Academic Writing in English
for Applied Science students
September 2016
d.soreanu@fontys.nl

What type of tasks? Which products?
• Vocabulary, grammar (language) related tasks
• Editing (checking a text on common errors)
• Paragraphing
• Punctuation (commas, capitals, abbreviations)
• Text analysis (the structure of a scientific article)
• Writing your own text (summary of a scientific article)
• Writing your ASIA executive summary

How?
• In a learning group of 4 students
• Creating a blog (blogger, wix, weebly etc)
• Placing your products on the blog
• Peer feedback
• Teacher feedback
• Build up on your blog a portfolio of tasks
• Hand in a pdf copy of your blog in electronic format

Tools to create a blog
• Blogger
• Wix
• Weebly
• Wordpress
• The material for this course is posted on
• http://academicwritingas.blogspot.nl/

Resources of academic articles to be used during
the course
• Text bank for students of science
• Online resources:
• science magazine
• Scientific american
• Sixty symbols
• Bozemanscience
• Mastering biology (Pearson)
• Mastering Chemistry (Pearson)

Academic writing resources-vocabulary
• AWL (Academic Word list)
• http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/wordlists.htm
• AWL Highlighter
• http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm
• Manchester Phrase Bank
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/writing-conclusions/
• Lextutor
• http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/

Academic writing resources-grammar
• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
• Placement Tests
• http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/test-your-english/business/
• Grammar Practise exercises
• https://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/int/a_testzone/?cc=nl&selLanguage=nl
• Listening and speaking
• https://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/int/b_audiozone/?cc=nl&selLanguage=nl
• Present Tense Simple &Continuous
• https://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/int/b_audiozone/opg_int_dialogue01?cc=nl&selLanguage=nl
• Noun phrases
•
• https://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/int/b_audiozone/opg_int_dialogue02?cc=nl&selLanguage=nl
• Articles
• https://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/int/b_audiozone/opg_int_dialogue03?cc=nl&selLanguage=nl
• Prepositions
•
• https://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/int/b_audiozone/opg_int_dialogue04?cc=nl&selLanguage=nl

Orientation
• Within your group, answer the questions below:
1. What experience do you have in the academic genre (in English or
your first language)? What have you found most difficult or
challenging about it?
2. Try to think of some typical features of such academic writing.
Mention at least 4 features of academic writing that are not
usually found in journalist text or in speeches and lectures.

Perspectives on the writing process
• Exploring (pre-writing activities)
• Structuring (outlining the global
tekst abd paragraph and
sentence level)
• Polishing and publishing (layout
and design)
• Unloading (transferring ideas to
written language)
• Incubating(setting aside one’s
books, notebooks, computer and
letting your brain work)

Academic Papers: The scientific article
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Result
• Discussion
• Conclusion

Reflect on the writing process
• Write a paragraph of about 300 words advising a friend on
how to write an academic paper. You can base your advice
either on past experience or on how you imagine you might
write a paper if you have never done it before.
• Share the paragraph that you have written within your group
and compare your texts. Try to combine the best ideas and
agree on the ideal writing process. Present your ideas to the
rest of the class.

Reflect on the writing process
• Watch part of this video (minute 5.55- to 12.00) about
scientific writing and compare your answer to the
information in the video. Source
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pzjxYCwb08