Школа иностранных языков

Кто читает:: Школа иностранных языков

Статус:: Факультатив

Когда читается:: 4-й курс, 2, 3 модуль

Abstract

The course is designed to assist 4th year undergraduate students in writing a project proposal in sociology/social sciences in English. It also helps them in planning and designing their undergraduate thesis. The main elements of the course are lectures and practice sessions covering various ways of writing the project proposal and thesis chapters. The course is taught in English.

Learning Objectives

The course is designed to prepare students for work in academic and consulting fields in which research writing is a requirement. The class will combine lectures, discussions, and practice sessions to reinforce students’ skills in communicating ideas in oral presentations and in clear and effective academic prose. The course is divided into multiple lectures that will teach you how to write a BA thesis research proposal (a concise version), a longer version, and the BA thesis. In various parts of the course, you will learn to construct the micro-level “building blocks” of effective academic writing, such as choosing stronger words, writing concise and effective sentences, and shaping strong paragraphs. The course also focuses on rhetoric, cohesion, and incorporating evidence. Problem and solution, cause and effect, and other key models of academic argumentation will be reviewed. Eventually, the course also consolidates students’ visual presentation and oral discussion skills. All parts of the course incorporate exercises for the confident use of academic language and argumentation styles.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Learn about the basic structure of a proposal and a thesis.
Here students learn to write a structured academic introduction to an essay, proposal, or thesis and give a proper title to it.
In this session the students learn about engaging with various literature sources to coherently argue for or against the case.
Here the students learn to properly argue for a conceptual and/or theoretical framework of a thesis.
Developed ability to correctly choose and write on selected research methodology.
Learned how to frame and ask a proper academic research question.
Learned basic rules and principles of constructing hypotheses, assumptions, and conjectural statements.
Here the students will learn basic principles of organizing data analysis and thesis chapterization.
Here the students learn how to properly plan and write the concluding section of the thesis and note future possibilities of research.
Learning basic bibliometric conventions and carefully avoiding plagiarism by following basic rules.
Here the students learn how to present their research works and findings.
Here the students learn about properly presenting their academic research and findings.

Course Contents

How to write a good research/project proposal (and thesis)
We specifically discuss essential sections of a good proposal and the connections between them.
Title and the Introduction
Here students learn about various ways of naming a proposal and write a structured academic introduction to an essay, proposal, or thesis.
Literature review
The students here learn about the logic and formats of naming a proposal and writing an introduction section.
Conceptual/Theoretical Framework
Research Design, Method, and Methodology
Learning the techniques for correctly choosing and writing research methodology
Framing Research Questions
Hypotheses, Assumptions, and Conjectural Statements
Thesis Chapterization and Data Analysis
Chapterization is the basic principle of organizing the thesis.
Conclusion and Discussion
Planning Bibliography and Plagiarism issues.
learn to properly cite and avoid plagiarism
Oral defense of proposal part I
Oral defense of proposal part II
The students learn about successful oral dissemination of their work.

Assessment Elements

Final Essay
For this course you have to write a structured project proposal of about 1500 words + references
Final Presentation of the essay
Present the proposal with slides in about 5-7 minutes.

Interim Assessment

2026/2027 3rd module
0.7 * Final Essay + 0.3 * Final Presentation of the essay

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

A critical introduction to social research, Henn, M., 2009
A student's writing guide. How to plan and write successful essays, Taylor G., 2013
Academic project presentations. Student's workbook: Презентация научных проектов на английском языке : Учеб. пособие для вузов, Кузьменкова, Ю. Б., 2009
Academic project presentations. Презентация научных проектов на английском языке : учеб. пособие для студентов ст. курсов и аспирантов, Кузьменкова Ю.Б., 2013
Academic writing : from paragraph to essay, Zemach, D. E., 2005
An easyguide to research presentations, Wilson, J. H., 2015
An introduction to data analysis : qantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, Bergin, T., 2018
Bibliography and the sociology of texts, McKenzie, D. F., 1999
Comparative politics today : a theoretical framework, Almond, G. A., 2008
Conducting research literature reviews : from the Internet to paper, Fink, A., 2005
Constructing research questions : doing interesting research, Alvesson, M., 2013
Critical theory. Vol.2: Theoretical foundations, , 2004
Developing effective research proposals, Punch, K. F., 2006
Developing research proposals, Denicolo, P., 2012
Developing research questions : a guide for social scientists, White, P., 2009
Doing Honest Work in College: How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism, and Achieve Real Academ..., Lipson, Ch., 2004
Lire : balayage... Reperage... Formulation d'hypotheses..., Cavalli, M., 2000
MacDonald, S. (2010). Professional Academic Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Vol. Paperback ed). Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=367965
Research methodology : a step-by-step guide for beginners, Kumar, R., 2014
Social research methodology : a critical introduction, Gomm, R., 2008
Telling a research story : writing a literature review, Feak, C. B., 2009

Authors

DESIATOVA MARIIA IVANOVNA
Roi Choudkhuri Arnab

Academic English Writing

Course Syllabus