Academic Writing as A

Research Tool
Dr Anjali Ramnani
Assistant Professor of English
GLS University
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Academic Writing as a Part of Research and Science

 Academic writing seeks to document and communicate knowledge in a written form.

Knowledge can be generated through various means such as experience, intuition, tradition
and science.
 Science can be viewed as a distinctive approach to knowledge generation as well as a
collection or body of existing scientific knowledge.
 Science seeks to generate knowledge that is objective, that goes beyond an individual
researcher’s opinions or preferences, and that is grounded in systematically obtained data.
 The process of generating knowledge by adopting practices that have features outlined in
the above view of science is referred to as research.
Science and Academic Writing
 The scientific background of academic writing can be outlined in the key six points given
below:
1. Science relies on empirical facts to determine whether a belief can become a piece of
knowledge.
2. Science seeks knowledge that is objective and free from individual opinions and
preferences.
3. Science encourages skepticism, and beliefs are subjected to questions and examination.
4. Science subscribes to the norm of public verifiability, which means scientific outcomes are
open for verification to the appropriate communities (e.g., scientific bodies and
organization).
5. Science uses the existing knowledge to generate new knowledge.
6. Science aims at accumulation of knowledge.
Research and Academic Writing

 Research is a process of generating

knowledge through the adoption of
science-based approach. A distinctive
feature of science-based research is
that it seeks to develop, verify and
refine theories.
 Research adopts a specific procedure
to generate knowledge in compliance
with the norms of science.
 Research process revolves around two
things – theory building and theory
testing.
Academic Writing

 Academic writing documents and communicates research process and research outcomes
in the domains of science and social sciences.

 Academic writing, as a research tool, describes how the research process was carried out
and how the knowledge was generated and being implemented.

 Examples of academic writings are: 1) empirical/ data-based paper in journal, 2)

conceptual paper in journal, and 3) student project/ report.
Key Aspects of Academic Writing

 Objectivity: The aspect of objectivity may get reflected in the language of an empirical
research paper, where a researcher may distinguish between what is real, and what is the
researcher’s own view or opinion.

 Verifiability: The public verifiability feature of science is reflected in the practice where
academic research papers typically outline the description of the various aspects of the
research process adopted.

 Literature Review: The use of existing knowledge as a feature of science is reflected in

the feature of research papers, where the existing literature is reviewed and summarized in
the early part of a research paper to outline the existing state of knowledge in a particular
area
Types of Academic Writing
 Academic Research Papers: Empirical and Conceptual
1.Empirical papers document the process and outcome of a study aimed at assessing
whether there is empirical support for one or more hypotheses.
2.Conceptual papers contain documentation of research works of various types. For
instance, a conceptual paper may document the outcome of conceptually processing
existing research works in forms such as a review or a synthesis of the existing research
works.
 Theses Reports and Dissertation Reports: A thesis and dissertation reports basically
describe three aspects.
1.it describes a research question based on literature review.
2.it describes the research process adopted to address the research question.
3.it describes the data analysis performed on the collected data; results, findings and the
implications
 Academic Papers of Students for Course Requirements