December 1st lesson

Dear students,
Today, in your groups, you will read your part of your composite academic paper to each other. You should have written about three hundred words each and included at least one APA formatted citation, which is referenced in your APA formatted "Works Cited".
Please hand this in after you have finished reading, and preferably stapled together in correct order.
After that you should begin to start developing your own academic paper.  Remember, an academic paper is writing which analyses knowledge and produces new knowledge. You should have a position in relation to your thesis and you should argue rationally, not emotionally. You should be objective, not subjective. To make your argument strong, cite experts or reliable sources.
Before you start writing your essay, write a clear thesis statement and draw a mind map that you are satisfied can not be improved. If possible, please show me your thesis statement and map or outline today.
Good luck!
Chris Elvin

November 24th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will write a 1500-word academic paper in groups of five. You should think of a topic, write a thesis statement, draw a mind map or write an outline, and then write your part of the essay (a few paragraphs of about 300 words). You will also need to write in-text citations and a "Works Cited" in APA format (at least one per person).
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

November 17th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will have an IELTS task 2 writing assignment as your mid-term test, which is worth 10 points. If you didn`t hand in your practice test last week for checking, you may access the link below to read the public version of the IELTS task 2 writing bandscales.

IELTS task 2 writing bandscale descriptors

You should do your best to address all parts of the task and write at least 250 words. If your essay is short, you will perhaps only get a maximum of four for the task. In addition, you will automatically incur a 1 or 2 point penalty depending on the length of your essay.

After the test you will review APA style and look at some examples of APA formatted in-text citation markers and APA formatted references taken from an academic paper. Please download the files and bring them to class.

APA review
Academic paper example

There are also automatic reference generators on the web that can assist you. One such example is below:

http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-book

Good luck in the test!
Chris Elvin

November 10th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will read homework C within your group and check each others intext citation markers and references. After that you will do a short exercise on cohesion. Then you will begin to think about your final paper. Do you have an idea yet? Is it original? Do you have a title, thesis statement, or map? Finally, you will practice writing for the mid-term test which will take place in the following week (a 40-minute, 250 word task 2 IELTS test question).
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Homework C

Dear students,
Here are instructions for homework C:

In groups of about three people, write a thesis statement about your chosen topic (X is A,B,C). You may share the same thesis statement within your group.
Write an outline or draw a map that shows details of your essay.
Then write one body section in one or more paragraphs (for example, section B). Include at least three intext citations within your text per person, and write references for these in your "Works Cited" at the end of your essay.

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

October 27th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will look at intext citation markers in APA format. Please download the prints below and bring them to class.


http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/APAintextcitations.pdf

http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/APAintextcitationsmatching.pdf


You will also read another student's essay from the appendix of your textbook. If you don't have a copy yet, you may download one from here:

http://www.aogaku-daku.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-NEW-AW-Student.pdf

And finally, you will start to write a body paragraph of a group essay which will eventually include intext citation markers and a "Works Cited".
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

October 20th lesson

Dear students,
Today there are three worksheets for you to download and bring to class.

http:/www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/AWterminology.pdf

http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/APAcitationguide.pdf

http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/APAmatching.pdf

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Academic Writing Textbook

Dear students,
There is no need to buy the textbook for our course, as a pdf file is now freely available.

http://www.aogaku-daku.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-NEW-AW-Student.pdf

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

October 13th and 20th lessons

Dear students,
On October 13th you will have a visit from the librarian (period 3 - 3:05 to 4:35 - students, you must go to 15-502 for this lesson).

On October 20th, please read your thesis statement and body paragraphs within your group, and also to another group after that. (The topic is music, which you started writing about in class on October 6th.)
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

PS. Period 3 students - you should go to room 15-502 on October 13th!

librarian visit on October 13th

Dear students,
If you have academic writing on Tuesday period 4, our October 13th lesson will be in 15-502, which will be shared with another class. The librarian will come to visit and show you how to use the library facilities. Please come to this class.
If you have academic writing on Tuesday period 5, the librarian will visit 15-404 on October 13th, our regular classroom.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

October 6th lesson

Dear students,
Today you will work a little bit on homework b (two direct quotations, two indirect quotations, two paraphrases, and two summaries). Please note that a summary is much shorter than the original; if it is about the same length as the original, then it is a paraphrase.
You will also take a look at a sample essay from the appendix of the Academic Writing textbook that you should bring to class.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

Welcome to Academic Writing - Autumn 2015

Dear students,
Welcome to Academic Writing. You may download the syllabus to your course here:

http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/academicwritingsyllabus2015Elvin.pdf

Kind regards,
Chris Elvin

January 13th lesson

Dear students,
Today is your last lesson. You will first hand in your final paper and homework assignments, then fill in a survey, and finally undertake a final test (similar to the practice test you had last week). This final test is worth 20 percent of your final grade.
If you did not hand in your practice test last week and would like to assess yourself, here are the public versions of the IELTS bandscale descriptors that I have been using.
http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/IETLS_bandscale_task_1.pdf
http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/IELTS_bandscale_task_2.pdf
Good luck!
Chris Elvin

January 6th 2015 lesson

Dear students,
Today is the penultimate lesson so your last chance to show me your essay assignment draft. If  you have not already done so, please hand in homework B and C today, too.
On January 13th, you will hand in your final essay and take a final writing test. This test is worth 20 percent of your final grade. You may practice for the test today.
Please download the files below.
http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/ielts_writing_task_1A.pdf
http://www.eflclub.com/aogaku/aw/ielts_writing_task_2A.pdf
Good luck!
Chris Elvin

December 23rd lesson

Dear students,
Today please hand in your first draft so that I can see your progress. If you have not already done so, I would also like to see your homework B and C assignments.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin