Writing a research paper in English: a module for novice writers

2022/2023

Category 'Best Course for Career Development'

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'

Type: Mago-Lego

Delivered by: Department of Foreign Languages

When: 3 module

Open to: students of all HSE University campuses

Instructors: Natalia V. Smirnova

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 32

Full Syllabus

Abstract

The online module aims at guiding master students in writing a research paper in English for an international high-ranking journal. Participants will develop a critical eye on different cultural and rhetorical conventions and norms in target journals and learn effective writing tools and strategies for becoming more independent in their research writing. You will learn 1) how/why join conversations in academic journals, 2) why/how to build an individual project-related linguistic corpus in your discipline for independent writing, 3) to use the corpus to produce a clear, coherent/cohesive, argument-driven, and rhetorically/linguistically appropriate English-medium paper to meet expectations of leading journals. The key learning outcome is a research paper produced by each participant. Key entry requirements are: B2 CEFR, motivation letter, draft paper (of any length).

Learning Objectives

Research writing skills are rarely developed naturally and academic language is nobody’s natural language. Writing is a social practice (Lillis & Curry, 2010) but not transparent. Academic conventions and norms are invisible, so an ability to ‘notice’ them is essential. Learning to write should be evidence-based. Linguistic corpora tools help students learn a) why/how to build a corpus for your research project, b) what means a clear, coherent, argument-driven, and rhetorically strong text which meets expectations of journals, c) to ‘notice’ professional discourse by working with corpus data. As a result, you write more effectively and become a more independent writer

Expected Learning Outcomes

Understand the big picture of writing for publication practices globally
Understand how corpora can help you in preparing a research paper draft and develop a corpus for your research project to identify core linguistic/rhetorical/discourse conventions of the target journals
Develop a research paper draft which meets the identified linguistic/rhetorical/discourse conventions of the target journals
Peer review research article drafts for the identified linguistic/rhetorical/discourse conventions of the target journals
Develop your research paper to present at an international conference

Course Contents

The nature of writing for publication in the globalized world
Empirical paper: rhetorical structure, IMRAD
Meeting target journal requirements
Developing a linguistic corpus: why
Developing a linguistic corpus: how
Citing research: why/ how
Developing a strong argument
Editing a research paper: high and low order writing concerns
Presenting a paper at an international conference: from written text towards spoken interaction

Assessment Elements

Work in progress assignments
1. Abstract draft = 10 points max 2. Introduction draft = 10 points max 3. LR draft = 10 points max
Exam
Conference paper presentation (poster format) = 10 points max. All assignments meet the HSE 10-point scale.

Interim Assessment

2022/2023 3rd module
0.6 * Exam + 0.4 * Work in progress assignments

Course Syllabus