The course content addresses the following topics:
- The writing process
- Structure of a research paper
- The purpose of introductions and conclusions
- Organisation, cohesion, academic styles, audience, developing topics
- Writing for different genres such as essays, research papers, lab notes, reports on a practicum, notes from workshops, short answers on exams, case studies, projects, proposals, summaries, data analysis
- Referencing others' work, paraphrasing, avoiding plagiarism, researching techniques (internet, databases)
- Using the computer for academic purposes
- Increasing reading speed
- Skimming, scanning, and reading extended text encountered in a first-year tertiary environment
- Reading more than one text on the same topic to determine point of view
- Test-taking techniques and citation styles
- Common errors such as use of prepositions, tense, concordance, articles, linkers and conjunctions, participles, and relative clauses