Development of skills to achieve academic literacy include:
AL.1 Understand and be able to use in context, frequently encountered academic vocabulary, as set out for example in the Academic Word List. Recognise and use formal academic style and register
AL. 2 Be aware of the importance of caution, qualification and degrees of certainty in academic usage and apply this in own writing. Be able to perceive connotation and ambiguity.
AL.3 Understand the relationships between different parts of a text and know how to use language to signpost and connect ideas/sections to ensure coherence and cohesion.
AL.4 Have an appreciation of the importance of logical development and rigour within academic texts, eg from introduction to main body to conclusion.
AL.5 Recognise, interpret and create different genres of text along with their intended audience and purpose. For example essays, reports, literature critiques, presentations, posters, dissertations.
AL.6 Be able to interpret, use and produce information in graphic and visual format.
AL.7 Be able to understand, draw conclusions from and generate information in statistical form.
AL.8 Distinguish, in own and others’ academic writing, between fact and opinion, proposition and argument, cause and effect.
AL. 9 Know what counts as evidence for an argument in academic discourse. Be able to extrapolate from information and sources by making inferences and applying to other cases at hand.
AL.10 Understand and apply in own writing a range of communicative functions such as defining, providing examples and illustrations, summarising, paraphrasing, arguing a case.
AL.11 Be able to construct grammatically correct simple, compound and complex sentences, with appropriate punctuation, to convey intended meaning.
AL.12 Have the ability to develop and structure meaning in an academic text, beyond sentence level grammar, to encompass extended discourse. Employ paragraph and whole text cohesion to this end.
AL.13 Be able to fluently and effectively introduce, embed and refer to sources and quotations, avoiding repetitive constructions.
AL. 14 Distinguish between descriptive and critical/analytical content; understand and apply strategies and tools for critiquing academic texts.
AL.15 Use a range of strategies to critically read and reflect on own writing, so as to effectively edit and proofread.