Teaching Scientific/Academic Writing in the Digital Age

This paper describes a graduate-level scientific/academic writing course for non-native speakers (NNS) of English at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Israel, which is taught in a technology-enhanced or blended learning environment. The use and integration of electronic discourses, such as email and Powerpoint, on-screen marking techniques, and submission of written assignments and writing consultancies by email, and asynchronous online discussion forums are described. Features of the HighLearn course-supporting WEB site, which enable the integration of discussion forums into the writing course, are explained. Results of teacher-initiated student evaluations and advantages and dilemmas of teaching scientific/academic writing in the digital age are discussed. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and suggestions for the further integration of ICT in the scientific/academic writing course.