Introduction to University Writing
Your audience may also be advisor,
WHY do academics write?
- academic writing/prose in out context is
conceived of as “Any writing that fulfills a purpose
of education in a college or university (...): writing
in response to an academic assignment, or
professional writing that trained ‘academics’-
teachers and researchers- do for publications read
and conferences attended by other academics
(Thaiss & Zawacki (2006:4))
CHARACTERISTICS of ACADEMIC WRITING
- it represents structred research written by
scholars for other scholars (with all university
writers being scholars in this context)
- It addresses topic-based research questions of
interest to anyone who is seeking factually based,
objectively-presented information on a particular
topic
- Its objective is the creation of new knowledge via
(a) a review of what is currently known about a
given topic as (b) the foundation for the author’s
new views of perspective on the topic
- Academic writing is characterized by a lack of
interactiveness, online production, and shared
immediate situation, its main communicative
purpose being information, argumentation and
explanation, its specialist audience and global
dissemination
Difference between university writing and other
writing contexts
- most academic writing follows a number of
specific rules and you are expected to follow them
while wirintg at university
- Academic writing contains a number of consistent
features:
- Uses clear formal language (no colloquial/slang
words)
- Includes evidence from other experts in the
field (references)
- Answers or debates a specific question or field
(focused)
- Has clear organization and layout (logical
structure)
- Is grammatically correct
BASIC CONSIDERATION IN ACADEMIC WRITING
AUDIENCE
- Considering your audience is something that you
should do before writing your paper. If you are a
student, your audience will be your instructor who
has definitely some expectations which you have
to meet.
thesis committees, and journal and conference
reviewers. Taking your audience into account will
affect the content of your writing. For example, if
you assume that your readers are familiar with the
subject you are writing about, you will not provide
much background information
PURPOSE
- audience and purpose are interconnected. If the
audience knows less than the writer, then purpose
is instructional. But if the audience knows more
than the writer, as in the case with students, the
purpose will be demonstrating of knowledge and
expertise. So, you should be aware of the purpose
of your writing as it is a decisive factor
ORGANIZATION
- Organization is a matter of priorities and
structure. Your audience has this expectations
that the information will be presented in a
structured format that us suitable for the genre of
the test, so there are different patterns you should
take advantage of, because most readers are
familiar with them and this helps facilitate the
conveyance of information. Other factors such as
relevance, coherence and flow, cohesion and
texture, context and message should be taken
into account. Moreover, there are several
established patterns of information organization
which all writers make use depending on the
nature of their paper: problems and solutions,
comparison-contrast, cause and effect,
classification
STYLE
- you have to make sure that your writing is based
on a appropriate style. Style should be consistent
and suitable both in terms of audience and
message. Writing your research report in an
informal style would be a grave mistake. Also, you
should consider the fact that academic style
differs from one field to another, so by analyzing
the papers in your chosen field of study, you will
become familiar with styles used in your own field
FLOW
- another important factor is flow. It means moving
from one statement in a text to another. It is
obvious that by keeping the flow and making clear
connection of ideas and concepts you will help
your audience to follow the test. One of the most
commonly used methods for establishing a flow is
moving from old information to new information.
By stating old information first, you can provide
some brief background information and then state
 your assumptions or conclusions and establish a REVISING AND EDITING
connection between them - this is the craftmanship side of writing. addition,
deletion, capitalization, punctuation marks, flaws
PRESENTATION in grammar and other salient points are taken into
- before presenting your paper, ask yourself these consideration
questions: are information flow and overall format
goof enough? Is your paper grammatically FINAL WRITING: this is known to be the final
accurate? Have you checked for spelling masterpiece that one is very proud of. It is referred
to as the best of you best
THE WRITING PROCESS
PUBLISHING
Prewriting - college and university-wide audience
- purpose and audience - National or international paper - peer reviewed
- Brainstorming journal
- form - Call for papers - oral presentation or poster
presentation
Writing
- organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency TEXT Sequencing
Parts of a model thesis paper:
Responding 1. Title page
2. Approval sheet
- teacher/peer conferences
3. Certificate of originality
- Self/peer evaluation 4. Certificate of statistician
5. Acknowledgement
Revising 6. List of tables
- clarifying, reorganizing, refining, using precise 7. List of plates
language 8. Abstract
9. Table of contents
Editing: conventions 10. Chapter 1 - the problem and its background
11. Chapter 2 - review of related literature
Publishing/sharing 12. Chapter 3 - methods
- 13. Chapter 4 - data presentation, analysis and
bulletin board
discussion
- Website 14. Chapter 5 - summary, conclusion and
- Performance recommendation
- Author’s chair

PLANNING STAGE
Factors to be considered
1. Schemata or knowledge/talent
2. Interest and experiences of the team
3. References
4. Chemicals/reagents
5. Financial resources
6. Time
7. Active consultation and participation

PREWRITING STAGE
1. Gathering of data
2. Submitting of the thesis proposal with objectives
3. Writing the outline

DRAFTING STAGE: as many drafts as possible until

they believe that the thesis paper is their
masterpiece and not only a manuscript