The ability to use language effectively for writing and speaking in academic and professional settings is often perceived as a generic or “soft” skill, one that does not need to be taught explicitly as a part of professional training.
However, our work is rooted in a body of research and evidence-based practice in the well-established academic disciplines of Writing Studies, English for Academic Purposes, Professional and Technical Communication, and other related subfields.
Research in those fields holds that knowledge-making and knowledge acquisition, as well as professional training takes place through language use in writing and speaking, and that learning to use language effectively in academic and professional settings are necessary conditions for such education and training.
Furthermore, studies show that expecting students of all levels, as well as teaching and research staff to acquire the necessary skills in academic and professional language use on their own is not realistic.
Consequently, those skills need to be taught, explicitly and systematically, and that learners of those skills need to have multiple and frequent opportunities for practice and feedback from others.
Our unit provides OsloMet exactly with that kind of learning support. Specifically, our contributions include:
- A set of popular courses for doctoral researchers and other researchers who want to develop as research writers. We collaborate with OsloMet’s doctoral programs, OsloMet’s PhD forum, and research groups who want bespoke courses and workshops in addition to our ordinary course portfolio.
- Entire courses in academic and professional writing and communication as part of established study programs (for example: forkurs, EPS at TKD).
- Collaborative efforts with academic departments and programs across the university in developing evidence-based and sustainable teaching practices which integrate language and writing into disciplinary content instruction. Examples: the MA program in Applied Computer and Information Technology at TKD and the MA program in International Education and Development at LUI.
- Training course and workshops for teachers from various departments on topics in writing pedagogy (developed and delivered in collaboration with the OsloMet Academy).
- Collaborations with colleagues in the University Library to establish a unit for research support. Specifically, we are involved in developing the unit’s support for doctoral researchers and doctoral programs.
- We possess an in-demand expertise about writing at the doctoral level nationally. We help raise OsloMet’s national and international profile as well as to generate additional income, by holding courses and workshops on academic writing for external institutions and organizations, among them doctoral programs at NMH, HINN, UiO, HVL, UiA, VID, HiØ, and several national research schools.
We conduct research and publish on academic and professional writing and communication, and on the place of language and writing in higher education and research. We participate in several well-established international research networks and publish in high-quality journals in our field.
We seek external research funding, and we are currently involved in the following projects:
- DILAN: Digital Language and Communication Training for EU Scientists (dilan4scientists.eu). This is a 400 000 Euro Erasmus+ research grant, where we partner with researchers from Spain, UK, France, Romania. The objective of DILAN is to improve the ability of scientists to communicate their research results beyond the specialised community so that they reach diversified audiences and society at large.
- Doctoral education at the intersection between academia and the profession in Europe: towards innovative pedagogies of writing (research.chalmers.se) funded by Riksbankens jubileumsfond – The Swedish foundation for humanities and social sciences. This is an international research project bringing together writing researchers from Sweden, Norway, the UK, and Spain and aims to address the evolving writing needs of doctoral students as they increasingly move beyond academia.
- Engineering Management Communication in Global Contexts (uni.oslomet.no). This is an educational exchange program seeking to equip master´s level engineering / technology students with cross-cultural engineering communication skills essential for success in the global economy. The aim of this international collaboration is advance international engineering education around communication and design skills requisite for success in engineering professions.
- In addition to these projects, we also organize an annual international conference, the Norwegian Forum for English for Academic Purpose (uni.oslomet.no) that brings together an international community of researchers to present and discuss recent research in our field.
