Structuring Academic Writing Knowledge and Skills of Bachelor Students

This work presents a classification of English academic writing skills and knowledge that need to be mastered by students at the bachelor level of education. The classification is intended as a basis for the creation of a bachelor academic writing course. The created classification is not a list of generic skills that must be learned separately from context, but rather general processes and information that can be adapted to the specific context of a discipline. The macro skills describe the tasks that any scholar needs to accomplish in order to write an academic paper, while the micro skills examine the steps that a writer needs to take to accomplish these tasks. The classification also shows what a bachelor student needs to know to master the skills and be able to successfully produce academic papers. The paper also presents an additional classification of the core skills and knowledge that any academic writing course must examine regardless of its length and focus. The core aspects include academic principles, academic style, and the structure and organization of a paper. The methods used in this study consist of examining the literature on the subject and the courses that are already being used in the world's top universities. Moreover, the paper argues that the most effective way of teaching an academic writing course is not by creating universal courses applicable for all discipline, but rather by designing writing courses within the disciplines with the help of subject teachers.