Foreign languages

The expectations also differ depending on the discipline a paper is written in: the sciences are more liberal towards borrowing text because the focus of scientific papers are on facts, while the humanities value precise phrasing higher and so require there to be less overlapping between two papers.

Finally, we move to self-plagiarism ? a complicated concept that some students may be unaware of. One would assume that an author has exclusive rights to his papers and can use them as he pleases; however, this is not true for two main reasons. First, an academic paper implies that every idea written in it is original (is not just the author's idea, but is also a new idea written specifically for the paper) unless stated otherwise; second, once a paper has been published in an academic journal, using its contents falls under copyright law (Roig, 2015). There are various ways in which an author can illegally re-use old material. In his comprehensive paper on plagiarism, Roig (2015) describes such practices as duplicate publication (submitting the same article to several journals), data aggregation and disaggregation (publishing the same data with several additions or retractions), data segregation (publishing different parts of a single study in multiple journals), and self-plagiarism between different domains (e.g. publishing the data of a conference in an article, publishing the material of an article in a book).

It is important to understand that re-using your own papers is possible if you get permission to do so from the journal that holds the rights to your paper and if you explicitly mention the original paper in subsequent publications. Thus, to avoid self-plagiarism, I noted at the beginning of this part that I have previously written on the subject and described some of the same concepts.

Scholars sometimes feel pressured to self-plagiarize because their professional success often depends on meeting a certain quota of publications or producing as many publications as possible. Self-plagiarism may also occur simply because a writer is unaware of the ethical and legal issues that copying your own text implies. This happens especially often among international writers because self-plagiarism is sometimes counter-intuitive for scholars from academic cultures that do not follow the same standards. This is another reason why it is so important to draw students' attention to this practice being unacceptable in Anglo-American writing.

Unlike the previously mentioned principles, avoiding plagiarism requires not only understanding and awareness, but also a specific skill ? referencing. Referencing includes both in-text referencing (giving credit to an author for a quote, idea or study) and compiling the list of references at the end of one's paper. There are numerous referencing styles, the use of which depends on a paper's discipline or journal (some journals even have their own style of referencing). Most importantly, students need to be taught about the referencing styles most commonly used in their discipline; in addition, it may be helpful for a teacher to give students tips on how to use special online services that provide help to synthesize ready-made references or convert one referencing style into another.

Overall, academic principles require understanding and knowledge more than specific skills. A course in academic writing does not necessarily need to devote considerable time to the study of academic principles, but should be structured in a way that highlights their importance. For example, while examining academic style, it is viable to address how every feature of academic style aligns with the concept of English being a writer-responsible language; a teacher can also choose texts that show the importance of avoiding all types of plagiarism.

Academic style

Academic style is a hot topic in the academic community: many organizations, aiming to showcase the latest trends or shape writing style themselves, regularly publish updated style guides in which they give recommendation on how academic articles should be written; meanwhile, numerous scholars argue on the best ways to present information as well as the advantages and disadvantages of current trends.

The style of an academic paper can vary depending on the type of text, its purpose, and the discipline one is writing in. The style that corresponds with impersonal highly formalized writing can be referred to as `practical style'. Its sole purpose is to convey information as clearly as possible in the shortest available time. `Classic style', on the other hand, aims to not only explain information, but also grasp the reader's interest and make reading the contents of a paper enjoyable. This type of writing is more free-flowing and seeks to make the reader understand the subject as well as is possible, even if it means sacrificing brevity to a certain degree (Pinker, 2015).

While many style guides (APA Style Guide, 2010; Chicago Manual of Style, 2010) encourage their users to avoid using any informal language, it has been found (Hyland and Jiang, 2016) that a certain degree of informality (e.g. the use of personal pronouns, second person pronouns that refer to the reader) appears in academic prose and is acceptable. Interestingly, Hyland and Jiang (2016) also found that the degree of formality in academic papers in the past 40 years has been steadily increasing in social sciences and humanities but decreasing sharply in hard sciences such as biology and engineering. Perhaps, writers in the sciences have found that more inclusive writing can benefit their disciplines by increasing its audience, and that the information in scientific papers is too vital for a narrow field of writers to keep it entirely to themselves.

A good writer needs to be able to adjust to different publications and target audiences. The thing that is most important to keep in mind is that academic style is shaped by English being a writer-responsible language. Therefore, whatever your opinion on the best style is, your writing needs to be clear and concise. Even in the case of classic style, an author must only sacrifice brevity if it is essential for the purpose of improving understanding.

Brevity

In university students are often asked to submit papers that must have a minimum number of words or pages. This requirement can encourage students to write in a wordy manner, with unnecessarily-long constructions and multiple digressions that help them achieve the target number. In Russia, this practice is reinforced since an early age when pupils get higher marks in the state exams if they use bookish phrases and write long texts with little meaning.

A course in English academic writing should aim to eliminate this long-standing habit since it is unacceptable in the current Anglo-American academic tradition, which follows the principle of less being more - the shorter you can fully explain your thoughts, the better. The concept of brevity is vital to good academic writing and needs to be explicitly addressed in the classroom.

Reid (2010) refers to the process of making your writing more concise as `writing for strength' and highlights three major topics: using shorter structure words, eliminating deadwood, and determining if all information is necessary.

First, Reid (2010) talks about the words that make up the content of a sentence. The author suggests always using shorter phrases and constructions if they can convey the same meaning. For example, `in the course of' can usually be replaced with a simple `during', `at the present time' - with `now'. It might take some time for the students to accept this principle since throughout their whole time learning English they have likely been asked to replace the simple concise phrases with more complex constructions. Giving out lists of expressions that take up too much time and their more concise counterparts is a viable way of teaching this way of writing.

Next, Reid (2010) discusses the importance of ridding sentences of all the words and phrases that have no substantial meaning or function. The hedge words with no precise meaning, which writers use to take less responsibility for their statements, such as `quite', `basically', and `seems', as well as parts of constructions that can be omitted, for example `as a means' in `as a means to'. Pinker (2015) writes that sometimes hedging words are acceptable (e.g. when a statement really is not precisely accurate but needs to be said), but suggests eliminating them by qualifying a statement - explaining under which conditions and why an author cannot state something definitively. Also, Reid (2010) recommends avoiding `smothered verbs', referred to by Pinker (2015) as `zombie nouns'. These are verbs that have been needlessly nominalized (e.g. delete-deletion); they are usually longer than the corresponding verbs and require articles and prepositions (e.g. the deletion of), which make the sentence longer and harder to understand. Finally, the constructions `it is' and `there is' should be replaced because they make sentences longer and push the content to the end of the sentence.

Apart from making a paper shorter grammatically and lexically, an author must also determine if all the information in his text is necessary and cannot be omitted. In academic writing, every phrase should carry meaning and be indispensable; a good writer knows which background information is essential and which is superfluous and can explain an idea without repeating himself. Here, Pinker (2015) suggests avoiding inadequate signposting - talking about what has been or will be said in a way that does not assist a reader's understanding of the text. During a course in academic writing, a teacher can explain when signposting is required (e.g. in certain parts of a paper or at the beginning or end of a long and complex passage) and how to use it without taking too much of a reader's time or confusing the readers instead of helping them.

Once again, not only have most international students (especially in Russia) not been taught to edit their writing for strength, they have likely been encouraged to do the opposite. While completely changing students' writing habits is a challenging task, it is also one of the most important aspects of a course in academic writing and should receive a lot of attention.

Clarity

The purpose of all academic writing is to fully relay the intended information to its target audience. Therefore, a piece of perfect academic writing presents information in a way that all its readers will easily understand in exactly the same way. While such an ideal cannot be achieved, one can strive for it by writing with clarity and avoiding ambiguity. A writer can only do so if he understands the subject matter well, can look at his writing from the point of view of the reader, and has a proficient grasp of grammar and vocabulary.

Pinker (2015) suggests that one of the major obstacles in writing clearly is the `curse of knowledge' - assuming a reader knows as much as you do or that a reader sees the problem from your point of view. This problem results in writers not providing adequate explanation and using vocabulary and grammar that only the writer himself (and a select few) find easy to understand. The main consequence of the curse of knowledge is the overuse of technical terms and jargon. Scholars are often so used to speaking in vocabulary that is exclusive to their narrow field that they overestimate how wide-spread these words are. In fact, a lot of jargon that appears in academic papers makes it difficult even for those well-versed in the field to understand what the writer intended to say. Pinker (2015) offers an example of him struggling to read a paper in psychology (his professional field) because it abounded in terms that even he needed to look up. Sometimes the overuse of such vocabulary can be a sign of a writer's insecurity: a novice scholar may feel pressured to fill his paper with complicated jargon to appear more knowledgeable in his academic field. While technical terms are often necessary, a writer must always be aware of what his intended reader is most likely to know and make it a priority to adapt his papers accordingly. Any audience of an academic paper consists of people with a varying degree of proficiency in the subject at hand, and it is the task of a skilled writer to get his point across to as many readers as possible, without overexplaining and leaving too much background information out.

The clarity of a text also suffers when a writer uses clichйs - fixed phrases that are commonly used in certain situations. In the practical style, a writer must do his best to convey his idea in as short and precise a way as possible. Ready-made phrases that apply to general situations are discouraged since it is usually possible to frame an idea in a way that best suits a particular question. Clichйs and buzz words are often a sign that a writer has nothing to say or cannot put his ideas into words. In less formal writing (the classic style), these hackneyed devices make the text less pleasant to read because many people are tired of hearing the same expressions so many times. Pinker (2015) recommends being creative with idioms (e.g. using them in their literal sense, changing them slightly, using the full expression instead of the common fragment) to give writing more flavor.

Reid (2010) focuses on the most common grammar problems that appear in academic texts. First, she talks about carefully using pronouns to avoid ambiguity. Personal (e.g. `he', `she', `it') pronouns and demonstrative (e.g. `this', `that') pronouns can appear in a sentence in a way that makes it unclear what they refer to. For example, writers may use a personal pronoun in a sentence that has several nouns or begin a sentence with a demonstrative pronoun after mentioning several ideas in the preceding sentences. Reid (2010) recommends replacing personal pronouns with synonyms and supplementing demonstrative pronouns with words that indicate precisely what the pronoun refers to (e.g. `this problem' or `this study'). Similarly, writers must be careful when using relative pronouns because they present the same problems and may cause ambiguity.

Converting passive structures into the active voice is another way of improving clarity (as well as brevity). The passive voice usually leads to longer sentences that are harder to understand because essential information often gets placed at the end. Authors (Reid, 2010; Pinker, 2015) and style guides (APA Style Guide, 2010; Chicago Manual of Style, 2010) also note that the passive voice makes writing less affirmative and concrete. The debate on whether the passive voice should be abandoned has been going on for many decades. Reid (2010) argues that there are no situations in which a sentence cannot be bettered by making all the constructions active; Steven Pinker (2015) and multiple style guides (APA Style Guide, 2010; Chicago Manual of Style, 2010), however, note several instances when the passive voice is acceptable, for example, when a writer wants to show the agent of an action is irrelevant, unknown or obvious. In a course in academic writing, a teacher can voice both opinions and leave it up to the students to decide which view seems more sensible.

The incorrect use of modifiers is another problem that can lead to sentences being ambiguous or hard to understand. Reid (2010) examines three types of modifiers that impede understanding: squinting, misplaced, and dangling. Squinting modifiers are placed between two words and can refer to either one of them (e.g. Wendy said after I came she washed the dishes). Sentences with such modifiers can be read two ways, which will cause the reader to struggle to grasp the writer's point. If a sentence has two words or phrases that can be modified, squinting modifiers can be eliminated by placing them before the first word or after the second (depending on which word you intend to modify). Misplaced modifiers appear in the wrong grammatical position and appear to modify the wrong structure: the robbers nearly took all his things, he was devastated. Here, it is unclear why the man in question was devastated since the robbers did not actually take anything, changing the modifiers position would completely change the meaning of the sentence. To avoid misplaced modifiers, a writer needs to be more careful and place modifying phrases in positions where it is clear which phrase is modified. Finally, dangling modifiers occur when the phrase they are supposed to modify is omitted from the sentence. A dangling modifier can make a sentence unintelligible or comical: completely exhausted, the paper was finished at midnight. Here, the agent that was completely exhausted is not mentioned, thus it appears that the paper was the one that was tired. Adding the modified phrase and placing it into the correct position can solve the problem of dangling modifiers. In many English courses, modifiers do not receive enough attention, so simply explaining the common mistakes in using modifiers and drawing attention to such problems during corrective feedback can help make students' writing clearer and more professional.

Many students also struggle with using parallel structures. In my teaching experience, I have found that this is one of the most common problem areas among those who have just begun composing complicated texts that include long composite sentences. When several parts of a sentence are used in semantically and grammatically equivalent (parallel) positions, they need to be used in the same form ? this is called 'parallel structures'. For example, a list cannot consist of a set of adjectives but end with a noun: they all were young, tall, skinny, and bakers. The word 'bakers' here does not fit into the parallel structure of the list. Reid (2010) notes that parallel structures can be applied not only at the level of a sentence, but also at the level of paragraphs or whole chapters. Thus, a writer can choose to begin every chapter with a similar construction to better bring the whole text together. Many international bachelor students are entirely unaware of the concept of parallel structures, explaining how to use this device and avoid mistakes can improve students' writing both grammatically and stylistically.

Finally, punctuation is a topic that can be addressed during an academic writing course. English punctuation is a very complex subject with differences among types of English (American and British) and principles that require understanding rather than the knowledge of strict rules. The correct use of commas, colons, semicolons, brackets, and dashes helps highlight information, makes a sentence easier to understand, and shows a writer has a complete grasp of English grammar. As Gorlewski & Haveron-Smith (2012) note, most pupils graduating high school in America have little idea of the full range of punctuation that is available to them. Among international students, the problem is likely even more serious: many see English punctuation as almost random, used when a writer decides it is necessary to make a sentence easier to read. Ideally, the topic of punctuation should be addressed in classes on general English; however, if the focus is not sufficient, an academic writing course can also examine some features of English punctuation.

Overall, clarity deals with making text less ambiguous and easier to comprehend, so this aspect of style should be one of the main focuses of a course in academic writing. In this part, we discussed improving a paper's clarity through vocabulary and grammar. In terms of vocabulary, a writer needs to avoid clichйs and be careful when using technical terms and jargon. As for grammar, using pronouns, modifiers, parallel structures, and punctuation, as well as converting passive structures into active - can all help an academic paper's style.

In conclusion, most students are not aware of many aspects of academic style and of the ways they can improve their writing. A course in academic writing can significantly improve the quality of students' academic papers by showing what is most important in academic texts, introducing students to some of the common mistakes most writers make, and offering some methods to make any texts clearer and more concise.

Of course, apart from the linguistic topics discussed above there are other issues that may impede concise and clear writing: a writer may have problems with logically arranging his ideas or may not have a clear view of what he wants to say. While these problems relate more to general academic skills and less to academic writing, writing high-quality writer-responsible academic texts may help students develop in these areas as well.

Structure & Organization

While academic principles and style are central to academic writing, a scholar cannot compose a paper unless he understands what parts it must consist of and how these parts are to be written. In my previous paper (Morzhakov, 2016), I provided an in depth look at the structural elements that appear in academic publications in the fields of social sciences and humanities. This paper will focus on what structural elements need to be taught in a course of academic writing and how they can be approached. The study (Morzhakov, 2016) showed that three structural elements invariably appear in academic articles: the title, the text of the paper, and the references section; in addition, an abstract and keywords are usually required.

The paper's title does not require special attention unless the conventions of composing papers' titles differ significantly between the Anglo-American and the students' academic cultures. In Europe, England, America, and many other countries the rules are simple: every word in a title must be necessary, carry meaning, and inform the readers of what the work is about. Students will get practice thinking of titles in English if the teacher requires every work that is handed in to have one and provides feedback on the titles that the students choose.

The list of keywords, like the title, is needed so readers can find an article via search tools. To select the key terms of his paper correctly, a writer needs to understand the subject matter of his work and the conventions in his field of study (what is usually considered most important in the discipline). Therefore, selecting key terms has little to do with academic writing and more with the background knowledge of students in their discipline. An academic writing course can improve students' knowledge of key terms in their field if it is designed in cooperation with the faculty staff. The staff can help the writing instructor determine which discipline-specific texts to present to the class and which terms deserve special attention. In addition, Vitse & Poland (2017) note that some disciplines have internet tools that help authors determine the key terms in their papers.

The abstract, unlike the title and keywords, deserves to be the focus of a part of a course in academic writing. The abstract is a concise summary of the paper's contents, usually from 100 to 200 words long. The Chicago Manual of Style (2010) stresses the abstract's importance, as it is usually what readers use to decide if they will read an article. In Russia, few academic conventions on article writing have been agreed on; in fact, authors will often simply copy a part of the introduction and present it as the paper's abstract.

One of the most common model of composing an abstract is the Swales (1990) CARS model (Dudley-Evans, 2000; Reid, 2010). `CARS' stands for `Creating a Research Space' - a model that involves three stages that are referred to as `moves'. The first move provides general information on the topic of the research and, if necessary, explains the importance of the topic and/or gives a brief review of existing research. In the CARS model, this step is titled `establishing a research territory'. Next, the writer establishes the niche: goes into specifics and talks about the problem his paper will examine. This is done by indicating a research gap that the work aims to fill. A paper can continue existing research, disprove a view on the subject or examine a phenomenon that has not yet been studied. The last step is called `filling the niche', here the writer talks about what his paper does to fill the identified research gap and how it does it. Usually, this move gives a brief overview of the work's purpose, methods, and findings; a writer may also find it viable to describe the paper's structure. Each step must be accomplished in 1 or 2 sentences, and, altogether, the abstract usually does not exceed 200 words. Therefore, like in the title, every word needs to serve a function and be carefully chosen.

Another popular theory of composing abstracts is Bhatia's (1993) IMRD model. According to this theory, the abstract should be written with a more practical approach by first presenting the paper's purpose (introduction), methodology, results; and then discussing the results of the paper. In other words, the IMRD model gives less attention to general information than the CARS model, but provides some input on the possibility for future research on the subject and for the application of the study's results. Wang & Tu (2014) found that this model, often referred to as the `four-move theory', was used in journal articles more often than the CARS model.

Finally, Santos (1996) and Hyland (2004) suggested combining both models to create a five-move model that includes all the information of the IMRD model and provides general information to establish the context of the paper.

Overall, we can conclude that students need master five basic moves that are required compose an abstract successfully:

providing general information on the topic;

presenting a paper's purpose;

explaining the methodology;

summarizing the results;

discussing the results and suggesting areas future research.

While, as Anthony (1999) found, some journals require abstracts that are written according to other standards (some journals allow abstracts to be over 300 hundred words long), mastering these moves will prepare students to write for most publications and train abstract-writing skills that are translatable to writing abstracts of any kind.

The text of a paper consists of an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. It is likely that students will be familiar with what every part requires - most current high schools require students to write papers with this structure. Thus, it is not viable to devote considerable time to this topic within a course in academic writing since the course needs to focus on aspects that have not been fully covered during other courses. It is possible to limit teaching these structural elements to giving a brief outline of what information is included in every part and then providing feedback to students who hand in papers with faulty structure. In addition, a teacher can draw parallels between the abstract and the introduction and highlight the fact that most academic papers require the writer's own recommendations of the problem.

As for providing references for all used sources, this topic was covered in this paper's part on plagiarism. Knowing what information requires referencing and which referencing styles are most common should be enough for the course.

While carefully analyzing how to write each part of the body may prove an ineffective use of time, a course can focus on structuring information in the body of the text in general - on paragraphing. English, and especially academic English, has strict rules on how a paragraph is written. Scholars (Reid, 2010; Dugin, 2014) have highlighted the importance of the paragraph in English; in fact, Dugin (2014) argues that academic writing should be taught with a paragraph-first approach. Interestingly, although the paragraph in English has many peculiarities and serves a vital role in the text, Duncan (2007) notes there has been little research on paragraph characteristics and structure in the last 30 years.

Dugin (2014) suggests teaching academic writing by explicitly teaching students to write distinct types of paragraphs, namely, “narration, description, exemplification (illustration), process, comparison and contrast, cause-and-effect, and persuasion” (Dugin, 2014, p. 26). In each type of paragraphs Dugin (2014) suggests examining how the supporting sentences are arranged (which would explain paragraph structure) and studying the words and phrases that are commonly used. As for grammar and vocabulary, Dugin (2014) believes the best way is to address these aspects of writing on a work-by-work basis - explaining to each student what his mistakes are and how he can improve.

Reid (2010) recommends studying all types of paragraphs together; the author gives an overview of the theory on paragraphs and explains how it can be applied in modern academic writing. Reid (2010) explains that a paragraph presents a single `unit of meaning' - provides a finished thought on a particular topic. The topic sentence (usually the first, but sometimes the first two sentences of the paragraph) states what the paragraph will be about. Reid (2010) suggests thinking of the topic sentence as a `contract', in which a writer informs the reader what information this unit of meaning presents. The information of the paragraph is usually located in the supporting sentences, which are sometimes followed by a wrap-up sentence that makes a logical conclusion or provides an overview of what was said. Overall, a paragraph can be thought of as a micro essay, with its topic sentence being the introduction, the supporting sentences - the body, and the final sentence, although optional -a conclusion.

While both approaches have their advantages, Dugin's (2014) suggested model of teaching paragraphs is aimed at beginner writers who have little experience composing texts of any kind and would be better suited for a course in general English. In addition, most academic papers are written in the expository and argumentative genres, so explicitly targeting all seven types of paragraphs in class would most likely be an ineffective use of time. Thus, for students that have already acquired general writing skills, but still struggle with English academic conventions, using Reid's (2010) approach of discussing the theory of constructing all paragraphs regardless of type is more viable.

Overall, a course in academic writing should focus on the structural elements of a paper that are written differently in the Anglo-American tradition than in the students' national academic culture. Therefore, on the topic of structure, the course must give primary attention to writing abstracts and paragraphing.

Writing stage knowledge and skills

This part of the paper discussed the knowledge and skills that are requited at the stage of writing the paper. The writing stage should be the focus of a course in academic writing - it covers information that will be new for many students as it is specific to academic writing in English. Some of the topics require detailed instruction (e.g. writing abstracts) and most skills on academic style cannot be mastered without extensive drilling. An overall overview of the knowledge and skills required at the writing stage is presented in the following table:

As has been mentioned, academic principals mostly deal with students' knowledge and understanding rather than specific skills. Therefore, the spaces intended for micro and macro skills for 'objectivity' and 'English as a writer-responsible language' have been left blank. As for classic and practical styles, writing in these styles requires either the skills described later in the table or skills that are better trained in creative writing classes so, in order to avoid repetitions and include skills that do not concern academic writing, these skills have been omitted.

The writing stage deals with both core and supplementary academic writing knowledge and skills. The `core' group, which covers topics that are vital for the development of students' academic writing capabilities, are specific to academic writing, and are unlikely to be covered in other courses, includes:

English as a writer-responsible language ? it is the main principle that governs English academic writing, understanding which is critical for grasping how academic papers should be written. Even if this principle is covered in general English courses, it is viable to present it to the students an additional time to ensure their understanding.

Brevity and clarity ? English academic style is different from the style students are taught in general English classes and from the national academic style in most countries. Teaching students to write clearly and concisely should be one of the main focuses of a course in academic writing;

Writing abstracts ? the Anglo-American academic standards of abstracts are different from those in other countries and need to be addressed explicitly;

Composing a paragraph according to academic conventions ? this is a core topic unless this aspect of writing is sufficiently covered in general English classes.

The other topics discussed in the writing stage can be considered supplementary because they deal with areas that are universal to academic writing and not specifically with English writing and the Anglo-American tradition. Still, examining them during the course can improve the students' academic writing and general academic skills. 

2.3 Post-writing

First, in the post-writing stage we will examine editing a paper - a process that can occur only after the initial text (of a sentence, paragraph, or the whole paper) has been composed. Next, this part covers what a writer does with his work after it has been fully written: journal analysis and submission.

Editing

Fitzgerald (1987) describes editing as a process that involves revising both the meaning and the form of text, as well as both the micro- and macrostructure of a paper. In other words, a writer should revise every aspect discussed in the writing stage: the content, the style, and the organization. In addition, a writer needs to proofread his paper so it does not contain any slips, or grammar and spelling mistakes. Editing is a time-consuming process which most people find unpleasant, but most writers (e.g. Fitzgerald, 1987; Reid, 2010; Pinker, 2015) consider it to be an indispensable part of writing and note that it is virtually impossible to write a high-quality work on the first draft.

An academic paper or book intended for publishing will typically go through several stages of the editing process. Coleman (2014) explains that first, a writer will revise his own work (often numerous times); next, writers often seek a second opinion from a trusted friend or a colleague. After the paper is deemed acceptable, it is sent to a journal (or another organization that can publish the paper) where the work is peer-reviewed by impartial scholars, who give their recommendations on what can be improved. If the peer-review process shows that a paper is of high quality paper and deserves to be published, an editor goes through the work one more time and often suggests his own alterations. This rigorous review process that a paper needs to go through to be published shows both how serious the academic community is about the quality of the papers that are published and how important it is to edit a paper carefully, especially if one does not have the available means to receive help and advice from third parties. In terms of addressing the topic of editing within a course in academic writing, the role of editing in the publishing process deserves some attention. Students need to have a clear picture of what challenges academic writing entails; knowing how hard it is to publish a paper in an international journal can also motivate some to revise their own writing more carefully.

As for teaching students to revise writing properly, teachers' feedback on students' papers plays a key role - in essence, when a teacher edits a student's paper, he provides the model of what a student should do himself (which is how personal feedback should be presented). In addition, as Baleghizadeh & Gordani (2012) found, students' errors need to sometimes be explicitly discussed in class in a student-teacher conference format, where the students assess their own mistakes and provide solutions based on what they already know from the course. Another way to practice editing (and simulate the peer-review process) is to have the students review and edit each other's works.

Journal analysis

While the focus of the academic course in question is aimed at the papers written at the bachelor level (essays and research papers), some parts of the course can teach students about their potential scholarly life. Journal analysis is a multi-faceted process that can be addressed in a separate course at the Masters and Post-Graduate level (and, possibly, as an elective course for those already trying to get published or simply interested in the topic at the Bachelor level). Since, as this paper shows, so many different topics need to be addressed within a less-specialized course in academic writing, a course in general academic writing in English can only provide an introduction on the topic.

Carefully choosing a journal and then adapting the paper to the journal's preferences and requirements can increase the chances (and decrease the time) of a paper being accepted (Reid, 2010). A writer can only submit his paper to one journal at a time because otherwise he would run the risk of having his paper accepted in more than one journal which would be a violation of the principle of originality (Roig, 2015). In addition, the submission process takes a long time because of the number of submissions and the peer-review. Therefore, a writer who needs or wants to publish a paper within a certain time limit cannot afford to have his work rejected multiple times.

Choosing a journal means deciding which of the reputable peer-reviewed publications in a discipline are more likely to be interested in your paper. This involves analyzing: the topics that a journal focuses on; the types of research that are generally accepted; the typical length, structure, and layout of the papers; and the ratio between theory and practice. The closer your paper is to the standards of the journal, the higher the chance of the work being accepted.

After the choice is made, a paper needs to be adapted according to the guidelines of the journal. Publications can use specific types of abstracts, prefer a certain kind of titles, and have guidelines on the style or structure of a paper. For example, some publications prefer titles that capture the readers' attention, others value those that are factual and formal. No matter how carefully a journal is chosen to fit the paper that has been written, a text can always be altered to increase its appeal to a journal (Reid, 2010).

Journal analysis requires multiple skills that take practice to master and require a deep understanding of the discipline and of how papers are published within the field. A course in academic writing at the Bachelor level can highlight how important an individual approach to journals is, and can create an outline of the factors that can affect a scholar's choice of a publication. Providing Bachelor students with a basic understanding of scholarly life can help them decide if they want to continue their education and devote themselves to research.

Post-writing stage knowledge and skills

The knowledge and skills at the post-writing stage are supplementary to the writing stage and should not be the primary focus of an academic writing course. While editing is essential, it is a skill that students practice throughout their whole education; if a student understands all the aspects of writing that were discussed earlier in the paper, the success of his editing mostly depends on his determination. Journal analysis, on the other hand, is specific to academic writing, but at the bachelor level is not the top priority. Still, these aspects deserve to be mentioned during the course (if time permits) and can benefit students in the future. An overall overview of the knowledge and skills required at the writing stage is presented in the following table:

3. Possible Approaches to Using the Classification

Based on the research conducted for this paper two classifications of writing skills and knowledge have been created. Classification 1 (see Appendix 1) presents the whole range of core and supplementary knowledge and skills that can be taught during a course in English academic writing at the Bachelor level of education. Since the amount of time devoted to academic writing within a curriculum differs between universities and programs within the universities, we have created an additional shortened classification dedicated to the core skills and knowledge that deal exclusively with English academic writing and are unlikely to be found in other courses (see Appendix 2). The reasoning behind the way the topics have been divided into core and supplementary topics has been presented in the previous chapter.

Classification 1 can be used to design a series of courses (preferably spanning several years) that seeks to develop students into all-around competent scholars capable of composing high quality academic texts in English. Using classification 2, one can design a short writing-focused course that addresses common mistakes and improves the skills and knowledge that are specific to English academic writing. Additionally, a faculty can add topics from classification 1 to the core group of topic in order to best suit the needs of their students and supplement the general academic writing skills developed in other courses.

The ways of actually teaching academic writing are numerous and the best has not yet been agreed on. However, to make the paper and classification more practicable, this part will discuss the recommended target audience of a course in academic writing and the possible types of writing courses that can be designed with the classification as a basis.

3.1 Target Audience

In America, the most common approach to academic writing instruction is the use of first-year composition courses (e.g. Harvard). However, this approach requires students to already be proficient speakers of English when the courses begin. The study of official CEFR documents (CEFR Framework, 2011; Guide to the CEFR, 2013) in my previous paper (Morzhakov, 2016) showed that students should master writing at the B2 level or higher for a specialized course in English academic writing to be effectively taught. Many students in Russia and other countries begin their Bachelor education at a lower level of proficiency (usually B1) and need some preparation before beginning such a course. Still, certain elements of English writing from the classification of academic skills and knowledge can be addressed during first-year general English classes: English being writer-responsible, the structure of a paragraph, and argumentation. This would provide an introduction into English academic writing and prepare students for a more specialized course.

The year the course in English academic writing starts can be based on how much time a program is prepared to devote to the subject and how deep the students' learning is planned to be. As we have mentioned a course in academic writing that presents both general skills and knowledge and those that are specific to English academic writing should span several years, so it would be most productive to begin such a course at the end of the second year of education or at the beginning of the third (when students have already had over a year of general English classes but still have several years of education left. Personally, I believe academic writing classes can partly or even fully replace general English around the third years of bachelor education, as long as students' speaking skills are sufficiently addressed in class (e.g. through discussions of common mistakes, through presentations).

If a program cannot devote significant time to academic writing, a short writing-centered academic writing course needs to be taught during the 3rd or 4th year of education. Some students are expected to produce English academic texts during their last year of Bachelor education (e.g. many students in the Moscow HSE have to write and present an English draft of their final paper), it is unacceptable that on many study programs students have to do this without proper instruction in academic writing.

Thus, the target audience of the course in question is Bachelor students who have reached the C1 level of English proficiency and are in their second, third or fourth year of tertiary education.

3.2 Types of Academic Writing Courses

There are currently two major models of designing academic writing courses: general composition courses popular in US and UK universities and writing in the disciplines, which is practiced more in Europe and is currently being implemented in many colleges in the UK and the US.

General composition courses are usually taken by American students in their first year and are taught by writing specialists (usually English professors) who do not specialize in the students' discipline. By analyzing texts from the field of literature, history or culture, academic writing is taught as a generic skill separate from context.

As an example of such an approach, we can analyze the academic writing courses available at the Harvard writing center (extension.harvard.edu, 2017). The courses are arranged from most basic (Expo-E5, which focuses on basic grammar) to specialized (ex. Expo-E42A ? writing in the humanities, Expo-E42B ? writing in the social sciences). All freshmen have to take the freshmen expository writing course (Expo-20). If they are ready on enrollment, they can take it straight away; if they are not, students first need to take introductory writing courses (Expo-10) or courses in basic grammar (Expo-5). According to the Harvard website (writingprogram.fas.harvard.edu, 2017), the mandatory Expo-20 courses do not aim to give students knowledge in a particular field of study, but rather aim to teach students academic writing in general. The courses seek to develop on a generic level that is applicable across all disciplines such skills as structuring arguments, using evidence, and avoiding plagiarizing. If we examine the courses themselves, most of them focus on the fields of literature (e.g. topics like " Poetry of War", "Southern Writers Reconsidered", "Living Authors") and on social issues (e.g. "Nature of Freedom and Equality", "Urban America") and are taught by English professors.

While it may seem that the specialized courses that focus on writing in specific fields (business, humanities, social sciences, and science) do not follow the generic approach, upon further analysis we find that this is not entirely true. First, students that enroll in writing in the humanities and writing in the social sciences study a single predetermined topic ("The Post-Modern Novel" for humanities and "Space and Place" for social sciences) that, for most students, will not be connected directly to their particular discipline. Thus, a bachelor in history who wants to improve his academic writing in his field can only practice by writing about post-modern literature. As for the business and science courses, they require the students to choose texts in their own discipline and even conduct a small-scale research project on a topic of their choice. Thus, these two courses can be considered following the less-generic approach even though they are both taught by a lecturer in English and literature. It must be noted that these courses are voluntary so many students will only have attended the generic expo-20 courses by the time they graduate. We can see that overall the writing courses at Harvard develop students' academic writing skills separately from the students' education in their chosen discipline. Of course, students then apply the knowledge and skills to write papers for many of their other courses and so practice academic writing in their own discipline too, but this is done through trial and error rather than explicit instruction.