Summary: What is “Academic Writing”

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.