How the course on Academic Writing has been received by LMA 5 Students of the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS), 2018/2019 Academic Year
This is an appraisal of the ENGLISH 521 Course entitled “Academic Writing”. The course was introduced to the LMA 5 students in October of this school year, 2018/2019 and is taught by Prof. Daniel Nkemleke. It has been an interesting and inspiring course. Most of the topics covered in the course are related to the writing of our dissertations and open our minds to the different academic writing conventions and practices at tertiary level. Though sometimes brief, the lessons have been very effective and productive, as the lecturer pushes us into personal work and research—a thing which he thinks is good for students at the post-graduate level. With the course outline provided, and with objectives clearly stated, the course has been fully understood and we have find it very useful in the writing of our dissertations.
During lessons, Prof. Nkemleke creates an atmosphere which encourages interaction and builds confidence in us. Sometimes he spices his lessons with words of advice and encouragement towards our academic work. Through this course, our proficiency in written academic communication has significantly improved. For example, we have learned to write an abstract through modelling our initial texts on the basis of those of experienced academics, which the professor provided from published journals.
The dissertation writing process if often a very difficult thing for students in ENS. A course like this one could even begin in the first year (LMA 4), so that students learn to write in the language of research before they get to LMA 5.
Among the many other things we have learned to do are: writing an introduction to a dissertation, literature the review section, writing the abstract, and learning to integrate citations into our texts.
Agbor Pascal Ako, student-delegate
Email: akoagbor@yahoo.com
I started exchanging with Prof. Daniel Nkemleke lately and I would like to acknowledge that it has been a very enriching experience. As a junior scientist in Contemporary American Literature, I have severally needed guidance when I think of paper or a project. Prof. Nkemleke has always been available to provide the much-needed mentoring and editorial support. His useful remarks, criticisms and suggestions have been a significant contribution to my recent projects that lumps Theatre and Performance, Language and Cultural Policy Studies, together. The idea of his network for working together with students and colleagues at postdoc level is a timely asset for the department and beyond.
I participated in 2 international academic events organized at TU Chemnitz and presented a paper in a departmental lecture series, CASE 7. The first conference on “Crisis, Risks and New Regionalism in Europe II: Emergency Diasporas and Borderlands” took place from June 1-5 at Altes Heizhaus. This was a DAAD funded conference organized by the department of Intercultural Studies. The second one was the “1st Chemnitz/Dresden Corpus Linguistics & Digital Humanities Conference” organized by the department of English Language & Linguistics on July 18. On July 13, I presented a paper entitled: “Tertiary Academic Writing in Cameroon English in Comparison to Native English: Exploring Quantitative and Qualitative Patterns”. I discussed academic collaboration and publication with Dr Renata Povolna of the Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, who also presented a paper entitled: “Cross-cultural Analysis of Conference Abstracts”. We also had very fruitful academic discussions with the Nigerian participant at the event: Professor Alexandra Esimaje of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin City Nigeria.
I participated in a conference at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition (OBTA), May 12-16 under the theme: “Chasing Mystical Beast…The Reception of Creatures from Graeco-Roman Mythology in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture as Transformational Marker”. I presented a paper co-authored with Dr Divine Che Neba, a colleague in my department. Our presentation was entitled: “Myths, Beasts, and Creatures: Towards the Construction of Human Categories in Oral Tradition in Cameroon”. This conference was organized by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak, who received the Humboldt Alumni Prize for Innovative Research Initiative with me in June 2014. Our research collaboration began during that event, and today my university and OBTA are involved in a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Project in which she is the PI (Principal Investigator). The project involves three other universities: University of Roehampton, UK; University of New England, Australia, and Bar-Ilan University, Israel. This collaboration is an example of how the Network of scholars within the Humboldt Foundation scheme can have a multiplier effect with long lasting impact on the research of junior scientists.
