Writing a Thesis or Dissertation
This course is designed for international students who are either writing, or preparing to write, a dissertation or thesis for their degree course at Oxford. Each lesson focuses on a different part of the thesis/dissertation/articles (Introductions, Literature Reviews, Discussions etc.), as well as the expected structure and linguistic conventions. Building upon the foundational understanding provided by our other Academic English courses (particularly Introduction to Academic Writing and Grammar, and Key Issues), this course prepares students for the challenges of organising, writing and revising a thesis or dissertation.
The course is online - students will access materials and take part in seminars using Oxford’s VLE system, Canvas, and videoconferencing software.
Learning outcomes
- Gain an understanding of the different organisational structures used within Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences dissertations and theses
- Consider works of previous Oxford students in order to understand the common structural, linguistic and stylistic issues that arise when drafting a research project
- Increase competence in incorporating citations into texts, including choosing appropriate tenses and reporting verbs
- Learn how to structure the various parts of a dissertation or thesis (Introduction, Literature Review, Discussion, Conclusion and Abstract)
Key Issues in Academic Writing
This online course is designed for international postgraduate students who are looking to improve their writing for their degree course. Each lesson focuses on a specific aspect of academic writing that commonly presents difficulties for advanced writers. These include issues connected to conventional language patterns and collocations, verb choice, as well as stylistic differences between disciplines and genres of writing (e.g. reports vs. essays etc.). Throughout the course, students will have a chance to look at and discuss extracts from academic writing in different disciplines, while identifying and understanding the way in which the grammatical choices they make affect the meaning of their text. While this course focuses primarily on writing at a postgraduate level, undergraduate students, post-docs and visiting academics are all welcome.
This course offers a solid basis for our Thesis and Dissertation course. The course is online - students will access materials and take part in seminars using Oxford’s VLE system, Canvas, and videoconferencing software.
Learning outcomes
- Increased awareness of the key features and conventions of academic writing
- Learn the importance of information order and how to link ideas
- Be able to choose suitable tenses and express different levels of certainty in your writing
- Have a better understanding of the appropriate register, and expected style of writing, within the different subject areas
- Learn to use online resources (such as concordance software) for proofreading your own work
