ENGL117-25S2 (D) Semester Two 2025 (Distance)

Writing for Academic Success

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

Writing for Academic Success fosters the capacity for analytical thought about texts and language. The course also provides training in the writing of clear and effective prose, inculcates awareness of crucial structural and rhetorical features of expository writing, and encourages the application of that awareness to writing in a range of academic and professional contexts.

The course relies on both lectures and tutorials that function with a workshop mode of delivery, with small class size for the latter enabling students to receive individual guidance and to participate fully in intensive reading and writing assignments, class discussions and peer response workshops. These activities will help students learn the processes of evaluating data, identifying and interpreting patterns of logic, and persuasively arguing for the significance of those interpretations. Though it draws on rhetorical and critical skills that are central to the study of English, its content and method are accessible and appropriate to students from all of the Colleges.

This course can be used towards an English major or minor. BA students who major in English would normally take at least two 100-level 15 point ENGL courses (which must include at least one of the following: ENGL117, ENGL102 or ENGL103), at least three 200-level 15 point ENGL courses, and at least two 300-level 30 point ENGL courses. Please see the BA regulations  or a student advisor for more information.

Learning Outcomes

  • In this course, then, students will learn:
  • to analyse prose, identify and summarise the argument of a text, and critique the argument of a text;
  • to find information, to evaluate evidence and sources, and to manage the intellectual property of others while developing their own ideas;
  • to produce clear writing of their own that is appropriate to a given audience and purpose;
  • to produce a formal document, edited and proofread, that adheres to the standard mechanics of grammar and spelling.
    • University Graduate Attributes

      This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

      Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

      Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

      Employable, innovative and enterprising

      Students will develop key skills and attributes sought by employers that can be used in a range of applications.

      Globally aware

      Students will comprehend the influence of global conditions on their discipline and will be competent in engaging with global and multi-cultural contexts.

Restrictions

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Workshop A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 12:00 - 14:00 Zoom
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Karen Saunders

Lecturer

Rachel Williamson

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Essay 1 Introduction 5%
Essay 1 15%
Essay 2 30%
Essay 3 Presentation 5%
Essay 3 35%
Tutorial Participation 10%


There is no final exam in this course.

Textbooks / Resources

Required Text
• Hacker, Diana; The Bedford Handbook (11th Edition, 2019). (Available from U.B.S.)

(NOTE: While the library has copies of this text available for both 3-hour and 3-day loan, these are earlier editions and it is a required text so we recommend that you purchase your own copy from the University Book Store. This text will prove useful throughout your time at university.)

Course readings will also be available on Learn.

(Image: "365::15-write" by Sarah Reld. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)

Course links

Library portal

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $894.00

International fee $4,100.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

Minimum enrolments

This course will not be offered if fewer than 10 people apply to enrol.

For further information see Humanities .

All ENGL117 Occurrences