ADVICE ON ACADEMIC WRITING

General ideas and advice• An essay should have an argument. It should answer a question or

a few related questions. It should try to prove something. Start writing early as a means of exploration and discovery.

• Write what seems readiest to be written.• Revise extensively.• Attend to the whole essay and draft and redraft.• Putting the essay aside for a few days, allow the mind to work

subconsciously on it. You may see it more objectively when you return to it.

• Proofread the final copy.• With a well-organized draft, revise sentences, with a reader’s point

of view.

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN DOING UNIVERSITY-LEVEL WRITING

• There is no predetermined number of points that your essay must include, or paragraphs.

• Begin with a topic sentence that sums up the main point of the paragraph.• You do not need to repeat the point you made in the topic sentence.• Help the reader follow your train of thought and consider placing the

transition at the start of the next paragraph.      Thesis• Not every essay needs a thesis statement, but if you include one, take into

account that the opening paragraph often ends in one.• A thesis can occur somewhere else.• It does not have to be supported by any specific number of points.• A thesis statement can be two or three sentences long, or even longer if

the argument is complex.

Writer’s block

• Do not be afraid to ask questions to your teacher about anything that you find new or confusing.

• Keywords help you figure out what you are expected to do. Look for keywords and phrases such as analyse, discuss, argue, compare, and provide evidence.

• If you do not know what to write about, you may need to do more research or review the research you have already done.

• Go to a library and speak with a librarian about finding materials on your topic and specific to the discipline.

• Go back and reread key passages from your research materials.• Write in your own words so that you engage more fully with the

material.

Some more points to consider

• Do not try to use unfamiliar words to sound smart. Focus on getting your ideas down simply and clearly.

• Try a free-writing exercise. Open up a new Word document and start writing about whatever comes into your mind on the topic for 5 minutes. Ignore spelling, grammar, or punctuation, and do not stop writing. Then, look at what you have written and look for any important or recurring ideas.

A few suggestions

• Leave plenty of time for revising and editing.• Try to combine some of your simple sentences

into more complex ones.• See whether you can make the overall tone

more formal or academic by eliminating inappropriate colloquialisms.

ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION

• You do not need to write the introduction first.• Start writing with what you know.• Avoid wasting time on it or expect it to be

perfect. Come back to it after you have completed the body, and then rewrite it.

• Write the introduction last. Once the paper is written, you will have a better sense of exactly what you need to introduce.

Planning and its advantages

• It helps you to produce a logical and orderly argument that your readers can follow.

• It helps you to produce an economical paper by allowing you to spot repetition.

• Also it helps to produce a thorough paper by making it easier for you to notice whether you have left anything out.

• It makes drafting the paper easier by allowing you to concentrate on writing issues such as grammar, word choice, and clarity.

Topic sentence• It states the main point of a paragraph, serving as a mini-thesis for

the paragraph.• It alerts the readers to the most important, interpretive points in

your essay.• If they are read in sequence they will provide a sketch of the

essay's argument.• They protect readers from confusion by guiding them through the

argument.• Another feature is that topic sentences make it easier to recognize

gaps or weaknesses in your argument.• The most logical place to put a topic sentence is at the beginning

of the paragraph, but not necessarily so.

How to write a good topic sentence

• Ask yourself what's going on in your paragraph. Why have you chosen to include the information you have? Why is the paragraph important in the context of your argument? What point are you trying to make?

• Relating your topic sentences to your thesis can help strengthen the coherence of your essay.

• If you include a thesis statement in your introduction, think of incorporating a keyword from that statement into the topic sentence. Bear in mind that your topic sentence should do more than just establish a connection between your paragraph and your thesis.

• Use it to show how your paragraph contributes to the development of your argument by moving it that one extra step forward.

• If several of your topic sentences restate your thesis, even in different words, then your essay is probably repetitive.

Taking notes from research reading• Focus your approach to the topic before you start detailed research. Then you

will read with a purpose in mind, and you will be able to sort out relevant ideas.

• First, review the commonly known facts about your topic, and the range of thinking and opinions on it. Review class notes and textbook and browse in an encyclopaedia or other reference work.

• Make a preliminary list of the subtopics you would expect to find in your reading. These will guide your attention and may come be useful as labels for notes.

• Choose a component or angle that interests you, perhaps one on which there is already some controversy. Now formulate your research question. It should allow for reasoning as well as gathering of information.

• Then you will know what to look for in your research reading: facts and theories that help answer your question, and other people's opinions about whether specific answers are good ones.

Do not write too much

Try to compress ideas in your own words. Choose the most important ideas and write them down as labels or headings and then fill in with a few subpoints that explain or exemplify.

Copy out exact words only when the ideas are memorably phrased or surprisingly expressed - when you might use them as actual quotations in your essay.

Invest time in understanding your sources and integrating them into your own thinking .

Underline and highlight but do not depend on it. Find your own words for notes in the margin or on "sticky" notes. Your essay must be an expression of your own thinking, not a patchwork of borrowed ideas.

Using the Internet

Resources found in the Library have almost always been thoroughly evaluated by experts before they are published.

Not the same thing happens with the information found on the Internet; there is no review or screening process, and no standard ways of identifying subjects.

Do not rely exclusively on Net resources. Your teachers will likely expect you to make use of both Internet and Library resources.

Cross-check information from the Net against information from the Library as to make sure that the Net material is reliable and authoritative.

Before starting your search, think about what you are looking for, and if possible formulate some very specific questions to direct and limit your search.

Search engines• Do not use only Google. It is a good idea to always use more

than one search engine. There are several high quality peer-reviewed subject directories containing links selected by subject experts. INFOMINE and Academic Info are good examples.

• For specialized search engines Beaucoup or the Search Engine Colossus International Directory of Search Engines are recommended. Beaucoup includes 2,500 + search engines and directories and the Search Engine Colossus includes search engines from 230+ countries around the world. These are excellent places to start your academic research on the Internet.

• Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites you use. Yes, DOUBLE-CHECK ALL URLS THAT YOU PUT IN YOUR PAPER.

Summarizing• When you summarize, you cannot rely on the language

the author has used to develop his or her points.• Find a way to give an overview of these points without

your own sentences becoming too general. • You must make decisions about which concepts to leave

in and which to omit, taking into consideration your purposes in summarizing and also your view of what is important in this text.

• If you do use even a few of the author’s words, they must appear in quotation marks, otherwise it is PLAGIARISM.

Revising• Check whether you have fulfilled the intention of the assignment. • Look again at the instruction sheet, and revise your work and ask

yourself these questions: Have I performed the kind of thinking the assignment sheet asked for (e.g., analyse, argue, compare, explore)? Have I written the genre of document called for (e.g., book review, critique, personal response, field notes, research report, lab report, essay)?• Be sure that the reader knows why and how your ideas are important. A

quick way of checking is to note where your paragraphs go after their topic sentences. Watch out for repetitions of general ideas-look for progression into detailed reasoning, usually including source referencing.

• Be consistent about using British or American spellings in your writing.

Editing• Polish and edit your style by checking smaller matters such as word choice,

sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.• Read passages aloud to see if you have achieved the emphasis you want. Look for

places to use short sentences to draw attention to key ideas, questions, or argumentative statements. If you cannot read a sentence all the way through with expression, try cutting it into two or more.

• Be sure to use spell check. It will help you catch most typos and many wrongly spelled words. You will still have to read through your piece and use a print dictionary or writer's handbook to look up words that you suspect are not right.

• Do not depend on a thesaurus. It supplies you with lists of words in the same general category as the one you have tried-but most of them won't make sense. Use plain clear words instead. Use a print dictionary and look up synonyms given as part of definitions.

• Do not depend on a grammar checker. Even the best ones miss many errors. If you know that you overuse slang or the passive voice, you may find some of the "hits" useful, but be sure to make your own choice of replacement phrases. A few of the explanations may be useful. Nothing can substitute for your own judgement.

Unbiased language: gender and the group vs. individual

• Recent changes in social awareness have made people think about the ways language tends to downgrade certain groups. Common sense and some specific strategies can help you avoid suggesting putdowns where you don't intend them.

• Many standard wordings seem to assume that every individual is male. Repeating he and she, him and her, and so on his at every reference is clumsy. Finding alternatives can be as simple as using plural rather than singular, or avoiding a pronoun altogether.

Confusing the Group and the Individual:• Avoid using adjectives as collective nouns: females, natives, Orientals, the blind, etc.

Nouns like women or blind people are easy substitutes in most cases.• On the same principle, consider whether you can give more specific information.

Some terms have outlived their usefulness. It is more precise as well as more considerate to note that a person has XXX syndrome rather than other terms. Racial terms notoriously change fashion: black has gone in and out of favour, for instance, and native or aboriginal are preferred to Indian. Any adjective used as a noun (a black, a diabetic) seems to reduce people to one characteristic.

Spellchecking• A spellchecker will catch any combinations of letters that do

not form a known English word. But you should never rely exclusively on your spellchecker, because it will miss many incorrectly spelled words that form another English word: a spellchecker will not record who's as a misspelling of whose, for example or form instead of from.

• Over-relying on spellcheckers is another danger. You may become less conscious of spelling as you write and revise, consequently losing confidence in your ability to recognize correct spellings. Students who over-rely on spell-checkers suffer particularly during exams, when they do not have access to electronic aids.

How to improve spelling skills

You can develop your intuition for correct spelling by turning the spellchecker off and devoting at least one revision to spelling. If you sense that a word may be used incorrectly, look it up. This activity will encourage you to become actively engaged in the process of spelling, which is the only reliable way to improve your spelling skills. You can turn the spellchecker back on at the very end of the process, just to be sure that a spelling error did not go unnoticed. If it did, study the word so that you are less likely to make the same error again.

Appearance• Looks do count! Give your teacher a tidy document-or at least the

opportunity of not getting annoyed or inconvenienced. • Include a cover page giving the title of your paper, the name of the

course, your name, the date, and the teacher's name.• Number your pages in the top right-hand corner. Omit the number for

the first page of your paper , starting in with 2 on the second page.• Double-space your text, including indented quotations, footnotes, and

reference lists. Leave margins of one inch (2.5 cm) on all sides of the page.

• Use a standard font in twelve-point size. Do not right-justify your lines.• Put the reference list or bibliography on a separate page at the end. • Staple your pages; do not use a large binding or cover.

BibliographyUniversity of Toronto. WritingSource: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice