what do we mean by academic writing? (continued)
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What Do We Mean By Academic Writing?
Bruce Hargrave
Military Education Group
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Academic vs ‘normal’ writing• Are there some differences?• If so, how can we describe those
differences?• We will have a look at some examples and
try to establish some ‘rules’.
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Read the examples and decide..• Is this academic writing?• Why? (Or, why not?).
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Features of Academic Writing• It is a process• It is a social practice• It has an obvious audience and a clear
purpose• Academic writing is linear.
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Features of Academic Writing• Complexity• Formality• Precision• Clarity and conciseness• Objectivity• Explicitness• Accuracy• Responsibility.
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Rules of Academic Writing• Any evidence used to support an
argument must be based on reliable research.
• Objectivity is better than subjectivity.• Both sides of the argument must be
presented – for and against, pros vs cons.• Emotional language should only be used
with great care.• Critical analysis is vital.
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Avoiding Errors• Use the toolset available to you
– Spell check everything before submission
– Grammar check everything before submission
– AND proof read everything before submission
• Proof reading tips – Get some temporal distance
– Read out loud
– Get someone else to read it to you.
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Description vs. Critical Analysis• Describe what you have read.
– But don’t just stop there!
• Offer your views on what you have read.• Support your views.
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Common Errors• Its and It’s
– It’s is short for ‘it is’ (or ‘it has’).– The cat had eaten its dinner (no apostrophe
required).– It’s time to put the cat out for the night.– It’s been raining for a week.
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Common Errors e.g. and i.e.
– do not mean the same things.– i.e. is short for id est, the Latin for it is.– e.g. is short for exempli gratia, – and means for example.
The standard discount applies; i.e. 10%. Try using easy-to-read fonts; e.g.
Georgia and Verdana.
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Marking Frustrations• If all I do as the marker of your work is ask questions, then you have not written your work correctly
• Here are some common questions I shout out when marking:
– “How can you say that?”
– “Who says?”
– “Where did that come from?”
– “What has this got to do with anything?”
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The Academic Mindset• “Everything is open to Question”
– If you ask all of these questions as you write then by definition you will be forced into supporting your work
– Bias will be removed
– Your work will be appropriately supported
– You will write far fewer definitive statements.
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Remember• Your opinion counts, tell me what you
think, but support or refute what you say with academic underpinning.
• It doesn’t matter if I don’t agree with you.
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Enhancing the flow of your work• ‘Develop’ an argument
– think of it as telling a story– it therefore has a beginning, a middle and an
end – Give the reader some indication of what is
coming, signposting the path you are going to take them on
– This means more than just writing coherent and well supported sentences
– It means using paragraphs, sections and chapters properly.
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Useful Phrases
• Use of some of the following will help signpost your work: – This point will be discussed further in Chapter 2. – As was highlighted in Chapter 1… – In the previous section [some stuff] was discussed.
This section will [do something else with this stuff]… – Further consideration of this point will take place later
in this work. – Whilst it may be prudent to investigate this further,
that falls outside of the scope of this work.
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Useful Linking Words• The academic feel of your writing will be
enhanced by the use of simple linking words and phrases: – However …– Further …– Conversely …– In support of this stance …– Jones (2008) refutes this …– In clarifying this, Smith (2009) …– It should also be noted that …
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Three Good Ways To Improve Your Academic Writing
• Read more.• Read more academic writing.• Use the support team in the library.
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