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MISC Academic Writing (AW)

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

July 31, 2023

Motivation

Publication is an essential scholarly activity because it informs academic and other communities about lines of investigation, (and their outcomes) related to relevant phenomenon being studied. Recker (2021)

This course is designed to improve your academic writing skills by exercising the full publication cycle. While doing that, you will make significant progress on setting up your Master’s thesis.

Contents

Publishing research is the primary vehicle for adding to the body of knowledge.

Writing a good research article is challenging and consumes a great deal of time and dedication. This course aims to support you in these endeavours, particularly regarding

• the writing process and strategy (e.g., research, planning, summarizing, organizing, referencing).
• the elements of writing (e.g., argument and discussion, cause and effect, style)
• writing vocabulary and language (e.g., precision, clarity, conciseness)
• structure of an academic paper (e.g., outline of the document)
• review process (e.g., writing a review, writing a response to the reviewer letter)

In addition, you will have the opportunity to discuss individual questions during language coaching sessions

Learning outcomes

You will advance your knowledge and skills in following areas.

• Techniques, guidelines, elements, structures, vocabulary and language, and formal requirements of academic written communication, particularly in the field of management and information system research,
• Development of scientific texts that are coherent, clear, concise and can be printed in a journal or conference proceedings,
• Mastering the written elements of a peer-review process,
• Usage of tools that support the writing process,
• Mastering the challenge of building on work done by others and create something original from it, while maintaining academic integrity and uphold the standards of good academic work.

Learning set-up

This course combines class teaching, writing exercises, coaching, and self-learning components.

The focus of the teaching sessions is on giving you input to selected topics, doing writting exercises, and answering your questions.

The personal coaching sessions will help you move forward with your assignments and answer individual questions about your writing.

The learning progress is reflected in the learning you take from working on an academic manuscript and going through the review process, more precisely, the deliverables of the assignment (portfolio exam).

Effort

You will gain 5 ECTS for this course. This equals min. 125 hours workload for an average student required to pass the course.

• Joint sessions including follow-up: approx. 30 hours
• Assignment (manuscript, review, revision, presentation): approx. 90 hours

Please prepare your schedule accordingly.

For the writing and language part, you need to get a copy of following book: Academic Writing by Felicitas Macgilchrist

Grading

The grade is based on the evaluation of multiple assignments (portfolio exam):

• thesis proposal,
• reviews of fellow students’ proposals,
• revision of the proposal incl. response letter, and
• lessons learned

Schedule

To make this course as valuable as possible in preparation for your thesis, we have blocked the bulk of the sessions at the beginning of the semester. You will be through with the course by mid-December.

Date	Topic	Lecturer	Location
Fr, 06.10.2023, 10 am	Kick-off & topic	Weeger	A.1.60
We, 11.10.2023, 10 am	Strategy & process	Weeger	A.2.25
Fr, 13.10.2023, 10 am	Structure & story	Weeger	A.1.60
We, 18.10.2023, 10 am	Review & revisions	Weeger	B.2.25
Fr. 20.10.2023, 10 pm	Presentation & ethics	Weeger	A.1.60
Mo, 23.10.2023, 2 pm	Elements of writing	Zenk	A.1.58
Mo, 30.10.2023, 2 pm.	Vocabulary & language	Zenk	A.1.58
Mo, 06.11.2023, 2 pm	Writing styles	Zenk	A.1.58
Mo, 13.11.2023, 2 pm	Writing styles	Zenk	A.1.58
CW461	Writing coaching	Zenk	Zoom
We, 15.11.20232	Structure coaching (book)	Weeger	Zoom
Tu, 16.11.20233	Structure coaching
(book)	Weeger	Zoom
We, 29.11.2023	Deadline Proposal	-	-
Fr, 08.12.2023	Deadline Reviews	-	-
Fr, 08.12.2023	Reviews will be distributed	-
Fr, 22.12.2023	Deadline Review Evaluation	-	-
Fr, 22.12.2023	Deadline Revision	-	-

Table 1: Schedule winter term 2023 (may be subjected to changes)

Q&A

Recker, Jan. 2021. Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner’s Guide. Springer Nature.

Footnotes

1. Appointments need to be arranged individually with Anja Zenk via Moodle

2. Appointments need to be arranged individually with Andy Weeger via calendly

3. Appointments need to be arranged individually with Andy Weeger via calendly