The AIM website offers authentic academic resources to help your students develop their academic reading and writing skills to become confident and successful independent learners. The materials on this website should be useful for university students at all levels of study, i.e., from foundation year to postgraduate.
Information for Teachers
The website contains the following resources for teachers:
Academic Essays:
These are authentic texts of different kinds i.e., persuasive essays, problem-solution essays, and professional articles produced by university students and university teachers in Uzbekistan.
Every essay is supplemented with 1) detailed comments on specific aspects of academic writing, 2) general feedback on strengths and weaknesses and 3) multiple-choice comprehension questions with on-line feedback.
It is recommended that students read the essay first, identify the problems and try making necessary revisions prior to reading the suggested feedback. The ultimate aim of these interactive essays is to help your students become more skilled academic writers.
Common Problems:
These are the most frequent types of mistakes observed in the example texts e.g., lack of evidence, misuse of hedging, wordiness and redundancy, inaccurate use of citations and references, etc. Every common problem is illustrated with examples and avoidance strategies are outlined. Some additional academic resources including books and websites that students can refer to and read about in further detail are also suggested at the end of every common problem description.
Links:
These are the links to some particularly useful academic resources that contain detailed descriptions of different aspects of reading and writing skills as well as practical tasks and exercises that you could use with your students in-class or invite them to complete during their self-study time.
Forum:
This is a discussion forum that gives you the opportunity to be involved in the discussion of various aspects of academic reading, e.g., finding suitable sources, developing a critical approach to reading, etc., and academic writing, e.g., building an argument, using academic language and style, etc.