FutureLearn

A Beginners' Guide to Writing in English for University Study (FutureLearn)

Offered by University of Reading,
A Beginners' Guide to Writing in English for University Study (FutureLearn)

Learn how to use English for study at university or college and develop your writing skills, vocabulary and grammar. Academic writing can be very different from other types of written English. This course has been developed to help you learn the basics of academic writing and develop your English language skills.

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You’ll develop some proficiency in key areas of ‘academic’ grammar, learn about the stages in essay writing, and produce an essay of your own. You’ll also explore how to organise an essay, write in an academic style, and use tools to evaluate your own writing and other learners’ writing, so that by the end of the course you’re able to write a good, basic academic essay.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1

  • Key features of academic writing
  • Developing essay ideas
  • Organising your ideas effectively

Week 2

  • Essay structure and organisation
  • Choosing a title
  • Writing in an impersonal style

Week 3

  • Using academic language
  • Writing about facts and activities
  • Writing about groups of people
  • Writing longer sentences: linking words and subordinators

Week four

  • The stages of writing an essay
  • Analysing an essay title
  • Deciding what evidence to use
  • Writing a first draft of an essay

Week 5

  • Evaluating a first draft of an essay
  • Reflecting on feedback on your first draft of the essay
  • Responding to feedback on your first draft of the essay

What will you achieve?

  • Compare one aspect of life now with life in the past in one well-constructed paragraph.
  • Explore organisational structure of essays: identify and name the different sections of an essay.
  • Explain one aspect of your home town in one well-constructed paragraph, focussing on language accuracy.
  • Develop and write the first draft of your essay.
  • Contribute and receive feedback on first essay drafts.
  • Reflect on feedback received and improve your draft to create and submit a second draft of your essay.
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