English Writting Communication Skills Techniques

The main objective of the subject is to teach students to write well-structured general texts with convincing paragraphs, to further tackle academic essays with more fluency and strength.
The starting point will be the need to understand the crucial role that the context of situation and the reader have in the act of writing.
The course’s approach will be twofold:

1. It will understand writing as an ongoing process, serving a purpose and consisting of several clear steps.
2. It will deal with some of the basics of academic writing in English: paragraph unity and coherence, paragraph patterning, texture in discourse.

By advancing from a more subjective and intimate onto a more objective writing, students will be able to develop their ability to pick different writing topics, to think more clearly and critically, to develop a sense of audience and purpose in writing, and to progress in their own voices as writers.

Writing as a communicative process. English academic writing. Academic text types. Writing as a process: brainstorming, draft(s), revision, edition and publication. Paragraphs, topic sentences, linking devices (connectors) and punctuation marks. Style and register.
Grammar and vocabulary problems; expression errors.

Specific contents

1. Email Etiquette.
2. Paragraphs and Topic Sentences.
3. Discursive Essays.
3.1. For and Against Essays.
3.2. Opinion Essays.
3.3. Essays suggesting Solutions to Problems.
4. Letters of Application.
5. Abstracts.


Special emphasis will be made on the writing of paragraphs and on the so-called "topic sentences". The correct use of connectors and punctuation will also be reinforced.

Note: This course outline is conceived as a general guide and it is totally tentative. It is not closed in its structure; rather the opposite, it is completely open to suggestions and comments on the students’ part. This means that it will have to be necessarily adapted throughout the year according to the students’ on-going interests, lacks and needs.

Recommended textbooks:

Dooley, Jenny. 2022. The Art of Writing (C2). Express Publishing.
Dooley, Jenny. 2022. The Art of Writing (B2). Express Publishing.
Evans, Virginia. Successful Writing. Proficiency. 2000. Express Publishing.
Mann, Malcolm & Steve Taylore-Knowles. 2014. Writing for Advanced. London: Macmillan.

Besides, students might resort to other complementary bibliography dealing with other aspects of the written language such as grammar or vocabulary to improve their skill in writing:

DICTIONARIES (Monolingual & Bilingual) and VOCABULARY
Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary. 2001. Cambridge UP.
Diccionario Cambridge Klett Compact. 2002. Cambridge UP.
Diccionario Oxford Study. 2000. Oxford UP.
García-Pelayo, R. Larousse Gran Diccionario Español-Inglés, English-Spanish. 1991. Larousse.
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (with CD ROM and Workbook). 2002. Macmillan.
McArthur, T. Longman Lexicon. 1981. Longman.
McCarthy, M. (ed.). Cambridge Word Selector. 1995. Cambridge UP.
McCarthy, M. & F. O’Dell. English Vocabulary in Use (advanced). 2002. Cambridge UP.
Oxford Spanish-English, English-Spanish Dictionary. 1994. Oxford UP.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (with CD ROM). 2000. Oxford UP.
Procter, Paul (ed.). Cambridge International Dictionary of English. 1995. Cambridge UP.
Redman, S. & E. Shaw. English Vocabulary in Use (Advanced). 1999. Cambridge UP.
Sinclair, J. (ed.). Collins Cobuild English Dictionary. 1987. Collins.
Sinclair, J. (ed.). Collins Cobuild English Guides: Volumes 1 & 2. 1991. Collins.
Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. 1997. Cambridge UP.
Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. 1989. London & Glasgow: Collins.
Cowie, A.P. & R. Mackin. Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. 1993. Oxford UP.

GRAMMARS & VOCABULARY
Hewings, M. Advanced Grammar in Use. 1999. Cambridge UP.
Huddleston, R. English Grammar. An Outline. 1988. Cambridge UP.
Murphy, Raymond. English Grammar in Use (with answers and CD-ROM). 3rd ed. 2004. Cambridge UP.
Sinclair, J. (ed.). Collins Cobuild English Grammar. 1990. Collins.
Sinclair, J. (ed.). Collins Cobuild Student’s Grammar. 1991. Collins.
Swan, Michael. Practical English Usage. 3rd ed. 2005. Oxford UP.
Swan, M. & C. Walter. 1997. How English Works. 1997. Oxford UP.
Yule, G. Oxford Practice Grammar Advanced. 2006. Oxford UP.
Eastwood, J. Oxford Practice Grammar Intermediate. 2006. Oxford UP.

BOOKS ON ACADEMIC WRITING
DiYanni, R. & Hoy II, Pat C. The Scribner Handbook for Writers. 4th ed. 2004. Allyn & Bacon.
DiYanni, Robert. Writing About the Humanities. 2nd ed. 2003. Prentice Hall.
Fowler, H. R. & Aaron, J. E. The Little Brown Handbook. 10th ed. 2006. Longman.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 2003. MLA.
Hogue, A. & Oshima, A. First Steps in Academic Writing. 3rd ed. 2006. Longman.
Milam, Michael C. A Practical Handbook for Writing in the Humanities. 2002. Wadsworth.
Mulvaney, M.K. & Jolliffe, D.A. Academic Writing: Genres, Samples, and Resources. 2004. Longman.
Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. Writing Academic English. 3rd ed. 1998. Longman.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. 2001. APA.
Swales, J.M. & Feak, C.B. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills. A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English (English for Specific Purposes). 1998. U of Michigan P.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. 2003. Profile.
University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. The U of Chicago P. 2003.

CG1, CG7, CG8, CG9, CE1 and CE5 (Memoria Verificada).

The students should have an advanced level of English (C1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or CEFR) in order to benefit from the subject. More specifically, they should show a reasonable competence and command of the grammar and the vocabulary acquired in previous years since the subject is focused on enhancing the students’ writing skills, and not on their knowledge of the English language. However, as a secondary skill, the students’ knowledge about English grammar and vocabulary, basic tools for any written text, will also improve and be reinforced.

The methodology is a blend of both the process and product approaches to writing. The process approach encourages students to develop their thinking about a topic. The product approach, relying heavily on student essays as models, helps students to meet the expectations of educated native readers of English.
We will make a wide use of collaborative activities in discussion of readings and topics and in prewriting activities as well as summaries and paraphrases; also, we will need to become familiar with a specific topic through reflection, discussion and readings. Writing assignments will get gradually more complicated.
Additional materials for the different units of the course will be available through the e-learning platform Campus Virtual).

Students' progress in the different aspects of the course will be evaluated on the basis of a series of assignments, oral presentations and practical tasks. Students are expected to participate very actively in the course.

All the students will be required to sit a final test if they want to pass the subject successfully.

Student’s work will be assessed according to the following:

- 10% ACTIVE participation in class +
- 20% assignments +
- 70% final test.

June call: the evaluation system will be the same as in January.

Those students who cannot attend lessons due to timetable coincidences (no matter they are taking the subject for the first time or not) and those who have been granted special permission not to attend lessons regularly from the Faculty authorities may choose the same evaluation system as those students who come to class on a regular basis or they can sit the final exam (100% of the final grade). They will have to inform the subject's coordinator at the beginning of the semester.

IMPORTANT: It is strongly recommended to use additional materials (even from the internet) and bibliography to prepare assignments and tasks, but PLAGIARISM of any kind will imply the FAILING of the whole subject. In the event of fraudulent tasks or exams the "Normativa de avaliación do rendemento académico dos estudantes e de revisión de cualificacións" will be implemented.

We suggest a total of 6 hours a week of personal study at home together with the recommendation of improving those aspects of grammar and vocabulary that the student might find more difficult.

Class attendance is strongly recommended as the lessons are of a practical nature. It is also advisable for the students to reinforce those grammatical and vocabulary aspects they may need improvement on (by means of the recommended bibliography or otherwise).