General requirements for university studies.

The aim of this course is to learn to write clear, concise and coherent university level essays in an internationally recognized format in the humanities and social sciences.

The course focuses on the formal aspects of written production through the general practices of both social science and humanities essays. Students learn to use writing for inquiry, learning, thinking and communication. Further, writing is approached as an individual and collaborative cyclical process which involves pre-writing, drafting, peer-reviewing and editing. Writing is practiced through the students’ own writing, and a digital portfolio of assignments and peer reviews.

1. Understands writing as a process, and the basic elements of rhetoric in academic writing;

2. Can control for the formal and technical elements of writing;

3. Can review peer texts, and respond to other students’ peer reviews with reference to purpose, audience, content and form;

4. Can demonstrate the ability to work to agreed timetables, manage workloads, and meet deadlines.

Learning activities are lectures, seminars, writing assignments, peer reviews, and exercises.

The course is examined through one written assignment (4.5hp, A-U), and a portfolio (3.0hp, pass-fail). The student must receive a passing grade in all examination elements to pass the course. The written assignment assesses learning outcomes 1, 2, 4. The portfolio assesses learning outcomes 2, 3, 4.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 4th ed. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.

Additional material will be made available online.

Evaluation is an integral part of the course. A final written evaluation based on the learning outcomes is done at the end of the course. The result of the evaluation is summarized and made available in a report to be used as a basis for future courses.