Hi Dear 

Greetings from India

Ask you students to follow following tools:

a. 1H (How) and 4 W (when what why who) before writing any research paper

b. Students should not go through any web based content until the self exploration of topic by using above mentioned tool

Regards

SHK 

Hi dear,

You can use the advanced version of Academic skills.

Regards

Hi Dear 

Greetings from India

Ask you students to follow following tools:

a. 1H (How) and 4 W (when what why who) before writing any research paper

b. Students should not go through any web based content until the self exploration of topic by using above mentioned tool

Regards

SHK 

Hi

If the students come from different countries with different native languages, it is difficult to consider their native languages. A better way might be that you personalize their writing activities in the class, for example, by telling them to bring a recent paper that they have been working on and try to tell them how to write different parts....  

 Here's what's available in RG on your question that I think would be helpful:

Best regards,

Debra

Article Teaching writing as a tool for learning with adult ESL stude...

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Writing research articles for EFL students at postgraduate level is really challenging as it requires not only producing standard English competence such as a diverse sentence patterns' to ensure error free multidisciplinary text but also using proper diction. Application of sophisticated vocabulary in appropriate way is one of the difficult tasks and needs extensive reading experience with concentration on understanding certain words and phrases. Usage of tenses in both active and passive sentences is the basic step. word-category such as verb, noun, adjective, adverbs are important to be properly utilized.

Thank you for answers and suggested articles.

My students should be at the C1-B2 level. However, some of them seem to be closer to B1. That is their problem. They are still in the process of learning the language and have to produce high level writing.

I do a lot of text analysis to try and make them aware of what "good writing" is. The problem is that a lot of articles are not exactly "well" written. So naturally, students tend to reproduce the style of their readings, thinking they are models... when a lot of articles, no matter how great their content, are actually models of poor writing.

I find that I have to fight a lot of prejudices about writing. Students tend to think, for instance that long sentences denote the complexity of their thinking and are therefore good writing. We know such sentences often end up being "mumbo-jumbo" betraying only poor command of the language.

The use of the first person for instance seems to be discouraged by (mostly French) Science professors directing my students. However, my readings of English native speakers (and leading scientists) about writing suggest that nowadays, it is no longer advisable to use only the impersonnal or third person in research articles.

The use of the passive form is another contentious topic. Yes it is part of scientific writing. Which does not mean it should be used all the time. The writing is very often better when writers find a way to use an active form of the verb.

Dear Sophie,

The immediate suggestion would be Bailey's book "Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students" (see the link). I've used it with my students in writing classes at the university level. It is a good resource. If you need more, please let me know.

http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/bailey/answers.asp

Sophie,

I teach an 8-week Guided Research course for a mix of nationalities.  For writing at the graduate and postgraduate level I'd recommend Dr. Clyde Coreil's work Patterns for the ESL Writer.  A quick Internet search will take you to a pdf version.

Hi Sophie,  

I have also taught graduate students at a similar level. For me, the material is not as important as the process. I prefer to use a combination of the Genre Acquisition / Awareness classroom (Johns, 2008, 2011) and the Critical Genre Awareness (Devitt, 2009). However, I do attempt to utilize texts from the students' discipline or ones that they will be required to produce.  

The first step in genre awareness class would be to try to elicit from the students the features of the target genre that the teacher wants to teach, for example an academic summary. I propose the following procedure: Start by surveying the class to see how many of the learners have had experience with this genre. Then have the learners create a list of the features of that genre on the blackboard. If the EAP students did not report having experience producing the target genre before, then I would introduce some ESP based prototypical models of the academic summary. When the students attempt to replicate these models, they would gain some experience producing the genre. When the students have experience producing the genre, I would ask the learners to examine the social nature of the genre by examining its features in order to determine why the genre is written, where it is written, who reads it and why, and what other related texts may influence the production of this genres, or the rhetorical situation (Devitt, Reiff, M. & Bawarshi, 2004). This would help to increase the learners’ awareness of the target English genre. Then, the EAP students, guided by the description they developed, could identify a similar genre in their L1. Next, the learners would conduct a similar analysis of the genre in their L1. With this combined L1 and English genre knowledge, the learners could use the knowledge of the purpose, audience, functions, and features of the genre to aid them in the production of the genre in new contexts.

I hope this helps.

Don

Thank you Don for this very thorough answer which does completely resonate with my philosophy of teaching.

Dear Sophie

I recommend the book Cambridge English for Scientists by Tamzen Armer, Cambridge University Press, with Audio Cds.

I hope this can help.

Mayra