ES5000 Graduate English I
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · Sem 1 AY26/27ES5000 Overview
- National University of Singapore
- Semester 1, AY2026/27
- Postgraduate
- Continuous assessment course
- Suggested 8 hours per week
What the course sets out to do
ES5000 Graduate English I is a course in academic English for graduate students at the National University of Singapore.
- Assessed entirely by coursework Six components make up 100% of the grade, and the outline describes the course as continuous assessment.
- A pass is a grade, not a score You need at least a C to pass; students from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine need a C+.
- Writing carries half the grade The cause and effect paragraphs and the two problem-solution essays together carry 50%.
- Late or long costs 10% Late work and work over the word limit each attract a 10% penalty, so check the deadline and the word count line.
How ES5000 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Cause and Effect Paragraphs | 20% | Individual writing assignment, submitted by 23:59 on the second day after your Week 6 tutorial and discussed with your teacher in a Week 7 conference. |
| Problem-Solution Essay 1 | 20% | Essay submitted in Week 10 after the problem-solution lesson and peer review, then discussed in a Week 12 conference. |
| Problem-Solution Essay 2 | 10% | Revised essay submitted in Week 13. |
| Oral Presentation | 20% | A four-to-five-minute talk introducing yourself and your area of research, with visual aids, delivered in a numbered slot between Weeks 4 and 9. |
| Online Grammar Quizzes | 10% | Short timed quizzes in Weeks 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9; the first has ten questions with a ten-minute limit. |
| Class Interaction | 20% | Various ungraded writing tasks, plus preparedness for and contribution to online and in-class activities. |
The six published weights total 100%, and the outline describes the course as 100% continuous assessment. To pass the course you must obtain at least a C grade, and students from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine must obtain a C+; the outline states no separate minimum for any single component, so confirm on Canvas if that matters to your planning. Late work and work exceeding the word limit each carry a 10% penalty. Class interaction includes ungraded writing tasks as well as preparation and participation, so it is earned across the whole semester.
Current ES5000 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 29 August 2026 | Online Grammar Quiz 1 due | Words and word forms, due by 23:59 as the Week 3 wrap-up and the quiz page state. |
| 5 September 2026 | Online Grammar Quiz 2 due | Articles, due by 23:59 as the Week 4 wrap-up states. |
| 12 September 2026 | Online Grammar Quiz 3 due | Sentence structure, due by 23:59 as the Week 5 wrap-up states. |
| 14 to 18 September 2026 | Week 6: cause-effect paragraphs | Due at 23:59 on the second day after your own Week 6 tutorial. |
| 30 October 2026 | Oral presentation window closes | The due date shown on the oral presentation assignment page; the talk itself is given in your scheduled slot. |
Dates are as published in the course schedule and the weekly Canvas pages published for this offering. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What ES5000 covers
Twelve chapters follow the semester from the features that mark a text as academic, through vocabulary, word forms, positioning and the use of sources, to paragraphs, sentence structure, the cause-effect pattern, proofreading and the oral presentation.
Features of Academic English
Audience, purpose, organisation and style, and the language features that make a text read as academicWhy the course starts with register
The opening handout makes a claim that sounds obvious and is easy to underestimate: academic English is a different variety from the English you speak, and something acceptable in conversation may be out of place in an essay, a research paper or a thesis.
- Academic English as a register distinct from speech
- Audience: the expert reader and the other readers of graduate work
- Purpose and organisation as conventions of a genre
- Style: objective, intellectual, rational, serious, impersonal, formal
- Twelve language features grouped by the job they do
- Rewriting informal sentences and making wordy ones concise
Academic Vocabulary and the Academic Word List
How the list is organised, how word families work and how the weekly pages pace your study of itWhat the Academic Word List is for
Your discipline gives you its own terminology.
- Sub-technical vocabulary as the layer the list covers
- Word families, headwords and the most frequent member
- Ten sub lists ranked by frequency, and their sizes
- Spelling variants inside one family
- One sub list a week, as the weekly pages assign it
- The activity formats and what each one tests
Word Forms and Word Functions
Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, the jobs they do in a clause, and the suffixes that signal themThe first grammar topic, and why it comes first
Week 3 opens the grammar strand with words and word forms.
- Meaning, form and function as the three choices behind a word
- Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs defined by what they do
- Subject, object, predicate, attributive and adverbial functions
- Three rules connecting forms to functions
- Suffixes that signal each form, and their exceptions
- Error identification under the quiz's time limit
Positioning in the Academic Community
Persuasion in research writing, habits that help or hurt your standing, and one graduate writer's route to a voiceWhat positioning means in this course
Positioning is how a writer places a claim, and themselves, in relation to the readers who will judge it.
- Positioning as placing a claim in relation to its readers
- Induction, falsification and the limits of proof
- Anticipating objections as the core of academic persuasion
- Nine writing habits judged for their effect on your standing
- Discourse analysis, authorial voice and critical competence
- Choice as the idea that connects voice and convention
Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarising
When each method fits, the ICE method for quotations, and routines for paraphrase and summaryThree ways to bring in another writer's ideas
The Week 3 handout presents quoting, paraphrasing and summarising as different ways of including other people's ideas in your writing.
- Quotation, paraphrase and summary compared
- When exact words justify a quotation
- The ICE method: introduce, cite, explain
- Signal verbs and tense in APA
- A paraphrase routine that avoids word swapping
- A summary routine that keeps only the main ideas
APA Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism
In-text and end-of-text citations in APA seventh edition, three ways plagiarism happens, and declaring AI useResearch and referencing
The Week 3 handout begins with research, defined broadly as systematic investigation to discover facts or gain new insight.
- Primary and secondary research
- Why writers reference: credit and credibility
- In-text citations: narrative, parenthetical, direct quotation
- Reference list entries in APA seventh edition
- Copying, patch writing and uncredited paraphrase
- AI use, the declaration and the publisher-location conflict
Paragraph Unity and Coherence
The four features of an academic paragraph, the devices that link its sentences, and the orders that organise itWhat an academic paragraph contains
The Week 4 handout lists four features expected in an expository or argumentative paragraph: a topic sentence, supporting sentences, proper referencing of sources and a concluding sentence.
- Topic sentence, support, referencing and conclusion
- Linking words, given-to-new, keywords and associated words
- Unity: one idea tied to the thesis
- Cutting or relocating sentences that break unity
- Five orders for supporting sentences
- Cohesion checks from the peer review checklist
Sentence Structure and Clause Errors
Clause elements and patterns, independent and dependent clauses, sentence types, and the errors at the joinsFrom clause to sentence
The Week 5 grammar handout builds sentence structure from the bottom up. The simplest sentence is a single clause with a subject, the doer or topic, and a verb, what the subject does or what is said about it.
- Subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial
- Five basic clause patterns
- Independent and dependent clauses
- Relative, noun and adverb clauses
- Simple, compound and complex sentences
- Fragments, run-on sentences and comma splices
The Cause-Effect Pattern
Causes, effects or both, block and chain structures, and structure words whose direction must be checkedA pattern that organises much of academic writing
The Week 5 handout describes the cause-and-effect pattern as one of the most common ways of organising ideas in academic writing.
- Cause-and-effect, causes-only and effects-only tasks
- Block structure and its transition
- Chain structure and linked effects
- Choosing a structure from the prompt
- Structure words with the cause first
- Structure words with the effect first
Drafting and Peer Reviewing Cause-Effect Paragraphs
The draft, review, submission and conference cycle of the first written assignment, and the page formatThe first written assignment
The cause and effect paragraphs carry 20% of the grade and are the first piece of writing submitted for assessment.
- The weight and place of the first written assignment
- Drafting after the Week 5 lesson
- Peer review in the Week 6 class
- Submission two days after your tutorial
- The Week 7 teacher conference
- The style sheet and the two 10% penalties
Proofreading an Academic Text
Typographical, grammatical and stylistic errors, the six most frequent grammar errors, and a routine that finds themWhat proofreading means here
The proofreading handout assigned in Week 6 acknowledges that the word has no single definition.
- Proofreading as the final, surface-level stage of editing
- Misspellings that become real words
- Homophones and look-alike words
- Six frequent grammatical errors among NUS students
- Articles and countable nouns
- Stylistic consistency and a proofreading routine
Presenting Yourself and Your Research
The four-to-five-minute oral presentation, its four weighted criteria and a rehearsal plan built from themThe task
The oral presentation carries 20% of the grade. The brief asks for a talk of four to five minutes introducing yourself and your area of research, using visual aids to illustrate what you say.
- The task: introducing yourself and your research
- Four suggested points to cover
- Content and organisation at 30%
- Language and vocal elements at 30%
- Visual elements and visual aids
- Presentation weeks and the four-to-five-minute window
Its outline describes it as a chance to explore academic English and the communication skills needed to succeed as a graduate student in the age of generative AI, developing reading, writing and speaking so that you can take part with confidence in the academic community of your own discipline.
Four learning outcomes follow: using academic English accurately and appropriately, analysing the purpose, organisation and language of academic texts, writing well-structured paragraphs and essays, and integrating ideas from published sources into written and spoken work.
How the weeks are organised
The course is blended, combining online preparation with in-person tutorials.
Each weekly Canvas module has three parts: preparation, with readings, videos and exercises to complete before class; topics, listing what the tutorial covers; and a wrap-up with reminders, answers and further resources.
Class time is used for mini-lectures, discussion, student-teacher conferences, writing workshops and review of exercises, and the approaches named in the outline are task-based learning, lexico-grammatical analysis and genre analysis.
What the semester covers
The early weeks lay foundations: the features that distinguish academic English, the Academic Word List, words and word forms, positioning yourself in the academic community, quoting, paraphrasing and summarising, and referencing without plagiarism.
From Week 4 the focus moves to the paragraph, with unity and coherence, sentence structure and the cause-effect pattern, leading to the first written assignment, peer review, proofreading and a one-to-one conference. The later weeks turn to essay writing and the problem-solution pattern, the move from academic to professional writing, a second conference and a closing reflection.
Grammar topics and short online quizzes run alongside, and student presentations take place in numbered slots across several weeks.
How it is assessed
The outline describes ES5000 as a 100% continuous assessment course with six components: the cause and effect paragraphs, two problem-solution essays, an oral presentation, online grammar quizzes and class interaction.
To pass, you must obtain at least a C grade; students from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine must obtain a C+. Late work and work that exceeds the word limit each attract a 10% penalty.
Working with AI tools
The course takes a clear position.
It accepts that you may experiment with AI tools but distinguishes generating output wholesale from developing intermediate material yourself and from evaluating a tool's output, and it says the latter two require more capability. It will often ask for unaided work.
Representing an AI tool's output as your own without acknowledgement is plagiarism, and every assignment ends with a declaration of whether and how such tools were used.
Worked example · free
Rewriting a sentence into academic register
- 2Identify the informal words and the contraction.
- 2Replace vague reference to people with a checkable source of the view.
- 2Hedge the claim to match the evidence.
Key terms
- Academic Register
- The formal, objective and impersonal variety of English expected in essays, research papers and theses.
- Continuous Assessment
- Grading based entirely on work completed during the semester rather than on a final examination.
- Academic Word List
- A ranked list of word families used across academic fields, studied in the course one sub list at a time.
- Word Form
- The grammatical category of a word, such as noun, verb, adjective or adverb, chosen to fit its job in a sentence.
- Positioning
- How a writer presents a claim and their own stance in relation to the readers and the field.
- Paraphrase
- A restatement of a source's meaning in your own words and structure, still carrying a citation.
- APA Style
- The American Psychological Association citation system, used in its seventh edition for this course's assignments.
- Topic Sentence
- The sentence stating a paragraph's main claim and controlling idea.
- Cause-Effect Pattern
- An organisation of ideas that explains the reasons for something and its results, in block or chain form.
- AI Declaration
- The statement added to every assignment recording whether AI tools were used and for what purposes.
ES5000 FAQ
How is Graduate English I assessed?
Entirely by coursework. The outline lists six components: cause and effect paragraphs at 20%, problem-solution essay 1 at 20%, problem-solution essay 2 at 10%, an oral presentation at 20%, online grammar quizzes at 10% and class interaction at 20%, which together make up 100% of the grade.
What grade do I need to pass?
At least a C, according to the course outline. Students from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine need at least a C+. The outline states this as a condition for passing the course as a whole rather than attaching a minimum mark to any single component.
What counts towards class interaction?
The outline explains that class interaction consists of various ungraded writing tasks together with your preparedness for, and contribution to, online and in-class activities. It is a fifth of the grade and is earned week by week, so regular preparation and attendance matter.
How long is the oral presentation and what is it about?
Four to five minutes, introducing yourself and your area of research with visual aids. It is assessed on content and organisation, language and vocal elements, and visual elements at 30% each, and on visual aids at 10%.
Which referencing style does the course use?
APA, seventh edition, for all written assignments. The course supplies an APA guide to the main reference patterns and a set of examples, and each assignment ends with the course's AI declaration after the reference list.
How much time should I spend on the course each week?
The outline suggests about eight hours a week: three attending tutorials, two preparing for them, two on assignments, the presentation and grammar quizzes, and one revising what was covered in class.
Can I use AI tools for the assignments?
The course allows experimentation but expects much of the work to be unaided, and it treats presenting AI output as your own without acknowledgement as plagiarism. Every assignment includes a declaration naming any tool used and the purposes it was used for.
Questions students ask in each ES5000 chapter
- What makes writing academic rather than just formal?
- Formality is one ingredient. Academic writing is also shaped by its expert audience, by a purpose that fixes the genre and its order, and by a stance that is objective and rational. A formal letter of complaint is formal without being academic, because its purpose and reader are different. Chapter 01 · Features of Academic English
- How many words are in the Academic Word List?
- The course's list document gives sixty families in each of the first nine sub lists and thirty in the tenth, which comes to 570 families. Each family contains several forms, so the number of individual words is considerably larger than that figure. Chapter 02 · Academic Vocabulary and the Academic Word List
- What is the difference between word form and word function?
- Form is what kind of word it is, such as a noun or an adverb. Function is what it does in a particular sentence, such as acting as the subject. The rules connect them: a subject must be a noun or pronoun, and a word describing a verb must be an adverb. Chapter 03 · Word Forms and Word Functions
- Why can't I just present my results and let them speak for themselves?
- Because results can usually be interpreted in more than one way, and expert readers know it. The reading argues that proof is not available in the strict sense, so a writer has to guide the reader toward one interpretation by anticipating objections and showing how the claim fits what the field already knows. Chapter 04 · Positioning in the Academic Community
- When should I quote instead of paraphrasing?
- Quote when the exact wording matters: when it expresses an idea powerfully, when you could not improve on it, when you are about to discuss the author's position, or when the words themselves are your evidence. In most other cases a paraphrase serves the reader better and shows your understanding. Chapter 05 · Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarising
- Which referencing style does the course require?
- APA, seventh edition. The referencing handout states it for all writing assignments, and the course supplies an APA guide to the main reference patterns and a set of examples covering many types of source. Chapter 06 · APA Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism
- What is the difference between unity and coherence?
- Unity is about content: every sentence supports the paragraph's single main idea. Coherence is about connection: the sentences follow a logical order and are joined by transitions a reader can follow. A paragraph can be unified yet incoherent if its relevant sentences are badly ordered. Chapter 07 · Paragraph Unity and Coherence
- What is the difference between a run-on sentence and a comma splice?
- Both join independent clauses incorrectly. A run-on sentence has nothing between them; a comma splice has only a comma. Both are fixed the same way: add a coordinating conjunction after the comma, use a semicolon, or split the clauses into two sentences. Chapter 08 · Sentence Structure and Clause Errors
- Should I use block or chain structure for a cause-effect paragraph?
- Use block when the causes and effects are separate lists, since the handout calls it generally clearer, especially for short texts. Use chain when each effect leads to the next, because chain keeps every effect attached to the cause that produced it. Chapter 09 · The Cause-Effect Pattern
- When are the cause-effect paragraphs due?
- At 23:59 on the second day after your own Week 6 tutorial, according to the Week 6 wrap-up page. Because tutorial days differ between groups, check your own tutorial day and count forward from it rather than relying on a classmate's deadline. Chapter 10 · Drafting and Peer Reviewing Cause-Effect Paragraphs
- Is a spelling checker enough for proofreading?
- No. The handout recommends running one but warns against relying on it, because it cannot catch a misspelling that forms another real word, cannot choose between homophones, and may apply American spelling to a text that should be consistently British. Chapter 11 · Proofreading an Academic Text
- How long should the oral presentation be?
- Between four and five minutes. The brief asks you to rehearse until the talk lasts at least four minutes and at most five, and pacing is one of the assessed sub-criteria, so timing is part of the task rather than a formality. Chapter 12 · Presenting Yourself and Your Research
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat the weekly preparation section as the real start of each lesson: finish the handout exercises and the word list activity before class, then use the wrap-up answers to mark your own work the same week. The written assignments and the grammar quizzes all test skills that the preparation exercises rehearse, so the habit compounds across the semester.
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