The Story of Writing: From Classical Rhetoric to Rhetoric and Composition

Written to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the rubric “Academic Writing and Research Competences” established by the journal’s late editor-in-chief Mikhail Sapunov, the paper focuses on the origins of academic writing and traces its development in terms of rhetoric. The five stages of classical rhetoric are interpreted as five key components of academic writing: research, logic, culture, knowledge, and language. This approach helps visualize academic writing as a wholesome model composed of cognitive and linguistic elements, describe the impact of this model on the rhetorical and publishing conventions of the global academic discourse, and define the problems in knowledge construction as deviations from the model’s unity in various sociocultural contexts. The study concludes that the low quality of an academic text may result from either losing the predominance of the first two stages of rhetoric (invention and arrangement) or of the other three (style, memory, and delivery). The former signifies an ideological pressure on researchers to substitute their own rhetoric with quotes from canonized sources, whereas the latter provokes them to disregard language and style as inferior to research, because of which texts diminish in clarity. In either case, communication lacks in efficiency. The study of academic writing in the historical perspective contributes to better understanding of the latest trends in its development and elicits the problems which impede the quality of Russian scholarly and academic texts.

Metoda badań komparatystycznych w recepcji staropolskich utworów literackich. Dyskurs o kompetencjach badacza w ujęciu Krytycznej Analizy Dyskursu

[The method of comparative research in the reception of Old Polish literary works. A discourse on researchers’ competences from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis] The paper discusses the use of the comparative research method to carry out explication of Old Polish literary works. The article has two main research aims: the first one focuses on theoretical aspects of discourse and the Critical Discourse Analysis, which is at the same time a tool to carry out the second aim, i.e. performing discursive activities concerned with the competences of a researcher using the comparative method while interpreting Old Polish literature. The paper consists of two planes. The first one is the completion of theoretical assumption, covering historical overview of the major moments in comparative literature and literary theory. The second plane is specification of the Critical Discourse Analysis in order to detail aspects referring to the comparatist’s research competences.

Research competences in university students in virtual learning environments

Research competencies are adopted in higher education, however, little is known about the role of these competencies in the virtual environment. This research is one of the first to describe research competences in postgraduate students in virtual learning environments. An observational design study using the research competences questionnaire was conducted with 89 students. The findings indicate that cognitive and teamwork competences are the most predominant (58.4% and 71.9%) and that the weakest areas are related to technological competences 33.7%, methodological competences 39.7% and project management 22.5%. These findings highlight the need to improve curricula in postgraduate schools where research competences are strengthened by prioritising technological, methodological and project management aspects so that students obtain the necessary skills and abilities and can improve their research processes. Keywords: research competences, virtual learning environments, research training.

Introduction of Online Language Corpora into Future Translators’ and Interpreters’ Teaching

This paper outlines some benefits from online language corpora use in translators’ and interpreters’ teaching, especially its advantages for developing target language competences, translation competences and scientific research competences of future translators and interpreters. The author shares the results of her five year theoretical and empirical studies in training students to apply online language corpora in doing their language research projects, as well as offers rationalizing contributions to existing pedagogical language corpora applications in university teaching practice. The main resultant outcome of the author’s scientific pedagogical studies has become the Research-Oriented Methodology of Gradual Online Language Corpora Introduction.

Active learning strategies to develop research competences in engineering education

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to implement and evaluate active learning strategies to support engineering students in the development of research competences, contributing to the growing need for a closer relationship between research and teaching.Design/methodology/approachThis study was developed using an action research approach. The data were collected through observations, questionnaire and focus group in order to evaluate the active learning strategies used in the context of the study, based on students' perceptions.FindingsThe results show that the implementation of active learning strategies, such as research-based learning and think-pair-share enhance the development of research competences, namely critical thinking and written communication. Additionally, this approach enables students to develop further their capstone projects, using the standards demanded in research process.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was based mainly on teacher's observation and the participants are undergraduate engineering students enrolled in the course “Scientific Methodology” during 1 academic year.Practical implicationsTwo levels of implications can be identified in this study: (1) for teachers' practice, who can adapt the step-by-step descriptions of the implemented approaches and (2) for research, contributing to the discussion about how to explore the teaching-research relationship in undergraduate courses.Originality/valueThe course of “Scientific Methodology” is part of the curricular structure of most undergraduate engineering programs offered by Brazilian Higher Education Institutions, and this study is a contribution for the improvement of knowledge on how this course may be conducted in an effective and engaging way.

Effect of Social Media Usage on Research Competences and Completion during COVID-19: Case of Pre-Service Health Sciences Researchers

Introduction: Pandemic has proved to be a game-changer for higher education. The emerging context of using different social media tools for timely completion of their graduate and postgraduate research is evident among health sciences pre-service researchers during the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with health sciences preservice researchers (n=410) enrolled in postgraduate health sciences programs of the Pakistani universities. The Vitae (2011) framework was considered to measure research competences of the pre-service researchers with the factors of personal effectiveness (PE), research knowledge and intellectual abilities (KI), research and governance (RG), and researcher's engagement and influence (EI) to disseminate research. Conclusions explicitly focused on using Social Media are drawn from the Structure Equation Model obtained via Smart PLS.Results: The findings have highlighted that preservice health sciences researchers used different forms of social media to support their research completion during COVID-19. Multimedia tools helped pre-service researchers to share information through audio, video, and image sharing service on various networks. Information management tools such as google docs and monkey surveys were useful for data collection during COVID-19.Conclusion: This study implicated that different forms of social media tools helped health sciences pre-service researchers develop their research competences, such as personal effectiveness, research governance, and research engagement, which ultimately influenced them to complete their research tasks on time in pandemics.