Minor English: English in my own Discipline

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/L_ETBAALG008

Course Objective

You gain insight into features of the English language as used in various text types which are common in your own academic discipline and the professional domains associated with your specialization. After successfully completing this course you will have knowledge of the different types of texts written in your own discipline, either on an academic level or in the professional domain; insight into linguistic features related to structure, formality and stance in one or two text types in your discipline; and knowledge of several types of analysis and methods used in genre analysis and corpus linguistics. You will be able to apply these methods independently to a selection of texts from your discipline and use the knowledge gained from these analyses in your own writing.

Course Content

In the first couple of sessions, we will discuss different methods of analysis used in linguistics for analyzing characteristics of texts and apply them to texts. You will then choose one of these methods and apply this in an analysis of a collection of English texts in your own discipline, present the preliminary results of your analysis, and write a final research article in which you report on the analysis, following conventions from linguistic papers.

Teaching Methods

2 seminars of 2 hours per week in weeks 1
- 3.

Method of Assessment

The grade for this course will be based on the final report (75%) and the grade for the presentation (25%). In order to pass the course, you need a 5.5 minimum for each component.

Literature

Materials will be made available or listed on Canvas.

Target Audience

The Minor Engels/Minor in English as a whole is aimed at bachelor and premaster students across the university who want to improve their written English in an academic context. The Minor is not open for students in the BA programme CIW who are following the track in English Language and Communication Studies.

Additional Information

Attendance is obligatory (80% minimum). If you miss more classes, you may still be allowed to finish the course if you submit an alternative assignment, but only if you’ve attended 70% of the classes.

Recommended background knowledge

This course is only available as part of the Minor Engels/Minor in English. Students must have completed Writing 2 before embarking on this course.