Academic Writing

The seminar is intended as training in the preparation of academic texts, i.e. oral and written presentations intended both for the academic and the general public. In a more narrow sense, the course will prepare students for their final student works - course papers but also their MA thesis. The course will prepare the students for a competent and creative approach to the conceptualization, realization and dissemination of a text, and for a sensible choice of materials that support the text. The student will be introduced to different approaches to forming scientific texts with respect to the chosen discipline and how to navigate among them. The course will offer the students concrete tools for the preparation of texts and will also help them finetune their critical reception of academic writing and will give them the ability of assuming a critical viewpoint towards academic writing.

No prior knowledge is required. The course indirectly interacts with all other courses and specifically with the course Research Work.

In one semester the course will introduce the students to the basics of academic writing. Each of the included topics will be introduced by a lecture but in its core, the course consists of student work, that is both preparing their materials (abstracts, papers, talks etc.) and working on given materials and the discussion of these works and materials. The course covers four overall topics:

• types of scientific texts, their form and choosing among them;
• forming a scientific paper (in relation to a discipline);
• forming of a bigger individual work (more concretely, their MA thesis);
• relating scientific writing to the general public.

Within these topics the students will also get introduced to the choice of the appropriate platform for publication, the choice of the language of the publication, the tools that they can need for preparing their texts (e.g. LaTeX), the choice and formation of the gracic material that they can use and, what is most important, the significance of academic writing.

We will consider how to build an argument and the students will become familiar with the fundamental mistakes that can be made in making arguments.
We will look at a range of tools that facilitate and organize writing: tools that allow a smooth start (free writing, clustering); tools that help to crystallize arguments (outlining, summarizing, progressive condensing); planning tools (outlining, breaking down the task into steps) and tools that allow a smooth and predictable progression (writing in progressive layers, constructive feedback). We will also address questions about writing techniques and style.

The students will learn how to prepare (different types) of abstracts for scientific conferences, scientific papers (from finding the sources to organizing the text), the preparation and realization of talks and the choice of the appropriate way of presenting the data. The students will start understanding the choice of sources, language and the appropriate platform for publication of their works, the needs of their readers and the adjustment of the presented content to these needs.

• Aberšek, Boris in Kordigel Aberšek, Metka. 2019. Znanstveno pisanje. Maribor. Univerzitetna založba Univerze. E-version
• Bailey, Stephen. 2014. Academic writing: A handbook for international students. Routledge.Catalogue
• Fang, Zhihui. 2005. Scientific literacy: A systemic functional linguistics perspective. Science education 89.2: 335-347. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.20050 E-version
• Badley, Graham Francis. 2020. Why and how academics write. Qualitative Inquiry 26.3-4: 247-256. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418810722 E-version
• Mark de Vos, Maxine Schaefer, Ian Siebörger. 2019. A Guide to Academic Writing in Linguistics. Department of English Language and Linguistics, Rhodes University.
• Macaulay, Monica. 2011. Surviving Linguistics: A Guide for Graduate Students. Cascadilla Press. Catalogue
• Pinker, Steven. 2014. Why academics stink at writing. The chronicle of higher education 61.5.1–18. E-version
• Articles from various foreign and domestic journals related to the contents of individual courses; i.e. Jezik in slovstvo Catalogue E-version, Slavistična revija Catalogue E- version, Linguistic Inquiry Catalogue E- version E- version, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory E-version etc.

Homeworks 50 %

Submitting and presenting a written product 50 %
Obligatory attendance (80%)

Asst. Prof. Petra Mišmaš has a BA in Slovene Studies and a PhD in Cognitive Science of Language (both from the University of Nova Gorica). She primarily works on syntax and morphosyntax of South Slavic languages, but also works on language consulting and regularly publishes in Slovenian and international publications.

Selected reference:
MARUŠIČ, Franc, MIŠMAŠ, Petra, ŽAUCER, Rok. Zakaj velika okrogla rdeča čestitka in ne rdeča velika okrogla čestitka?: poskus razlage nezaznamovane stave pridevnikov. V: KRAJNC IVIČ, Mira (ur.), ŽELE, Andreja (ur.). Pogled v jezik in iz jezika: Adi Vidovič Muha ob jubileju, (Mednarodna knjižna zbirka Zora, 133). Maribor: Univerzitetna založba: = University Press. 2020, str. 103–115. [COBISS.SI-ID 21145603]
MARUŠIČ, Franc (urednik), MIŠMAŠ, Petra (urednik), ŽAUCER, Rok (urednik). Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2017. Berlin: Language Science Press. 2020. Open Slavic linguistics, 3. [COBISS.SI-ID 17658883]
MIŠMAŠ, Petra, SIMONOVIĆ, Marko. Dozoreti, dozorevati; izgoreti, izgorevati …: o sekundarnih nedovršnikih netožilniških glagolov v slovenščini. V: ZULJAN KUMAR, Danila (ur.), DOBROVOLJC, Helena (ur.). Škrabčevi dnevi 12: zbornik prispevkov s simpozija 2021. Nova Gorica: Založba Univerze, 2023. 11–22. [COBISS.SI-ID 145973763] kategorija: 4D (Z); tip dela je verificiral OSICH
MIŠMAŠ, Petra, SIMONOVIĆ, Marko, ARSENIJEVIĆ, Boban, MILOSAVLJEVIĆ, Stefan, BĘDKOWSKA-KOPCZYK, Agnieszka, ROGIĆ, Petya, ANTONYUK-YUDINA, Svitlana. Plavanje da, zaplavanje ne?: obrazilo -je v glagolnikih in drugih okoljih v vseslovanskem kontekstu. V: ŠEKLI, Matej (ur.), REZONIČNIK, Lidija (ur.). Slovenski jezik in književnost v srednjeevropskem prostoru: [Slovenski slavistični kongres, Gradec/Graz in Maribor, 1.–3. oktober, 8.-9. oktober 2020]. Ljubljana: Zveza društev Slavistično društvo Slovenije. 2020. 221–231. [COBISS.SI-ID 36768771]
MIŠMAŠ, Petra. O koordiniranih in večkratnih k-vprašanjih v slovenščini. Jezik in slovstvo. 2017. 62/1. 99–112 [COBISS.SI-ID 4762619].
MIŠMAŠ, Petra. Slovenian questions with short wh-movement and the low periphery. Slovenski jezik - Slovene linguistic studies. 2017. 11. 111–125. [COBISS.SI-ID 4933371].
SIMONOVIĆ, Marko, MIŠMAŠ, Petra. Lowest theme vowels or highest roots?: an unaccusative theme-vowel class in Slovenian. Glossa. 2022. 7/1. 1–31. [COBISS.SI-ID 98070787].

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ivana Zajc deals with digital humanities, especially with distant reading of literary texts, and with literary theoretical questions. She researches Slovene literary history from the point of view of the work of women writers and the history of emotions.

Selected reference:
ZAJC, Ivana. Scoring of essays in L1 in the secondary school-leaving exam. Pedagoška obzorja: časopis za didaktiko in metodiko. 2023, letn. 38, [št.] 1, str. 19-31. [COBISS.SI-ID 151254019].
ZAJC, Ivana. Slovene teachers' opinions on teaching literature in grammar schools. Slovene studies: journal of the Society for Slovene Studies. 2022, vol. 44, no. 1, str. 25-42. [COBISS.SI-ID 134481667].
ZAJC, Ivana. Elementi monodrame in avtobiografskosti v besedilih Simone Semenič: vidik računalniške stilometrije. Amfiteater: revija za teorijo scenskih umetnosti. 2019, letn. 7, št. 2, str. 80-98. [COBISS.SI-ID 4859227].
ZAJC, Ivana. Literarna zmožnost kultiviranega bralca in Evropski literarni okvir. Jezik in slovstvo. 2019, letn. 64, št. 3/4, str. 57-67, 156. [COBISS.SI-ID 70990690].
ZAJC, Ivana. Konvencija didaskalij: zgodovinske oblike, tipologije, opredelitve in sodobne subverzije. Jezik in slovstvo. 2017, letn. 62, št. 1, str. 69-78, 120. [COBISS.SI-ID 64000354].
ZAJC, Ivana. Implicitni avtor: raba v slovenski literarni vedi, nove opredelitve in problematična mesta. Slavistična revija: časopis za jezikoslovje in literarne vede. jan.-mar. 2017, letn. 65, št. 1, str. 127-139. [COBISS.SI-ID 63785058].
ZAJC, Ivana. Sodobne spremembe didaskalij: primer besedil Simone Semenič. Jezik in slovstvo. 2016, letn. 61, št. 3/4, str. 151-162, 168. ISSN 0021-6933. [COBISS.SI-ID 63162466].