How to level up your academic writing

We have noticed that many colleagues who attend courses and workshops at the Academic Writing Center are so inspired by this experience that they tend to come back again and again. As we value the loyalty of our visitors and take keen interest in their progress, we constantly update our programs and offer new courses.

This semester, we piloted an advanced academic writing course to cater to the needs of those who have already taken courses at the AWC. 

The online course "Writing a Research Paper in English: Advanced level" was designed by our trainer Natalia Smirnova, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Foreign Languages of HSE Campus in St. Petersburg. Natalia is an expert in research writing and the author of multiple courses for both students and faculty. 

During the course, participants discussed the effect research methodology has on the choice of linguistic devices in the text, the interplay of Russian and English cultural traditions, and the meaning of the term “clear and logical text.” They explored the structure and logic at the sentence, paragraph, and text level, practiced in identifying their lexical mistakes and applying specific strategies to correct them. The course program also involved building a corpus of articles in the participants’ respective fields and working with corpus analysis tools. The most valuable takeaway for most colleagues was reviewing their own texts and receiving personalized feedback from the trainer. 

The participants shared their insights from the course:

• “First of all, I finally understood the differences between sentence structure in Russian and English. Secondly, the trainer gave us very useful information about frequent mistakes made by researchers in academic texts, which allowed me to spot my mistakes and fix them. Thirdly, I also understood the main features of texts in English. I learnt the main rule: the simpler the test, the better for my reader.”
• “The course has helped me regain focus on my theses and on my audience. I’ve also learnt to assess my texts' consistency with the existing social norms of my field. Finally, I've improved the skill of expressing my thoughts in a concise way.”
• “The course has been very interactive as well as constructive in terms of building on our existing writing skills. The tasks were helpful in providing hands-on experience and connecting theory with practice. The feedback from the trainer has been of great value, as it helped to understand areas for improvement and gain technical backing to address them and improve further. A very well-planned and executed course.”

The AWC offers a wide range of courses for various audiences: early-career and experienced researchers, those with English language proficiency from B1+ to C1, those who have just found out about the Center and who have already participated in several courses. The course you are looking for is just one step away: study our website and make your choice!