Course "Fundamentals of Academic Writing: From Sentence to Paragraph" (online)

This course is intended for those who are just beginning to write research papers and who would like to know where to start and what the basic principles of academic writing in English are. The course will provide information about the main elements of an English academic text: a clause and a paragraph. Participants will learn how to build simple sentences and clauses in English, how to express their opinion with the help of grammatical means, and how to use cohesive devices to make sentences and clauses logically follow each other. In addition, the participants will get acquainted with the structure of an English paragraph and learn to use basic argumentation tools within a paragraph. 

* The course is the first part of a program consisting of two consecutive courses. You can also register for the other course Fundamentals of Academic Writing: From Paragraph to an Academic Text. 

Trainer: Natalia Ivanova-Slavianskaia, MSc (Oxford), Ph.D., lecturer of English and Applied Linguistics and the author and instructor of courses in Academic Writing (Department of English Studies of The University of Cyprus, Department of International Relations at SPBU, the Department of Foreign Languages at HSE). In 2018 Natalia completed a M.Sc. course in Applied Linguistics (Teaching English in University Settings) at Oxford University, having explored the problem of Russian learners’ self-regulating writing strategies as the topic of her Masters dissertation. Since 2010, Natalia has been working as a speaking examiner for Cambridge Assessment.

Dates: January 30 - February 20 (one class on January 30 at 17:30)
Format:  online

English level requirement: B1+

How do I get accepted? You should be a full-time employee from teaching or research staff at the HSE.

The course is offered on a competitive basis. Please, fill out an online registration form and write a motivation letter in English (about 300 words). Please name the types of academic texts you have to write in English, describe the difficulties you have faced when writing an academic text, and explain how new skills are relevant to your teaching and / or research.

For more information on how to write a strong motivation letter, please read the AWC blog.

Paticipants' Feedback:

• "We've learned how to structure both sentence and the paragraph in a better way. Also we've got theoretical and practical tools to make the text readable."
• "This course was very useful for me. This information will help me to write a scientific paper in English. The material is presented in various forms. The information is interesting, understandable and useful. The information of the English paragraph structure was very important. Thank you!"
• "Thank you so much for the brilliant course."