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): an introductory lecture and a hands-on lab, in which writing and reviewing a short academic text will be experimented.

Part 1 (2 hours): INTRODUCTORY GUEST LECTURE: "LITERARY NON FICTION" by Matteo Nucci, writer.
"We are used to the idea that an essay cannot be written using a literary style. The author would need to be consistent with a cold distant impersonal tone, pursuing that ideal goal of objectivity which is rather a fantasy or a kind of utopia. Ancient writers - especially the so called philosophers - show us a completely different approach. Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Plato are all great authors of literature - poetry or prose - with which thet try to trap the reader (the listener) and to push him on a personal research. This is exactly what we have to do today if we are still persuaded that what we love reading or studying cannot remain isolated within the pages of a book but should live and find a practical meaning."


Part 2 (3hours): LAB: "COMPOSING ABSTRACTS AND INTRODUCTIONS"

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.

First in-class assignment: WRITING
Based on the knowledge developed so far, 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 in the first part of the lab.

Finally the reviews will be discussed in group.

None

After the lab and the related peer review session, the students will have to revise and resubmit their abstract to the instructors.

The final grade will be expressed in 30/30 and will be constructed as follows:
50% on their writing performance (the abstract and its revision)
50% on their peer reviewing performance (assignment 2 in class)
A "+" may be given for students’ proven ability of critical self-assessment during the peer reviewing process in class.

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