Thesis writing in English – academic language and style

Thesis writing in English – academic language and style

- AOK-OASZV641

Number of contact hours per week: 2

 

Course description:

The objective of the course is to enable students to study their chosen field of research with the guidance of a tutor and also on their own, and to process the information obtained using appropriate scientific methods. The course also aims at improving students’ ability to screen for core information, to adopt the latest methods of literature search, and to include the information in a scientific paper using appropriate academic English language.

During the course students can get an insight into the characteristic features of Scientific English language, proper punctuation and spelling rules, specific terms and phrases used in scientific writing, academic sentence style and paragraph building. They will rewiew the structure of a thesis and the logical links between each part, as well as the linguistic devices used to improve coherence and cohesion, and accuracy and clarity. The course will also focus on the rules for using charts and tables in scientific papers, integrating source information and citing sources.

 

Course content (covered topics):

General structure of the thesis, thesis types

Scientific English style: objectivity, formality, complexity, explicitness, hedging, responsibility, and precision

The Abstract

The Introduction. Formulating hypotheses and research questions.

Citation rules, in-text and end-text referencing.

The Methods

The Results. Tables, charts and other types of illustration.

The Discussion.

Other parts of the thesis: Acknowledgements, Appendix, Questionnaires, Conflict of interest, Declaration of ethics.

Presenting the thesis. How to make oral presentations?

 

Recommended literature:

Council of Science Editors (2014): Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers, Eight Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN-13: 978-0977966509

Keresztes, Cs. (2017): Medical English genres and text types. Szeged: JATEPress. ISBN: 978-963-315-316-1

Chin, P., Reid, S., Wray, S., Yamazaki, Y. (2013): Academic Writing Skills 3. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 978-1-107-61193-1