Academic Writing
Course description
A very broad definition of academic writing could include any writing assignment given in an academic setting. We would like to give you an early preparation for your academic writing tasks you will probably experience after you finish high school. Besides showing you how to write an essay in English in response to a certain topic, you will be able to create official documents – such as CV, Cover Letter, Formal Letter - accompanying your future life.
At the end of the 4 week course, you can be one step closer to successfully applying for your first international summer/volunteer job or be more confident about studying abroad.
Recommended English level: B2
Introduction video
The purpose of the introduction video is to guide you through the curriculum of the Academic Writing course at MCC. It also provides further information about what you will learn and see if you take this course.
Curriculum developer and course leader
András Fürst was born in 1986 in Budapest. He is an editor, translator and freelance journalist. He got his degree at King Sigismund College (ZSKF) in Liberal Arts and majored in Film History and Theory. He also went to Pázmány Péter Catholic University to study International Relations and specialized in the East-Asian region. In 2013 he spent two months in China, teaching high school kids English as a volunteer in a summer camp. He worked at the Hungarian Office for Translation and Attestation as an editor, and currently working at TranzPress Ltd. as a media monitoring and translation project manager. He is also writing and editing his blog (Távol-keleti blokk) about East-Asian social, cultural and political issues. He likes reading and playing the guitar. His goal is to master the Japanese language and visit Japan in the near future.
The schedule of the course
The duration of the course is 4 weeks with 1 unit every week. The English version of Academic Writing will be followed after the Hungarian version. The two courses will be following one after the other. In one semester we start the course twice. It would be great if you could do it both, but it is up to you to make your priorities.
Scoring
Dear MCC Students,
We are happy to have you at this course but to do this course successfully and to make real progress we would like to give you a few tips.
Before uploading your homeworks please name your file properly:
- modulenumber_title_yourname.pdf (for example, 1.3_summary_PeterKovacs.pdf)
- We suggest you to format your documents the following way: Times New Roman, Size 12. Upload it in PDF format. (Microsoft Word, Save As, PDF)
- You can use any source for your homeworks but it is important to avoid plagiarism. - If you use a book, please mention your source the following way:
Eco, U. (2004) The Name of the Rose. London: Vintage Classics.
- If you use an internet source, please mention the url link and the date you have accessed it:
The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel review – a surreal offering from the Life of Pi author
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/27/the-high-mountains-of-portugal-yann-martel-review (Accessed 01/01/2016) date format: DD/MM/YY
If you have any questions about the course, feel free to contact us.
We wish you a successful semester,
András Fürst curriculum developer and course tutor
Detailed Scoring
| Unit |
Task 1 |
Task 2 |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | 10 | 25 |
| 2 | 25 | - | 25 |
| 3 | 20 | - | 20 |
| 4 | 30 | - | 30 |
For passing the course on accomplished level, you need to get (60%) which is 60 out of 100 points. For passing the course with excellent performance, you need to get (80%) which is 80 out of 100 points.
Course content
1. CV
A Curriculum Vitae (CV for short), which is the Latin for ‘the course of your life’ is a written overview of a person's experience and other qualifications. We can say it is the most important document for searching full and part time work or summer/voluntary jobs. In this unit we will show you the types of CVs, what to put into it, what to leave out and how to format it in a proper way. We will also discuss the youth’s presence on social media and explain why is it profitable to register your CV on LinkedIn.
2. Cover Letter and Formal Letter
You send your cover letter next to your CV and convince the hirer in it, why you are the most suitable person for the applied job or project. In this unit we will show you the structure of the cover letter and discuss the skills and typical sentences the HR people would like to or would not like to read. We will also show you how a Formal Letter is written and how should it look like.
3. Writing an Essay I
Aldous Huxley, the writer of Brave New World, said that "the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything", and adds that "by tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece". In this unit we will show you how to prepare for writing your short essay by acknowledging sources, summarizing and paraphrasing and using the language of discussion and by also avoiding fallacies.
4. Writing an Essay II
The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, "to try" or "to attempt". In this unit, we will show you the main types of essays and give you guidelines and tips for writing a short argumentative one. We also mention how book reviews look like and give you further lessons to deepen your knowledge.