Administrivia

Academic Writing (AW)

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

May 8, 2026

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 academic publication (i.e., your thesis) is challenging and consumes a great deal of time and dedication. This course aims to support you in these endeavors by

• teaching sessions concentrated in a 4-day bootcamp covering
  • the structure of a thesis/an academic paper,
  • strategy and process of academic writing,
  • review, revisions, and ethics,
  • and the design of an AI Review Agent
• writing workshops (with Anja Zenk) covering
  • the elements of writing (e.g., argument and discussion, cause and effect, style),
  • writing vocabulary and language (e.g., precision, clarity, conciseness),
  • and the productive use of writing tools
• self-organized peer roundtables in fixed 4-person teams between deadlines

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,
• Critical evaluation of AI feedback and design of AI-supported writing workflows, including building a Review Agent that operationalizes academic-writing principles,
• 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, peer-reviews, and self-learning components.

The teaching sessions are concentrated in a 4-day bootcamp at the start of the semester (28.09.–01.10.2026), giving you the input you need before you begin writing — including the design of your AI Review Agent.

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

The peer-feedback exchange between deadlines is self-organized in fixed 4-person teams. Each team holds at least one self-managed roundtable. A protocol of this exchange is a prerequisite for final submission.

In the course of the course, you will write and revise the introduction to your Master’s thesis. This and your critical reflection will be assessed (details see assignment section).

Effort

You will gain 5 ECTS for this course.
This equals min. 130 hours workload for an average student required to pass the course.

• Joint sessions including follow-up: approx. 35 hours
• Assignment (manuscript, agent, roundtables, revision): approx. 95 hours

Please prepare your schedule accordingly.

Required literature

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

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	Location	Preparation
Mon, 28.09.	Finding your question (Kick-off & Topic)1	tbd	E1.1.01	—
Tue, 29.09.	Architecture of an argument (Strategy, Process & Structure)	tbd	E1.1.01	Develop two research questions for your thesis
Wed, 30.09.	Through the reviewer’s eye (Review, Revisions & Ethics)	tbd	E1.1.01	Read a hypothetical submission and sample reviews
Thu, 01.10.	Owning your work (Defense, AI)2	tbd	E1.1.01	—
Tue, 13.10.	Writing Workshop A	Zenk	tbd	Read Macgilchrist (2014, Chapters 1–2.1)
Tue, 20.10.	Writing Workshop B	Zenk	tbd	Read Macgilchrist (2014, Chapters 1–2.1)
Tue, 27.10.	Writing Workshop C	Zenk	tbd	Read Macgilchrist (2014, Chapters 1–2.1)
Tue, 03.11.	Writing Workshop D	Zenk	tbd	Read Macgilchrist (2014, Chapters 1–2.1)
Tue, 10.11.	Writing Workshop E	Zenk	tbd	Read Macgilchrist (2014, Chapters 1–2.1)
Sun, 22.11.	Deadline: Initial Intro & AI Agent	—	Moodle	—
CW48-50	Roundtables (self-managed, 4-person teams)3	—	—	Exchange feedback within your team
Sun, 20.12.	Deadline: Reflection & Revision	—	Moodle	—

Table 1: Schedule winter term 2026 (subjected to changes)

Q&A

Literature

Macgilchrist, F. (2014). Academic writing. UTB GmbH.

Recker, J. (2021). Scientific research in information systems: A beginner’s guide. Springer Nature.

Footnotes

1. The bootcamp takes place from 09:00 to ca. 16:00 in E1.1.01 on all four days.

2. Workshop group assignments and 4-person team formation happen on the final bootcamp day.

3. You are responsible for organizing your team’s roundtable session(s). The Roundtable Protocol (date, participants, feedback given and taken) is a prerequisite for final submission.