RSCH06006 2022 RBSS 1: Academic Writing: Supporting the transition of literary skills to higher education

Identify, access, search, retrieve and explore information from reliable sources. Domain: 2.7,5.1,5.5,5.6,5.17.

Evaluate evidence to develop an argument. Domain: 5.1,5.5,5.17.

Plan and structure written work effectively. Domain: 5.17

Implement the fundamentals of the Harvard Method of citation, referencing and paraphrasing.

Produce high quality constructed written texts that draw on academic writing conventions to demonstrate an understanding of academic expectations. Domain: 5.17

Convey and expand academic grammatical and lexical knowledge in relation to the Social Care profession. Domain: 5.1,5.5,5.6,5.17.

Students will attend 1 hour of lectures and a 2-hour tutorial each week. The lectures will introduce students to the relevant knowledge and theory necessary to support academic writing. The weekly tutorials will be instructional and skills-based, with all theoretical work supplemented by guided practical application. This teaching approach is derived from the process-based writing theory and will provide the opportunity for students to develop their academic learning strategies; strengthen their academic writing and reading approaches; and through the exploration of the reliability of various sources of knowledge, establish the research foundational skill of evidence informed critical thinking.

Digital Writing ePortfolio

This portfolio will extend into RBSS2, comprising of a suite of transferrable academic writing skills that students can refer to as a academic writing -competency skill toolkit during their academic studies. All tasks in RBSS1 both in the tutorial and the writing assessment piece will establish the foundational writing skill within the digital ePortfolio. This module will be assessed through 100% continuous assessment. The continuous assessment will be made up of two parts:

Assessment 1: Tutorial Tasks 60% (LO 1-5)

Fostering the process-based writing technique, tutorial tasks will scaffold the learning of skills. This involves the learner for the assessment ’FOR’ learning approach. Tutorial tasks will enrich the weekly learning with a stage-built design (with on-going assessment integrated) to provide for a process-based approach. Such tasks may include: Summary Exercise Week, Grammar & Punctuation Examination, Proofreading Exercise and Harvard Method Exercise.

 Assessment 2: Final Essay 40% (LO 6) Domain: 2.7,5.5,5.6,5.17.

A writing assessment where all scaffold academic writing skill and convention are demonstrated will form the larger written piece that students work towards in the academic writing skills throughout. This assessment will encompass a high-quality written essay demonstrating lexical knowledge within Social Care Practice.

The repeat assessment strategy will be dependent on overall grades and will be decided and documented at the Progression and Award Boards

Repeat submissions are capped at 40%.

Academic Reading:

LO1    Identify, access, search, retrieve and explore information from reliable sources.

Facilitated through guided practical application in a tutorial context, students will be prompted with questions related to the Social Care profession, students will explore sources and seek to retrieve information from reliable sources. Teaching and learning activities that include, using the library and online databases: locating and evaluating sources of evidence that supports an argument will support these critical reading skills.

LO2        Evaluate evidence to develop an argument.

An introduction to how to think critically will be established. Students will learn to consider information both logically and rationally, to explore critical perspectives in order to question and understand the sources of  evidence provided. Students will  also  examine evidence that is reliable and valid in relation to contemporary issues relevant to profession.

Academic Writing

LO3        Plan and structure written work effectively.

Organisational writing technique will be developed. For example, strong outline technique detailing each topic and subtopic in a paper and organising these points so that they build an argument towards an evidence-based conclusion. Writing an outline will also help students to focus on the task at hand and avoid unnecessary tangents, logical fallacies, and underdeveloped paragraphs. Students will follow the writing process through clear step-by-step procedural delivery of the 5 steps of writing,  allowing them to replicate the process in various formats of their academic studies within higher education.. Students will also be guided through the process of preliminary writing: proposal, outline, or other development exercises.

LO 4        Implement the fundamentals of the Harvard Method of citation, referencing and paraphrasing.

Students will be guided through the necessary process involved with understanding the method of Harvard Referencing in documentation and citation. Guidance will be supported through the practice of: integrating basic paraphrases, quotes, and summarised ideas, and avoiding plagiarism.

LO5         Produce high quality constructed written texts that draw on academic writing conventions to demonstrate an understanding of academic expectations.

Students will demonstrate their academic writing skill in confident detail by conveying ideas and specific knowledge in respect of critical thinking. The level of academic writing will demonstrate an ability to critique a wide range of material that addresses all parts of the assignment topic.

LO 6        Convey and expand academic grammatical and lexical knowledge in relation to the Social Care profession.

Academic writing is designed to convey agreed meaning about complex ideas or concepts for a group of scholarly experts and these specialist languages are adopted according to profession. Students will learn to construct high quality written texts demonstrating the lexical knowledge within Social Care Practice.