EMCU003: SCHOLARLY WRITING AND PUBLICATION SKILLS

Contact Hours: 42
Credit Hours: 3
Pre-requisite: None

Purpose
To expose the learners to scholarly writing and publication skills and its application in Education
Expected Learning Outcomes
By the student of the course unit, the learner should be able to:
i. Explain the concepts of scholarly writing and publication skills.
ii. Write a scholarly paper and make publications.
iii. Evaluate to a scholarly paper and make recommendations.

Course Outline
Topic one; Studying and writing at postgraduate level,

- Identifying appropriate literature,

- making notes and record excerpts,
- Approaches to critical reading,

Topic Two: Recognizing your voice:

- Ontology,

Epistemology and

positionality,

Collaborative writing,

Topic Three: Writing tips and traps,

- Styles and types of writing,

-Key characteristics of academic writing,

Topic Four: Postgraduate standard of writing,

- Types of writing,

-The basics of written presentation: punctuation, Numbers, The apostrophe, foreign

words and phrases with popular abbreviations. Footnotes and endnotes

Topic Five: Essential writing skills:,

summarizing.

- Paraphrasing,.
 - Structuring

Topic Six: Cohesion and coherence,

- connecting ideas, sentences and paragraphs,

Developing an argument,

Topic Seven: Drafting, editing and proof-reading,

- Understanding assessment comments,

Topic Eight: Technical documents,

- Personal writing,
- common knowledge,
- plagiarism and copyright.

Teaching Learning Methodologies

Lectures, tutorials, group discussions, group and individual assignments, power point
presentations, semester research papers and recommended reading.

Instruction Methods and Equipment

Chalk board, overhead projectors, computers, CDs CR ROMs, Charts, and Printers, Printing
papers scanners
Course Assessment and Evaluation: Examinations: Examination - 60%; Continuous
Assessments (Exercises and Tests) - 40%; Total - 100
Recommended Textbooks
a) Anderson, J. and Poole, M. (2009) Assignment and Thesis Writing, 4th Edition,
Australia: Wiley

b) Becker, H. S. (2007) Writing for Social Scientists: how to start, and finish your thesis,
book or article, US: University of Chicago Press
c) Cottrell, S. (2009) Critical Thinking Skills, U.K.: Palgrave
d) Murray, R. (2009) Writing for Academic Journals, UK:OUP
e) Peck, J. and Coyle, M. (2007) The Student‟s Guide to Writing, Grammar, Punctuation
and Spelling, U.K.: Palgrave
f) Rose, J. (2008) The Mature Student‟s Guide to Writing, U.K.: Palgrave
g) Silvia, P. (200) How to Write a Lot: a practical guide to productive academic writing,
US: APA
h) Soles, D. (2009) The Essentials of Academic Writing, NY: Houghton Miffli
i) Wallace, M. and Wray, A. (2008) Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates, UK;
Sage

Textbooks for further reading

 a) Crème, P. and Lea, M.R. (2008 edition) Writing at University: a guide for students,
U.K.: Open University Press
b) Murray, R. (2007) How to Write a Thesis, UK: OUP
c) Punch, K. ( 2009) Developing Effective Research Proposals, UK: SAGE