ILMAESN: Academic Writing for Education

Module code: ILMAESN

Module provider: Global Academy

Credits: 0

ECTS credits: 0

Level: 7

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Mrs Gemma Peacock, email: g.peacock@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2026/7

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 26 March 2026

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module develops the academic language and writing skills needed for effective postgraduate study in Education. It supports international students in understanding UK Higher Education expectations and in producing clear, well-structured academic texts. Using Education-specific readings and tasks, the module builds students’ confidence in analysing assignment requirements, engaging with scholarly literature, and constructing coherent written arguments.

The module is designed for students entering English-medium postgraduate study and supports academic writing development across diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds.

As a non-credit-bearing module designed to complement disciplinary study, ILMAESN carries no formal assessment or independent study requirement; students are expected to apply the skills developed here directly to their credit-bearing coursework.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Apply knowledge of academic genres in Education to interpret assignment tasks and employ appropriate organisational patterns when planning and producing written work.
2. Demonstrate effective reading-into-writing skills through accurate paraphrase, summary, and synthesis of scholarly sources.
3. Employ task-appropriate academic language by selecting and controlling grammar, lexis, and cohesive devices suited to the demands of the assignment.
4. Demonstrate criticality in academic writing by integrating and evaluating the perspectives of others and articulating justified, well-supported claims.
5. Draw on multilingual and experiential resources, where relevant, to support comprehension, idea generation, and clarity in English-medium academic writing.

Module content

Classes focus on:

• Recognising and responding to key coursework genres in Education (e.g. essays, literature reviews, rationales, reflective accounts), including:
  -- expected structural and argumentation patterns and how these vary by task type.
  -- reading-into-writing processes, including source selection, paraphrase, summary and synthesis.
  -- how ‘voice’, ‘stance’, evaluation and justification are realised linguistically in written texts.
• Developing effective reading skills and strategies for engaging with Education texts, including:
  -- careful reading to build understanding of ideas, relationships and writer moves at sentence and paragraph level
  -- strategic reading to identify relevant concepts, arguments or examples (search reading, scanning, skimming).
• Building core academic writing skills, including: 
  -- integrating sources through paraphrasing, summarising, direct quotation, evaluation and synthesis 
  -- organising ideas for coherence and information flow in English-medium writing 
  -- using linguistic features of cohesion to clearly signal relationships between ideas and claims.
• Strengthening academic language use, including verb tense and aspect, nominalisation, clause and sentence structure, cohesion devices and reporting verbs. 
• Developing confidence and flexibility in academic communication, including guided discussions, collaborative text analysis, and supported drafting through focused writing tasks. 
• Preparing for dissertation writing by introducing the language necessary for key written components of MA-level research work, such as: 
  -- framing research problems, gaps and purposes 
  -- synthesising literature to build conceptual and theoretical grounding
  -- articulating justification, limitations and ethical considerations using clear, discipline-appropriate language
  -- shaping coherent rationales, methods sections and early dissertation “building blocks”. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module takes a discipline-specific, genre-based approach to language and literacy development, drawing on example student texts, published Education sources, and carefully designed AI-derived texts to support learning. Teaching and learning are delivered through a task-based approach combining reflective activities, guided analysis of texts, and opportunities for supported writing. Guided text analysis involves ‘noticing’ key organisational and linguistic features in context and practising the use of relevant language and structures.

Interactive tasks are regularly incorporated and scaffolded to build students’ confidence in participating in academic discussion.

In-person delivery is supported by digital tools where appropriate (e.g. short interactive tasks or quizzes), and by structured activities that enable students to apply skills directly to their own coursework writing with peer and tutor guidance. AI literacies are embedded through guided activities that use AI-generated samples to support text analysis, help students evaluate strengths and weaknesses in academic writing, and promote responsible and ethical use of AI tools in line with University policy.

Study hours

At least 32 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

There is no assessment on this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

There is no assessment on this module.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Sessions will take a task-based approach, enabling students to receive feedback from the instructor and from other students during class discussions. 

Reassessment

Additional costs