Workshop: Supervising and Assessing English-language Theses

Supervising and Assessing English-language Theses

In most subjects taught at WU, it is now possible for Bachelor’s and Master’s theses to be written in English, and students are making increasing use of this opportunity. Supervising and assessing such English-language theses presents new challenges because language and content are closely interconnected.

Target Group

Academic staff with responsibility for supervising and assessing English-language theses.

Workshop Goal

The workshop is designed to assist academic staff in understanding the particular issues that arise in connection with English-language theses. Since the interconnection between language and content is even stronger here than is the case with theses written in the student’s mother tongue, language problems can significantly detract from the content.

Workshop Content

• At which levels do language problems occur (word, sentence, paragraphs and longer units of text, overall structure)?
• Which errors are ‘serious’ and which ‘minor’?
• What role does grammar play in making texts understandable?
• At what point does a language error become a problem of content?
• Which linguistic features of English texts written by non-native speakers are indicative of plagiarism?
• How, and how far, should language competence contribute to overall assessment?

Location, date and time

Friday, 30 November 2018, 9.00 am - 5.00 pm

All registered participants will be informed of the location by email one week before the event.

Fees and Registration

This workshop is open to a limited number of participants. The registration deadline is 16 Nov 2018.
Please note that you should notify us before the registration deadline if you are unable to attend the workshop. Otherwise the full fee will be charged.
Please let the Personnel Development and Planning Office know if you will not be attending. There are often waiting lists for the workshops, and this will give one of your colleagues the chance to attend. In addition, if we can fill the vacancy with someone from the waiting list, no cancellation charges will apply for you.

The course fee is €20.

Trainer

	Prof. Dr. Gerlinde Mautner   Professor of English Business Communication, WU Honorary Visiting Professor, Cass Business School (City University, London, UK) Research focus: organisational and marketing communication; critical discourse analysis; legal discourse (see https://www.wu.ac.at/ebc/about-us/team/gerlinde-mautner/ Frequently conducts research at British universities Has published widely in international outlets Acts as a reviewer for top-rated journals Many years of experience in training post-docs and faculty in academic writing Author of Englische Grammatik für die Wirtschaftskommunikation (Linde-Verlag, 3rd ed., 2014), Wissenschaftliches Englisch: Stilsicher Schreiben in Studium und Wissenschaft (utb 3444; Konstanz: UVK, 2nd ed., 2016) and Discourse and Management: Critical Perspectives Through the Language Lens (Palgrave, 2016).
Foto: Copyright © FWF / Lusser
	Dr. Christopher Ross   Dr. Christopher Ross is a recently retired senior lecturer at WU‘s Department of English Business Communication. He has extensive experience in translation, proofreading, teaching as well as in academic supervision and examining, both in the UK and in Austria.