Effective Academic Writing

Sui Lin GOEI PhD

• Professor in Education and Special Needs

• Registered Health Care Psychologist specialised in
children with Learning and Behavioral Difficulties.

• Master of Educational Needs

• Practice Based Design Research Master Students
• Externally funded projects by MOE Netherlands

• Aacademic position at VU Amsterdam, LEARN!

Research Institute
Publish or Perish?
 Outline Effective Academic Writing

1. Academic Writing

Key Elements
2. Planning for your writing task
3. Reading critically and drawing relevant material
4. Being critical
5. Intertextuality
6. Structuring an argument
7. Finding your voice

8. Journal writing
 1. Academic Writing (1/2)

 How to apply conventions of writing at university level.

 Gain confidence to develop your own voice as an

academic writer.

 Writing is one the main ways on which students and

lecturers are assessed at university.

 Important and complex skill to master; specialised nature

of academic discourse.
 1. Academic Writing (2/2)

 Many forms: essay, report, review or reflective article.

 Frequent references to the ideas, thinking, or research

or other authors writing in this field. You must give credits
to those with whom you are interacting.

 Structured guidelines for referencing and citation.

 A claim is backed up by reasons based on some form of

evidence.
 2. Planning for your Writing Task
• 4 main stages: planning, writing, editing, and reviewing.
• Iterative process
• Freewriting helps at the initial stages of academic
writing, helps improve thinking .
• Using primary evidence or published sources.
– Primary evidence is the raw data.
– Published sources constitute the literature on a topic;
peer-reviewed journals carry most weight.
• Referencing the work of others in one’s own writing:
APA 2010
• Structure and sequence: 3 parts
Introduction, Main Body, and Conclusion
 Academic Writing should contain a strong,
coherent argument
Sections Ideas and Arguments Words

Introduction State the main issues and the issues you deal 10-15%
with in the paper

Main Body Readings 70-80%

Conclusion This is not a summary of all the points made in 10-15%

the paper, but it states what you believe to be
reasonable conclusions based on the arguments
made. It is important to relate conclusions to
your research question.
Activity 1
1. First of all consider, what is your topic for consideration?
Write this in less than 25 words.

2. Next brainstorm all the ideas that come to mind. Let your
ideas flow and write down everything. Do not censor.

3. Now, do some freewriting to a prompt:

– What do I already know about this topic/question?
– What do I need to find out?
Write for 5 minutes.

4. Finally, write a list of books, journals, reports that you need to

read. This will help you provide the foundation for your
writing.
Activity 2
 Select a passage of writing from the introduction of a
published article and delete its content (Thompson &
Kamler, 2013).

 What remains is the skeleton where you can work with.

 Removing the content makes the syntax visible without

plagiarising.

 But please if you have your own approach, please do not

feel obliged to do this one.
In this article, I discuss the main arguments that deal with the issue of
_______________________________.
In distinguishing between _____________________it is my purpose
to highlight ______________________________________________,
by pointing to ____________________________________________.

Besides providing a map of the ______________________________,

I assess the extent to which these _____________________lay a
ground work for __________________________________________.
This article is structured as follows. After giving an overview of the
scope of the _______________________, I review the particular
_______________________________________________________.
Next, I provide a summary of
___________________________________. Finally, in the last two sections,
I consider several implications derived from _______________________
and argue that ______________________________________________.
3. Reading critically and drawing relevant material
from scholarly texts to craft your academic writing
• Academic writing is closely linked to reading: reading critically

• Summarising – writing an overview in your own words of the main

ideas, issues, and general meanings of a text. Sources help to
make a point.

• Paraphrasing – focusing on a particular issue, idea or section in a

text and using your own words to put the meaning forward. Cite the
original author.

• Direct Quotation – quotation marks or block indentation and is

entirely the words of the original author.
4. Being Critical
• Adopting a critical stance to a text

• Focused questioning

• Asking and answering questions will help you judge the work of other
scholars.

• What is the argument?

• What evidence is used to back up the argument?
• What claims are made by the author?
5. Intertextuality
• Making connections between texts and putting forward your own
understanding

• Drawing on other texts to build a context. Think how to use these

texts to inform your argument and make your own assertion.

• Analyse relationships among sources.

• Use a list of phrases, such as:

According to _____ or X argues for ________. Others have
suggested ______ y has shown in her study ____________ In his
article Z concludes __________.
6. Structuring an argument and substantiating
claims or assertions through careful argument
• Freewrite for 5 minutes in full sentences: What is my argument?

• Read over what you have written and reduce your argument to 25
words.

o Does my argument have a clear focus? What exactly am I

claiming?
o Does my argument have a sound logic? Is there a clear appeal
to reason not emotion?
o What evidence can I provide in support of my argument? What
is the literature saying?
o Does my argument have a clear and logical structure? Does it
lead to a conclusion?
7. Finding your own voice
• Read widely and critically
• Note specialised vocabulary
• Observe textual features
• Do not use the first person
• Always respect other perspectives and develop
counterarguments in a respectful voice
• Avoid broad, sweeping generalisatons.
• ….
Journal Writing
Title and abstract

• Most important parts of a paper.

• Important for editors who will scan the title and abstract to decide if it should
be sent out for external peer review;

• Important for reviewers, who will get a first impression of the paper.

• Important for readers, as the title, abstract, and keywords are often the only
parts of the paper that are freely accessible to everyone online, including
readers in developing countries.

• Electronic search databases use words in the title and abstract to yield
search results.
What you should know – title and abstract (1)
• The author instructions of your chosen journal give information on
requirements for titles. Some allow only single titles, whereas others allow
subtitles, possibly with a colon.

• Informative titles are those that present the outcome of the study (e.g., Drug
x is effective in reducing cholesterol), whereas some journals prefer a
descriptive title stating the subject and design of the study (e.g., Drug x for
treatment of hypercholesterolemia: a placebo-controlled randomized trial).

• Journals may require a short running title to be used at the top or bottom of
each page, facilitating reader navigation through the journal.
What you should know – title and abstract (2)
• Journals usually require a structured abstract with headings (such as
background, methods, results, and discussion).

• The abstract must clearly highlight the issue addressed by the study and the
key findings.

• An abstract should be a stand-alone one, without any reference to the main

text or the literature.

• Most journals have a strict word limit for the abstract (typically 200–300
words).

• While an abstract must be pleasant to read on its own, the narrative tone
and style must be more telegraphic than that of the main text.
What you should do – title and abstract (1)
• Take time to write the title and abstract. Enjoy their uniqueness. Take a quiet
moment to re-read your paper and write down the keywords of the different
sections.

• Determine if you need an informative or descriptive title.

• Use the keywords and active verbs to formulate several potential titles (e.g.,
Variable x predicts fracture risk).

• Try to write the most important keywords at the beginning of the title, as
readers' attention is focused on the beginning. Although running titles may
often contain abbreviations, avoid them in the title and abstract.

• Determine what factor makes your paper unique and try to stress that in the
title. Make the title stand out from other literature in the field.
What you should do – title and abstract (2)
• Use the keywords of each section of the paper to construct the abstract.

• Always state the objective of your study at the beginning.

• Follow the journal's format for abstracts strictly but creatively.

• Limit your statements on each section to two or three sentences.

• Try to use short phrases, simple language, and common word

combinations, and avoid the passive voice as much as possible.

• Describe the important concepts using language fully consistent with the
main text. Sentences may require a slightly different syntax if there are no
headings because the journal requires an unstructured abstract.
What you should do – title and abstract (3)
• The results section is the most important part of the abstract.

• Start by clearly and honestly stating the answer to the research question,
including the primary outcome, and be self-critical when pondering how
many secondary outcomes to include.

• If you report percentages, provide details of sample size.

• Never present only P-values but give effect sizes (with 95% confidence
intervals).
What you should do – title and abstract (4)
• Once the abstract is completed, it helps to ask yourself four questions, each
relating to one section:
1. “What is known and why is this study needed?” (Background),
2. “What did we do?” (Methods),
3. “What did we find?” (Results), and
4. “What does it mean?” (Discussion).

• Also ask yourself “So what?”; this is what editors and reviewers often ask
themselves when reviewing papers.

• Have three draft titles and the abstract ready before sending the paper to
coauthors for comments. Critically revise them every time the main text
undergoes revisions.
Checklist for title and abstract
 Construct title and abstract from keywords from all sections of the main text.
 Use important keywords at the beginning of the title.
 Avoid abbreviations and passive voice (title and abstract).
 Always state the objective and start the results section with the answer to
the research question (abstract).
 Give sample size if you report percentages (abstract).
 Present effect sizes with confidence intervals (abstract).
 Check if the abstract covers the 4 Ws:
– Background: What is known and why is this study needed?
– •Methods: What did you do?
– •Results: What did you find?
– •Discussion: What does it mean?
 Check that the abstract can be read independently from the main text.
 Revise every time the main text is revised (title and abstract).
Useful links
• http://www.monash.edu/rlo/graduate-research-writing?
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Thank you for your attention!