ACADEMIC WRITING 1

Academic Writing 1 is an interactive lab that provides basic methodological guidance for writing and reviewing an early stage academic paper from any disciplinary area. The knowledge and the skills developed through this lab will constitute the indispensable ground to Academic Writing 2.
For its multidisciplinary, applied, and interactive nature, Academic Writing 1 contributes to the College goals of integrating students’ degree programs and disciplinary knowledge with a range of interactive labs and other activities of the cultural program.

At the end of the lab, students are expected to:

1) Have learnt how academic writing differs from other types of writing (e.g. creative writing, journalistic writing). In particular, students are expected to know:
• What type of information is expected to be contained in an academic text;
• How an academic text is expected to be structured;
• What tone and style are adequate to an academic text.

2) Have experimented the writing of a short academic text (abstract and/or introduction) that is as much as possible complete in terms of expected information, well organized in terms of expected structure, and adequate in terms of expected style.

3) Have developed abilities to assess other authors’ short academic texts from any discipline, in terms of completeness of information, structure, and style.

4) Have developed abilities of self-assessment and critical appraisal of their own academic writing

5) Have developed abilities to present and discuss each other’s papers in public, in critical and constructive ways.

Come to the lab with a research idea in mind (a topic that you would like to develop through the lab).

The lab will be articulated into two parts (spanning 5 academic hours overall) and into two individual assignments, as follows:

Part 1 (1h30’): INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING
How to craft an argumentative text? Through concrete examples of successful and less successful texts, we will reflect together and discuss:
- What information should be included in an academic text (abstract and introduction especially) and why;
- How to structure that information and what is the role of each part of the text (how a text should be organized to build a coherent argument);
- What writing style is more suitable for academic texts and what is less so, and why.

Part 2 (3h30’): INTERACTIVE PEER REVIEW AND FINAL DISCUSSION

First in-class assignment: WRITING
Based on the knowledge developed through Part 1, students will be asked to write and submit to the instructors a short academic text (a long abstract) on a topic of their choice.

Second in-class assignment: REVIEWING
After the submissions, the instructors will create couples. Each student will therefore receive a peer’s abstract to review critically and constructively, according to the criteria and the knowledge developed through Part 1.

Finally the reviews will be discussed in group.

None

The final grade will be expressed in 30/30 and will be constructed as follows:
30% on assignment 1 (writing)
50% on assignment 2 (reviewing)
20% on students’ active and constructive reviews and proven ability of critical self-assessment during Part 2.

This is an interactive lab, organized through two individual assignments. The lab has been conceived as a process accompanying the first steps of writing and reviewing academic papers. Students’ active participation and contribution in all phases of the process is fundamental.

written and oral