FOUR LECTURES ON ACADEMIC WRITING FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Where? SADAF, Bulnes 642 When?

September 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th at 18.00 Whos giving the talks? Eamonn McDonagh How much does it cost? Socios de SADAF: $225 no-socios: $350. Objectives (i) To question some commonly held ideas about the relationship between being a native speaker of a given language and being an effective writer in that language and to suggest some more plausible alternatives which will be of use to participants as academic writers in English. (ii) To provide participants with some tools to think about how best to structure their arguments for presentation in academic papers. (iii) To provide participants with some practical ideas regarding how to write more and improve the quality of what they write. (iv) To provide participants with practical advice about dealing with and giving peer feedback, so as to allow them to better and more effectively position themselves in the academic debate. The Lectures Lecture 1: FROM WRITING CORRECTLY TO WRITING APPROPRIATELY How and why you should abandon the impossible quest to write correct English and instead aim to write in a way thats appropriate for the target readers of your work. Some ideas on who owns English, language standards and who sets and should set them. Arguments for EIL, English as an International Language, a language of all its users and some possible responses to those who oppose the idea. In this lecture Ill also try to give participants reasons for worrying less about ancillary issues as formatting, abstracts and reference systems. Lecture 2: DEVELOPING YOUR ARGUMENT

Why write an academic paper (apart from the obvious pragmatic reasons)? Some thoughts on audience and purpose in writing. Do you want to make them laugh? Cry? Stroke their chins in wonder? Think you are a genius? Sow a seed of doubt in their minds? How to find and shape an argument. Positioning yourself in the debate and the delicate question of tone. Lecture 3: PEER REVIEW: WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT AND HOW TO GIVE IT You send your paper off to the renowned, Caballito Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. As the CJIS is efficiently managed, mere weeks later you receive the response of the peer reviewers. Now what? Should you revise and resend as they have requested you to, or forget about the CJIS and send your paper somewhere else? Again, the question of tone, who is talking to who here? Also, some ideas about how to give professional and serious peer feedback, the sort that youd be glad to receive yourself. Lecture 4: WRITING MORE AND WRITING BETTER Writing and getting what you write published in the right places is vital to developing an academic career, everyone knows that. However, everyone also knows that life is short and other commitments many: family, teaching, administration etc. So what to do? Some practical ideas about how you might be able to write more and write better. Or, as my friend Claus says; When Outlook says write, I write. Finally, how not to forget to give due importance to writing in your academic career.

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