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MISC Academic Writing (AW)

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

August 21, 2024

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. As such, it is the primary vehicle for adding to the body of knowledge. 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

Writing a good research article is challenging and consumes a great deal of time and dedication. This course aims to support you in these endeavors by

• teaching sessions and exercises covering
  • the structure of a thesis/an academic paper (e.g., outline of the document),
  • the strategy and writing process (e.g., planning, summarizing, organizing, referencing),
  • the revision process (e.g., writing a review, writing a response to the reviewer letter),
  • and ethical considerations
• as well as writing workshops covering
  • the elements of writing (e.g., argument and discussion, cause and effect, style),
  • writing vocabulary and language (e.g., precision, clarity, conciseness),
  • and tools (with a focus on AI).

You can also 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 workshops, coaching, and self-learning components.

The focus of the teaching sessions is on giving you input to aspects related to the strategy and process of working on academic manuscripts.

The aim of the writing workshops is to improve your (academic) writing.

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 preparing a proposal for your master’s thesis, getting feedback from your peers, and revising your manuscript, more precisely, the deliverable 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.

Required iterature

For the writing and language part, you need to get a copy of following book:
Macgilchrist (2014) (approx. 14 EUR as an eBook).

Grading

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

• initial thesis proposal (ungraded but mandatory),
• round-table discussion (bonus points),
• research in-progress (RIP) paper (revision of the initial proposal),
• and a reflection of the 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.

Date	Topic	Lecturer	Preparation
Mo, 30.09.	Kick-off and topic	Weeger	-
Mo, 07.10. (morning)	Strategy and process	Weeger	Develop two research questions for your thesis
Mo, 07.10. (afternoon)	Writing workshop #1	Both	Read Macgilchrist (2014, chaps. 1–2.1)
Mo, 14.10. (morning)	Structure and story	Weeger	Analyze the structure of three different papers
Mo, 14.10. (afternoon)	Writing workshop #2	Zenk	-
Mo, 21.10. (morning)	Review and revisions, defense & ethics	Weeger	Read a hypothetical submission and sample reviews
Mo, 21.10. (afternoon)	Writing workshop #3	Zenk	-
Mo, 28.10. (afternoon)	Writing workshop #4	Zenk	-
CW451	Individual writing coachings	Zenk	-
Mo, 25.11.	Deadline initial proposal		-
Mo, 02.12.	Roundtable discussions (exam)	Both	Prepare feedback on your group members’ proposals
Mo, 23.12.	Deadline lessons learned		-
Mo, 13.01.	Deadline RIP paper		-

Table 1: Schedule winter term 2024 (may be subjected to changes)

Q&A

Literature

Macgilchrist, F. 2014. Academic Writing. UTB GmbH.

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