Academic Year/course:
2024/25
631 - Master's Degree in Food Quality, Safety and Technology
68751 - Academic writing of scientific texts in English language
Syllabus Information
Academic year:
2024/25
Subject:
68751 - Academic writing of scientific texts in English language
Faculty / School:
105 - Facultad de Veterinaria
Degree:
631 - Master's Degree in Food Quality, Safety and Technology
ECTS:
6.0
Year:
1
Semester:
First semester
Subject type:
Compulsory
Module:
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1. General information
The course prepares students for producing oral and written academic texts in their research fields. It focuses on analyzing authentic academic texts in Food Science and Technology to understand academic communication in the scientific domain. Objectives include distinguishing between academic and non-academic language, using appropriate registers, and organizing texts effectively. The course develops selective reading skills and the ability to evaluate the informative quality of scientific genres, enabling students to self-assess their texts. It aligns with Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 8. As English is the global language for scientific communication, the course enhances students' skills in searching, reading, analyzing, and evaluating scientific texts in their specialization. Students should have an intermediate-high level of English proficiency and familiarity with scientific texts in their field.
2. Learning results
Upon completion of the subject, the student will be able to:
1. Read abstracts, posters and scientific articles in the field of food science and technology, through the knowledge and analysis of the discursive, morphosyntactic and semantic features that define these genres. The student will also have the necessary tools for the writing of this kind of texts within their framework of interest.
2. Write their own abstracts, posters and scientific articles in English, since it is the vehicle of scientific communication at a worldwide level.
3. Consult and read the texts necessary to achieve the objectives of the master's degree as a whole, since all the bibliography that students will consult is published in English.
3. Syllabus
- Overview of Academic English main features; Scientific English in academic contexts.
- Formal grammar style and related structures: use of tense and voice, improving the flow of the text, causality and result, rhetorical functions, comparing and contrasting, cause-effect relationships.
- Non-vocabulary-related recommendations for maintaining a formal academic writing style.
- The bionote.
- The formal email.
- The poster: writing and presenting concisely: strategies for reducing wordiness.
- The abstracts: analysis and evaluation of abstract purpose, types, and different structures.
- The scientific research articles: Overall structure and sections of the article: Introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and other elements in the scientific research articles.
4. Academic activities
The course has a mainly practical focus, and it is developed by means of individual and group compulsory tasks meant to practice and assess the knowledge learnt in the lessons which require the active participation of the students, including within the theoretical lessons.
Individual development and execution of compulsory tasks consisting of the elaboration and writing of a bionote, an academic email, a poster, an abstract, and the analysis and discussion of a paper related to the students’ research field.
The course will be developed in 30 sessions 2 hours long, following the official schedule of the master's degree.
5. Assessment system
In order to pass the subject, the student will have to attend the practical and theoretical lessons, do and hand in the required individual tasks. The student will have to demonstrate that s/he reached the intended learning results through the following assessment tasks:
- Significant individual participation in the practical activities and tasks developed throughout the whole classroom teaching. (10%).
- Compulsory individual execution of a series of written tasks set to practice the correct usage of the proper linguistic forms for the scientific written communication genres within the academic context: a bionote (5%), an academic email (5%), elaborate and present a conference poster on a research paper on a topic of their choice,(25%), elaborate an abstract from a scientific paper provided by the teacher (25%), and a final analysis on a research paper on a topic of their choice (30%).
- The necessary materials and tools for the fulfillment of these tasks will be provided in advance through the Moodle platform besides being tackled in class. The students will have to analyse the rhetorical structure of a series of abstracts and research papers once they have acknowledged the specificities of these genres, after the theoretical explanation and practice in class.
Students who have not taken the continuous evaluation or have not passed it will be entitled to a global test.
6. Sustainable Development Goals
4 - Quality Education
9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
12 - Responsible Production and Consumption