AES Handbook

Semester 1, 2019/20

AES Handbook Semester 1 2019-2020 2

Contents

Contents 2

Find us 3

Tutorials 4

AES in the Library 5

Workshops 6 Timetable 7

Listening to Scottish Voices 10 Critical Thinking 11 Written Grammar 12 Academic Writing: Using Previous Scholarship in Your Writing 13 Revision Planning & Exam Essay Writing 14

FAQs Workshops 15

How do I book a workshop? 15 What if I cannot come to a workshop I have booked? 15

Tutorials 15 I’m a research student. How do I book a tutorial? 15 I’m a taught student (undergraduate or taught postgraduate). How do I book a tutorial? 15 How many tutorials can I book? 15 How far in advance can I book my tutorial? 15 How do I cancel a tutorial? 16 Where will my tutorial be held? 16 I haven’t received a confirmation of my tutorial booking – what should I do? 16

Proofreading 16 Will you proofread my work? 16 I still want to have my work proofread. Where can I find a proofreader? 16

Appendix 17 Self-Correction Codes used in AES tutorials 17

AES Handbook Semester 1 2019-2020 3

Find us

Address:

Academic English Service

International Education Institute

Kinnessburn

Kennedy Gardens

St Andrews

KY16 9DJ

T: 01334 472255

Email : academicenglish@st-andrews.ac.uk (for academic enquiries)

aesadmin@st-andrews.ac.uk (for admin enquiries)

We are number 9 on the University map.

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Tutorials

AES provides bookable tutorials to students at all levels of study. A tutorial is a type of lesson where you study one-to-one with a tutor. For taught students (undergraduate or MSc/MLitt), tutorials are weekly and last 25 minutes. Tutorials are generally available in semester teaching weeks only. For research students (PhD/MPhil/MRes), tutorials are once every three weeks and last 50 minutes. Research students may request tutorials in non-teaching weeks. This part of the AES service is very popular and works on a first come, first serve basis.

When you book your first tutorial, you should complete your information on the AES booking form. Please enter your details carefully to avoid problems later. You should pay particular attention to entering your University email address accurately. If you don’t, you will not receive a booking confirmation. Please do not use a non-University email address either on the booking form or when emailing AES.

Students use tutorials for a wide range of activities. If you have an assessed essay or report, you can discuss the task description with a tutor to ensure you have fully understood its requirements. You can also work on the structure or language accuracy of

your essay. If you wish to prepare a presentation, your tutor can record you giving your presentation and give you feedback on your organisation, slides, or language accuracy. If you wish, you may work on language skills you have prioritised e.g. pronunciation, grammar, listening or speaking. If you are applying for a job or internship, you can work on writing a CV / covering letter, or on your interview skills.

To submit work to your tutor, you should send it (and any relevant assignment description) two days (not including Saturday or Sunday) before the tutorial. For example, if you have a tutorial on Thursday, you should send your work before 9:00 am on Tuesday. All work should be submitted as a Word document and sent to: academicenglish@st-andrews.ac.uk. Please do not send your work to an individual tutor’s email address.

Tutors give feedback on writing using correction codes. You can find a list of the codes we use in the appendix below. For more information on the tutorial service, see the FAQs below.

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AES in the Library

Every Wednesday afternoon, 2.00-4.30pm, AES holds drop-in tutorials in the Library. These tutorials are 25-minutes long and you simply sign up at 2.00pm (when the sign-up sheet goes up) – no pre-booking is necessary.

These tutorials are available to either taught or research students and offer a simple, flexible way to access the service.

The tutorials are held on the ground floor of the Library, just to the right of the IT Service desk. Look out for the AES banner – we are not hard to find!

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Workshops

The Academic English Service (AES) provides different types of workshops covering a number of different areas such as:

• academic writing • grammar • presentation skills • pronunciation

On the next page is a list of the workshops being offered in Semester 1. Following the weekly timetable, you’ll find full description of each workshop topic.

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Timetable Week Date Session Focus

Orientation Week 10 Sept

Listening to Scottish Voices This session will explore: Scottish vocabulary • Introduction to 30 key words • Connection between vocabulary and cultural context • Learning new vocabulary by guessing from context Scottish accents • Becoming familiar with a range of Scottish accents • Recognising unfamiliar pronunciation of familiar vocabulary • Learning new vocabulary by guessing from context

1 17 Sept

Listening to Scottish Voices (Repeat session from Orientation week) This session will explore: Scottish vocabulary • Introduction to 30 key words • Connection between vocabulary and cultural context • Learning new vocabulary by guessing from context

Scottish accents • Becoming familiar with a range of Scottish accents • Recognising unfamiliar pronunciation of familiar vocabulary • Learning new vocabulary by guessing from context

Week Date Session Focus 1 18 Sept Critical Thinking Skills (Workshop 1 of 2)

This session will: • help you understand what critical thinking is and why is it important. • help you develop habits of critical, evaluative thinking • help you apply critical thinking to your reading and writing

2 25 Sept Applied Critical Thinking: Writing a critical book review (Workshop 2 of 2) This session will: • help you apply your critical thinking skills to the task of writing a critical

book review • address the structure of a critical book review • identify common problems with this task type • offer some practical strategies to help you address these problems

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Week Date Session Focus 4 10 Oct Written Grammar (Workshop 1 of 7)

Sentence structure 1

• Overview of clause types 5 17 Oct Written Grammar (Workshop 2 of 7)

Sentence structure 2

• Complex sentence structures 7 31 Oct Written Grammar (Workshop 3 of 7)

Countable & uncountable nouns

• Overview • Double nouns • General v specialist contexts

8 07 Nov Written Grammar (Workshop 4 of 7) Passives

• Putting the spotlight on new information in the sentence 9 14 Nov Written Grammar (Workshop 5 of 7)

-ing clauses of result

• Form • Style

10 21 Nov Written Grammar (Workshop 6 of 7) Agreement for number in verbs

• Identifying the subject noun • Difficult cases • Proofreading

11 28 Nov Written Grammar (Workshop 7 of 7) Verb tenses & aspect

• Overview of tenses • Simple/continuous • Time phrases • Proofreading

Week Date Session Focus

6 (ILW*) 22 Oct

Academic Writing: Using Previous Scholarship in Your Writing This workshop has two sessions on the same day. Session 1 will cover paraphrasing & summarising: • What is paraphrasing and when is it appropriate?

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• Why paraphrase rather than quote? • Strategies for successful paraphrasing. • Different purposes of a summary • Strategies for summary writing Session 2 will cover quoting and your voice: • Reasons for quoting • Reporting verbs • Indicating strength of claim • Developing your stance • Showing logical relationships between ideas • Use of evaluative language

*ILW = Independent Learning week

Week Date Session Focus

10 20 Nov Revision planning and Exam Essay Writing • Revision techniques • Using module handbooks and lecture series to structure revision • Managing the revision process • Remaining/developing confidence • Analysing essay titles • Planning essays & checking relevance • Writing under pressure • The difference between 14/20 and 17/20

11 27 Nov Revision planning and Exam Essay Writing (Repeat session from Week 10) • Revision techniques • Using module handbooks and lecture series to structure revision • Managing the revision process • Remaining/developing confidence • Analysing essay titles • Planning essays & checking relevance • Writing under pressure • The difference between 14/20 and 17/20

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Listening to Scottish Voices Day: Tuesday Weeks: Orientation Week & Week 1

Time: 15:00 - 16:00

Venue: International Education Institute (IE), Room A

Participants: The course is for any student who is unfamiliar with listening to Scottish English.

Programme Aims:

• to introduce some everyday Scottish English vocabulary • to introduce key pronunciation features of Scottish English accents

Programme Organisation: The programme consists of one 1-hour class. The class is repeated as it is a very popular session.

Attendance: Please only attend ONE class – the same session is repeated!

Booking: Use the booking form on the AES Moodle to reserve a place. Numbers are limited to 16.

Tutor: Ally Malcolm-Smith

Recommended Independent Study:

• Visit the Listening in Scotland Moodle course

Lessons: Martin & Sandra; Alistair & Brian; Iain & Amy; Anne & Andrew

In the further resources section of the Listening in Scotland Moodle course, there are listed many further resources.

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Critical Thinking Day: Wednesday Weeks: 1 - 2

Time: 14:30 - 16:00

Venue: Physics & Astronomy Building (JF Allen), Lecture Theatre C

Participants: The course is for students who are taking a taught undergraduate or masters programme and have not studied previously in the UK. It offers an introduction to critical thinking skills in a university context.

Programme Aims:

• to understand what is meant by ‘critical thinking’ • to recognise the difference between descriptive and critical writing • to develop the skills of critical reading and critical writing

Programme Organisation: The programme consists of two 90-minute classes held in the first two weeks of Semester 1. Classes include whole group study and small group tasks.

Attendance: In order to benefit fully from this programme, we strongly recommend that you attend both classes.

Booking: Use the booking form on the AES Moodle to reserve a place. Numbers are limited to 75.

Tutor: Mary Carr

Recommended Independent Study: • http://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/helps/self-help-resources/reading/critical-reading

• http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/reading/2b.pdf

• Cottrell, S. (2011) Critical thinking skills: developing effective analysis and argument. This book is available in the

library:

• https://student.unsw.edu.au/writing-critical-review

• http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/get-assistance/writing/specific-types-papers/using-scientific-journal-article-write-critical-review

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Written Grammar Day: Thursday Weeks: 4 – 11*

* Please note, there will be no class in week 6, Independent Learning Week

Time: 14:00 – 15:00

Venue: International Education Institute (IE), Room I

Participants: The course aims to provide a solid grammatical foundation for communicating complex ideas clearly and accurately in a university context.This course continues in Semester 2.

Programme Aims:

• to build on participants’ existing knowledge of grammar • to develop awareness of how grammatical choices impact on clarity of written argument • to build participants’ awareness of formal written style

Programme Organisation: The programme consists of weekly 60-minute classes over 7 weeks. Classes include whole group study and small group tasks.

Attendance: In order to benefit fully from this programme, we strongly recommend that you attend all classes.

Booking: Use the booking form on the AES Moodle to reserve a place. Numbers are limited to 12.

Homework: Optional. Students will be provided with additional material to use for further practice.

Tutor: Caroline Holden

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Academic Writing: Using Previous Scholarship in Your Writing Day: Tuesday Week: 6

Time: 10.00 - 12:00 & 13.00 – 15.00

Venue: International Education Institute (IE), Room I

Participants: This programme is for taught or research students who want to work on the effective integration of sources into their arguments.

Programme Aims:

This intensive workshop programme aims to help you with four key writing skills: summarising, paraphrasing, quoting and developing a strong authorial voice in relation to your sources. The classes include exercises to allow you to get practice and feedback.

Programme Organisation: The programme consists of two 2-hour classes held on Tuesday of Independent Learning Week (Wk 6). Classes include whole group study and small group tasks.

Attendance: In order to benefit fully from this programme, we strongly recommend that you attend both workshops.

Booking: Use the booking form on the AES Moodle to reserve a place. Places are limited to 10.

Homework:

Tutor: Kerith George-Briant

Recommended Independent Study:

• Bailey, S. (2006) Academic Writing A Handbook for International Students.

• Graff, G. (2008) “They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing.

• http://www.mondofacto.com/study-skills/writing/how-to-use-academic-writing-style/index.html

• http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

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Revision Planning & Exam Essay Writing Day: Wednesday Weeks: 10 – 11

Time: 15:00 - 16:30

Venue: International Education Institute (IE), Room XL

Participants: This course is for any student who has not sat exams in English before.

Programme Aims:

• to overview effective exam revision techniques • to help participants manage the revision process • to develop skills to analyse and understand exam tasks under pressure • to develop essay planning skills • to develop written fluency in exam conditions • to build confidence

Programme Organisation: The programme consists of one 90-minute class. The same workshop is repeated the following week.. Classes include discussion and practical tasks.

Attendance: Please only attend ONE class – the same session is repeated!

Booking: Use the booking form on the AES Moodle to reserve a place. Numbers are limited to 25.

Tutor: TBC

Recommended Independent Study:

• Cottrell, S. (1999) The Study Skills Handbook. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Ch. 11.

This is available in the library:

• https://encore.st-andrews.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb2415976__SThe%20Study%20Skills%20Handbook__Orightresult__U__X7?lang=eng&suite=def

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FAQs

Workshops

How do I book a workshop? Go to the AES Moodle and scroll down to ‘workshop programmes’. Each workshop has a booking link. If the workshop is full, please email aesadmin@st-andrews.ac.uk. We can then put your name on a waiting list.

What if I cannot come to a workshop I have booked? If you cannot come to a workshop which you have booked, please send an email to aesadmin@st-andrews.ac.uk so that we can cancel your place. If you do not cancel your place, your future bookings may not be given priority, so it may be more difficult for you to attend.

Tutorials

I’m a research student. How do I book a tutorial? Email academicenglish@st-andrews.ac.uk to request an appointment. You can have one appointment every three weeks.

I’m a taught student (undergraduate or taught postgraduate). How do I book a tutorial? Use our online booking site here:

http://insessionalprovision.simplybook.me/sheduler/manage

How many tutorials can I book? If you are a taught student (undergraduate or taught postgraduate) you can book ONE tutorial per week.

The booking system will 'allow' you to make as many bookings as you like but we ask you to be fair to your fellow students and not to make multiple bookings. We want to make AES as accessible as possible and that will only work if these limits are respected. Thank you.

How far in advance can I book my tutorial? You can book up to five days in advance of your tutorial. So, at 09:00 on Monday you will be able to see all available tutorials until 09:00 on Friday. But on Thursday you will only see Thursday, Friday and Monday (because the system counts Saturday / Sunday, even though they are not working days.) Every day, new tutorials will become available on a rolling basis. You can always see 120 hours in advance.

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If you check in the morning and there are no available tutorials, check again an hour later and there might be one available.

How do I cancel a tutorial? If you cannot attend a tutorial, PLEASE cancel it. It will then allow another student to have that tutorial slot. If you are cancelling 48+ hours in advance, use the cancellation link in your confirmation email. Click that link and follow the instructions: it is very quick and easy. If you are unable to give 48+ hours notice, please send an email to academicenglish@st-andrews.ac.uk. If you do not cancel your place, your future bookings may not be given priority, so it may be more difficult for you to attend.

Where will my tutorial be held? Tutorials take place in the International Education Institute (IE), Kinnessburn, Kennedy Gardens, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DJ.

Check the electronic information board inside the front door for information on which room you should go to – this may change from week to week so it is important to arrive a few minutes early in order to find the right room.

I haven’t received a confirmation of my tutorial booking – what should I do? Please check your spam folder. If you find an email from SimplyBook there, please be careful to move it back into your main inbox. This will ensure that future booking confirmation emails are not sent to your spam folder.

Proofreading

Will you proofread my work? No! AES is not a proofreading service. Your tutor will help you identify what you need to work on to improve your work and will suggest resources to help you address these issues. Over time, working on your language in this way will help you to edit and proofread your own work more effectively.

I still want to have my work proofread. Where can I find a proofreader? First, check your School handbook to make sure this type of assistance is permitted. Then, read the university language correction policy: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/capod/students/Language_Correction.pdf

A list of proofreaders is maintained on the CAPOD website: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/academic/advice/studyskillsandadvice/academicskills/languagecorrectors/

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Appendix

Self-Correction Codes used in AES tutorials The AES team uses the correction codes below to give you feedback on language and argumentation errors in your writing. If you view this document electronically, you can click on links given to online practice material.

Self-Correction Code Example & correction Strategies

tns = verb tense I have been tns to London yesterday. I went to London yesterday.

practise using verb tenses even when there is a time expression

e.g. yesterday, in the future the verb should express time

notice verb tenses in your reading s/v = subject verb agreement

They likes s/v St Andrews. They like St Andrews.

practise subject-verb agreement

wo = word order The car blue wo is mine. The blue car is mine.

remember the most common word order is S + V + O/S + V + C

look for noun clauses e.g. This essay examines how sentences are formed.

check adjective and adverb position

art = article China is art Asian country. China is an Asian country.

find all nouns in your writing and use a decision tree

practise your (un)countable nouns practise your general use of articles, and articles in an academic context

wm = word missing I like wm go the cinema. I like to go to the cinema.

read your text aloud find the nouns in your text and check

if each one needs an article check there is an ‘and’ between the

penultimate and last noun in a list add a link word to join two complete

independent clauses

wf = wrong form

The process of write wf an essay can take a varying amount of time. The process of writing an essay can take a varying amount of time.

analyse the grammar of your sentence, checking word forms carefully

check if you need an adjective or adverb

s/pl = singular plural Dog s/pl tend not to like cat s/pl.

revise your knowledge of singulars and plurals (see section two)

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Dogs tend not to like cats.

U/C = (un)countable noun

There are many types of pollutions U. There are many types of pollution.

practise your (un)countable nouns

she = unnecessary word

My friend she speaks Swahili. read your writing aloud

ww = wrong word

My favourite primary school lecturer ww was Mrs Hook. My favourite primary school

teacher was Mrs Hook.

keep a list of technical vocabulary found in your reading

practise your general academic English vocabulary

S = style

You S can ask a tutor if you S want. It is possible to consult a tutor.

revise key points concerning style and practise making formal style

coll = collocation (word partnerships)

The rocket ventured into wide space coll. The rocket ventured into outer space.

practise your collocations everyday by signing up to this site

P = punctuation

Have you seen my brothers P car. Have you seen my brother’s car?

revise your knowledge of run ons revise your knowledge of punctuation practise academic punctuation

coh = cohesion

Dupont (2012) argues that children need routine. It coh is not agreed with by Voycz (2012). Dupont (2012) argues that children need routine. This view is disputed by Voycz (2012).

read some advice about cohesion

log = logical error

Because we included a control group, the results were unreliable. log Although we included a control group, the results were unreliable.

read an overview on spotting errors of logic in essays and practise this skill through a number of practical exercises

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sup = support missing e.g. evidence which makes your claim convincing is not given

Data visualization involves the creation of attractive and user-friendly interfaces. sup It is currently a grow area.

read about the components of argument and practise making sure they are present and correct

str = a mismatch between the strength of a claim and the evidence provided

Data visualization involves the creation of attractive and user-friendly interfaces. Yu’s (2016) case study of one two-person business supports this view. str

read about the components of argument and practise making sure they are present and correct

ref = reference needed OR incorrect/inconsistent referencing style

Studies show that late bedtimes correlate with poor academic outcomes. ref Studies show that late bedtimes correlate with poor academic outcomes (Bartholomew, 2013; Higgins, 2015). Other studies have indicated that this strategy may have serious limitations (John Brown, 2015; Henderson: 2016). ref Other studies have indicated that this strategy may have serious limitations (Brown, 2015; Henderson, 2016).

check your School handbook to find out which referencing style is preferred in your discipline

review the rules for citations: http://www.citethemrightonline.com/

sp = spelling I like to sea sp the see sp. I like to see the sea.

Practise your spelling

SS = sentence structure

The experimental design was flawed moreover the results were not consistent with those of previous studies. SS The experimental design was flawed. Moreover, the results were not consistent with those of previous studies.

Check the sentence has at least one independent clause

Check the sentence has at least one conjugated verb

Check for parallel structures

// = new paragraph Check that your paragraphs each have a main point

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Check your paragraphs have only one main point

? = unclear Check for patterns of errors and work on these