Breaking Down the Academic Writing Process

This practical webinar looked at how teachers can break down the writing process to support learners when developing academic writing skills.

Summary

Teaching critical writing skills to international students can be challenging for all sorts of reasons, mainly - they may not have been taught these skills at school in their native language. It is also clear that not all parts of the world have the same style or approach to finding a voice in academic writing.

So, we as teachers set a writing task for our students, we give them an essay question, and then what?

This practical session will focus on how we can support students in the essay writing process, including breaking down the question, considering their own position in response to the question, synthesising sources, using reporting verbs to express agreement/disagreement, critically evaluating sources, and using an academic tone.

About the presenter

Maria Houston-Mullen has worked in ELT for 22 years and has been a Trinity examiner on GESE, ISE and SELT exams for 14 years. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics and a DELTA. She currently works at Sussex University teaching academic skills to foundation and year one international students, as well as home students on undergraduate foundation year courses.