230162 Academic Writing (S) (WiSe 2025/2026)

In this class, students will be given the opportunity to extend and consolidate their writing skills in literary studies through regular and intensive writing tasks. In a range of exercises, students will practise how to develop a research question in literary studies, how to turn this question into a clear and detailed thesis statement as a basis for a well-structured argument, and how to write a coherent, cohesive, stylistically appropriate paper.
The ultimate goal of this class is to help prepare students for writing their "long essay" in Basis2.3 and lay the foundation for writing literary and cultural studies papers.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

Please do not attend this class before you have COMPLETED: ‘Writing and Research’ and 'Argumentation and Critical Reading' in Basis1. You should definitely have completed the lecture ‘Introduction to Literary Analysis and Interpretation’ in Basis2. I will assume that you know what an academic paragraph is, and the difference between a narrator and a speaker, and how metaphors work. You should also have understood the basics of the MLA style sheet.

Literaturangaben

The main primary text in this class, which is also the main primary text for the two writing assignments, is the play Pygmalion (1913/1914), written by the Anglo-Irish writer George Bernard Shaw. It is the play upon which the popular musical My Fair Lady is based. It dramatises the story of Eliza Doolittle, a London flower girl with a Cockney accent, who takes elocution lessions from Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor, who promises to teach her how to pass in society as a duchess.

To make communication in class easier, it would be good if we all had the same edition. So please buy a copy of this Penguin Classics paperback version with an introduction by Nicholas Grene (2003):
https://www.amazon.de/Pygmalion-Penguin-Classics-George-Bernard/dp/0141439505/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3NNK5W8V037OC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8SV5ihnR1rH3F30joxb7CD7-CZlMrdcKH_XuClhrTRlEHL29CN6O9Es3zDZeDF7l4zEc2xgYtQDJAkrgqKycMmV_yO_EcD6QQ1NVluUanJ2dghUOnhYb1yEv52SvIPyARpNJJjYctfkzQuuMRJsS3Nd3xisO3_-bvRDm0TkzIeMiJcm-Du29TQ5ZYXEZx6D2XpY7FRE3BEGdaSz8LuCxcWBKjBxQYowRbdJv-VY4AFg.lIS4fxdZUlBHOfd7PcVA8Em4rcc7iXl1PXcEbFMA7Po&dib_tag=se&keywords=shaw+pygmalion&qid=1753527610&s=books&sprefix=shaw+pygmalion+%2Cstripbooks%2C73&sr=1-1
As you need a paper copy of the play for the two writing assignments, e-texts are of no use to you.