Academic Writing(Eng. Ed. 424)- B.Ed. Second Year, TU

 

 Unit 1: Academic Writing (25 Marks)

v What is academic writing?

Academic writing refers to the type of writing which is produced for the educational and research purposes. In other words, any writing done to fulfill a requirement of a school or college or university is called academic writing. It is performed by subject experts, scholars, university professors, researchers and professionals. It is formal and impersonal writing written in academic setting. In English, academic writing is linear, which means it has one central point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of argument without digression or repetition. Its main purpose is to inform rather than to entertain. For example: writing journal, book review, editorial, CV, etc.

v Features of academic writing

Since academic writing is the standard form of writing, it has some characteristic features which are discussed below:

a.     Formality: It uses formal language. It avoids colloquial words, jargons, slangs, abbreviations, and contractions (they're, he's). First person perspective is replaced by third person perspective.  

b.    Objectivity: It must be objective and factual rather than subjective and personal. The writer should mention the facts instead of including his/her view points.

c.      Explicitness: It should be clear to understand. The writer must express information clearly and explicitly.

d.    Accuracy: The writer should use the vocabulary items accurately. Ambiguous items should be avoided.

e.      Consistency: The writer should use only one style in one writing. There are mainly three styles: MLA(Modern Language Association), APA(American Psychological Association) and  Chicago Manual.

f.      Precision: All facts and figures should be expressed clearly and precisely.

g.     Complexity: Academic writing is more complex than other writings. It is lexically, grammatically and semantically dense and formal. It uses clauses, and compound and complex sentences.

h.    Hedging: Hedges are language items used when the writer is uncertain of something being expressed. The writer uses the hedges such as 'approximately', 'I think', 'sort of', 'kind of', etc. to strengthen his/her claim.

i.       Responsibility: The writer must be responsible for all the facts, justifications, evidence and claims made in the writing

 

1.1.                     Distinction between academic and personal writing

We can distinguish between academic writing and personal writing on the basis of the following parameters/aspects:

Aspect	Academic Writing	Personal Writing
Formality	formal/impersonal	informal/personal
Reader	academics	family and friends
Content	serious/standard	conversational
Style	complex sentences	simple and compound sentences
Organization	clear and well planned	less clear, less organized and less academic
Grammar	likely to be error free	may not use always complete sentences
Vocabulary	technical and academic language	use of short forms, idioms, slangs, abbreviations, contractions, etc.

 

1.2.                     Plagiarism

v What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism refers to an act of copying another person's ideas or work into one's writing without mentioning the original source or author. It is an intellectual dishonesty or theft. It can be a serious offence in an academic work. Mostly the University students seem to have faced the issue of plagiarism as they use other's works without citing or acknowledging them either by intention or due to lack of knowledge on the importance of quoting or citing. Since it is a serious academic offence/sin, each writer should attempt his/her best to avoid plagiarism.

The following ways of taking information from others would be considered plagiarism:

1.      not providing reference when we have used other's ideas in our work.

2.      no use of quotation marks even if we provide the reference.

3.      taking a few sentences or paragraphs from other's work without referencing.

Ø  The following ways would not be considered plagiarism:

1.      use of commonly accepted ideas even without referencing.

2.      presenting the results of our own work.

3.      use of some vocabulary from the original or use of some new sentence structures different from the ones in the original texts.

4.      using the summary substantially different from the original.

1.2.1 Avoiding plagiarism and s plagiarism:

·        Avoiding plagiarism: Generally, when authors claim others' ideas as their own, it is plagiarism. But in order to avoid plagiarism, they should noi claim the ideas of others as their own. Instead, they should give credit to the original authors aptly. The key principle of avoiding plagiarism is that authors would not claim others ideas as if they were their own.

·         Avoiding self plagiarism: If an author uses ideas from his previously published work for his present work without referencing as novel/new ideas, then it is called self-plagiarism. In order to avoid plagiarism, the authors can mention as as I have previously discussed (20...)

1.2.2 How to avoid plagiarism:

·         In order to maintain academic honesty, the author to avoid p in his/her the writer consults needs need to various sources which be properly cited and referenced On one hand, Proper citing and referencing would avoid plagiarism, and on the other, it would show respect to the ideas and others.

·         Some of the ways to avoid plagiarism are

1.      Integrating quotations into the text: We need to properly quote others' ideas they are included in the text. Quotations used for providing support for the writer's argument, giving examples of different on the are the relationship between the and other's ideas, They also called in-text citations According to Hamp-Lyons and Heasley (2008), quotations are to fulfill their function, they need to be identical to the original word for word, and must be attributed to the author.

2.      Paraphrasing and summarizing: Next way to avoid plagiarism is to paraphrase or summarize the original source or text in writer's own words. However, it would be honest of him to cite the resources.

3.      Referencing or citations: The sources used for the creation of any academic texts should be properly referenced under the section 'Reference' or 'Works Cited'. The sources are arranged alphabetically by author's last names, or when there is no author, by the first word of the title excluding 'A, An or The' at the beginning. Within the list, if a particular author is cited more than once, then the author's entries are ordered chronologically y date (with most recent first". Mainly two systems are used for referencing/ identifying the resources: MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association)

MLA and APA

A. MLA format

1.      For a book entry

Author (family and personal name in full). Title of Book. City of publication: Publisher, year of publication.

Example:

Bailey, Stephen. Academic Writing. London: Rutledge 2006.

2.      For an article entry

Author (Family and personal name in full). "Title of Article". Title of periodical Vol (year): Pages

Example:

Hamp-Lyons, Liz. "Social and Individual responsibility in Language Testing". Testing System, 28 (2009): 201-207

B. APA format

1.      For a book entry

Author's family and initial name (year of publication). Title of the book. City of Publication: Publisher

Example:

Bailey, Stephan (2010). Academic Writing. London: Rutledge.

2.      For an article entry

Author's family and initial name. Title of the article. Title of the periodical, volume number, pages.

Example:

Adhikari, D. and Rijal, D. (2014). Peer Group support in language learning. The Effor, 2, 20-24.

 

v Avoiding plagiarism

 

1.3.                     Elements of academic writing

a.        Argument

b.       Cause and effect

c.        Cohesion

d.       Comparison

e.        Discussion

f.         Examples References and quotations

g.       Style

1.4.                     Researching and writing

1.5.                     Fundamentals and feedback

1.6.                     Definition, vocabulary and academic clarity

1.7.                     Generalizations, facts and academic reality

1.8.                     Results, discussion and academic relevance

 

 

 

Unit 2: Academic Writing Process and Strategies (35 Marks)

2.1  Getting started

2.2  Getting to first draft

a.      Getting ideas and start

b.      Writing a first draft and getting feedback

2.3  Working with a draft

Focusing on main ideas

Developing and shaping ideas

Beginning and ending draft

2.4  Reworking the draft

Revising

Polishing revised draft

 

Unit 3: Use of Published Sources for Academic Writing (20 Marks)

 3.1Writing summaries 3.2 Writing paraphrases 3.3 Using quotations 3.4 Citations

 

Unit 4: Writing Models (25 Marks)

Writing CVs

Reporting and designing surveys

Taking ideas from sources

Writing journal articles

Writing newspaper articles

Writing a research report

Writing a book review