 |
 |
Greetings, all!
(I now see a flattering post from John Hilsdon about it... Thanks, John! But having drafted this response, I'll send it anyway.)
I posted to LDHEN some time ago about the AWE (Academic Writing in English) website that I have been developing - hull.ac.uk/awe). This has now reached some 2,100 pages. It is a motley collection, and I foresee that it might have reached only 10% of its potential size: but it has already proved its usefulness to people I see, and has had over half a million hits on the web 9thanks again, John!): see http://slb-ltsu.hull.ac.uk/awe/index.php?title=Special:Statistics for the current position.
It is intended that each page (giving advice on one of the little points that students ask about, and/or that 'teachers' (in the broadest sense) want to tell students about) should be as short as possible, ideally visible on a single screen without scrolling. It is also convenient when advising students, or providing written feedback, to print out pages (this morning it has been 'Been - being' and 'Their - there - they're'; last week it was 'Principles of Referencing' and various of the 'Irregular verbs', with a Greek speaker). It is a wiki (using the same software as wikipedia), with restricted editing rights, to ensure a degree of pedagogic 'correctness' and control: it's quite easy to use, and has some minimal Help pages.
In essence, it is an on-line, searchable Guide to Usage, in British academic register.In this sense it is much less fundamental than the similarly named AWESOME project at Leeds, which came to the same kind of title independently. It calls itself "a novel social virtual environment to support dissertation writing based on sound pedagogical models, using authentic examples, and following Web 2.0. tenets, notably collective intelligence and active engagement of users in creating and sharing content", and can be found at http://awesome.leeds.ac.uk/
So that's an answer to Michelle's request. Now to a request of my own:
I am retiring (being made to retire) from Hull this September. I shall be devoting my time to AWE thereafter. But, given the ambition of the project (it will outlive me, I am sure), I am looking for collaborators (an eventual successor?). And for money... all work on this so far has been voluntary, and the only cash was a small grant for a Teaching Fellowship. Collaborative applications are always stronger, of course. And I am about to lose my status here, which will further weaken my search for ash. So if anyone out there would like to get involved, I'd be glad to hear from them. E-mail me at [log in to unmask] with the subject line AWE application.
Hope this has been helpful - and looking forward to hearing from you!
Peter
Peter Wilson
Academic Writing and Study Skills adviser
Study Advice Service
University of Hull
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network on behalf of Michelle Reid
Sent: Fri 05/06/2009 15:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Resources for academic English for home students
Hi All,
Here at Reading we are seeing a small, but increasing, number of home students who have English as a second language, and home students who lack confidence in academic English as they were never formally taught grammar at school.
We were wondering what kinds of online resources for academic English you use with your home students?
For example, we direct our students to the Academic Phrasebank www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk (good at extending academic vocab and modelling academic writing).
and also we suggest the Internet Grammar of English www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar (which, although very comprehensive, many students find too technical and detailed).
Does anyone know of any other good resources on academic English out there? - We would really appreciate your recommendations.
Best wishes
Michelle
Dr Michelle Reid, University Study Adviser and LearnHigher Research Officer
Carrington Building, Whiteknights, University of Reading, RG6 6UA| ( 0118 378 4242| : www.rdg.ac.uk/studyadvice