Instructor: Tina Zhang (张兢田) E-Mail: tinazhang@tongji.edu.cn
Public mail box: tinazhangclass@gmail.com Password: englishclass
Course Description: English Paper Writing and Publication is designed to give you a general introduction to overall knowledge
of professional paper writing and publication, specifically in regards to the ability to write paper abstracts and thesis proposals in English. You will become increasingly independent writers in English by learning to reflect on and response to your own and others’ research papers.
Teaching Procedures: I lecture to students, but feel that class activities such as group discussion, peer assessment, writing
workshop or presentation are essential if learning is to occur. I also believe that students learn by doing and so many writing skill development exercises are carried out in class and home assignments are given. You are strongly advised to make use of the library and electronic research tools to preview and review for every class.
Grading: your grade will be based on:
1. Attendance (20%) (by class monitor). Unexcused absences will result in a grade penalty. Students with more than 5 periods of unexcused absence will fail the course. It is also important that you arrive to class on time.
2. Class Participation (20%)(by your fellow classmates). The success of the course depends upon all of us. Class participation includes sharing your ideas and information, asking questions, listening carefully to others when they are speaking, and preparing for the assignments like readings, writings, presentations，classroom discussions, peer review workshops and other team work as well. At the end of the semester, your classmates will elect first 5 top students in the class.
3. Important assignments (20%): 5 important assignments in the whole semester for each student: (1) others’ thesis proposals’ collection and assessment (week 2 and 3); (2) my subject and topic (week 4, 11-15); (3) native speakers’ abstracts from prestigious journal in your field (week 6, 5 samples by each student); (4) a working abstract (week 8-10) (5) my thesis proposal (week 16-17 a formal presentation by each student)
4. Final written paper (40%): In addition to short assignments, there will be a written thesis proposal which should consist of approximately 3000 words in which focuses your research aims, clarifies its importance and the need, describes the methods, predicts problems, outcomes, and interventions. The requirements of your thesis proposals include clear structure, coherent and consistent analysis of the problem, good examples/illustrations, logical conclusion and correct reference without mistakes in spelling, grammar or style.
You must achieve 6 points out of 10 or better to successfully exit the course. If you do not, you will be required to take a make-up exam or repeat the course next semester.
Textbook English Paper Writing & Publication, 2000, Hu Gengshen, Higher Education Press.
Other Required Materials: A Research Paper by a native writer from a prestigious journal in your field & Course notebook.
Teaching Contents: week 1 2 Chapter Introduction to the course Important terms of academic writing 1. Differences between master theses and PhD dissertations 2. An introduction to thesis proposal 3. Literature review of my field 4. An experience of literature review 5. The database we often use 6. The topics that I am interested (1) 7. The topics that I am interested (2) presentation 3 Literature searching & review（1）& (2) 4 Choosing a topic 5 Title, author/affiliation and keywords 8. Features of a good title 9. Functions and features of keywords 10. How to write an abstract 11. Case study of abstracts (1) 12. Case study of abstracts (2) 13. Case study of abstracts (3) 14. Functions of introduction 15. Features of introduction 6 Abstract 1: theory 7 Abstract 2: practice 8 Introduction 9 Textual development (1) 16. Description: categories and methods 17. Induction & deduction 18. Case study of a paper’s cohesion and coherence 19. My thesis proposal (1) 20. My thesis proposal (2) 21. An introduction to MLA 22. An introduction to APA 23. An introduction to CMS 24. An introduction to master thesis style in Tongji University 25. Functions of tables and figures 26. Captions of tables and figures 27. Cases of plagiarism home and abroad 28. Choosing a target journal 29. Correspondence between author and editor 10 11 Textual development (2) Conclusion 12 Reference materials 13 Tables and figures 14 15 Plagiarism Publication (1)& (2) 16 Final: thesis proposal/term paper report (1) 17 Final: thesis proposal/term paper report (2) Note: 1. There will be a literature searching and review lecture by a librarian in Tongji University in the class time. 2. Those whose presentation topics are beyond the 29 topics listed above can choose topic 6 or 12.