Who is this tutorial for?

This tutorial is designed to help early career researchers improve their writing skills in an academic context.

There is no cost to participate in this tutorial. It is offered as an open educational resource by INASP.

What will you learn?

At the end of this tutorial, you should be able to:

  • construct an argument for sections of your paper
  • identify plagiarism
  • apply paraphrasing techniques to strengthen your argument
  • apply plain English language principles to make your writing more active
  • identify your ideal writing environment
  • make use of external resources to continue your learning at your own pace

Length of the tutorial

This is a self-study tutorial.  You can join any time and stay enrolled in the tutorial for as long as you would like. However, we recommend that you complete the tutorial within 2 weeks of joining.

Topics covered

The tutorial consists of 4 learning resources followed by a quiz.

  1. Building your argument
  2. Plagiarism and paraphrasing
  3. Writing in plain English
  4. General writing tips
Expected time commitment

To get maximum benefit from the tutorial, you should plan to spend about 6 hours going through the learning resources and completing the quiz.

Completion criteria
  1. Going through all the learning resources;
  2. Achieving a passing score on the quiz; and
  3. Completing the feedback survey.

A certificate will be generated automatically for you once you have met the completion criteria. You can download this certificate from the tutorial homepage.

Connectivity required

The learning resources are text-based, so you do not need a high-bandwidth internet connection.

Deadlines

This is a self-study, self-paced tutorial, so there are no deadlines.

Technical support

We are unable to offer technical support for this tutorial. All the information you need to complete the tutorial successfully can be found in the introductory resource at the start of the tutorial.

Is the tutorial compatible with mobile devices?

We recommend that you use a computer for an optimal learning experience. If you do not have a computer, you can use a web browser on your mobile phone or tablet to access this tutorial. However, this tutorial is not compatible with the Moodle Mobile app.

Is there any advice on how to learn online?

This PDF document may be useful to help you prepare to learn online. It also contains answers to frequently asked questions.

Can the learning resources be reused or adapted?

Yes. The learning resources have been developed by INASP and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License

**You can enrolment in this tutorial anytime.**

You should first be logged in to this site. Create an account for yourself on this site (if you don't have one) or log in with your existing account. Click the 'Log in' link on the top right hand corner to proceed.

After you've logged in with your account, head to the course enrolment page, in case you're not on that page already. You may want to bookmark the course enrolment page in your browser to get to it easily. You will see a button called 'Enrol me'. Click this button to enrol in the tutorial.