advice on academic writing

ADVICE ON ACADEMIC WRITING

AN ESSAY

• # SHOULD HAVE A TENTATIVE THESIS STATEMENT.

# SHOULD TRY TO PROVE SOMETHING.

#SHOULD BE ORGANIZED TO PRESENT AN ARGUMENT CLEARLY AND PERSUALIVELY.

#SHOULD HAVE QUESTIONS THAT WILL NEED TO BE ANSWERED BY THE WRITER.

STEPS TO WRITE A CORRECT ESSAY

• # START WRITING EARLY.

# WRITE WHAT SEEMS READIEST TO BE WRITTEN.

# KEEP THE ESSAY’S PURPOSE AND ORGANIZATION IN MIND.

# REVISE EXTREMELY.

# PUT THE ESSAY ASIDE FOR A FEW DAYS.

# PROOFREAD THE FINAL COPY CAREFULLY.

INTRODUCTION

• IT SHOULD IDENTIFY THE TOPIC.• IT SHOULD PROVIDE A SPECIFIC CONTEXT.• IT SHOULD ENGAGE READER’S ATTENTION.• IT SHOULD HELP THE WRITER EXPLORE HIS/HER OWN THINKING ON THE TOPIC.•  THE SIZE OF THE INTRODUCTION SHOULD BEAR SOME RELATIONSHIP TO THE

LENGTH AND COMPLEXITY OF THE PAPER.

PARAGRAPH.

• IT IS A SERIES OF RELATED SENTENCES DEVELOPING A CENTRAL IDEA, CALLED THE TOPIC.

• THE TOPIC SENTENCE IS THE MAIN POINT OF THE PARAGRAPH.• THE BODY PARAGRAPH DEMONSTRATES AND DEVELOPS THE TOPIC

SENTENCE THROUGH AN ORDERED, LOGICAL PROGRESSION OF IDEAS. 

 CONCLUSION

IT SHOULD PROVIDE A SENSE OF CLOSURE TO THE ESSAY.IT SHOULD REFLECT UPON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN.

THE LENGTH OF THE CONCLUSION SHOULD REFLECT THE LENGTH OF THE ESSAY.

REVISING

# IT GIVES THE WRITER THE CHANCE TO PREVIEW THE WORK ON BEHALF OF THE EVENTUAL READER.

# IT INVOLVES SOME CHECKING OF DETAILS.

SPECIFIC TYPES OF WRITING

.1 THE BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE

CRITIQUE.

2 WRITING AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY.

3 THE LITERATURE REVIEW.

4 THE ACADEMIC PROPOSAL.

5 THE ABSTRACT.

.6 THE COMPARATIVE ESSAY.

7 WRITING ABOUT HISTORY.

8 WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE.

9 WRITING IN THE SCIENCES.

.

10 EFFECTIVE ADMISSION LETTERS.

11 LETTERS AND RESUMES.

12 THE LAB REPORT.

13 ORAL PRESENTATIONS.

 MARKERS LOOK AT FOUR GENERAL AREAS IN DECIDING ON

A MARK FOR A WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT:

• HOW WELL YOU HAVE HANDLED THE TOPIC AND FOLLOWED THE ASSIGNMENT.

• THE QUALITY OF YOUR IDEAS.• THE WAY YOU HAVE ORGANIZED YOUR PAPER.• THE QUALITY OF YOUR WRITING STYLE AND GRAMMAR.

 SOME TOOLS AND RULES TO IMPROVE YOUR

SPELLING

.

# USE A GOOD DICTIONARY.

# BE CONSISTENT ABOUT USING BRITISH

OR AMERICAN SPELLINGS IN YOUR

WRITING.

#ALWAYS CHECK CERTAIN

"TROUBLESOME" SUFFIXES IN YOUR

DICTIONARY.

#CREATE YOUR OWN "DIFFICULT-TO-SPELL"

LISTS.

#LEARN THE STANDARD

PRONUNCIATIONS FOR FREQUENTLY

MISSPELLED WORDS.

.

SOME TOOLS AND RULES TO IMPROVE

YOUR SPELLING#WATCH OUT FOR HOMOPHONES, NEAR-

HOMOPHONES, AND OTHER EASILY CONFUSABLE WORDS.

#USE YOUR COMPUTER SPELLCHECKER, BUT WITH CAUTION.

#BECOME FAMILIAR WITH ENGLISH SPELLING RULES

A  NOTE ON APPEARANCE:

• INCLUDE A COVER PAGE GIVING THE TITLE OF YOUR PAPER, THE NAME OF THE COURSE, YOUR NAME, THE DATE, AND THE INSTRUCTOR'S NAME.

• NUMBER YOUR PAGES IN THE TOP RIGHT-HAND CORNER.

• DOUBLE-SPACE YOUR TEXT.

• USE A STANDARD FONT IN TWELVE-POINT SIZE.

• PUT THE REFERENCE LIST OR BIBLIOGRAPHY ON A SEPARATE PAGE AT THE END.

• STAPLE YOUR PAGES.

NOTE-TAKING AND PLANNING HERE ARE THREE ALTERNATIVES THAT PROVIDE GREATER FLEXIBILITY:

METHOD 1 - INDEX CARDS

# WRITE DOWN EVERY IDEA ON A SEPARATE INDEX CARD.

# RESHUFFLE THEM TO HAVE AN OUTLINE..

METHOD 2 - THE COMPUTER

#COLLECT YOUR POINTS CONSECUTIVELY.

#SORT YOUR IDEAS WHEN YOU ARE READY TO START PLANNING.

METHOD 3 - THE CIRCLE METHOD

#AFTER HAVING AN IDEA, WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER AND DRAW A

CIRCLE AROUND IT.

#AFTER HAVING AN IDEA WHICH SUPPORTS ANOTHER ONE, DO THE

SAME, CONNECTING BOTH CIRCLES WITH A LINE..

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF READING

1) TEXTBOOKS # PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE SECTIONS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO

THE COURSE. # BE AWARE OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT. THE CHAPTER TITLES, HEADINGS AND SUBHEADINGS WILL NAME THE MAIN CONCEPTS TO BE

COVERED.# MAKE BRIEF SUMMARIZING NOTES IN YOUR OWN WORDS.

2) PRIMARY SOURCES

• READ THROUGH EACH LITERARY WORK OR HISTORICAL DOCUMENT, PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN RESPONSES AND QUESTIONS.•  WRITE OUT A BRIEF JOURNAL ACCOUNT OF WHAT WAS

READ.

3) RESEARCH READINGS

In going through sources for a research essay, the writer is looking for facts to support or modify the original view of the topic.

SKIMMING

#  BY FIRST SKIMMING A TEXT, YOU CAN GET A SENSE OF ITS OVERALL LOGICAL PROGRESSION.

# THE AIM IS TO PICK UP THE LARGER CONCEPTS OF THE OVERALL PATTERN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEXT.

Some techniques for skimming a text:# Use some of the previewing techniques. # Read carefully the introductory paragraph, or the first two paragraphs.# Read carefully the first one or two sentences of each paragraph, as well as the concluding sentence.# Try to avoid looking up unfamiliar words or terminology.# Read carefully the concluding paragraph. #Try to think about the author’s overall purpose.# Return to the beginning and read through the text carefully.

SCANNING

• SKIMMING WITH A MORE FOCUSED PURPOSE: TO LOCATE A PARTICULAR FACT OR FIGURE, OR TO SEE WHETHER THE TEXT MENTIONS A SUBJECT YOU ARE RESEARCHING.

• KEEP A SPECIFIC SET OF GOALS IN MIND AS YOU SCAN THE TEXT, AND AVOID BECOMING DISTRACTED BY OTHER MATERIAL.

PREVIEWING

• SPEND A FEW MINUTES PREVIEWING A TEXT BEFORE STARTING TO READ, IN ORDER TO ORIENT YOURSELF TOWARD WHAT IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU IN THIS READING.

• 1) READ THE TEXT IN ORDER TO HAVE A SENSE OF THE CENTRAL CONCEPTS IN THE TEXT.• 2) THINK ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER.• 3) LOOK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR.• 4) LOOK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE BOOK.• 5) READ THE CHAPTER TITLES TO HAVE A PROGRESSION OF THE IDEAS.• 6) THINK ABOUT THE INFORMATION YOU WILL NEED TO RETAIN FROM THE READING

QUOTATION.

• CONSIDER QUOTING A PASSAGE FROM ONE OF YOUR SOURCES IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS HOLDS:

• THE LANGUAGE OF THE PASSAGE IS PARTICULARLY ELEGANT, POWERFUL OR MEMORABLE.

• YOU WISH TO CONFIRM THE CREDIBILITY OF YOUR ARGUMENT BY ENLISTING THE SUPPORT OF AN AUTHORITY ON YOUR TOPIC.

• THE PASSAGE IS WORTHY OF FURTHER ANALYSIS.• YOU WISH TO ARGUE WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S POSITION IN CONSIDERABLE

DETAIL.

QUOTATION

IF AN ARGUMENT IS RELEVANT BUT DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE QUOTED, CONSIDER• PARAPHRASING THE PASSAGE IF YOU WISH TO CONVEY THE POINTS IN THE

PASSAGE AT ROUGHLY THE SAME LEVEL OF DETAIL AS IN THE ORIGINAL• SUMMARIZING THE RELEVANT PASSAGE IF YOU WISH TO SKETCH ONLY THE

MOST ESSENTIAL POINTS IN THE PASSAGE

HOW DO I PARAPHRASE? WHEN YOU PARAPHRASE:- YOU MUST PROVIDE A REFERENCE. - YOU MUST USE YOUR OWN WORDS AND CREATE YOUR OWN SENTENCE STRUCTURES.

HOW DO I SUMMARIZE? WHEN YOU SUMMARIZE A PASSAGE: -YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING AND THEN TO EDIT THE INFORMATION USING YOUR OWN WORDS.- YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT A SUMMARY IS NECESSARILY SHORTER THAN A PARAPHRASE.

SUMMARIZING

• A SUMMARY HAS TWO AIMS:

• 1) TO REPRODUCE THE OVERARCHING IDEAS IN A TEXT, IDENTIFYING THE GENERAL CONCEPTS THAT RUN THROUGH THE ENTIRE PIECE.

• 2) TO EXPRESS THESE OVERARCHING IDEAS USING PRECISE AND SPECIFIC LANGUAGE.

SOME STEPS TO SUMMARIZE:

1) USE SOME OF THE PREVIEWING TECHNIQUES.2) INCLUDE THE TITLE AND IDENTIFY THE AUTHOR IN YOUR FIRST SENTENCE.3) THE FIRST SENTENCE OR TWO OF YOUR SUMMARY SHOULD CONTAIN THE

AUTHOR’S THESIS, OR CENTRAL CONCEPT, STATED IN YOUR OWN WORDS4) DIVIDE THE ARTICLE INTO SECTIONS AND WRITE A SENTENCE OR TWO TO COVER THE KEY

IDEAS IN EACH SECTION.5) OMIT IDEAS THAT ARE NOT REALLY CENTRAL TO THE TEXT, MINOR DETAILS AND

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES AND OPINIONS.6) BE CAREFUL NOT TO PLAGIARIZE THE AUTHOR’S WORDS.

TOPIC SENTENCES

• THEY ALERT READERS TO THE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN AN ESSAY.• THEY SHOULD GUIDE READERS THROUGH THE ARGUMENT.• TO COME UP WITH A TOPIC SENTENCE, YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF WHAT IS

GOING ON IN YOUR PARAGRAPH.• SOMETIMES A PARAGRAPH HELPS TO DEVELOP THE SAME POINT AS IN THE

PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH, AND SO A NEW TOPIC SENTENCE WOULD BE REDUNDANT.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO- WRITING COURSES, ADVICE ON ACADEMIC WRITING, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS, TORONTO.