SUMMARY
WHAT IS “ACADEMIC WRITING”
Research
done on college writers recongnized that whether students produced a successful
piece of writing, the results of
the experiment greatly depend on the quality of their representation of the writing task. Most
people as they start college have weird ideas about what they are doing when
they write an essay or they have unclear idea at all. Some writers believe they
must follow certain steps in a particular order to write correctly. Writers
understand much of what they want to write as they write it. We put pragmatic
expectations on the first drafts, either by focusing too much on the impossible
task of making them perfect , or by making too little effort because we don`t
care or know about their inexorable
problems. You can improve as a writer with effort and study. When people say “I
can`t write”, what they often mean is they have problems with grammatical
correctness. Writing, however, is about more than just grammatical correctness.
Good writing is a matter of achieving your desired effect upon an intended
audience. With an introduction, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion,
the five paragraph essay is a pattern a writer should know, but one which you
will outgrow. Avoid using “I” for example in a lab report, much college writing
can be done in a middle, semi-formal style where it is ok to use “I”. The
biggest problem which has seen in writers who writers for the first time is a
poor sense of writing situation in general. In writing we are confined within the
two-dimensional setting of the flat page. Separated from our audience in place
and time, we imaginatively have to create this context. Our words on the page
are silent, so we must use punctuation and word choice to communicate our tone.
Developing your writer`s sense about communicating within the writing situation
is the most important thing you should learn in composition. Writing in college
is a quite specialized writing situation, and it has developed its own codes
and conventions that you need to have a keen awareness of if you are going to
write successfully in college. The audience is primarily the professor and
possibly your classmates.The occasion or context is an assignment given by the
teacher within a learning context and designed to have you learn and
demonstrate your learning. The message will be you learning or the
interpretation gained from your study
if the subject matter.The purpose show your learning and get a good grade.The
documents genres used is the essay. Academic writing is always a form of
evaluation that asks you to demonstrate knowledge and show proficiency with
certain disciplinary skills of thinking, interpreting, and presenting . To be
successful in this kind of writing, you
must be completely aware of what the professor expects you to do and accomplish
with that particular writing task. College will require the writer to search
for and find more in-depth information. Researching is also a process, so
you`ll need to learn how to focus and direct a research project and how to keep
track of all your source information. College writing typically asks you to
write on unfamiliar topics. Academic writing is an argument. We have to take
into consideration two importance things about academic argument: the value of
an organized presentation of your case and the crucial element of strong evidence. Academic writing is an
analysis which involves doing three things: engage in an open inquiry where the
answer is not known at first, identify
meaningful parts of the subject and examine these separate parts and determine
how they relate to each other.
There are
three different types of college writing assignment: the closed writing
assignment: present you two counter claims and ask you to determine from
your own analysis the more valid claim.
They resemble yes-no questions, the semi –open writing assignment: this kind of
writing assignment resembles a kind of archeological dig. Despite using key
words in the assignment such as “
explain”, “illustrate” ,“analyse”, “ discuss” or “show how”, these topics still
ask you to make an argument and the open writing assignment: these kinds of
writing assignments require you decide both your writing topic and you claim.
This kind of writing assignment resembles riding a bike without the training wheels
on. Picking and limiting a writing topic is a challenge: looking for gaps,
puzzling items, things that confuse you, or connections you see. Whatever
topic you choose, state it as a clear
and interesting question. We have to mention three characteristics of academic
writing: clear evidence in writing that the writers have been persistent,
open-minded, and disciplined in study, the dominance of reason over emotions or
sensual perception and an imagined reader who is cooly rational, reading for
information, and intending to formulate a reasoned response. The pattern of the
academic essay must contain the characteristics of a critical essay. Critical
is not used in the sense of “to critize” as in find fault with. Instead
“critical” is used in the same way “critical thinking” is used. A synomyn might
be “ interpretive or analytical.
1.
It is
an argument, persuasion essay that in its broadest sense makes a point and
supports it.
2.
The
point of a critical essay is interpretive in nature.
3.
Organization
: the critical essay should have a clear introduction, body,and conclusion.
4.
Support:
the primary source for support in the critical essay is from the text. The text
is the authority, so using quotations is required.
5.
A
critical essay will always “document its sources, distinguishing the use of
outside information used inside your text and clarifying where that information
came from.
6.
Whenever
the author moves from one main point to the next, the author needs to clearly
signal to the reader that this movement is happening.
7.
A critical
essay is put into an academic essay format such as the MLA or APA document
format.
8.
Grammatical
correctness: your essay should have few if any grammatical problems.
Your
success with academic writing depends upon how you approach the writing task. Knowing
what you need to do it`s guaranteed that it will be a success.
