Unit 1: Academic English in University

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• Understand why you will write an argumentative and bibliographic essay for this
course.
• Recognise key skills learned from writing these two essay genres that will be
transferrable to your other HKU courses.

Task 1: Sharing your thoughts and experiences of academic English in

university

With a partner or in a group discuss, the following questions:

1. What is “academic English” and why does it matter for your studies at HKU?

2. You will write two essays on this course: a bibliographic essay that critically
discusses several secondary scholarly sources (e.g., scholarly journal articles,
chapters in edited academic books) and an argumentative essay based on your
critical analysis of a primary source (e.g., a historical document, a work of art, a work
of literature, a speech, a film, a song etc.)

(a) What do you know about / what experiences have you had of writing
these two essay genres and reading primary and secondary sources?

(b) Why do you think you have been given these assessments? How might
they help you with the development of your academic English?
3. Whenever you research and write an academic paper, what are the 10 key
aspects you must know in order to produce a successful piece of writing? Try to
guess what these are from the spelling clues below. Number iii) has been given as an
example

i) A r g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n
ii) A u d _ _ _ _ e
iii) Content
iv) C _ t _ _ _ o n style and formatting
v) G e _ _ e or type of paper
vi) O r g _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n
vii) P u r _ _ _ e
viii) S o u _ _ _ s
ix) S c _ _ e
x) T _ _ e or voice

Where can you find the information on these 10 key aspects that you will need to
write the paper?
Task 2: The ten key aspects of the CAES9201 essays that you must know to
produce a successful paper

Circle or underline the appropriate answers for the ten aspects of the argumentative and
bibliographic essays below. Use the Course Guide, Course Schedule and The Pre-Course
Reading Task to help you. If you can’t find the answers there, then politely ask your teacher.

Note that the answers for the argumentative and bibliographic essay may sometimes be the
same or may differ. There may also be more than one answer for each aspect.

No. Key Aspects Argumentative Essay Bibliographic Essay

i) Argumentation a) Defend own position / stance a) Defend own position / stance
- Whose b) Examine arguments and ideas b) Examine arguments and ideas
argument(s)? of scholars of scholars
c) Inductive (i.e., analyze and c) Inductive (i.e., analyze and
- Approach to examine evidence and/or examine evidence and/or
argumentation? scholarly arguments then draw scholarly arguments then draw
conclusions) conclusions)
d) Deductive (i.e., match d) Deductive (i.e., match
evidence and scholarly evidence and scholarly
arguments to pre-conceived arguments to pre-conceived
ideas, belief or viewpoint) ideas, belief or viewpoint)
ii) Audience a) Expert / Scholar a) Expert / Scholar
- Who is the target b) Lay person b) Lay person
reader (viewer or c) Peer / Classmate c) Peer / Classmate
listener)? d) Instructor / teacher / d) Instructor / teacher /
professor professor
iii) Citation style and a) No citation used a) No citation used
formatting b) Specific citation style used: b) Specific citation style used:
MLA 9th Edition MLA 9th Edition
c) Any citation style I want to use c) Any citation style I want to use
iv) Content a) Student writer’s own original a) Student writer’s own original
arguments and ideas from arguments and ideas from
analysis of a text analysis of a text
b) Summarized arguments and b) Summarized arguments and
ideas from scholarly sources ideas from scholarly sources with
with student writer’s analytical student writer’s analytical
commentary commentary
v) Genre or type of a) Thesis driven / position paper a) Thesis driven / position paper
paper b) (Literature) Review paper b) (Literature) Review paper
c) Comparison paper c) Comparison paper
Which genres / d) Research paper d) Research paper
types of paper do AND AND
the CAES9201 a) Essay (i.e., paragraphs, flow of a) Essay (i.e., paragraphs, flow of
essays most ideas) ideas)
resemble? b) Report (i.e., sections, b) Report (i.e., sections,
headings, numbering) headings, numbering)
c) Research Article (i.e., c) Research Article (i.e.,
introduction, research questions, introduction, research questions,
 methodology, discussion, methodology, discussion,
conclusion) conclusion)
vi) Organization a) Shared critical ideas and a) Shared critical ideas and
arguments of scholarly sources arguments of scholarly sources
b) Main points and subpoints to b) Main points and subpoints to
support an argument support an argument
c) Introduction, main body and c) Introduction, main body and
conclusion conclusion
vii) Purpose a) Develop topic knowledge a) Develop topic knowledge
through critical reading through critical reading
b) Develop topic knowledge b) Develop topic knowledge
through argumentation through argumentation
c) Develop academic English c) Develop academic English
research and writing skills research and writing skills
d) Contribute new knowledge to d) Contribute new knowledge to
the expert / scholarly community the expert / scholarly community
viii) Scope a) Narrow and deep a) Narrow and deep
- How broad and/or b) Comprehensive and expansive b) Comprehensive and expansive
deep do I need to c) 1300-1600 words c) 1300-1600 words
go? d) 800-1000 words d) 800-1000 words
- What limitations e) limited number and type of e) limited number and type of
are there in terms of sources sources
word count and
f) due date with penalties for f) due date with penalties for
amount of research
and reading?
late submission late submission
- How much time do I
have? (i.e., due
dates)
ix) Sources a) Primary sources, e.g., work of a) Primary sources, e.g., work of
art, film, poem, historical art, film, poem, historical
Where will you get document, government policy document, government policy
the support, etc. etc.
evidence and ideas b) Secondary scholarly sources, b) Secondary scholarly sources,
from? e.g., journal articles, chapters in e.g., journal articles, chapters in
edited academic books etc. edited academic books etc.
What types of c) Tertiary sources, (e.g., c) Tertiary sources, (e.g.,
sources are you dictionaries, encyclopedias and dictionaries, encyclopedias and
permitted to use? academic text books) and other academic text books) and other
reliable sources (e.g., reliable sources (e.g.,
newspapers of record, newspapers of record,
government publications etc.) government publications etc.)
d) Own research using d) Own research using
appropriate disciplinary appropriate disciplinary
methodologies and approaches methodologies and approaches
x) Tone or voice a) Conversational / Casual a) Conversational / Casual
b) Formal / Academic b) Formal / Academic
c) Technical / Jargon heavy c) Technical / Jargon heavy
d) Dense, difficult and verbose d) Dense, difficult and verbose
e) Concise, clear and easy to e) Concise, clear and easy to
understand understand
 Strategy tip

For whichever HKU course you do, you can find out all you need to know about these 10
key aspects by doing one or all of the following:
• Read the task instructions carefully,
• Examine the assessment rubric closely,
• Watch course information videos,
• Study any sample essays provided,
• Politely ask your professor, instructor or teacher if unsure of anything.

Task 3: Consolidating your understanding of the CAES9201 course in the

context of HKU

Complete the following two passages on “Academic English” and “Academic Genres” using
the words below.

tools complex scholarly journal articles transferred communication

pedagogic university non-emotive tone research hundreds

Academic English

Academic English is a broad term to describe the kinds of texts student will read,
listen to, speak and write in a (1) _____________ context along with the skills they will
need to do so. Common academic English texts in the Arts and Humanities are (2)
____________ and chapters in edited academic books (reading), lectures, recordings and
videos (listening), essays, papers and reports (writing) and, discussions, presentations,
podcasts, tutorials and videos (speaking).
Academic English also has certain linguistic and rhetorical features. Linguistic
features include a (3) _____________________, a high frequency of disciplinary and
technical terms, and tendency to be more grammatically (4) ________________ than
everyday English, i.e., using more noun phrases and multi-clause/phrase sentence
structures. Academic texts also follow certain rhetorical and structural conventions
depending on the type of text being written. Common rhetorical features include formal
patterns of argumentation, appeals to logic, empirical evidence and reasoning and careful
reference to previous (5) ________________ .
 If one does not master academic English then it will not be possible to succeed in a
university context. CAES9201 will help you learn, practice and get feedback on the
fundamental academic English skills you will need to succeed in your Arts and Humanities
courses as well as other courses you take at HKU.

Academic Genres
The term ‘genre’ basically means different types of ‘texts’. ‘Texts’ used here is a
broad term for any mode of (6)__________________. This means an academic genre can
be auditory, written, spoken, visual or digital - even body movements such as those of a
dancer can be a text. Academic genres, therefore, are the types of texts found in a
university context, e.g., journal articles, essays, presentations, videos etc. There are (7)
_____________ of genres in academia ranging from a few hundred words to tens of
thousands of words, and many are particular to a certain discipline, e.g., essays in
Humanities, lab reports in Science, surveys in Social Sciences etc.
In Arts and Humanities undergraduate courses for the first two to three years,
most academic genres that students write are (8) ‘_________________’ genres such as
essays, papers and reports. These are used as learning and thinking (9) ______________
following the principles of “critical reading and writing to learn” and “arguing to learn”.
As students research and write these genres, they develop a critical understanding of the
topic and subject knowledge. Within the Arts and Humanities there are dozens of
different genres of essays and papers that students will write. To help students with
these, the CAES9201 argumentative and bibliographic essays help students learn and
practice the fundamental underlying academic English skills that can be adapted and (10)
___________________ to their other HKU written course assignments.