2010-2011 Academic Year

Study Methodology and Academic Writing (20002)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 1^st
Term: 1^st
Number of ECTS credits: 6
Hours of student dedication: 150
Teaching language or languages: Catalan and Spanish
Teaching Staff: Cristina Aliagas, Laia Canet, Begoña Capllonch, Ana Casas, Josep M. Castellà (coordinador), Eloy Fernández-Porta, Ignasi Moreta. Specific contributions: Fernando Ruiz (Servei d'Atenció a la Comunitat Universitària ­­- SACU), Joan Trench (Servei d'Informàtica), Carme Cantos (Servei de Biblioteca).

1.   Presentation of the subject

The course is an introduction to university and to the study of Humanities. It includes an introduction to the main services offered to students by the University and to the use of methodological research and information comprehension and organisation resources for the Humanities (bibliography, documentation, references, quotes, etc.). It features the knowledge and practice of oral and written expression techniques in the academic sphere. More specifically, the subject seeks to achieve five goals:

1/ To give students information about the University, its origin, task, structure, services, forms of participation, academic regulations, curriculum, mobility programs, required levels of language, and other issues relevant to the student's higher education.

2/ To introduce students to study skills and to manual and electronic tools for reading, interpreting and managing humanistic contents, with special attention to the promotion of the learner's autonomy, to the awakening of the analytical mind and to the ability of team work.

3/ To introduce students to academic writing and to give them the chance to know and practice the main conventions related to the elaboration of specialised texts on Humanities in Catalan and in Spanish, as well as to the different academic written genres (paper, exam, commentary, review, etc.).

4/ To give students the chance to practice expositive oral speech skills in front of an audience, both in Catalan and in Spanish, and to learn its basic strategies and argumentative structures, as well as the technical support resources (image, Internet, Power Point, etc.).

5/ To obtain a diagnosis of the student's normative knowledge of Catalan and Spanish and to start to improve it in the case of deficiencies.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

1.      Understanding and interpreting written academic texts in an appropriate and well-reasoned fashion.  2.      Being able to communicate suitably both in spoken and written Catalan and Spanish, the two languages official in Catalonia, and both for expert and inexpert audiences. 3.      Being able to justify one's opinions with consistent arguments. 4.      Developing the ability of autonomous reasoning with an analytical distance in controversial topics or issues. 5.      Accepting opinion diversity as a fundamental ingredient to academic life and as an integral part of contemporary society, and being able to express one's opinions within the respect to divergent opinions.   6.      Mastering the computer tools and applications needed for regular academic activity. 7.      Being able to work as a part of a team, actively participating in tasks and negotiating when faced to differing opinions, to reach consensual positions. 8.      Consolidating habits of discipline, high expectation levels and strictness in the making of academic work and its correct timing. 9.      Being able to progress in the learning processes in an autonomous and constant way, and to raise student's awareness about the need of constantly revising and updating one's knowledge.

1.      Having knowledge of the structure and means of organisation of the university and knowing how to take advantage of the services offered to students. 2.      Being able to organise oneself to study, and acquiring the methodological skills needed to search, select and organise academic information in the field of Humanities. 3.      Synthesizing, re-elaborating, managing, formalizing, and transmitting information with academic appropriateness, pertinence and high expectation levels. 4.      Being able to use current computer tools and applications to process information, and to present and publish one's work. 5.      Having knowledge of the main conventions in academic writing both in Catalan and Spanish. 6.      Having and practicing writing skills in the main academic genres: paper, exam, commentary, review, etc. 7.      Having knowledge of the main normative elements of Catalan and of Spanish. 8.      Being able to communicate information and judgements to an audience in spoken language, combining rigor at its maximum with the necessary empathic and persuasive skills.

3. Contents

Block A - Introduction to university and study methodology

     Unit 1- University and university services

1.1- Universitat Pompeu Fabra: task, structure, government body and faculty board. The university fabric.
1.2- Servei d'Atenció a la Comunitat Universitària (SACU): activities and academic acknowledgement. Other services: PIE, PEI, OIL. The Student Council.
1.3- European Higher Education Area (EHEA): goals and regulations. Graduate and postgraduate students. ECTS credits. Curricular planning.

     Unit 2- Degree in Humanities

2.1- The curriculum for the degree in Humanities at UPF: orientation principles, structure, itineraries and profiles. Internships and the end-of-degree paper.
2.2- Examination announcements and cancellations. Requirements and progression.
2.3- Language use and level of English.
2.4- Mobility programs in the Degree in Humanities: Seneca, Erasmus and others.

     Unit 3- Information and computer skills

3.1- The e-learning platform. The Novell network and Aula Global.
3.2- E-mail: configuration and on-line resources.
3.3- Computers, software and other equipment. La Factoria.
3.4- Materials and information resources. The Library: catalogue and loaning.

     Unit 4- Learning and information management.

4.1- Autonomous learning and strategic learning.
4.2- Information management.
4.3- Computer tools and resources for the Humanities.

Block B - Academic writing

     Unit 5- Text structure and planning

5.1- Inventio or raïm associatiu.
5.2- Dispositio or general text structure.
5.3- Elocutio or writing praxis.

     Unit 6- Orthotypography and punctuation

6.1- General orthotypographic principles.
6.2- Quotation marks, italics and roman print.
6.3- Use of the basic punctuation symbols.

     Unit 7- Bibliographic reference and quotation

7.1- Bibliography: normative and organisation.
7.2- The critical aside: footnotes. Philological system and American system.
7.3- Quotation: nature and conventions.
7.4- Main differences between quotation and plagiarism.

     Unit 8- Text readability 

8.1- Readability and complexity in the academic text.
8.2- Graphic and lexical criteria.
8.3- Syntactic and discursive criteria.

 Block C - Oral academic discourse

     Unit 9- Public oral speech

9.1- The spoken language: nature and complexity.
9.2- Non-verbal and paralinguistic elements: body, space, voice, fluency, rhythm and tone.
9.3- Textual elements: appropriateness and textual and semantic cohesion.
9.4- Traditional and electronic support resources. Using PowerPoint.

     Unit 10- Argumentative texts: arguments and fallacies

10.1- Classic oratory. Rhetoric and oratory.
10.2- Expositive discourse and argumentative discourse. Discursive structures.
10.3- Forms and kinds of arguments. Argumentative texts and language.
10.4- Enthymeme and fallacies.

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.