Lesson 8 Academic Communication for Academic Purpose

Lesson 1: Academic Writing

Academic writing is what scholars do to communicate with other scholars in their fields of
study, their disciplines. It‘s the research report a biologist writes, the interpretive essay a
literary scholar composes, the media analysis a film scholar produces. At the same time,
academic writing is what you have to learn so that you can participate in the different
disciplinary conversations that take place in your courses. You have to learn to think like
an academic, read like an academic, do research like an academic, and write like an
academic—even if you have no plans to continue your education and become a scholar
yourself.

Gillet, Hammond, and Martalla (2009) emphasized that in academic writing you are
expected to produce logically-structured ideas with well-argued, substantiated points,
taking different opinions into consideration. There are various genres of academic writing,
such as essays, reports, lab reports, case studies and dissertations. Regardless of the
genre you are writing in, your style of writing should be the same - clear, concise, with
appropriately referenced ideas. In higher education one of the main things you will be
judged on is the quality of your writing. This chapter considers the various elements
required in an academic text from word to paragraph level. It offers advice on text
cohesion and emphasises the need for planning and drafting work.

One of the main ways that academic writing is different from other forms of writing is in
its relationship with its audience - that is to say the reader. For most students that reader
is one of their lecturers or tutors, although it could also be fellow students.
Whoever it is, the reader will be concerned with whether the piece of writing has reached
a certain standard and will use those standards to judge the quality of the writing.
Furthermore, the judgement will be made formally, with a mark or grade and perhaps
some written comments. People might make judgements privately about the quality of a
letter they receive from a friend or business associate but there is no need or expectation
that they will record their verdict.

The judgements that are made about a piece of academic writing are part of the whole
process of deciding upon the quality of a person‘s learning and, in turn, the class of
degree they should be awarded at the end of their studies. The standards that are used
to form those judgements may be expressed in different ways according to the subject of
study or institution but they will always be concerned with structure, clarity and
accuracy. There will also be an expectation that the writing will demonstrate an objective
approach and explore the subject matter thoroughly, resulting in a careful analysis.

Whatever your level of study, it is important to be critical when you write an academic
piece of work. This does not mean finding fault with something, as it can mean in
everyday life. In the context of academic writing, being critical includes:

■ showing an understanding and knowledge of theory

■ demonstrating an awareness of what has been written or said about the subject

■ taking into consideration different points of view

■ using reason to make a judgement

■ not accepting ideas until they have been examined closely (and then maybe rejecting
them)

■ coming to your own conclusions

■ using your own voice

You might think this looks like a tall order, but hopefully there is nothing in the list that
you would disagree with. The same approach is used in reading an academic text,
where you need to:

■ identify the line of reasoning or argument

■ look for hidden assumptions

■ decide if the evidence used to support the argument is good enough.

Genres of Writing

Different types of academic writing are known as genres. They have distinct purposes,
forms and recognised structures. Common examples are essays, reports, case studies and
projects. Although certain genres seem more suited to certain disciplines than others, you
could well be asked to write in any of the above genres during your study. The clue to this
will be in your assignment brief, and it is worth spending time to make sure you know
exactly what type of writing you have got to produce. Whatever the genre, there are
certain things that are common to all. Academic writing:

■ uses evidence to support the points it makes

■ uses structure and order to guide the reader through the writing

■ contains references for anyone else‘s ideas or work used.

Basic Structure

Structure is of major importance in a piece of academic writing and is one of the key
ways that it differs from other forms of writing. There is an expectation that the writing
will take the reader through the different stages or sections of the work, including clear
signposts along the way. Assessment criteria will almost always include how well a piece
of work has been structured. An assignment brief may give you advice on this and you
should follow it carefully.
Although different disciplines will rely on and prefer different types of writing, there are
two that are common to almost all: the essay and the report. It is worth understanding
and knowing the accepted structure of each.

1. Essay

The essay has been described as ‗the default genre‘ (Andrews, 2003) and as such cuts
across all disciplines. It is used to ask you to discuss and explore something in depth - for
example the reasons for a particular event in history, the advantages and disadvantages
of a theory, the impact of a new law on society. It will usually expect you to indicate your
point of view or judgment on the topic.

Typical essay structure

An essay normally follows this structure:

1. Introduction

2. Development

3. Conclusion

4. References

The four areas play very different parts. The Introduction acts as a way in to the main
section, providing some background information on the topic and explaining which
particular aspects of it will be covered in the essay. It is normally one or two paragraphs
long. The Development section builds up the writer‘s main ideas in a series of
paragraphs. These paragraphs must be linked to one another so that anyone reading the
essay can follow the line of argument and thread of the discussion. The Conclusion
draws together the main point of each of the paragraphs and can include a statement
on the opinion of the writer. Finally the References section gives full details of any
sources (books, journals, websites, etc.) that have been mentioned, cited or quoted in
the essay.

2. Report

A report is usually the result of some kind of investigation of a situation, event or series of
events. It is very common to working life so if you become familiar with its structure and
use it well you will find you are developing an important skill for future employment.
Some common examples of reports are:

■ a market research report, explaining trends and consumer behaviour

■ an annual report from a company, documenting performance

■ a survey report, presenting findings on opinions, preferences or behaviour

Typical Report Structure

Unlike an essay, a report will have sections and headings to guide the reader through the
document. Like an essay, it has a beginning, middle and end.

■ first part: title page; summary; list of contents

■ middle part: introduction; methodology; findings/results; discussion; conclusion

■ last part: references; bibliography; appendices.

The first part presents your work to the audience, rather like the opening credits of a film
or play. The summary (or abstract) is particularly useful here as it gives a condensed
version of the entire report. The middle part is where the material is developed. Each
section has a heading and takes the reader through the investigation, analysis and
discussion. The last part contains all the supporting material that has been used in the
report, for example any outside sources, the raw data or questionnaires, if used.

3. Other Types of Academic Writing

Although essays and reports are generic terms, there are many other types of academic
writing or genres (Gillett and Hammond, in press):

■ Arts and Humanities: essay; critique or review

■ Science, Engineering and Technology: report; research proposal

■ Health and Life Sciences: lab report; reflective account

■ Social Sciences: project; case study

Academic Style

If you are not sure about the difference between formal and informal language, try
reading widely and critically. Read a popular newspaper article and a friend‘s letter or
email, and then read a page of a book or a journal from your recommended reading
list. You will soon begin to see there is a difference in the style of these texts.

Formal vocabulary

Academic writing uses more formal vocabulary than spoken language. Students often
feel that it is difficult to distinguish between formal and less formal language.

The following written sentence would be perfectly acceptable for instance:

He tried to show that it was possible to lose weight and eat his favourite food.

Consider the same sentence written more formally:

He attempted to prove that losing weight whilst eating his favourite meals was achievable.

The second example somehow seems more authoritative and is better placed in the
academic world rather than in a magazine. The reason for using formal expressionsis not
because academic language is pompous, but because it is clearer. Consider the
following example:

Roberts (2007) says that lower house prices do not affect you if you are not planning to sell your
property.

Questions for Discussion

1. How is academic writing different from workplace writing?
2. What are the tone and style of academic writing?
A SAMPLE RESPONSE OR REACTION PAPER

Report on Man’s Search for Meaning

Dr. Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning (New York: Washington
Square Press, 1966) is both an autobiographical account of his years as a
prisoner in Nazi concentration camps and a presentation of his ideas
about the meaning of life. The three years of deprivation and suffering he
spent at Auschwitz and other Nazi camps led to the development of his
theory of Logotherapy, which, very briefly, states that the primary force in
human beings is "a striving to find a meaning in one's life" (154). Without a
meaning in life, Frankl feels, we experience emptiness and loneliness that
lead to apathy and despair. This need for meaning was demonstrated to
Frankl time and again with both himself and other prisoners who were
faced with the horrors of camp existence. Frankl was able to sustain
himself partly through the love he felt for his wife. In a moment of spiritual
insight, he realized that his love was stronger and more meaningful than
death, and would be a real and sustaining force within him even if he
knew his wife was dead. Frankl's comrades also had reasons to live that
gave them strength. One had a child waiting for him; another was a
scientist who was working on a series of books that needed to be finished.
Finally, Frankl and his friends found meaning through their decision to
accept and bear their fate with courage. He says that the words of
Dostoevsky came frequently to mind: "There is one thing that I dread: not
to be worthy of my suffering." When Frankl's prison experience was over
and he returned to his profession of psychiatry, he found that his theory of
meaning held true not only for the prisoners but for all people. He has since
had great success in working with patients by helping them locate in their
own lives meanings of love, work, and suffering.

One of my reactions to the book was the relationship I saw between the
―Capos‖ and ideas about anxiety, standards, and aggression discussed in
our psychology class. The Capos were prisoners who acted as trustees,
and Frankl says they acted more cruelly toward the prisoners than the
guards or the SS men. Several psychological factors help explain this
cruelty. The Capos must have been suppressing intense anxiety about
―selling themselves out‖ to the Nazis in return for small favors. Frankl and
other prisoners must have been a constant reminder to the Capos of the
courage and integrity they themselves lacked. When our behaviors and
values are threatened by someone else acting in a different way, one
way we may react is with anger and aggression. The Capos are an
extreme example of how, if the situation is right, we may be capable of
great cruelty to those whose actions threaten our standards.

I think that Frankl‘s idea that meaning is the most important force in
human beings helps explain some of the disorder and discontent in the
world today. Many people are unhappy because they are caught in jobs
where they have no responsibility and creativity; their work lacks meaning.
Many are also unhappy because our culture seems to stress sexual
technique in social relationships rather than human caring. People buy
popular books that may help them become better partners in bed, but
that may not make them more sensitive to each other‘s human needs.
Where there is no real care, there is no meaning. To hide the inner
emptiness that results from impersonal work and sex, people busy
themselves with the accumulation of material things. With television sets,
stereos, cars, expensive clothes, and the like, they try to forget that their
lives lack true meaning instead of working or going to school to get a
meaningful job, or trying to be decent human beings.

I have also found that Frankl‘s idea that suffering can have meaning helps
me understand the behavior of people I know. I have a friend named Jim
who was always poor and did not have much of a family—only a
stepmother who never cared for him as much as for her own children.
What Jim did have, though, was determination. He worked two jobs to
save money to go to school, and then worked and went to school at the
same time. The fact that his life was hard seemed to make him bear down
all the more. On the other hand, I can think of a man in my neighborhood
who for all the years I've known him has done nothing with his life. He
spends whole days smoking and looking at cars going by. He is a
burnedout case. Somewhere in the past his problems must have become
too much for him, and he gave up. He could have found meaning in his
life by deciding to fight his troubles like Jim, but he didn't, and now he is a
sad shadow of a man. Without determination and the desire to face his
hardships, he lost his chance to make his life meaningful. In conclusion, I
would strongly recommend Frankl‘s book to persons who care about why
they are alive, and who want to truly think about the purpose and
meaning of their lives.
 Reflection Paper

The Reflection Paper is an assignment that invites you to draw on your own
experience. It is discipline and course specific and might take the form of a short
paper on course readings. Ghaffar (2014) opines that a strong reflection paper makes
insightful and unexpected connections using examples, re-evaluates prior assumptions,
develops narrative voice and a unique writing style, and incorporates brief quote from
the course material.

Ghaffar (2014), further states that in the reflection paper, you:

• bridge comprehension of course readings with your knowledge and experience I

order to grasp the readings with greater depth

• integrate your knowledge and experience with course readings and concepts by
drawing on concrete examples
• question your assumptions about a course reading or service placement
opportunity; it also invites you to step back from your own prior beliefs and arrive at a
more complex, or new understanding of a reading, issue, or life experience

In addition, you may do the following when you write a reflection paper:

(a) Identify a fascinating issue, or concept that arose out of the course material, class
discussion or service learning placement.

(b) Relate this to your experience and/or knowledge; you can also start with your
experience and connect it to the course material.

(c) Consider how (a) helps to understand or even challenge (b) and vice versa.

(d) What are the implications of this in terms of your intellectual development,
individual growth and/or understanding, or career goals?

Examples from Reflection Papers:

Subject Explanation Example

Management: Brings in When I saw the poster advertising Ai Wewei‘s
reflect on a experience to exhibition at the AGO, I felt a sense of
branding probe course belonging, since I come from China. I was
campaign material… already aware that Ai Weiwei was a
provocateur and that his show was banned in
China; and this made it seem that much more
enticing, as I might never have a chance to
see it in China. When I later reflected on this
experience, I realized that effective advertising
elicits a profoundly personal connection from
the viewer.
English Re-evaluates prior Personally, I don‘t think Chesterton‘s
Literature: assumptions… description of the colour brown as ―the primal
reflect on an twilight of creation‖ is hyperbolical at all; in
essay fact, brown is the colour of the earth, from
which mostly everything grows, and which thus
 supports existence. More importantly, the earth
in itself is literally primal, as it was a prerequisite
for creation of any kind. Thinking about the
colour brown in these terms made me question
my initial assumption that brown is a boring
colour.

Psychology: Draws on your One type of social influence I have

reflect on knowledge to experienced online is interpersonal. My
social media explain a personal experience using online gaming
concept… demonstrates the interpersonal dimension of
social influence discussed in tutorial. Players
are motivated to form into organized groups in
massive multiplayer online games. When
forming these groups, various roles are played
in order to accomplish collective goals within
the group. Some of the roles include trading
information to reach a destination or goal,
while still trying to be the best player in the
group.

Service Illustrates what you During my placement at CAMH working with a

Learning: have neuropsychiatric, I developed a personal
reflect on learned from your initiative. For example, I read the articles
service service written by the principle investigator. When he
placement placement… learned I was engaged at a practical and
academic level with his work, he allocated
more tasks to me. This helped me to develop
my confidence and to bridge my academic
knowledge of neuroscience with the
complexities of working in lab where the results
are not always as cut-and-dry as they appear
in a textbook.

Technical Papers

A technical paper is a paper that reports the findings of research. It may be written for
presentation at a conference or symposium. It may also be for publication.

The Main Components of Technical Papers

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Methods
4. Results and Discussions
5. Conclusions
6. References
7. Biography

Abstract. The abstract is a brief summary of the contents of your paper.

Introduction. The purpose of this section is threefold. First, you want to trace previous
work on the subject and set up the problem. Second, you need to identify how your
paper addresses that problem. That is key: explaining what you do to address the gaps
of literature or problem of the paper. Finally, you should note the broader contributions
and implications of the piece. I like to think that the contributions of a paper can be
theoretical, empirical and/or policy relevant, although often the papers published in
top journals have all three.

Data and methods. This section answers the question ―How do you know what you
know‖ That can be further broken down into three parts:
On what kind of information or material are you basing your findings (e.g.
interviews, statistics, documents)?
How did you find that information, or where did it come from (e.g., U.S. Census,
National Archives, fieldwork)?
How did you analyze that information? That is, what software or analytic
strategies did you use to come up with your findings?

Results. This section contains the meat of the paper, where you present the findings
from your work, and you should keep two points in mind. First, make sure that your
results speak to the theoretical and empirical questions that your paper raises in the
front half -- in other words, that your paper is cohesive throughout. Second, and
particularly for qualitative papers, organize your results analytically or thematically --
not, for example, in chronological order or according to some other simple
accounting. You should be thoughtful about how to present your results to get the most
out of your findings.

Discussion or conclusion. You may also find a combined discussion and conclusion at the
end of the paper. What are the differences between a discussion and a conclusion?
That can vary by author or paper, and it depends on how you have written up your
results section. One way you can think about it is that the discussion section allows
you to step back from the results section and reflect on the broader story or themes of
your results and how they tie together. If you see a discussion section this way, then
you can think about a conclusion as addressing three things: 1) summarizing what you
did in the paper, including its main findings, 2) acknowledging the limitations of your
work and 3) proposing steps for future research that builds on what you‘ve done in the
paper.

Questions for Discussion

1. Why should we publish technical papers in journals or present in conferences?

2. How is a technical paper organized?