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ACADEMIC WRITING FOR UKRAINIAN PH.D. STUDENTS

T.A. Marchenko

(Sumy, Ukraine)

Students often feel overwhelmed when starting an academic writingassignment such as a research paper, report, thesis, etc. Any form of academic writing can be a little easier to complete if you follow some basic strategies.

Academic writing is a new subject taught in Ukraine. It should help the postgraduate students in writing their scientific works correctly, following all rules and regulations of English. Some of the students have many problems with their native Ukrainian language while writing academically, thus, the task of the lecture is to observe and solve two-way problem.

In this article only English academic writing is discussed. And the first step which must be done is group levelling. If the lecture has a group of Ph.D. students with different level of English, it should be better to divide this group according to the level or to equalize their level. If they don’t pay attention on this detail the future studying will be failed. As usual it takes one or two months if the group curriculum contains 10-12 hours per week. And, of course, the students must be highly-motivated:

  • self-confidence in English writing;

  • taking part in international conferences;

  • free access to foreign resources;

  • communication with global scientific society;

  • saving of time and money, etc.

When the first stage is passed successfully the lecturer can go further using different instruments to support the students in the way of English academic writing. There are many multi-level text-books which propose their own ways of teaching.

If the level of the students is intermediate or upper-intermediate Cambridge English for Scientists (Professional English) is very suitable, because it has tasks to improve general English, communicative skills, and a lot of exercises for specific subjects: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. For the foreign students this text book is also a source of terminology, as well it is full of chats, tables, graphs, etc.

For the pre-intermediate students, the better choice is Academic Writing (Headway), that is easier to do tasks and prepare exercises, but it does not contain any specific words and word combinations connected with different fields of science, so it is too general guideline. But if the curriculum time is limited this text-book is perfect to give the general characteristics of academic writing.

There are some general tips for Ph.D. students how to start writing:

  1. Be sure you understand the task of your writing. If it’s a problem the student can ask a tutor or scientific advisor;

  2. The student must clarify the specific guidelines (style of writing, formats, etc.);

  3. To present your idea - brainstorming (gather all of your thoughts);

  4. Be ready to propose your outline (like a future plan, further steps of your work);

  5. Organise your time correctly (Do not try and write the entire paper the night before it is due);

  6. Because of missing your own mistakes, using wrong sentences, styles, and words you have to proofread the paper you are writing yourself and ask your friend (colleague, tutor, adviser) before sending to publishing house.

  7. Remember that the structure of any academic work needs to have such necessary parts: introduction, results and discussion, main body, conclusion, as in example:

  1. Objective(purpose; aim; goal): Tells reader the purpose of your research and the questions it intends to answer (1-2 sentences);

  2. Methods (setting; study design; participants): Explains the methods and process so that other researchers can assess, review, and replicate your study (1-3 sentences);

  3. Results (findings; outcomes): Summarizes the most important findings of your study (3-6 sentences);

  4. Conclusion (discussion; implications; further recommendations): Summarizes the interpretation and implications of these results and presents recommendations for further research (2-5 sentences).

It is very obvious that for Ukrainian Ph.D. students the main task is to show the general differences/peculiarities in using English: punctuation rules (especially coma rules and quotation marks); in word units - confused words (for instance: cite, sight and site, affect - effect, accept – except, etc.); terminology (the students have to read more different original resources connected with their proper topic (papers, reports, articles, journals, textbooks, studies); grammar rules (avoiding passive in specific cases, using personal pronouns, etc.): the students may take on-line free English courses (1-Language.com, ESLgo.com, Study English Today), watch free videos (Eng.vid.com).

In spite of some similar requirements of academic writing each foreign issue has its own ones to follow. The task of the advisor and English lecturer is to direct the post-graduate students in the way of successful and accurate academic writing.

References:

    1. Bailey Stephen. Academic Writing A Handbook for International Students. Third edition. - This edition published 2011 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN.

    2. Baraldi, C. (2006). New forms of intercultural communication in a globalized world. The International Communication Gazette, 68(1), 53-69.

    3. Chanock, K. (2001). From mystery to mastery. In B. James, A. Percy, J. Skillen, & N. Trivett (Eds.), Changing identities: Proceedings of the language and academic skills (LAS) conference. University of Wollongong.

    4. Harwood, N., & Hadley, G. (2004). Demystifying institutional practices: Critical pragmatism and the teaching of academic writing. English for Specific Purposes, 23(4), 355-377.