ILMAINFN-Academic Writing for Informatics

Module Provider: International Study and Language Institute
Number of credits: 0 [0 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Autumn term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2020/1

Email: a.m.vicary@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

This module focuses on the academic language and writing skills needed to perform more effectively at post-graduate level in Informatics. It is primarily designed for Informatics students whose first language is not English. The module utilises Informatics-specific written texts to develop a range of reading and writing skills needed for successful completion of coursework tasks. The module is non-credit-bearing and designed to support students’ disciplinary study, the expectation being that  students will apply the skills they have learnt on ILMAINFN in their credit-bearing work.  Therefore, for the module itself there is no assessment or expectation of independent study hours.

Aims:

This module aims to support Informatics students with their transition to the UK HE context and academic culture, with a specific focus on the key academic language and skills needed to successfully complete a master’s degree in Informatics.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module, students will be better able to read disciplinary texts through employing appropriate reading skills and strategies to further critical engagement, and use task and discipline- appropriate note-taking and writing skills to communicate more accurately.

Additional outcomes:

Outline content:

• Reading skills and strategies for dealing with a range of Informatics texts and reading purposes, e.g.
  
  
  
  • careful reading to build gradual understanding of ideas and relationships between them at sentence and paragraph level
  
  
  • strategic reading to identify:
    
    
    
    • specific sources or concepts (search reading)
    
    
    • individual words or phrases (scanning)
    
    
    • overall natu re and structure of text (skimming)
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Key skills useful to all academic writing within Informatics
  
  
  
  • incorporating sources using paraphrasing, summarising and direct quotation
  
  
  • ‘information flow’ in English-language texts
  
  
  • employing linguistic features of textual cohesion to clearly signal relationships between parts of a text
  • accurately apply the referencing conventions for the discipline
  
  
  
  


• Grammar for academic/professional communication, including such items as: verb tense and form, nominalisation, clause and sentence structure, question forms, punctuation and definite/indefinite article use.