Course description

In the first session, participants will do a grammar test and will write a text on a general academic topic. Based on this text, they will be advised as to which of the others sessions to attend. Each of the following sessions deals with one major theme (see below). The sessions are workshops, with input, various exercises in pairs or small groups, and feedback, Participants do not have to hand in texts, but they will be required to further develop their skills in additional exercises.

Target group: PhD candidates whose writing skills are not yet at an IELTS 6.5/CEFR B2+ level, particularly those who have difficulties with the grammar aspects mentioned in the course description below.

Participants will receive course material to use and are expected to practice with in their own time.

Course objectives

Workshop 1: Orientation on grammatical difficulties, plus a test, in which students write a 500-word general academic text under some time pressure.

Workshop 2: The verb phrase: subject/verb agreement, modal auxiliaries
English has strict concord rules - singular with singular and plural with plural - but this may work differently in your first language. One type of concord is agreement between subject and verb, the topic of this workshop (I am/we are, he works/they work). We will also focus on the use of modal auxiliaries (may, must, can, would).

Workshop 3: The verb phrase: tenses, voice and gerunds
Do you know when to use "We analysed" and when to use "We have analysed"? Do you know that the passive equivalent of "We have tested x" is "X has been tested"? Should we say "I look forward to meet you" or "I look forward to meeting you"?

Workshop 4: Articles
This workshop will focus on when to use a, an, the, or "no article" - understandably difficult if your first language has no articles!

Workshop 5: Concord issues for nouns and pronouns
English has strict concord rules - singular with singular and plural with plural - but this may work differently in your first language. A plural noun (such as books) must be modified by a plural pronoun (these books, not *this books). In this workshop, we work on the use of much/many, little/few, this/these, himself/herself/themselves, irregular plurals (hypothesis/hypotheses), etc.

Workshop 6: Punctuation and basic sentence structure
Do you know, exactly how to use commas? Do you know how to structure your sentences in English so that readers will understand them the way you meant them to?

Workshop 7: Coherence
This workshop addresses the logic of your argumentations and teaches you how to use cohesive devices such as linking words. Do you know how to structure a paragraph properly, so that the reader can follow your line of reasoning easily? Can you use linking words and phrases correctly?

Workshop 8: Various grammar points
In this workshop we cover adverb use (significant/significantly, good/well, increasing/increasingly) and relative pronouns (the man who, the method which), and there is time for questions on other grammar points as well.

Workshop 9: Repetition, application, and another essay.
We will look for aspects covered in the course in a few scientific texts, and you will once again be asked to write a general academic text under some time pressure.

The number of credits is dependent on the number of attended workshops (max 1 ECTS, 4-5 attended sessions = 0,5 ECTS)

ECTS

1

Available methods of payment

• Projectcode (e.g. ITB)
• Payment by money transfer