Study Methods and Academic Writing (20002)
Degree/study: Degree in HumanitiesYear: 1st
Term:1st
Number of ECTS credits: 6 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 150 hours
Teaching language or languages: catalan and spanish
Teaching Staff: Cristina Aliagas, Begoña Capllonch, Josep M. Castellà (coordinator), Camilo Hoyos, Neus Galí, Albert Jornet and Anna Serra.
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
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General competences |
Specific competences |
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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
PART A - Introduction to the university and method of study
Unit 1 - The university and university services
1.1- Pompeu Fabra University: mission, structure, governing bodies and academic charges. The community of the University.
1.2- The Attention Service to the University Community (SACU): activities and academic recognition. Other services: PIE, PEI, OIL. The Student Council.
1.3- The European Higher Education Area (EHEA): finality and regulations. Graduate and postgraduate. The ECTS credit. The syllabus.
Unit 2 - Studies in Humanities
2.1- The Syllabus of Bachelor in Humanities in UPF: guiding principles, structure, itineraries and profiles. The practicum and the Degree Final Thesis.
2.2- Examination sessions and annulments. Norms of permanence and progression.
2.3- The use of language and the level of English.
2.4- Mobility programs in the Bachelor in Humanities: Seneca, Erasmus and others.
Unit 3 - Information and computer skills
3.1- The e-learning platform. Novell Network and virtual classroom.
3.2- E-mail: configuration and network resources.
3.3- Computer, software and other equipment. La Factoria.
3.4- Materials and information resources. The Library: catalog and borrowing.
PART B - ACADEMIC WRITING
Unit 4 - Academic writing skills (B.1)
4.1- Nature of writings and type of writings. The personal relationship with writing.
4.2- Phase of the composition process: inventio, dispositio, elocutio.
4.3- The learning and expert writer: knowledge vs. telling. transforming knowledge.
4.4- Tips for planning and review.
Unit 5 - The academic genres (B.2)
5.1- Genres of academic writings of the students: notes, reading notes, definition, exam, textual analysis, review, academic work, Degree Final Thesis.
5.2- Academic written genres of research: summary (abstract), review, critique,
article, book chapter, Master thesis project, PhD thesis and a book.
5.3- Spoken academic genres: expositions of the student in class, seminar, workshop, lecture class or lecture.
Unit 6 - The readability of the texts (B.1)
6.1-The Plain English Movement.
6.2 Readability and Complexity in the professional and literary academic text.
6.3- Legibility criteria of lexical, syntactic and discoursive graphs.
Unit 7 - The academic work (B.2)
7.1- Personal organization and work plan.
7.2- Structure and index according to the type of work.
7.3- Formulating objectives, research questions and hypotheses.
7.4- Editing conventions of academic work.
Unit 8 - The review and comment text (B.2)
8.1- Review: structure, content and style.
8.2- Recension (differences to review) and the critic.
8.3- The structural analysis: structure and types (literary, historical, philosophical and artistic among others).
Unit 9 - The bibliography (B.2)
9.1- The bibliographic research.
9.2- Bibliographic styles: MLA and APA among others.
9.3- Types of references: book, article, chapter, preface and electronic source among others.
Unit 10 - The quotation (B.2)
10.1- The quotation: characteristics and conventions.
10.2-The critical apparatus: footnotes. Philological system and American system.
10.3- Main differences between citation and plagiarism.
10.4- Evaluation of sources on the Internet.
Unit 11 - orthotypography and punctuation (B.3)
11.1- General typographical principles.
11.2- Quotation marks, italics and in print.
11.3- Uses of the principal punctuation signs.
Unit 12 - The state of the art and the literature review (B.3)
12.1- Objectives and location within the academic genres.
12.2- The subjectivity and objectivity in the presentation of works by others.
12.3- Models and structures for the state of art.
Unit 13 - Exam and notes (B.3)
13.1- The personal relationship with the exams: psychological aspects, organization and study habits.
13.2- Type-examination: objective tests (test), short-answer test (define and explain concepts) and review-essay or long answer.
13.3- The examination statements: responding exactly what is required.
13.4- The notes of the class and reading notes: styles and purposes.
Unit 14 - The oral discourse in public (B.3)
14.1- The speaking: nature and complexity.
14.2- Nonverbal, paralinguistic, structural and linguistic elements of the oral discourse.
14.3- Traditional and electronic resources to support. The use of PowerPoint.
Unit 15 - The regulation of the Catalan and Spanish use
15.1- The main dictionaries and reference sources for each language.
15.2- The most common Spanish expressed used in Catalan and the Catalan expressions used in Spanish.
(B.1: Lectures in 21st and 23rd September).
(B.2: 1st half of the seminar until the last week of October).
(B.3: 2nd half of the seminar until the first week of December).
*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.
4. Assessment
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5. Bibliography and teaching resources
5.1. Basic bibliography
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5.2. Complementary bibliography
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5.3. Teaching resources
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6. Metodology
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7. Planning of activities
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