Academic Writing Skills (using quotations)

This writing skills course is designed to improve your ability to synthesise and paraphrase quotations into a paragraph.. There are five writing lessons on a range of interesting subjects with include 10 quotations taken from credible sources. You have to decide your stance on the subject and then choose 2/3 quotations to write a cohesive paragraph. This course will provide valuable practice in key aspects of academic writing.

Writing Tutorials: What are writing tutorials? Once you have written your paragraph, you send it to us to check. We will provide valuable feedback on your writing in terms of task, grammar, vocabulary, synthesis, referencing, cohesion and coherence. There is a email form at the end of each lesson where you copy and paste your summary to send to us. We return your work within 1-2 days with tutor comments and advice.

What will you learn on this course?

• You will learn how to read academic quotations.
• You will learn how to identify key point to support your stance.
• You will learn how to structure a paragraph (topic sentences, support, examples, and a concluding sentence)
• You will learn how to paraphrase quotations into your own words..
• You will learn how to synthesise other author’s ideas.
• You will practice paragraph writing.
• You will have the opportunity to receive feedback from an academic tutor on your writing to improve your writing skills.
• Course duration: 60 days.

Who is this course for?

• Level B2 (upper-intermediate) to C2 (advanced) Learners.
• Second language speakers who want to improve their reading skills.
• International students who want to go to an English speaking university.
• International students who are studying at an English speaking university.
• Anyone who wants to improve their academic reading skills.

Lesson Procedure

• Identify a position or opinion on a given topic.
• Read ten quotations and identify the ones that support the student’s position.
• Choose three quotations to write a 120-180 word paragraph.
• Follow the conventions of paragraph structure (topic sentence, development, examples, concluding sentence).
• Paraphrase the quotations into a cohesive paragraph.
• Reference the selected sources using in-text citations.

There are five lessons included in this course with each lesson taking approximately 2 hours to complete. You have to do the course in order of each lecture 1-5. When you complete the course, you will receive a certificate.

Duration: This course lasts for 60 days once you pay. Therefore, you have 60 days to the complete all 5 lessons.

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Course Content

The course consists of five lessons. Each lesson includes a digital lesson booklet to download.

The Lesson Procedure

Each lesson has the same number of tasks and format. This is an example from the ChatGPT lesson:

Task 1: Introduction	There will be four or five questions to introduce you to the topic. Task 1: Introduction Do some research and take some notes on the following questions: 1. What is ChatGPT? Write a definition of ChatGPT. 2. How is ChatGPT impacting teaching and learning? 3. Write down the positives and negatives of using ChatGPT in education (you can do some internet research here). 4. Decide where you stand. Are you for or against ChatGPT being used in education? Why?
Task 2: Quotations	Task 2: Quotations Read through these ten quotations and choose three quotations to answer the question:
Task 3: Paragraph Writing	Task 3: Paragraph Writing Write a paragraph (approx. 120-180 words) on the title ‘The drawbacks of ChatGPT on both teaching and learning far outweigh the positives’. Use Harvard in-text citations and appropriate paraphrasing.
Task 4: Review / Edit	Task 4: Review / Editing Use this review table to check your paragraph
Task 5: Writing Tutorial	Task 5: Paragraph Writing Tutorial Copy and paste your paragraph into this form and submit.
Task 6: Sample Paragraph	Task 6: Sample Paragraph Check your paragraph to this sample answer.
Task 7: Paragraph Questions	Task 6: Sample Paragraph Questions  Answer these questions about the task 6 sample paragraph above. 1) Is there a topic sentence? What is the topic? What is/are the controlling ideas? 2) Is there a main argument? 3) Which quotes were used? 4) Is it logical and clear? How has the paragraph been organised? 5) Is there an example? 6) Is there a concluding sentence? What is concluded? 7) How are the sources incorporated?
Task 8: Paragraph Answers	Task 8: Sample Paragraph Answers Check your task 7 responses to these answers.
Completed	When you have completed the lesson, just hit ‘complete’