Effective Academic Writing: Conveying Knowledge with Persuasive and Objective Language - P, Apuntes de Derecho

¡Descarga Effective Academic Writing: Conveying Knowledge with Persuasive and Objective Language - P y más Apuntes en PDF de Derecho solo en Docsity! Effective academic writing Academic writing is setting for an academic audience consisting in professors, instructors, teaching assistants and students. 3 characteristics • Convincing content • Clear organization • Effective use of English 1)The convincing content: the content is informative and thought- provoking. The purpose of academic writing is to convey knowledge and understanding of a topic in a persuasive, formal, and objective manner. In order to be convincing, academic writings are expected to use specific and logical details, examples, facts, statistics , and case studies to support generalizations. The support is relevant , the support relates directly to the thesis,, which clearly presents the writer’s topic, purpose, method, and opinion in an essay. And topic sentences, do the same thing for each developmental paragraph in an essay. The writer can be able to demonstrate effective critical thinking skills. the writer has to analyze the information, interprets the facts, make judgments, draws conclusions, summarizes, and defends opinions. Clear purpose which helps direct the reader, the audience. This is because the writer has clear objectives and strong control of the content. The message is clear, logical and to the point, Indeed, papers with strong unified support which demonstrates effective critical thinking kills are well received. 2)Well organized: always according to certain patterns and rules which may vary from culture to culture. The general pattern is described as linear because of the direct relationship between generalizations and their supporting points. Academic writings usually have a deductive approach, in which the generalization is stated first and then supported by specific details, examples and other kinds of support. (sometimes academic writings use an inductive approach, in which the specific support is given before the generalizations) Academic writing is also organized on the rhetorical level. There are several classical patterns used: -Narration -Description -Definition -Process -Classification -Comparison -Cause/effect -argumentation The pattern chosen is the method by which the writer will convey the content. This involves learning the organization for the pattern and ways to order the support with these rhetorical devices. The success of a paper depends on how well the writer handles these organizational principles. 3)sophisticated use of English language Organization is important not only at the rhetorical level, is crucial at the sentence level. disorganized sentences disrupt the flow of thought in a paper and interfere with the meaning of the passage. Style is also important, effective English academic writing demonstrates control over a variety of sentence types. Complex sentences which contain dependent clauses are preferred in academic papers. A wide vocabulary range is another characteristic of effective academic writing. Audience and tone The audience is comprised of the readers the writer is targeting or addressing a message to. The writing should be formal ( serious and objective) and contain pertinent information the committee needs to know. First person Use first person (I or We) in the following cases: 1 To emphasizes the writer or writers Examples ( In my survey, I found that…/ In our survey we found that…) 2 To give personal experience in formal writing Examples (To illustrate, when I first moved to the US I could not speak english very well, I especially had trouble with…) 3 To show that you (the writer) belong to a group about which you are writing (general reference) Examples (We undergraduates believe that certain changes must be made at this university. We teachers work hard to prepare for our classes) Use first person with caution, first person is more common in personal writing than in academic writing. Personal writing is informal and intimate, whereas academic writing is objective and impersonal. Therefore, avoid using first person unless you are providing a personal experience to support a generalization. In academic writing the third person is used for generalizating. Second Person Use second person (you) to emphasize the reader. 1 To instruct (explain a process) Point of view Pronouns 1st person I (singular) or we (plural) 2nd person you (singular or plural) 3rd person He, she, it, one (singular) or they (plural) Examples ( To chance a flat tire, you must take a systematic approach. First you need to… then you should…) 2 to give the reader advice (make recommendations) Example (to improve your English you can watch more tv, visit with your American friends, read more in English…) 3 For general reference ( you is used impersonally to apply to people in general, not the reader specifically) Example ( whan you are in trouble, you find out who your friends are. Use second person with caution, The use of you for general reference is discouraged in academic writing because it is informal, and takes the emphasis off the subject. For academic writing, third person is preferred. Moreover do not use you when writing one of your personal experiences in your writing. Third person Third person ( he, she, it, one , they) is preferred in academic writing. Use it to: 1 Emphasize the subject of the paper, not the reader. 2 Generalize in the singular or the plural. When generalizing, make sure that pronouns agree with their antecedents and that verbs agree with their subjects. Examples (a word processor is useful because it aids in the composing process / word processors are useful because they aid in the composing process) Summary of use of pronouns in point of view • First person I, WE To emphasize the writers, to give personal experience, for general reference • Second person YOU to instruct the reader, to give the reader advice, for general reference • Third person HE, SHE, IT, THEY to emphasize the subject to generalize, preferred in academic writing. Problems with point of view Sexism : The use of the singular causes problems at times because of the current concern in the U.S. and Canada that language be inclusive of both males and females. Traditionally, the masculine pronouns were acceptable for referring to a mixed-gender group. However, nowadays masculine pronouns should not be used to include males and females. Awkward Pronoun Use: Four solutions have been proposed to avoid sexism in writing. However, some of these methods create awkward expressions. 1 Some writers are inclusive by stating both the masculine and feminine pronouns, but it’s hard to read an entire paper filled with such awkward usage. Example ( a student can write his or her papers with word, he or she will find that…) 2 some writers try to solve the sexism problem by using ONE throughout the paper. However this use of one, one’s is very formal. Some writers try to solve this problem by using his or her instead of one’s , and he and she instead of one, but the product is still awkward. 3 Another propose is to alternate between the use of the masculine case in one paragraph and the feminine case in other paragraph, but this is also distracting. 4 the last and the best way to solve the sexism problem is to use third person plural. The use of the plural in inclusive as well as concise. Traditional example : a student can edit his essays quickly with a word processor. Inclusive example: students can edit their essays quickly… Inconsistent point of view Do not change the point of view in your writing assignments. Pick one point of view and stick with it. Inconsistent point of view indicates a lack of focus and purpose.