Introduction

Welcome to the Art of Academic Writing

My name is Liz Tynan and I am the author of this course. The idea behind it is to give you both practical and conceptual tools for approaching your thesis writing. Writing is a great adventure and can be satisfying and enjoyable. The process can also be daunting, particularly for people who have not done a lot of writing in the past. Having some guidelines helps, and I will be doing what I can to put these in place for you. Many of the techniques and skills I am going to outline here are best incorporated into your work at an early stage, even as you are planning your program of work. Because writing is not separate from thinking, planning your approach right from the start will help you create the best possible final product.

I invite you to take a step back from your academic writing to think about the basic principles of good academic communication.  My aim in this online course is to help you make your written work the best it can be.

Course outcomes

The Art of Academic Writing has a variety of features that will help you to learn about how to write academic materials. By the end of this course you will understand:

• The principles of good practice in academic writing
• How to plan and write an academic literature review
• How to plan and write a journal article
• How to ensure that your work displays grammatical and stylistic correctness.

How it works

At the start of each module you will find a video introduction from me that will give you an overview of each topic and help you to understand the underlying theme. I hope to convey some of my own love of the subject and enthusiasm for helping research students become proficient writers, both through these videos and in the written materials provided.

You will then find summaries of the most important items of information that you will need to understand to get the most out of each module. Also, you will find links to more detailed written explanations of these concepts if you want to read in greater depth.

An automated quiz at the end of each module is available to test your understanding of the concepts presented. You will get your results immediately.

Each module will have some quotes from various writers and other thinkers that will help frame the topic and give you something to think about as we progress through the topics. These quotes have helped me in my own professional development, and I hope they will help you too.

This course was funded by a JCU Learning, Teaching and Student Engagement Directorate grant.