Teaching research writing with a flipped classroom approach

We present a research article writing course that uses a flipped classroom approach for independent, personalised learning (Deroey & Skipp, 2023). The course aims to improve insight into the structural, stylistic and rhetorical features of research articles as well as the writing and publication process. Its five interlocking components are independent learning tasks, workshops, peer review, writing with reflection, and consultations. Learner autonomy is promoted through corpus work (Charles, 2018), analysis of disciplinary texts (Yasuda, 2011) and interviews with disciplinary experts. The course has been successfully delivered both fully online and on campus to several mixed-discipline cohorts of doctoral students.
Before the workshops, students complete independent learning tasks by reading the e-coursebook and completing exercises, including applications to their own texts. The submitted tasks allow us to illustrate key points and design activities with examples from participants’ writing. Submissions of article drafts with reflections further promote and document the application of course content. Peer review happens independently of the instructor but uses a template to guide feedback. Writing consultations with the lecturer provide additional personal feedback.
This course stimulates novice research writers to become writing researchers; maximises the added value of the workshops; and enables PhD students to manage their time better. We will explain how this independent, personalised approach works and formulate recommendations based on course evaluations and our experiences.
References
Charles, M. (2018). Corpus-assisted editing for doctoral students: More than just concordancing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 36, 15-25.
Deroey, K. L. B., & Skipp, J. (2023). Designing and delivering an online research article writing course for doctoral students in Luxembourg during Covid-19. In B. Fenton-Smith, J. Gimenez, K. Mansfield, M. Percy, & M. Spinillo (Eds.), International perspectives on teaching academic English in turbulent times (pp. 81-94). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283409-10
Yasuda, S. (2011). Genre-based tasks in foreign language writing: Developing writers’ genre awareness, linguistic knowledge, and writing competence. Journal of Second Language Writing, 20(2), 111-133.