formal academic writing

formal academic writing

The Importance of Academic Writing

1. Introduction

Unfortunately, the only tool professors offer to guide students through the process of writing a quality paper is a handout containing a list of assignment requirements and due date. The professor leaves it up to the student to understand exactly what is expected in the assignment and will only return papers with comments if the assignment requirements were not met. While there are many students who simply ignore the listed assignment requirements and start the writing process prematurely, there are also students who recognize the importance of knowing exactly what is expected in the assignment. In doing so, these students may seek additional instruction from the professor or a writing tutor in understanding how to write a quality assignment. However, it first takes those students to recognizing the importance of having good writing skills.

The underlying purposes of academic writing are self-explanatory. Without embracing good writing, then we would be unable to communicate with others in a clear and concise manner. Since reading and grading written work is the only way professors can judge a student’s understanding of course material, written assignments are an accurate barometer for how well the student is learning the material. The student can also use written assignments as measures of understanding which class concepts they do and do not understand. Written assignments serve as a learning tool as well as an assessment tool because it is one thing to simply complete an assignment, but it is another thing to complete an assignment knowing that it was done to the best of one’s ability. A student who takes the time to understand what the expectations of the assignment are then sets out to produce a quality paper will embody a better understanding of what is intended in the writing.

To many students’ dismay, academic writing is one of the requirements that accompany all course subjects in higher education. Whether the student is majoring in business, the sciences, liberal arts, or any other degree program, writing is an essential way to demonstrate learning. Professors often use written assignments as means of testing critical thinking, analyzing a course topic or literature, or even expressing understanding of a specific subject matter. Because the standards for these assignments are generally high in relation to the corresponding point value, students are often anxious to receive them back and are disappointed when their grade is not what they expected. Despite the dismay many students feel towards being assigned written papers and reports, writing is a skill that should be considered an important tool at the post-secondary level.

2. The Structure of Formal Academic Writing

Academic readers are generally not interested in your love of a particular word and, above all else, they desire to receive credit for the information they are able to understand and remember. For these reasons, repetition of details already stated and verbosity in an effort to provide an extra level of detail are discouraged in academic writing. Repetition is more allowable in creative writing or literature, where a top heavy structure is not at all mandatory since your aim might be to confound the reader before all is revealed at the end in a dramatic finale.

Information is structured and organized with purpose in mind. This purpose is, first and foremost, to inform, to ‘tell it like it is’. For this reason, academic writing often makes use of a ‘top heavy’ structure. Traditional journalism is a good way to grasp this: the opening paragraph contains the ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’, ‘when, and why’ and any important background information. Elaboration of the issue follows this in descending order of importance.

3. The Role of Citations and References

An academic essay must not be merely an assemblage or regurgitation of someone else’s opinions or ideas. That is plagiarism, and it is considered a serious breach of academic integrity. What a good essay must do is make reference to those ideas, people, and sources which have influenced the argument in any way. This means an acknowledgment, both by rewording or quotation, of the fact that certain material is someone else’s and giving the information of exactly where and from whom the information was obtained from. This is the basic in-text citation and should be adhered to in all academic writing. Each referencing style has its own specific way of doing this, but for as long as it is clear and consistent, that is fine. In-text citations also make it easier for the marker to cross-reference the bibliography and to spot if a student is plagiarizing by seeing if it matches up with the in-text citation. Then we have the reference list or bibliography. This lists all the source materials the student has used in the writing of their essay or assignment. This is ordered in an outline format in alphabetical order. Here the marker can easily find the source material and evaluate the work. Knowing that good referencing is worth about 10-15% of a good mark, the importance of citation and referencing should not be underestimated.

4. Developing a Strong Argument

When you begin to write a comparison or contrast essay, you may believe that the similarities are more important than the differences. After all, relatively speaking, they should be easier to spot. And it’s not until you find the differences that you can discover something new. But the subtler, more important point is that they need to matter. It’s easy to get caught up in simply pointing out the differences, but the next step – creating a meaningful thesis statement – is more challenging. Often, a reader will ask, “So what?” in response to much of what follows in a comparison or contrast essay. The similarities or differences you use to support your thesis must be ones that are meaningful in themselves. You need to create a thesis that you are prepared to prove using the tools you have available, without having to consult the world’s leading expert on the issue to provide you with a definitive judgment. A thesis that transcends the merely private and obtainable level is often supportable and worth arguing. In it, you state what your argument is going to be.

5. Conclusion

If students normally only read and take in information from the lecturer, this method will not be as effective as if the students were also required to read and research the topic and later come up with a well-thought-out paper based on the data and information gathered. This is actually what writing assignments aim to do. With today’s surfacing internet information, internet plagiarism is the main concern in the academic world. Writing assignments can actually prevent plagiarism by teaching and training students how to express themselves in their own words and style. By taking in information with the intention to write it in their own paper, students can definitely decrease the act of plagiarism. Written works are easily identifiable and attributable to the original author, and well-documented written materials can provide strong evidence of the student’s effort, diligence, and commitment.

Academic writing serves as a communication tool for conveying acquired knowledge. It is also thought of as a higher order cognitive skill or intellectual activity that is aimed at fostering critical and analytical thinking. It helps students to put their learned knowledge into tested practice. By choosing a writing assignment, students are forced to undertake complex intellectual aspects of the information they are learning. There will be a question of credibility and completeness of the information, and then the student has to analyze the problems from all viewpoints and perspectives. It means that writing will force students to think more and will lead to a better understanding of the topic.