more to come
 Understand that Foundation/Diploma/First-Year
Learning Outcomes are very different from Bachelor
Learning Outcomes...

25.  Bamber, J. & Tett, L. (2000). Transforming the Learning Experiences of Non-traditional
Students: A perspective from higher education. Studies in Continuing Education, 22(1), 57-75,
DOI: 10.1080/713695715
 Benzie, H. (2015). Third space strategists: International students negotiating the transition from
pathway program to postgraduate coursework degree. The International Education Journal:
Comparative Perspectives, 14(3), 2015, pp. 17-31
http://openjournals.library.usyd.edu.au/index.php/IEJ/index
 Gale, T. & Parker, S. (2014). Navigating change: a typology of student transition in higher
education. Studies in Higher Education, 39(5), 734-753, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2012.721351
 Kift, S., Nelson, K. & Clarke, J. (2010). Transition Pedagogy: A third generation approach to
FYE – A case study of policy and practice for the higher education sector. The International
Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 1(1), 1-20.
 Sydney Institute of Business and Technology (2018). FNDS016 Advanced Academic Writing and
Research (Standard Foundation Program).