Academic Writing Theory and Practice MA

" Academic Writing Theory and Practice MA

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— Coventry University (@covcampus) September 26, 2012 OVERVIEW

The Master’s Degree in Academic Writing Theory and Practice offers a new type of qualification aimed at graduates and professionals interested in studying, researching and teaching writing. The course focuses on writing, rhetoric and literacies research and on the ways this research informs the teaching of writing. The programme is based upon Coventry University’s international reputation in the teaching of academic writing at the Centre for Academic Writing.

WHY CHOOSE THIS COURSE?

As part of the programme, you can:

• Facilitate academic writing for students and academics,
• situate academic writing in English in a knowledge economy,
• research academic writing,
• submit a portfolio of professional practice or a dissertation for your MA degree project.

Full-time and part-time routes are also available.

WHAT WILL I LEARN?

Module information

Mandatory modules

• Teaching academic writing,
• supporting academics, postgraduates and professionals in writing for publication,
• forms and practices of disciplinary writing,
• writing programme development and management,
• researching academic and professional writing: text focus,
• researching academic and professional writing: practices and processes,
• academic writing and the transnationalisation of knowledge,
• rhetorical theory,
• dissertation research and writing,
• professional portfolio in supporting academic writing
  Masters with Merit is awarded for an overall mean mark of 60% but less than 70% Masters with Distinction is awarded for an overall mean mark of 70% or higher.

Teaching Academic Writing

This module aims to introduce students to the foundations of teaching academic writing at tertiary level. It develops expertise in approaches to writing (both taught and tutored), argumentation, intertextuality, and strategies for motivating writers. It presents an overview of issues involved in the design and delivery of academic writing instruction, and invites students to interrogate the factors that influence the teaching of writing in different institutional contexts. It will also discuss the impact of digital tools on writing, from visual literacy to intertextuality to on-line delivery of writing support. This module will provide increased awareness of the choices and challenges facing tertiary-level writing developers.

Supporting Academics, Postgraduates and Professionals in Writing for Publication

This module aims to provide students with a repertoire of skills for facilitating research publication in English, in academic and applied settings. It focuses on the challenges experienced by postgraduates, academics and other professionals, both with English-speaking or other language backgrounds, throughout the process of publication. The module explores coaching strategies and ways of motivating writers to produce rigorous scholarly prose and negotiate the culture of publication, especially in international peer reviewed journals. The main benefit of taking this module is an increased awareness of the writing and publishing experience of native and non-native language speakers, in and outside of academia, which is an essential starting point for the design and implementation of research writing consultancy for academics and professionals.


Forms and Practices of Disciplinary Writing

Understanding and evaluating the discursive formations and practices of disciplinary writing are significant ingredients of writing research and the refinement of writing pedagogies. Based on this premise, this module is designed to articulate the relationship between the forms and practices of disciplinary genres and its implications for teaching, learning and researching academic writing. The context for this debate is meant to help formulate an international perspective on academic writing that will also draw upon students’ own experience of teaching, learning or simply producing writing in/across various disciplines. Questions related to (non-)standardisation and the production of master genres, such as the essay or the report, will be addressed in tandem with issues concerning writerly and readerly discursive projections, intertexts and the use of sources, and argument/problem constructions in the disciplines.


Writing Programme Development and Management

In this module, students will become familiar with key theories and pedagogies underpinning the development and management of university and college-level academic writing programmes, centres, and initiatives. Students will gain an overview of how various types of writing support have evolved historically and in different national contexts, and will have an opportunity to evaluate models of academic writing provision, both in terms of theoretical coherence and practicability (including an appraisal of their effectiveness, reach, and value-for-money). Students will compare the strengths and weaknesses of current practices internationally and consider the extent to which these practices support or modify the theories on which they purport to be based. The module will also guide students in considering important constraints (such as cost, sustainability, local institutional needs) involved in establishing or further developing an academic writing programme, centre, initiative, or other form of academic writing provision.


Researching Academic and Professional Writing: Text Focus

Academic writing and the dissemination of research are at the core of the academic enterprise. Research into these forms of writing has generated a variety of approaches into studying texts, writers, and contexts. Writing must be seen in its context, but the scale of the appropriate context may vary. In this module, students will learn how to identify and frame researchable questions, and then develop strategies to answer those questions by looking at texts. In the complementary module, Researching Academic and Professional Writing: Practices and Processes, students will investigate the process of writing and academic writing in its wider context. Students will be introduced to a variety of ways of inspecting texts, from close reading and systematic analysis to aggregating texts in order to understand patterns of language use and text formation.


Researching Academic and Professional Writing: Practices and Processes

Academic writing and the dissemination of research are at the core of the academic enterprise. Research into these forms of writing has generated a variety of approaches into studying texts, writers, and contexts. In this module, students will learn how to identify and frame researchable questions, and then develop strategies to answer those questions. This module will focus on researching the practices and context of writing and the process of writing. It will consider a variety of methodologies, from cognitive approaches that focus on the mental processes involved in writing to ethnographic studies that probe writers’ understanding of their writing practices and purposes. Finally, writing is the most social of activities, and needs to be studied in its context. That context includes the local environment of production and the wider context, including the development of English as a global lingua franca for research dissemination.


Academic Writing and the Transnationalisation of Knowledge

Research into professional academic writing has taken a new turn by examining the publishing and writing imperatives in transnational contexts. In other words, the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge through writing and publishing are seen to happen at once inside, outside and across national boundaries. This is a fresh and exciting strand of enquiry that looks at both the discursive and non-discursive/material dimensions of writing in relation to these new modes of knowledge production and distribution. Writing and knowledge production are seen to work together as they are constituted through interpretative communities and a well-established publishing system. Both the communities and the publishing apparatus operate socio-economically, spatially, culturally, politically, and not least discursively, thus changing, in turn, both writing and knowledge. This module critically examines these issues and is designed for students who take an active interest in researching and supporting professional academic writing that is grounded in embedded theories of knowledge and discourse production.


Rhetorical Theory

Rhetoric pervades and shapes writing; this module explores rhetorical theory from a variety of perspectives, including ancient and modern. It examines the implications of rhetoric for teaching and learning writing, and considers the related areas of critical thinking, argumentation, and the analysis of disciplinary discourses. Students will research an aspect of rhetorical theory in depth in order to develop greater understanding of the various rhetorical traditions that influence modern forms of communication, including academic and professional writing.


Dissertation Research and Writing

This module is intended to facilitate students’ production of the final and most extended piece of research on the MA in Academic Writing Theory and Practice, in the form of a dissertation, which will build upon all the modules taught on the programme. The module will offer further practical writing and research guidelines, including guidance on the mechanics of dissertation writing such as structure and design, topic selection, problem identification, choice of evidence and methods, supervision patterns and deadlines. The main aim is to enable students to develop independent thinking, researching, writing and organisational abilities at Masters level, under supervision.


Professional Portfolio in Supporting Academic Writing

This module will provide students with the opportunity to research a work-based situation. The module is particularly suitable for participants who are already supporting or teaching academic writing in a professional context and would like to implement a curricular intervention and evaluate its outcomes and/or would like to study and analyse a specific professional issue/theme. The module is assessed via a portfolio of assets of reflective practice.

HOW WILL THIS COURSE BE TAUGHT?

The course can be delivered by blended learning methods – a mix of online and classroom-based learning – and as such you will only pay for the modules you take each year. Blended learning incorporates the use of a well-established online learning system, an interactive, informed and participative teaching approach and residential schools.

The programme will be delivered in both part-time and full-time modes. In part-time mode, it will involve blended learning, including one four-day face-to-face session and on-line seminars for each module. In full-time mode, it will involve classroom (lectures, seminars, and workshops) delivery at Coventry University. Each module is worth 15 credits with the dissertation or portfolio of 60 credits.

Assessment is normally completed at or soon after the end of the ten weeks of teaching for all 15-credit modules.

The 1 year full-time course is campus based, and the 2 years part-time course is a blended learning mode. For international students, the 1 year full-time option only is available.

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