LANG1402 English for University Studies

How LANG1402 is assessed

The published assessment overview lists three graded assignments plus a fourth row, A4, for checkpoint tasks carrying 20% in total; the three checkpoint pages give the split inside that 20% as 5%, 10% and 5%. Both readings describe the same 100%, and the table shows the checkpoints separately because that is the level at which each has its own brief and deadline. Separately from the marks, the published attendance policy sets a pass condition: a minimum of 80% attendance, no more than 5 absences across a full 13 week schedule, and a Fail grade after 6 missed lessons. It carries no weighting and is not listed as an assessment task, which is why it is not a row above. Confirm weights and deadlines on the course site.

Current LANG1402 dates

Dates are as published in Dates are taken from the assessment overview and the course schedule for the Fall semester of 2026-27. The syllabus notes that specific due dates are posted on the course site, so confirm them there before planning around them.. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.

What LANG1402 covers

Thirteen chapters follow the three published modules, from university expectations and academic register through the planning, sourcing, drafting and hedging of a small scale research study to the informative talk and the written reflection that close the course.

It is an English for Academic Purposes course whose primary focus is language development and proficiency, and which also builds academic literacy skills. Nothing in it is assessed by recall.

Every mark comes from something you produce, and all of it grows out of one small research study that you choose, plan, source, write up, present aloud and then reflect on.

The three modules, and how they connect

Module 1 covers university life and academic identity, helping you navigate the transition to higher education, build confidence in academic register and develop strategies for personal and academic growth.

Module 2 is academic writing, and it equips you to plan, draft and refine a report on a small scale research study with an emphasis on source integration, coherence and accurate referencing. Module 3 develops academic communication and presentation, focusing on structure, audience awareness and effective verbal and non-verbal delivery.

Teaching runs as interactive tutorials built on group discussion and collaborative work, with input and feedback from instructors and peers.

University Expectations and Academic Register

The opening chapter is about a change in ownership rather than a change in difficulty.

School instruction both teaches material and ensures the work gets done; a university lecturer supplies a framework and the skills from which you explore a subject yourself, and a lecture is treated as the opening of a topic rather than the whole of it.

The chapter then turns to the first writing anyone judges you on, which is email, and separates the three dials that decide how it reads: tone, register and structure.

SMART Goals and Reflective Writing

An aspiration names a direction; a goal names a destination, a route and a date.

This chapter works the five criteria as a filter, reading each one by the failure it prevents rather than by its definition, and then turns to the reflective paragraph the lesson asks for, built from context, an action plan, a challenge and a strategy.

It also introduces the range of modal verbs that returns later as the main instrument for hedging a claim.

Reporting and Referencing What You Read

Reporting verbs are grouped by the action they describe, so that you can choose quickly under time pressure and so that a reader can see how you are reading a source.

Five sentence patterns build the attribution around the verb, three grammatical changes carry reported speech, and one exception matters more than the rest: a fact that is still true keeps the present tense.

The chapter closes on source types and on why a search engine result or a generated answer is a lead rather than a reference.

Academic Writing and the Researchable Question

Three texts on one topic are compared to show what makes writing academic, and the answer is never a single feature. The narrowing funnel is read as additive rather than reductive, because each stage supplies a component the question needs.

Six sample questions then show that being too broad is only one of four ways to fail, alongside being closed, loaded or merely definitional.

Judging Sources with the CRAAP Test

Five separate judgements replace one overall impression.

In the checkpoint lesson they become a scored instrument with a three point scale and three published bands, which matters less for its arithmetic than for what it does to a disagreement: two students who differ about a source now have to name the criterion they differ on.

The chapter also covers what makes peer feedback usable, which is specificity, a named criterion and an actionable next step.

Reading and Paraphrasing Sources Accurately

Skimming and scanning are two strategies with two different purposes, and the chapter maps them onto two moments in your own work. Summary and paraphrase are separated by length rather than by intention.

Seven techniques for rewriting are set out with the warning that comes attached to them: a paraphrase that uses only one of them has not been paraphrased effectively, and key terms, proper nouns and figures never move.

Planning the Research Study Report

The report has four sections with published word ranges, and reading them as a budget tells you where the marks are.

Two introductions on the same topic are compared feature by feature, which shows that a journalistic opening is not bad writing but simply does none of the four things your introduction is marked on.

The chapter then fixes the paragraph shape the rest of the report depends on: a claim, the evidence for it, and what the evidence means.

Building a Literature Review by Theme

Twelve of the report's thirty per cent ride on synthesis, and the published descriptors are explicit that the marginal band summarises sources in isolation while the strong band integrates them.

The synthesis matrix is the instrument that gets you from the first shape to the second, and the whole lesson is in the direction you read it: filled one source at a time, written one theme at a time.

Hedging: Writing with Appropriate Certainty

Cautious language is not timidity.

It manages the strength of a claim so that it matches the evidence behind it, and with three sources a sweeping statement is rarely defensible.

The chapter works the certainty range across four families of device and makes one recommendation about repairs: narrow the scope before you weaken the verb, because a precise small finding is worth more than a cautious large one.

Writing the Discussion and Conclusion

The discussion is where reporting stops and interpretation starts, and the sorting exercise that opens it is defined as much by exclusion as by content: four of the eight candidate elements belong somewhere else.

The conclusion has four moves and one prohibition, and the chapter closes on the citation patterns and the five minute check that the task achievement criterion quietly depends on.

Planning and Structuring an Informative Talk

An informative presentation has one aim, which is to help an audience understand something clearly and accurately.

That rules out emotional appeal, story-building and a closing call to action, all of which feel like good speaking and all of which cost time the evidence needs.

Seven engagement techniques are treated as planning decisions rather than as delivery tricks, and the chapter ends on the register target, which is speech that sounds spoken and stays precise.

Scripting and Delivering the Presentation

Twenty per cent of the whole course grade is delivery, which makes it the largest single criterion anywhere in the course and the only one that cannot be improved by reading.

The chapter covers the conversion from written to spoken language without losing the hedges, the phrase bank that lets a listener hear your structure, the vocal elements that fail at both ends of their range, and the three criteria on which every slide is scored separately.

Writing an Effective Reflection with DIEP

The final assessment asks you to look back rather than forward, choosing one of three focus areas and answering two guiding questions.

The four stages map onto the two questions with nothing left over, which is why a missing stage leaves half a question unanswered. The chapter's diagnosis is the one most first drafts need: describing an experience is not reflecting on it.

Worked example · free

Repair two research questions that fail for different reasons

Key terms

Academic Register

The variety of language chosen for a scholarly situation, marked by precise vocabulary, full forms rather than contractions and a measured tone. It is separate from politeness, so a message can be courteous and still be in the wrong register.

Guiding Research Question

The single focused question the whole report answers, stated in one sentence in the introduction and revisited in the conclusion. It decides which sources are relevant and what the discussion is allowed to conclude.

CRAAP Test

A five part checklist for judging whether a source is trustworthy enough for academic work, covering currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose. In the checkpoint lesson each part is rated from one to three and the total decides whether a source is kept, revised or replaced.

Synthesis Matrix

A table with themes down the side and sources across the top, filled in one source at a time so that agreements, differences and gaps become visible at a glance. Each completed row becomes one paragraph of the literature review.

Synthesis

Setting several sources beside one another so that agreements, contrasts and gaps become visible, rather than summarising each one in turn. It carries twelve per cent of the course grade inside the report rubric.

Paraphrase

A source's point rewritten in your own words and kept at about its original length, using more than one rewriting technique and keeping key terms, proper nouns and figures unchanged.

Hedging

The use of cautious language to manage the strength of a claim so that it matches the evidence behind it. It lets a writer show an appropriate level of certainty and protects an argument from being dismissed on one counterexample.

Reporting Verb

The verb that carries a source's idea into your sentence and says what the source was doing with it, such as reports, argues, concedes or demonstrates. Choosing one stronger than the source warrants is a claim your reference list can refute.

Reported Speech

The grammar used to relay what a source wrote, usually involving a step back in tense, a shift of pronouns and a rewriting of words anchored to the original moment. Facts that are still true keep the present tense.

Signposting

Spoken phrases that tell a listener where you are in a talk, covering the opening, the structure, the moves between sections, the key points and the close. It substitutes for the headings a reader would see.

Informative Presentation

A talk whose single aim is to help an audience understand something clearly and accurately, without persuading them to act or entertaining them with a story.

DIEP

A four stage framework for reflective writing covering describe, interpret, evaluate and plan. The four stages answer the two guiding questions of the final reflection with nothing left over.

LANG1402 FAQ

Questions students ask in each LANG1402 chapter

Why does the course spend a lesson on writing emails?

Because it is the first piece of your writing that a member of staff reads and judges, and because the three properties it exercises are the same ones the assessed work is marked on. Style and tone suited to audience and purpose appear inside the report rubric, and word choice, tone and register are a named criterion in the presentation rubric. Chapter 01 · University Expectations and Academic Register

Why does the course care whether I can write a goal?

Because the final reflection asks what you learned and how, and answering that well needs specific moments to point at. A goal with a number and a date leaves evidence behind; a general wish to improve leaves only an impression, which the published descriptors call surface-level. Chapter 02 · SMART Goals and Reflective Writing

Why is says discouraged in academic writing?

Because it tells a reader nothing. Every source says something, so the word carries no information about whether the author was presenting a fact, defending a contested position, conceding ground or reporting a result. Swapping in a precise verb can change a paragraph from a list into an argument, because three sources that argue are in dispute while three that report merely agree about facts. Chapter 03 · Reporting and Referencing What You Read

Is my question too broad or is something else wrong with it?

Ask both diagnostic questions before rewriting. Breadth is only one of four failures; a question can also be closed, loaded or definitional, and narrowing repairs none of those. If a reader could guess your answer in advance, the problem is what the question asks about rather than how much ground it covers. Chapter 04 · Academic Writing and the Researchable Question

Does a promotional source automatically fail?

Not automatically. The lesson asks you to identify which of three texts you would still use while citing it carefully because of a commercial or promotional purpose, which shows that a declared motive is a handling instruction rather than a disqualification. What it cannot do is carry a claim by itself, and it scores one on purpose, which is a veto if it is also weak elsewhere. Chapter 05 · Judging Sources with the CRAAP Test

How do I know whether my paraphrase is close enough to the original to be a problem?

Read it aloud without the original in front of you. If you can still hear the source sentence underneath yours, you have changed words rather than writing. The published test is structural: a version that swaps only synonyms has used one technique, and the guidance says a single technique is not effective paraphrasing. Chapter 06 · Reading and Paraphrasing Sources Accurately

Do I have to keep to the word range for each section?

The ranges are published guidance inside a total that is enforced: text beyond the upper word limit does not contribute to the grade, and the reference list is excluded from the count. Because the midpoints already add to about eleven hundred words, a section that overruns takes its words from another section rather than from spare capacity. Chapter 07 · Planning the Research Study Report

What actually counts as synthesis rather than summary?

A paragraph that opens with a claim about the literature in your own voice, brings in two or more sources joined by a relationship word, and closes by saying what they jointly establish. If every paragraph names one author and reports what that author found, the section is a set of summaries however well each one is written. Chapter 08 · Building a Literature Review by Theme

Will hedging make my writing sound weak?

Only if it is applied indiscriminately. The published descriptors reward language that is precise and well matched to the audience and purpose, which means the strongest defensible claim rather than the weakest possible one. Qualifying every clause reads as an absence of position; qualifying the claims your evidence cannot carry reads as control. Chapter 09 · Hedging: Writing with Appropriate Certainty

What is the real difference between the literature review and the discussion?

The literature review reports what sources say and shows how they relate. The discussion says what those relationships mean for your question and what follows from them. The quickest test is the opening sentence of each paragraph: a fact about a source belongs in the review, a reading of the evidence belongs in the discussion. Chapter 10 · Writing the Discussion and Conclusion

Does the talk have to cover the same material as my report?

Not entirely. The lesson's position is that the content need not be completely different but should be modified for the audience. In practice that means the same finding, fewer sources named aloud, no methodological detail, and at least one figure converted into something a listener can picture. Chapter 11 · Planning and Structuring an Informative Talk

How do I stop my talk sounding like a paper read aloud?

Convert on three axes rather than one. Break long sentences so each carries a single idea, turn noun phrases back into verbs, and say the structure aloud where the report used headings. The test for each line is not whether it is formal enough but whether a classmate could follow it at speaking speed on one hearing. Chapter 12 · Scripting and Delivering the Presentation

Which of the three options should I choose?

The one where you can point to a specific moment of difficulty, feedback or change, because the descriptors reward specific examples and forward-looking goals rather than a general sense of improvement. Students tend to choose the option where everything went smoothly, and that is the hardest one to write about. Chapter 13 · Writing an Effective Reflection with DIEP

How to prepare for the assessments

Choose your question in the first three weeks and keep it, because the same small study becomes the report, the talk and the reflection, so a weak choice costs you marks four separate times. Build the synthesis matrix while you read rather than after, adding a fourth row that records what each source cannot be asked to support.

Then rehearse the two sentences that carry the two heaviest criteria: the analysis sentence that closes a literature review paragraph by saying what two sources jointly show, and the hedged claim in the discussion that says how far the finding reaches. Both are last sentences, and both are what a tired writer cuts first.

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