In this course, you will not only develop a better game plan for reading, but you’ll also acquire tools to help you summarize texts without simply regurgitating someone else’s ideas. The ultimate goal is to learn how to evaluate others’ research critically and to develop your own authoritative voice as an academic.
By the end of this course you will understand how to:
- read and study more efficiently
- develop an effective research question to guide your reading and writing process
- quote and paraphrase more accurately and identify plagiarism
- identify a writer’s stance and evaluate their argumentation using critical questions
- take your own stance and summarize others’ work authoritatively
What does the course involve?
During this course you will learn how to develop a strategy for reading which saves you time and results in more a more productive writing process. You’ll learn how to hone your research questions so that your reading is focused and your study time is more productive. You will use your research question to investigate articles from your field in a purposeful way and learn how to identify types of arguments and the critical questions that will allow you to evaluate them. You will then develop interesting summaries which express your own insights and convincing arguments about the original material. We will evaluate the pros and cons of apps like chat GPT and online plagiarism checkers when creating effective summaries. The end product of the course will be a critical review of several articles in your field (a sort of mini narrative review), on which you will receive both peer and teacher feedback.
Teacher
The instructor for this course will be Lorraine Faulds. Lorraine Faulds is a communication coach at in’to Languages specializing academic communication and bilingual education. She works with undergraduates and post graduates who need to write a thesis, publish work or communicate with a wider audience. She also provides training for teachers and lecturers in secondary schools, colleges and universities who teach in English and require support to make their lessons just as effective in English as they are in their native language. As both an experienced English teacher and student of other languages, she understands the challenges of communicating in a second language and enjoys supporting and motivating her students to take their communication skills to the next level.
Schedule
The course consists of 5 sessions which will take place on Wednesday evenings 18.00 - 20.00 hrs.
The Honours Academy and Radboud in’to Languages believe that the best learning happens when we collaborate in the same workspace, so your physical presence is required! If you know that you cannot attend one or more sessions, pick a different course so you can get the most out of this experience with your fellow students.