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Technische Universität München (Technical University of Munich)

Academic Writing Made Easy

Technische Universität München (Technical University of Munich) via edX

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Overview

This MOOC takes you through the basics of academic writing step by step. From structuring and organising an academic text to avoiding common pitfalls that can negatively affect your credibility, this 6-week course offers a guide for those who want to improve their writing. It looks at various components that will make your academic writing stand out for all the right reasons, including paragraphing, style, tone, paraphrasing and punctuation. Using samples of student writing it also gives you tips on what to avoid and explains why. Each week is comprised of video lessons, followed by exercises and peer-review tasks, taking you through various aspects of academic writing.

The course requires upper-intermediate (B2) to advanced English (C1).

Syllabus

The MOOC “Academic Writing Made Easy” covers the following topics to help you improve your writing:

Week 1 Rhetorical Preferences: Meeting the expectations of your target group

Week 2 Genre: Differentiating between types of scholarly texts

The Writing Process: Overcoming writer's block

Week 3 Cohesion: Making your ideas flow logically

Week 4 Sentences: Writing reader-friendly sentences

Week 5 Credibility: Convincing your peers to accept and believe what you write

Week 6 Punctuation: Polishing your text

Putting it all together: Overcoming the last hurdles

Taught by

Dr. Heidi Minning, Jeremiah Hendren, Dr. Stephen Starck, Dr. Aparna Bhar, Susan O’Byrne, Rose Jacobs, Ruth Shannon and Huma Abid

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Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 49 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Academic Writing Made Easy

  • Profile image for Azzeddine Hicher
    Azzeddine Hicher @dz2021
    Hello

    Azzeddine from Algeria

    You are very very perfect. I wish so much to repeat the course again.

    Thank you very very much.
  • Anonymous
    I found the course helpful for those perusing college educations. The course is organized in selected six units, which were integrated. The course was taught by a team of instructors, which made it interesting as a new unit began. This online course…
  • Anonymous
    I am in the middle of writing my masters thesis and I found my writing was lacking some stlyle. Even though it is supposed to be completed in a period of 6 weeks, I completed it in one day.
    I found the unit where you were given a method on how to actually start writting particullary interesting and I think it helped me a lot.
    Also the other units were very helpfull. There are so many things to you should pay attention to, but are not aware of if you just start writing.
  • Anonymous
    the course is beginner friendly, i highly recommend those who want to start Academic writing to take it .just 3 days or 1 day a week will help a. i have learnt so much over the past one month .Thank you edX
  • Anonymous
    I took this course because I wanted to improve my academic writing and I can finally say that I have considerably done so! The lessons are useful, well-explained and easy to follow. In each unit you have the opportunity to practice and receive feedb…
  • Anonymous
    The course provide me a new level of vocabulary, like technical words that used in every paragraph. I started to learn more about reading comprehesion, ways of narrative, the structure of an article, organize a text the way the reader can understand the content, that the credibility it’s very important, etc. I like watch the videos before a new task because they explain me an idea of what comes next and give me little tips that will help me to complete the task the best way. I hope to keep myself learning about the course and keep understending all the concepts that will help me to writing perfectly til my skills will be better.
  • Profile image for Amber Mehdi
    Amber Mehdi
    overall, this course covers the valuable information and necessities of an academic text and strategies to avoid .
  • Chresann D'souza
    I truly found the course to be very helpful and informative. It touched upon the most basic and subtle things that we tend to overlook the most while writing.
    The exercises that were conducted during the lectures helped in giving a better and clear understanding of the topic.
    I would truly appreciate it if another level of this course will be aired, I'd love to be a part of it again and enhance my knowledge!
    I'm grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to attend this course.
  • Anonymous
    The course was easy to understand. It was insightful. I got to learn many things I wasn't aware of before. And the questions segment was very helpful in revising what I had learnt. And most importantly, I could download the lessons in PDF format so that I can review them whenever I want. Thank you to the entire team fromTUM for making this course so understandable and fun to learn.
  • Profile image for Romina Canizo
    Romina Canizo
    It is well organized, with many examples that are very ilustrative.
    I really enjoy some excercises, others where more difficult for me to achieve a good result.
    Love the tips about what to do or not... for example the advice of avoiding nominalization BUT where it is a good choice to use it!
    I really take advantage of the way of writing by drafts!!!!
    I encourage postgraduate students to take it!!!
  • Anonymous
    The Academic Writing Made Easy course is very well structured and the information it provides is well developed. What I appreciated most about it is that we had assignments throughout it that were engaging. The tasks are good preparation for the graded exercises. I highly recommend it!
  • Anonymous
    This course gives me a lot of inputs on Academic Writing. It motivates me to write academic paragraph and essay with confidence. I will recommend this course to my friends and colleagues. I have spent quality time in this MOOC. I congratulate the entire team who worked for this course behind the screen. It gives me immense pleasure to say thanks for this great opportunity. I look forward to attend more courses from your esteemed university.
  • Anonymous
    Great course, with a lot of different areas of the subject covered sufficiently. I can say with confidence that my understanding of the writing process is much better. The knowledge acquired will help me in the present and future of my work as a researcher.
  • Anonymous
    The edX course was really helpful in terms of getting a better idea of how to plan and write an academic text. Especially the 2 1/2 method was something new for me but will surely facilitate writing academic texts.
  • Anonymous
    This course has been very helpful. I've learnt more than I anticipated. I'm ready to tackle my writing with a new-found confidence. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who would love to improve their academic writing. The lessons are well paced and is enough exercises to practice everything that you are learning.
  • Anonymous
    This class is very helpful for a fresh international academic writer, as it introduces and explains the main concepts in writing, like rhetorical preference, register, and hedging, before going to details. Understanding these concepts really helps me analyse my writing problems systematically.
  • Anonymous
    I definitely have sharpened up my writing skills. The exercises were quite taxing and you needed to pay attention to the videos. The instructors were clearly reading from a cue card but they were nonetheless professional. I just audited the course. If I had upgraded I could have done the mid-term and final term tests too.
  • Anonymous
    This course is so good! It is well organized and very easy to follow. The videos are not to short and not to long. The instructors are professional and sympathetic. It really is enjoyable to watch their lessons. It never got boring and I am confident that I can use what I have learned in this course in my upcoming thesis.
  • Anonymous
    First of all big thanks for this magnificent course. The whole course was easy and perfectly designed. The lessons and exercises tasks, after lessons were very helpful. In my opinion, those students who want to make their writing more productive and consistent should do this course.
  • Anonymous
    This is one of the best courses I have done. The modules were really well designed and presented. The exercises really helped too. I'd love it if you could offer more courses on science/research communication.
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