PERIODO: JANUARY - JUNE 2018


Writing Scientific Papers in English is a blended course for PhD students who are beginning to publish their work in English. It is particularly suited to engineering disciplines. The course aims to help participants discover the conventions of research articles in English and to provide them with useful tools that will enable them to write academic papers independently in the future.

Writing Scientific Papers in English is a soft skills course. Participants who attend at least 70% of classroom lessons and complete the assigned course work will be awarded 15 points.

Course Content
The course focuses on conventional text structures which are commonly used in research articles in English. Five standard sections are covered: Introduction; Methodology; Results; Discussion/Conclusion; Abstract. Useful grammar and vocabulary is included and participants are helped to build up the language resources necessary to write papers in their own field of research. The course includes weekly individual and group writing activities, both in class and online.

Course structure
An introductory induction lesson is followed by 5 weeks of twice-weekly classroom lessons (15 hours). Each week of classroom lessons is preceded by an online component to be completed before attending the lessons. It consists of video input followed by a quiz and an online task. At the end of each week, participants are required to participate in a collaborative online writing task.

Access to the course:
Around one week before the beginning of each course, a link will appear under the LINGUE tab on your personal page of the Portale della Didattica if you have presented one of the following certificates: IELTS 6, TOEFL IBT 80 or Cambridge FIRST B or above to the Office of Student Services or to SCUDO and the information has been recorded in your personal page (Personal Details section).

If you do not have any of the above certificates, you need to take the CLA IG level test and pass it with a minimum score of 65. This test can be taken at the CLA prior to the beginning of the enrolment period for the course. (NB: for WSPE course starting on 15 Jan 2018 - last day for level test: 21/12/2017)

See CLA opening times:
https://didattica.polito.it/cla/en/how_to_reach_us
https://didattica.polito.it/cla/en/urgent/

Once the enrolment period is closed, no further students will be admitted.

NB: Course participants are required to attend a minimum of 70% of the lessons. However, absence from the first two lessons (Induction lesson and Lesson 1a), will automatically lead to exclusion from the course.

Course book
GLASMAN-DEAL, Hilary (2010). Science Research Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English. Imperial College Press.

Participants are required to bring the coursebook to all lessons. A limited number of copies is available on loan at the CLA library.

Course calendar and timetable
This blended course is delivered from January to June, as scheduled below:

Course dates Enrolment dates
15/01/2018 – 21/02/2018 08/01/2018 - 10/01/ 2018
12/02/2018 – 21/03/2018 01/02/2018 - 05/02/2018
09/04/2018 - 23/05/2018 28/03/2018 – 30/03/2018
21/05/2018 – 27/06/2018 10/05/2018 – 14/05/2018

A maximum of 30 places is available for each iteration of the course.


LESSON a time room Lesson b time room
Induction lunedì 15 gennaio 2018 CLA
1a. The introduction lunedì 22 gennaio 2018 CLA 1b. The introduction mercoledì 24 gennaio 2018 CLA
2a. The methodology section lunedì 29 gennaio 2018 CLA 2b. The methodology section mercoledì 31 gennaio 2018 CLA
3a. The results section lunedì 5 febbraio 2018 CLA 3b. The results section mercoledì 7 febbraio 2018 CLA
4a. The conclusion/discussion lunedì 12 febbraio 2018 CLA 4b. The conclusion/discussion mercoledì 14 febbraio 2018 CLA
5a. The abstract lunedì 19 febbraio 2018 CLA 5b. The abstract mercoledì 21 febbraio 2018 CLA

#2
LESSON - Input room WORKSHOP - Practice room
Induction lunedì 12 febbraio 2018 CLA
1a. The introduction lunedì 19 febbraio 2018 CLA 1b. The introduction mercoledì 21 febbraio 2018 CLA
2a. The methodology section lunedì 26 febbraio 2018 CLA 2b. The methodology section mercoledì 28 febbraio 2018 CLA
3a. The results section lunedì 5 marzo 2018 CLA 3b. The results section mercoledì 7 marzo 2018 CLA
4a. The conclusion/discussion lunedì 12 marzo 2018 CLA 4b. The conclusion/discussion mercoledì 14 marzo 2018 CLA
5a. The abstract lunedì 19 marzo 2018 CLA 5b. The abstract mercoledì 21 marzo 2018 CLA

#3
LESSON - Input room WORKSHOP - Practice room
Induction lunedì 9 aprile 2018 CLA
1a. The introduction lunedì 16 aprile 2018 CLA 1a. The introduction mercoledì 18 aprile 2018 CLA
2a. The methodology section lunedì 23 aprile 2018 CLA 2a. The methodology section mercoledì 2 maggio 2018 CLA
3a. The results section lunedì 7 maggio 2018 CLA 3a. The results section mercoledì 9 maggio 2018 CLA
4a. The conclusion/discussion lunedì 14 maggio 2018 CLA 4a. The conclusion/discussion mercoledì 16 maggio 2018 CLA
5a. The abstract lunedì 21 maggio 2018 CLA 5a. The abstract mercoledì 23 maggio 2018 CLA

#4
LESSON - Input room WORKSHOP - Practice room
Induction lunedì 21 maggio 2018 CLA
1a. The introduction lunedì 28 maggio 2018 CLA 1a. The introduction mercoledì 30 maggio 2018 CLA
2a. The methodology section lunedì 4 giugno 2018 CLA 2a. The methodology section mercoledì 6 giugno 2018 CLA
3a. The results section lunedì 11 giugno 2018 CLA 3a. The results section mercoledì 13 giugno 2018 CLA
4a. The conclusion/discussion lunedì 18 giugno 2018 CLA 4a. The conclusion/discussion mercoledì 20 giugno 2018 CLA
5a. The abstract lunedì 25 giugno 2018 CLA 5a. The abstract mercoledì 27 giugno 2018 CLA