AE4 (Academic Writing 2) Scheme of Work V.1.
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Overview: Each lesson comprises a series of exercises for developing students’ academic writing/research skills
(45 mins), followed by a workshop (45mins), during which those skills are applied to the production of an 800
word academic essay.
Week Session 1 (Essay Writing)
1 Grammar review
2 Unit 1 Getting organised
At the end of this unit students will:
 understand more about the
requirements of writing an
academic essay;
 be able to produce a clear
outline
Week 2 Ss brainstorm the topic of their essay, to
Writing/Research produce a schematic outline
Workshops Ss study the Scheme of Work, noting the
45 mins each various stages of writing/research
3 Unit 2 Getting started
At the end of this unit students will:
 be better equipped to start
writing an essay;
 understand how to write a thesis
statement;
 have ideas on how to make the
introduction interesting for the
reader
Week 3 Ss produce a draft introduction for their
Writing/Research essay
Workshops
45 mins
4 Unit 3 The body of the essay
At the end of this unit students will:
 have a clear idea how to
structure the main part of an
academic essay;
 know how to plan and write
effective paragraphs
Week 4 Ss produce draft topic sentences for their
Writing/Research essay
Workshops
45 mins each
5 Unit 4 Summaries and conclusions
Session 2 (Research and Referencing)
Features of academic writing style
Unit 1 Why research?
At the end of this unit students will:
 understand the need to refer to
other sources;
 be able to strengthen the
argument in their essays using
supporting points and evidence
Ss carry out a cursory search for online
publications related to their essay topic
and amend their schematic outline
accordingly
Unit 2 The research process
At the end of this unit students will:
 be aware of a range of sources of
information;
 be able to identify the strengths
and weaknesses of different
sources:
 be able to note down
bibliographical details for books
and Internet sites
Ss carry out a more detailed search for
reliable and authoritative sources related
to their topic (to include academic
sources, e.g. published journal articles)
Ss must print copies of their sources
Unit 3 Writing a bibliography
At the end of this unit the students will:
 understand the purpose of a
bibliography;
 be able to produce a bibliography
using the Harvard or APA system
Ss review their compiled sources, to
identify appropriate evidence to support
their topic sentences
For at least one of the sources they
intend to use, Ts should ensure that the
Ss have a) recorded appropriate
bibliographic data about the source, and
ii) highlighted (and, ideally, cut-and-
pasted e.g. into a Word document) some
of the key paragraphs/sentences they
intend to use as support in respective
paragraphs
Unit 4 Referring to other sources in your
 At the end of this unit the students will:
 have a clear idea of how to finish
an academic essay with a
successful conclusion
Week 5 Ss produce a draft conclusion for their
Writing/Research essay
Workshops
45 mins each
6 Summary writing
At the end of this lesson students will:
 Have learnt and practiced
appropriate techniques for
summary writing
Week 6 Ss summarise a selection of paragraphs
Writing/Research from their compiled sources, to use as
Workshops support
45 mins each
7 Unit 5 Academic style and register
At the end of this unit students will:
 be more familiar with the
language of essays and able to
identify some of the features of
academic style;
 have practised using formal,
objective language
Week 7 Ss complete their draft essay – checking
Writing/Research for appropriate use of academic style
Workshops and register
45 mins
8 Unit 6 Guidelines for the future
At the end of this unit the students will:
 understand the editing and
redrafting processes in essay
writing;
 have a clearer understanding of
what lecturers expect from a
piece of academic writing
Week 8 Ss carry out a final check through their
Writing/Research draft essay for common grammatical
Workshops errors
45 mins
essay
At the end of this unit students will:
 understand how to decide
between citing and quoting;
 be able to cite and quote;
 be able to acknowledge their
sources in the body of their
essays.
Ss review the key information they have
identified in their sources, to determine
which paragraphs/sentences to cite
(summarise/paraphrase) and which to
quote directly
Paraphrasing
At the end of this lesson students will:
 Have learnt and practiced
appropriate techniques for
summary writing
Ss paraphrase a selection of sentences
from their compiled sources, to use as
support
Unit 5 Plagiarism
At the end of this unit students will:
 understand what plagiarism is;
 understand how to use sources in
their writing;
 be able to recognise plagiarism in
a piece of writing
Ss check their draft essay for plagiarism
(using Turnitin) – and take appropriate
remedial action as required
Unit 6 Using supporting arguments
At the end of this unit students will:
 be able to select relevant
information from their research
notes;
 be able to support their
arguments;
 be able to acknowledge their
sources acceptably
Ss submit their final essay for marking,
using APA style template.