Blog Raphaela Gallner

Since I am in my fourth year of university and as I spent one semester in New Orleans, Louisiana, I already have some experience in writing English papers. Nevertheless is my bachelor thesis, which was part of my studies at the University of Innsbruck, the only extensive English paper (with a length of about 50 pages), I have written so far. When I wrote my bachelor thesis, I had to choose between writing in English or German. My topic was “Open Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises” and as open innovation is a cross-country and internationally discussed topic, I decided to write my thesis in English. I based my decision on the exclusively English literature, which is available in national and international online libraries.

Even though I am used to write English papers (I wrote my last German paper about two years ago), I still encounter problems when I have to write academic papers. For me, the biggest challenge is to find the suitable expressions and synonyms to transfer my thoughts and knowledge on an academic level. Normally, I have to open an online thesaurus while writing my paper in order to be able to switch between expressions and synonyms at any time. Even if I have found an adequate synonym, I sometimes struggle with finding out whether the expression fits into the context or not. Therefore I hope that the “academic writing” course will help me to enlarge my vocabulary, especially on an academic level, in order to reduce my dependence on online glossaries.

Another weakness of mine is grammar, especially the use of passive voice or the wrong time. I know that one has to avoid passive voice in academic writing as far as possible, but in my opinion passive voice often sounds smarter and more convenient than active voice. For that reason I often use passive formulations out of habit, which I first notice while proofreading. As the rewording of active into passive voice is often very time-consuming and could be prevented easily, if I would recognize these grammar mistakes while writing a paper and not while proofreading, I could improve myself a lot regarding the avoidable extra work. In regard to the tense issue, I sometimes feel unsure whether to use present or past tense. For example, if I am indirectly quoting an author who published his work in 2000:
On the one hand I assume to use present tense, if the publications are still on the present level of research, but on the other hand, the publications are thirteen years ago, which is why I assume that the past tense might be appropriate too.

I hope that this course will help me to improve my academic writing skills in order to be well-prepared for the Canadian part of the Master’s Program "Global Business", which is going to start this summer. But first and foremost, I hope to gain more confidence regarding my writing skills especially because I have to start my master thesis next year.