230728 Englisch: English Academic Writing II (S) (WiSe 2026/2027)

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Students must complete an abstract writing projects to receive LPs. Students will do several revisions of their text before the project is completed.

Semester Project: Writing an abstract for an academic paper describing the cultural elements evident in the academic writing styles of Germany, the US, and France. In preparation students will read, analyze and rewrite multiple abstracts taken from published academic papers. Emphasis is on both reading and writing skills. Students must first evaluate, analyze and extract the most important information from a 2500 word text, and then assemble and write that information into a very concise abstract of 300 words that accurately describes the research describe in the longer text.

Students should expect to spend between 1-2 hours each week on their writing and homework exercises. A weekly homework script will be used which contains the reading and writing assignments as well as problem exercise sets on paraphrasing, revision, editing and rewriting techniques as used in English academic writing.

Please note that weekly participation in the (weekly) Friday class sessions is required. Students who will miss more than 3 classes should consider waiting to take this course in a future semester. Individual Zoom conferences will take place during the semester to discuss the writing and revisions of the writing assignments.

-- Bitte beachten Sie, dass dieser Kurs nur online verfügbar sein wird. Alle Lehrveranstaltungen werden mit Zoom und Lernrnraum+ durchgeführt.
-- Please note that this course will be online only. All lessons will be given using Zoom and Lernrnraum plus.

Requirements for participation, required level

READING & WRITING FOR RESEARCH

The weekly classes focus on hands-on writing exercises using Epads and Breakout Rooms. Techniques for improved reading skills, text analysis and advanced academic English writing techniques will be extensively covered in this course.

1. Working with journal articles & abstracts
- learn advanced English academic writing for research and journal publications
- each week get "hands-on" writing practice with individualized suggestions & help
- the writing techniques and processes native-speakers students use in university
- the structures and forms used in English academic texts & papers

2. Reading techniques & tricks used by medical & law graduate students in the US
- learn the speed-reading techniques used by native-speaker graduate students when reading long academic texts
- learn how to read and mark English academic texts quickly and with accuracy
- learn how to "Skim, Scan and Chunk" an academic text

3. Writing skills and techniques necessary for research and journal publications
- learn breakdown & analysis techniques for English journal articles & academic texts
- analyzing published articles: what is good? what is bad? how can you improve your writing?
- learn the specific writing techniques required to write a quality journal or research article
- the Plain English movement in regard to scientific writing: what does it mean to one's writing
- techniques to analyze your own writing: find and fix problem areas in your texts
- learn how to analyze & fix your problem areas in your articles and research texts

4. Analysis techniques to evaluate and edit your publication abstracts & article texts
- learn the specific style & writing qualities for abstracts that attract citation searches
- learn the structure & organization used for English academic journal & research publications
- how to efficiently use SEO keywords in your abstract (and avoid word bloat)
.

Teaching staff

Dates ( Calendar view )

Frequency Weekday Time Format / Place Period  
weekly Fr 12-14 ONLINE   12.10.2026-05.02.2027

Subject assignments

Module Course Requirements  
23-FSZ-M20_a Learning Languages: Specific Skills and/or Specialising in the Foreign Language Spracherwerb: Spezifische Fertigkeiten bzw. Spezialisierung in den Fremdsprachen 1. Teil Ungraded examination
Student information
Spracherwerb: Spezifische Fertigkeiten bzw. Spezialisierung in der Fremdsprache 2. Teil Ungraded examination
Student information

The binding module descriptions contain further information, including specifications on the "types of assignments" students need to complete. In cases where a module description mentions more than one kind of assignment, the respective member of the teaching staff will decide which task(s) they assign the students.

Degree programme/academic programme Validity Variant Subdivision Status Semester LP  
Fachsprachenzentrumskurse ENG; SK   2.5 unbenotet  

In addition to the weekly homework exercises, students will write a semester project: a 300 word abstract on a 2500 word excerpt from an academic publication describing the cultural elements evident in the academic writing styles of Germany, the US, and France.

Students must first evaluate, analyze and extract the most important information from a 2500 word text, and then assemble and write that information into a very concise abstract of 300 words that includes SEO keywords and also accurately describes the research in the longer text.

In addition to the semester project, as homework and in class students will read, analyze and sometimes rewrite abstracts from published academic papers. Emphasis is on both reading and writing skills.

CLASS-WORK: In our weekly class meeting, we will discuss our work as well as do online group-writing projects guided and supervised by the teacher. Weekly participation in the (weekly) Friday class sessions is required. Students who will miss more than 3 classes should consider waiting to take this course in a future semester. As part of the semester project, students will attend 1-2 individual Zoom conferences to discuss their writing and revisions of the writing assignments.

HOMEWORK: Students should expect to spend between 1-2 hours each week doing homework exercises and reading & writing assignments for this course. Note that the homework is not simply conjugating verbs or learning vocabulary - the homework involves weekly writing work as well as several sets of writing and revision exercises -- all requiring focus and concentration.

-- Please note that this course will be online only. All lessons will be given using Zoom and the online Moodle platform.

No eLearning offering available
Registered number: 6
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Limitation of the number of participants:
Limited number of participants: 12
Address:
WS2026_230728@ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de
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If the reference number is used for several courses in the course of the semester, use the following alternative address to reach the participants of exactly this: VST_736929310@ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de
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Last update basic details/teaching staff:
Monday, June 1, 2026 
Last update times:
Monday, June 1, 2026 
Last update rooms:
Monday, June 1, 2026 
Type(s) / SWS (hours per week per semester)
seminar (S) / 2
Language
This lecture is taught in english
Department
Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies
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