our academic writing course

our academic writing course

Effective Academic Writing: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to Academic Writing

Academic writing is an essential skill that every scholar must possess. As a student, you will find yourself engaging in academic writing more often than in any other skill. Besides being an important skill, reading and understanding academic writing is, and will continue to be, one of the most effective ways for students to learn whether they’re in a university, a two-year program, in kindergarten, or taking a speech course.

This book is written with students in mind; it is designed to help them write more effectively and to understand what academic writing is all about. This first chapter identifies and describes the unique situation that has led us to develop this book, a situation in which students of extremely diverse abilities and from almost all departments and majors need to learn this skill – one that often challenges even experienced writers.

Why is it important? Because every student will understand and process information differently. Teaching and learning depend on where students are from and what they bring from home and school. Researchers have observed this firsthand in the classroom for decades. Academic writings can help you understand those differences and help students grow as individuals and learners. Writing can clarify problems and help solve them; it can sort out feelings and confusion, foster insight and creativity, and even give your life direction.

Researchers know they cannot develop strong thinking and writing skills through one workshop or one semester; they need to provide students with lifelong opportunities to write and grow, and that’s what this academic writing guide will achieve, whatever your academic level. A major strength of this text is its adaptability to students’ needs. Students at the university can work through it as part of an advanced composition course in any academic discipline.

2. Structuring Your Writing

When you write a piece of academic writing, an essay or a dissertation, the task before you is not only to present facts but also to demonstrate a clear understanding of the topic or issue you have chosen and how it relates to what others have said, written, and thought about it. Your word has to be structured, well-informed, clearly focused, and original. And above all, it has to be supported by evidence. In this chapter, we share with you some of the basic principles you may use to turn what might at first seem an insurmountable task into something that can be accomplished.

One of the main aims of your college writing course might be to improve students’ writing at the sentence and paragraph levels. Students often need help organizing ideas or developing a position. Learning to write good assignments, short or long, is what this book is all about. Some of our advice may seem very basic, but it is surprising how many students forget these things. Remember to pay close attention to the advice relevant to what you are writing. Try to put what you learn into practice, whatever you read or are asked to write. Texts may be informative or argumentative or be writing to bring about social change of some sort. Each type has its own conventions but follows a similar structure. To fulfill these different functions, your writing must be flexible and reflect your familiarity with different registers of academic or professional writing.

3. Research and Citations

Understanding research is key to creating a research paper. Due to widespread online sources, it is important to use multiple sources. It is important to stick as much as possible to less than 10% of online sources, as they can be biased. The most common sources are books, journals, newspaper reports, and studies. It is important to be able to analyze the author’s credibility by identifying the author’s qualification or affiliation, purpose, and objectivity. Secondly, in order to assess an author’s credibility, one must evaluate the author’s writing style by identifying the author’s bias or objectivity, as well as the author’s tone. Thirdly, in order to assess an author’s credibility, one must consider the author’s audience by identifying the author’s audience and language.

Lastly, after conducting the three steps mentioned above, an individual must evaluate the evidence in order to determine the reliability of the source. Selecting a topic is important for writing an academic paper. It is important to feel engaged by a topic and that you should prepare for unexpected coming twists in research. Secondly, an individual must refine a topic in order to search for in-depth concepts. Therefore, a good research paper flows smoothly, it is easy to understand, it correlates multiple concepts, gives personal insight, and contains personal opinions. A good academic research paper is not a familiar summary of several weeks of hard work. It represents the effort of an individual. It reflects effort, understanding, critical thinking, and clear writing.

4. Clarity and Cohesion in Academic Writing

Many students struggle to be academically successful, not because they lack knowledge, but because they lack the appropriate skills and knowledge. One of the major reasons for academic struggles, especially in courses in students’ field of study, is that many students lack the capacity to write academically in a clear and cohesive manner. Those who easily understand what is to be written in an academic paper may have a harder time producing work that clearly articulates information and argumentation effectively. To help those who wish to learn how to write clearly and coherently, the guide presented here seeks to break down the mechanics and features of academic writing.

There has been a recent proliferation of guides to academic writing, but they are often very abstract. Another issue with how academic writing is discussed is how the presented information is discussed in piecemeal fashion. Students have probably encountered numerous descriptions of how to write in an academic context. They may have seen how to cite sources according to guidelines or how various citation styles operate. They may also know that claims should be supported by evidence and that the structure of an academic essay typically involves an introduction, body, and conclusion. Other guides may provide information about how to select a research question or what should be included in various academic sections. The aim of the guide here is ambitious. Some may therefore find that it provides more detail about academic writing than needed.

5. Editing and Proofreading Techniques

Editing and proofreading provide writers with an important opportunity to develop and clarify their thinking. Too often, writers only appreciate their work when the final copy has been delivered, but the ideas behind effective writing are synonymous with critical thinking. This chapter deals with the editing and proofreading phases and features several exercises designed to help intermediate through advanced students discover their common writing weaknesses and develop better paragraph organization skills.

The goal of this chapter is to help students understand that rewriting is an essential part of the writing process. You will find that these exercises test both the level of organization and the quality of sentence structure. However, the exercises not only serve to measure these qualities but also assist in teaching them. They have been designed to test the organized writing principles developed in this book. They also offer editing opportunities for grammar skills and vocabulary knowledge. Since testing is the ultimate way to measure quality, infrequent testing is an easy way to decrease the level of organization present in most papers. Also, frequent attention to these exercises throughout the semester will improve writing ability significantly more than occasional work before exams.