Academic Writing in English

2025-2026

General Information

Course Code L_ETMAALG010
Credits 3 EC
Period P4
Course Level 400
Language of Tuition English
Faculty Faculty of Humanities
Course Coordinator A.J. Gambrel
Examiner A.J. Gambrel
Teaching Staff A.J. Gambrel
Part of programme(s)

Practical Information

You need to register for this course yourself. The (de)registration deadlines can be found on VU.nl

Teaching Methods Seminar, Lecture

Target audiences

This course is also available as:

Course Objective

1. After successfully completing this course you will be able to write an academic text in English that demonstrates a high level of competence in the following areas:

  • text structure
  • coherence, cohesion and clarity
  • academic style and stance specific to your field

2. In addition, you will be able to able to detect and improve problems in your own text and the texts of your peers. You will also have a clear sense of where your English is strong and of what areas you can work on to develop your expressive potential.

Course Content

This course focuses on resolving linguistic issues that individual students still have in their English, and on further refining text structure, (academic) style and textual coherence. On the one hand the idea is to resolve issues that participants still have with their English, and on the other hand it is about learning to use structures that can make one's writing more 'interesting'. This course allows students to highlight and understand their individual problems better and to work on current and past writing for other courses, including their theses (if relevant).

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Weekly seminars

Method of Assessment

Shared editing assignment (30%; learning objectives 1 and 2);
edited versions of one of your own (previously written or new) texts (70%; learning objectives 1 and 2).

In order to pass the course, all components have to be graded 5.5 or higher.

Literature

Hannay, M. & J.L. Mackenzie (2009). Effective Writing in English. 2nd edition. Bussum: Coutinho. There will also be separate materials posted on Canvas.

Additional Information Target Audience

Master and research master students who are relatively experienced writers and who wish to further develop the quality of their written academic English.

Additional Information

The course has an 80% obligatory attendance.

Recommended background knowledge

This course is only open to master students who already have experience in writing academic texts in English.