Writing for International Students (WRIT1001)

Weekly In-Class Discussions and Peer Feedback 

This assessment is designed to promote sustained engagement, collaborative learning, and critical reflection. The in-class activities aim to promote written and spoken engagement through providing and responding to constructive feedback in academic settings.

• In-Class Discussions 
• Students will participate in weekly in-class discussions to engage with and critically discuss the assigned activities for the week with their tutor and peers. 
• Peer Feedback Requirement: 
• Students are required to provide constructive feedback on a peer’s work in at least 8 out of 13 weeks.

The feedback should focus on the following criteria: 

• Content – Clarity of ideas and arguments, relevance, and depth 
• Organisation – Structure, flow, and coherence of the work 
• Expression – Writing style, grammar, and overall clarity of communication. 

A short feedback guide and examples will be provided in Week 2 to support students in giving high-quality and constructive feedback.

Feedback Submission

Feedback can be done using sticky notes in class or through Padlet. Feedback must be specific, actionable, and constructive. General comments such as ‘Good job’ or ‘Well written’ are not sufficient.

Monitoring

Instructors will maintain a weekly record using the class list, collecting and verifying feedback submissions either from physical sticky notes or Padlet contributions.

Generative AI & MT Statement

This assessment task is to be completed in-person. The use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Translation (MT) tools will not be permitted. Any attempted use of AI or MT may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct, and may result in academic penalty.

Topic

• An academic topic of your choice. 

Length

• The essay plan should be a maximum of 2 pages in Word format, with a reference list on a third page, if necessary.

Format

• The plan should be structured in note form, using bullet points or dots rather than full text.

Content

• Your essay plan must include three (3) contributing arguments (CAs).
• Each CA requires at least two (2) pieces of supporting evidence.
• Adding one (1) counterargument is optional.

Submission

• Submit an electronic copy (in Word or PDF) to the Turnitin link in the Blackboard Assessment folder.
• Resubmissions are acceptable up until the deadline.

IMPORTANT

• An APA 7th reference list is REQUIRED, and the plan should contain in-text citations as evidence that you have begun research. 
• There is no 'magic number' to the number of citations required - use citations wherever you make a claim, or use direct quotations of someone else's work.
• You must clearly cite and acknowledge any instance of using AI or MT.
• Please refer to Using AI in your assignments on the UQ library site.

Generative AI & MT Statement

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use AI and/or MT technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.

General instructions

Write a complete argumentative (persuasive) essay based on your previously submitted Essay Plan, and the feedback you received on that plan. You should revise and expand your ideas by drawing on the academic writing skills and content knowledge developed throughout the course.

Topic

• Use the same academic topic from your Essay Plan.
• Your Complete Essay should demonstrate progress in argument development, structural cohesion, integration of academic sources, and use of an appropriate academic tone throughout.

Length

• 1,200 words (+/- 10%) written in formal academic English
• The reference list is not included in the word count.
• Direct quotations are included in the word count but should not exceed 5% of the

Format

• The essay should be structured in APA style paper format, including a title page, and clearly structured Introduction, Body, and Conclusion sections.
• DO NOT use subheadings for these sections. Creating smooth transitions is part of academic writing skills.
• Include a properly formatted reference list in APA 7th style at the end.

Content

Your complete essay must include:

• Three (3) contributing arguments (CAs).
• At least two (2) pieces of supporting evidence (per argument), and
• An optional one (1) counterargument with a rebuttal.

Submission

• Submit an electronic copy (in Word or PDF) to the Turnitin link in the Blackboard Assessment folder.
• Resubmissions are acceptable up until the deadline.

IMPORTANT

You must cite at least six scholarly sources. The reference list should be in APA format. Any claims/evidence in the essay should be supported by in-text citations, also in APA format, e.g. (Davidson, 2017).

You must clearly cite and acknowledge any instance of using AI or MT.

Please refer to Using AI in your assignments on the UQ library site.

Generative AI & MT Statement

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use AI and/or MT technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.

This course is built around an online course hosted on UQ's Extend online learning platform. This online course contains a wide range of activities that will help you to learn about (and improve) your academic writing. These activities are available via WEEKLY MODULES.

Online Module Participation Guidelines 

• There are a total of 13 WEEKLY online modules available for completion from the beginning of semester. Students are advised to complete each module in sequence, on the corresponding week of the teaching semester, e.g.: Module 1 in Week 1, Module 2 in Week 2, etc.
• Each weekly online module can take between 2-4 hours to complete, depending on the week and content covered.
• Participation tracking will begin from Week 1 and end at 4:00pm on Friday of Week 13. Activities completed after this time will not count towards your online participation score. 
• Students will be able to track their online activity completion rate through the 'progress' tab in the Extend course (instructions will be provided online and in Week 1's workshop).

Criteria & Marking: Here is how the grading works for the online component:

• To be awarded full participation marks, students must complete ALL online activities (except where an activity is specifically marked as OPTIONAL).  An online activity completion rate of between 90%-100% will result in you receiving 15% of the grade for the whole course as 'online participation’.
• An online activity completion rate of between 80%-89% will result in you receiving 10% of the grade for the whole course as 'online participation'.
• An online activity completion rate of between 70%-79% will result in you receiving 5% of the grade for the whole course as 'online participation'.
• Please note that in order to PASS WRIT1001, you must complete at least 70% of all online activities. 
• An online activity completion rate of <70% will result in a FAIL grade for the course.
• This participation score does NOT include face-to-face workshops.

Your completion of these activities is tracked by the course coordinator, and your score will reflect the extent of your completion of the following activity types:

• PROBLEM QUESTIONS (Multiple choice, dropdown menu, checkboxes, etc.).
• COMPLETION OF VIDEOS (entire video must be watched).
• DISCUSSION FORUMS (following all accompanying instructions).
• PEER INSTRUCTION QUESTION (including meeting minimum character count for replies).
• DRAG AND DROP activities.
• CIRRUS ANNOTATION TASKS (see online modules for instructions).

IMPORTANT

You do not have to get all activities CORRECT - you only have to COMPLETE the activities (it is OK to provide incorrect answers, although you will have the opportunity to revise your answers upon receiving feedback).

Generative AI & MT Statement

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use AI and/or MT technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.

This assessment is in two parts (PART A and PART B). The assessment is not considered submitted until both parts are received following the instructions below. 

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PART A

Drawing on the knowledge you have gained from the WRIT1001 course content, you are to produce an argumentative essay as taught in the course. You are not to write your own essay on your own topic—you must improve the provided essay produced by generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT).

The essay produced by a generative AI will be provided to you on the Monday of Week 13 (in the assessment folder).

Part A of this assessment requires you to improve the AI-generated model essay, bringing its quality up to university standard with the skills you have learned in this course, including critical argumentation, logical structure, detailed research skills, appropriate and valid referencing of sources, etc.

As the AI-generated essay will be short in length, you will be required to also increase the word count to approximately 1200 words. The improved essay must follow APA style paper format, including a title page and a properly formatted reference list at the end. Note: The title page and reference list are not included in the word count.

This part of the task is worth 28 marks (out of 35).

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PART B

Submit a video reflection in which you explain the following:

1/ How you used knowledge from the WRIT1001 course to revise and improve the Generative AI-produced essay, and

2/ How you plan to apply this knowledge to your future academic writing tasks

Note: In your video, you MUST clearly explain the revision process step by step, describing how you improved the AI-generated essay. AND refer to specific WRIT1001 materials (e.g. workshops, UQExtend, or in-class activities) that helped guide your revisions.

This part of the task is worth 7 marks (out of 35). Students who fail to submit the video as per the instructions below will receive a mark of 0/35 on this assessment.

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IMPORTANT

Both PART A and PART B of this assessment must be submitted following these instructions in order to be considered “submitted” for marking.

If either part of the assessment is not submitted BY THE DUE DATE, the assessment will accrue a penalty of 10% per day up to 7 days, after which it will receive a mark of 0/35

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DETAILED UPLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

1. Submit a Word or PDF file of the argumentative essay to the Turnitin link on Blackboard.

2. Upload video reflection on Blackboard. Instructions on how to do this are on Blackboard.

• At the START of the video, you must talk to the camera (i.e. NOT a photograph) and introduce yourself clearly showing your UQ ID card on FULL SCREEN. If you do not have a UQ ID card, please use a passport or a valid Australian driver’s license with your name in English. If the marker cannot see your ID clearly, your video will be considered not submitted.
• Presentations must be under 3 minutes - submissions that are significantly longer will have marks deducted.
• ALWAYS take a screenshot after the submission of your assessment. This is a way to ensure your submission is done successfully if there is a problem.

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Your written assessment must be new work that you have not written this semester. Do not submit previously completed work.

Submitted work which is suspected to have used ghost-writing services will be investigated for academic misconduct and potentially face severe academic penalties.  

You must clearly cite and acknowledge any instance of using AI or MT.

Please refer to Using AI in your assignments on the UQ library site.

Generative AI & MT Statement  

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use AI and/or MT technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI or MT use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI and MT tools.