88021 - Academic Writing Laboratory (A)

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and language skills to be achieved

The aim of the writing laboratory is to improve the ability to draw up documents of different types and degrees of specialization with particular attention to the formal and structural aspects of the work, as well as to its communicative effectiveness and critical validity. At the end of the laboratory the student has acquired the skills to write executive summary of research reports, reviews, scientific dissemination texts, essays for specialized journals.

Course contents

The course will alternate short lectures to exercises that will take place in class, with subsequent individual or collective correction. The exercises will aim to improve the ability to understand and synthesize a text, paraphrase, and one's writing skills

Main topics:

1) Written texts. The different types

2) The argumentative text and its structure. Concept and design

3) Synthesis and paraphrase

4) Citations, notes, bibliography

5) The bibliography research. Use of Catalogo Unico nazionale and databases

6) The crime of plagiarism. Copyright and its protection

7) Punctuation marks. Punctuation. The accents. Most frequent mistakes

8) The most frequent grammatical errors. The abbreviations

9) More on Bibliography and sitography. Alphabetical or chronological order.

10) Design and draft of the final paper

Readings/Bibliography

Paola Italia, Scrivere all’Università. Manuale pratico con esercizi e antologia, Mondadori Education, 2014

Teaching methods

Lectures and written exercises corrected individually and collectively

Assessment methods

Verification of learning will take place through the assigned exercises to be carried out in the classroom and also at home. At the end of the course, the student must present a paper on a topic agreed with the professor, based on a bibliography provided by the professor and also proposed by the student himself/herself.

The general topic on which the final paper will focus will concern the war / peace issue.

Starting from the following volume: M. Scheler, L’idea di pace perpetua e il pacifismo, a cura di L. Allodi, Mimesis, 2016

Final eligibility will be achieved on the basis of the positive evaluation attributed to the final paper presented by the student at the end of the course.

In the final paper the student will have demonstrated an adequate ability to conceive and organize an argumentative text and a clear and understandable writing ability.

The paper must not exceed 20,000 characters including spaces, excluding the final bibliography.

Teaching tools

Use of Slides. Material uploaded online

To schedule an interview with the professor, write to: leonardo.allodi@unibo.it [mailto:leonardo.allodi@unibo.it]

Office hours

See the website of Leonardo Allodi