academic writing online course

academic writing online course

Enhancing Academic Writing Skills through Online Courses

1. Introduction

Significant professional writing in the academy builds on the premise that there are good, better, and best ways to say things and that the way we write can be elevated by a recursive examination of and reflection on our writing and the other writers’ texts. The fact that writing is a complex and iterative process means that at any point in a particular project we may need to revisit earlier stages in order to re-envision, restructure, and rewrite what we have done. At the same time, our schedules often do not permit us to attend workshops or take courses that require a set number of hours at a specific location. These realities point to the need for self-paced, interactive, web-based resources that will help us to improve our writing and editing skills. This is a vast and ambitious agenda, but this is the goal of the program outlined here. Specifically, our mission is to enable students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty at McGill to become comfortable and efficient writers by (1) identifying common problems in grammar, punctuation, and style, (2) providing guidelines and exercises that clarify these problems and help students to overcome them, (3) creating an army of critical editors who will have the skills and the willingness to edit the texts of others, and (4) fostering a campus culture in which good writing is valued and appreciated.

Why this is important.

2. Understanding the Basics of Academic Writing

This is suggested by students who want to give their best shot at their first academic writing and also for the first step in practicing academic writing. Considering that understanding the concept of academic writing will benefit students, it may become easier for them to understand by taking the first steps of reading and receiving feedback from others. Then, the first steps can proceed to the next step, as mentioned by a Philosophy instructor at a UW Writing Center, Dr. Briand Makuch, on his website for his students. He divides the academic writing process into four steps, and students can find detailed and prima facie explanations there.

This is a further explanation about understanding academic writing, which is slightly different in the way experts express it. A famous English literature professor at the University of Chicago said that what is crucial is to cultivate people’s respect for the logical process, which is a side effect of rigorous practice in the basic skills involved in effective reading, discussion, and writing. Good logic will lead to good reasoning, hence good writing, and this is what students strive for in their academic writing. Another perspective from a tutor says that academic writing is an attempt to effectively communicate an idea to a specific audience that will best understand and respond to it. The professor’s experience has shown that many student papers fail not because of a lack of ability or a limited vocabulary or amount of reading, but because the students try to write in an unfamiliar genre. This unfamiliarity often refers to specific disciplinary writing. Both opinions aim to explain the concept, and although they are quite long, they mean that academic writing is an effective way to communicate an idea with the expected result of understanding and receiving feedback from readers. Despite the different ways of understanding the concept, the most important thing is that people should understand that academic writing is intended to achieve the best result for an idea through a systematic writing process.

The academic writing process can be frustrating for students who are doing it for the first time. Therefore, it is necessary to make the concept of academic writing clear to students. The concept can be explained by comparing it with public writing. Academic writing is basically the writing that students do to fulfill college requirements, and it should demonstrate their understanding of a concept. The writing should be good in terms of grammar, mechanics, and style, which often takes a lot of time to get right. However, if students simply try to understand the concept of academic writing, it is possible to grasp. So, we can conclude that understanding is important for students when they attempt academic writing, and it is also key to mastering the next level of academic writing.

3. Developing Effective Writing Strategies

In order to write effectively, broad knowledge of writing strategies is required. This section on writing strategies will provide you with the knowledge and understanding of what strategies are, when you should use them, and most importantly how to teach these to your students. While there are many different strategies in writing, teachers will be given a small snapshot to give some direction in teaching these to students in order to enhance their writing.

The most important thing to understand about strategies in writing is that no single fix in how to teach writing will work. There is no right way or wrong way; there are just different ways. The teaching of strategies in writing is identifying what the writer is doing successfully and giving them the explicit tools to do it.

4. Mastering Academic Writing Techniques

4.2 Creating an essay plan and understanding the style of your writing Making a good plan is the key to a good essay. Analyze the task; decide what you are essentially being asked to do and then write a plan (or even two plans). An important step is deciding what is to be included and what is not to be included. This requires a decision of relevance. It is quite easy to get carried away by including every piece of information one finds. Set aside the information that is not relevant to the discussion. While the information may be fascinating, it is off the topic and so it will not be beneficial to an essay. On a piece of paper, write the question at the top and then underneath make a bullet point list of only what is being asked. This will make the plan more personalized and the decision of relevance that much easier.

One way to get to grips with a question is by breaking it down. A useful tool for doing this is the command words. In the table below are some common command words and their definitions. This will give you a better idea of the kind of response an instructor is looking for. An essay that is written by a student is usually examined to decide whether the student understands the material that has been taught and the completion of an essay proves that the student has understood the subject. Essays cannot be avoided as a student assigned with the completion of an essay through any subject irrespective of the different type of the subject.

4.1 Understanding the question This is the first and most important suggestion. Answering the wrong question is a common mistake made by students. Unfortunately, it can be a real disaster for the grade you get in an assignment. Make sure you understand what the question requires you to do. If you’re not sure, ask your tutor or lecturer.

Academic writing is a skill that is essential for success in higher education as well as in professional life. Good written English will contribute considerably to a student’s success, yet developing this skill can be a challenge. This chapter suggests several ways in which students can build up their writing skills either as a regular part of their work or as preparation for writing assignments and exams.

5. Advancing Your Academic Writing Skills

A solid level of preparation is important once you come to write your essay. It is nearly always an honest decide to outline your essay before you start to put in writing. This may give your essay structure. It is also an honest plan to define the edges into that you’ll develop every purpose therefore you are doing not find yourself writing everything into a couple of pages. A robust define also will keep your essay on the right track and guarantee you ne’er veer removed from your central purpose. This could be complicated once writing beneath exam conditions. Sat on in an exceedingly area full of alternative students writing long essays, the strain to deliver a solid piece of writing is robust, and there are straightforward items to travel wrong. By outlining your essay outside of the particular state of affairs this may not solely create the duty easier and fewer nerve-racking, it’ll additionally enable you to write down a transparent and targeted essay and provides you an extended amount to compose and develop each purpose.