Short term course held on academic writing
ALIGARH : The UGC Human Resource Development Centre, Aligarh Muslim University organized an online “Short Term Course on Academic Writing ’2021-2022” for faculty members hailing from various disciplines, including English, Geography, Life Sciences, Commerce, Social Sciences, Hindi, Political Science, etc. and from different parts of the country.
Prof P K Kuri, University of Burdwan highlighted the importance of designing a survey in his lecture on ‘How to Design a Survey?’ He said, “Unless one’s sample is representative of the population, he or she won’t be able to predict the features of the population appropriately”.
Professor Amitabh Singh, School of International Relations, JNU spoke on ‘Use of Electronic Media in Enhancing Academic Writing Skills’ and underlined the impact of technology on students’ writing. He said technology has provided writers with an efficient toolbox allowing them to deal with various writing tasks.
Professor Asim Siddiqui, Chairperson, Department of English, AMU delineated the theme of ‘Writing a Book Proposal’. He said one needs not to be a good creative writer but he or she should be able to know how to use the language correctly, manage the data and arrive at the conclusion based on it.
Professor Anup Saikia, Department of Geography, Gauhati University supervised an interactive session on ‘How not to Pick a Predatory Journal’.
Professor Deepak Singh, Department of Political Science, Punjab University, Chandigarh delivered an interactive talk on ‘How to Write a Research Proposal?’ He discussed various techniques of writing a good research proposal in relation to the target audience.
Dr Sajidul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of English, AMU underscored the features of coherence in Academic Writing.
Professor Mohammad Akram, Department of Sociology, AMU spoke on ‘Issues related to quality of reviews and citation’ and Prof Baharul Islam, Chair, Communications Area and Centre of Excellence in Public Policy and Government, Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur, Uttarakhand, delivered a lecture on ‘Design Thinking Approach in Academic Writing’. He discussed the operating features and agenda of design thinking applied in academic writing. He urged the participants not to lose heart if they face rejections initially in publishing.
Professor Aysha Munira Rasheed, Department of English, AMU presented a talk on ‘Mechanics in Academic Writing’ and provided tips to the participants regarding use of punctuation and common grammatical errors in second language writing.
Dr Asif Ali Syed, Department of Business Administration, AMU provided training in ‘Critical Thinking Skills Required for Contextual Academic Writing Situations’ and focused on how thinking affects our actions and how ideas provide the foundation of everything that we do.
Earlier, Prof Raashid Nehal, Course Coordinator, while discussing the objectives of the programme remarked that writing is an agent of change and the subtleties of academic writing skills influence work, profession and other academic excellence.
Dr Faiza Abbasi, Director, UGC HRDC said it was the first short term course of the year and response from the participants was gratifying. She said that NEP 2020 has attached importance to continuing professional development in the backdrop of globalization and internationalization of education.
More than 60 participants attended the week long online refresher course.