How to Become a Skilful Critical Writer.
Christina Markanastasakis
The Language Centre of Maastricht University provides a range of writing courses aimed at guiding PhD and Postdoctoral candidates in becoming skilled commentators in their field of research. The academic writing courses provide an overview of the conventions of formal scientific writing style, from using appropriate language to effectively integrating source support into research writing. Critical writing emphasizes the importance of developing your ‘academic voice’ in order to become a skilful commentator in your research field in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
The Introduction and Advanced Critical Writing courses guide course participants in developing the skills required to use academic language to strike an appropriate balance between caution and confidence when discussing research results. This balance is especially pertinent in the current era given the range of multilinguistic and multicultural online readers. Whilst academic and critical writing overlap in terms of the taught language skills, the emphasis in critical writing is on the particular competences required to skilfully communicate to a diverse and international set of readers, from novice to expert, who can digitally access your research article.
The UM Language Centre offers two critical writing courses: an introductory level and advanced course. Introduction to Critical Writing is composed of 8 interactive online webinars. Course participants receive information, resources, and tools intended to support them in becoming independent as writers and editors of their work; they also have the opportunity to submit their writing to the tutor for individual feedback. The skills learned can then be ‘put to the test’ in Advanced Critical Writing, which is an interactive online course. This is a student-centred learning process, which means that students drive the learning process through their own initiative. The fundamental principle is that there is no better way to test your knowledge than by sharing it with others. This process is mainly asynchronous; activity in discussion forums is closely monitored and facilitated by the course tutor, who intervenes when necessary. Advanced Critical Writing is akin to a writing support group for PhD and Postdoctoral candidates who are actively engaged in the writing process.
These courses are popular with PhD and Postdoctoral candidates at Maastricht University as well as external clients, such as the Open University; both the introductory and advanced level courses are held in the autumn and spring. The Language Centre endeavours to respond to demand for these popular courses as required, and can also tailor them to address the needs of specific PhD research groups. For further information on how to enrol or for any additional questions, please see the Language Centre website.