Teaching writing for research publication purposes online

academic writing in Russia has been focused on helping researchers improve the quality of their publications rather than on teaching students. The online format seems to suit this purpose best, enabling busy academics and researchers to arrange their own time and pace of learning. The paper presents the online professional training course «Writing for research-publication purposes» designed by Irina Korotkina, Academic Writing Center Director at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, for researchers, academics, and graduate students. The course applies a metalinguistic approach whereby transdisciplinary models of English academic writing are used in Russian context, which allows to (a) reduce the learning time compared to courses traditionally delivered in English by other writing centers; (b) significantly expand the audience; (c) improve the quality of scientific texts in Russian. The course starts with rhetorical models of text building and proceeds step by step towards rhetorical and publishing conventions; it includes brief interactive video lectures of 5-12 minutes, controlled practice with recommended answers, and participants’ own research, the result of which is the title and abstract of their text written according to international requirements. The text is then submitted for three «blind» reviews by other course participants, which enables each to better understand the review process. The assessment is based on a detailed 100-point scale of criteria, which guarantees its objectivity and verifies the knowledge acquired in the course. Teaching writing academically literate papers in Russian, the approach contributes to the quality of not only international but also national publications and helps raise the competences of Russian editors and reviewers.