QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #42

Academic writing

Writing in the forms or styles of academic writing is usually serious, intended for a critical and informed audience, based on closely-investigated knowledge, and posits ideas or arguments. It usually circulates within the academic world ('the academy'), but the academic writer may also find an audience outside via journalism, speeches, pamphlets, etc.

-----------------------adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_writing

Have a look at three very different guides to academic writing:

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/learningdev/writing_for_ac/intro.asp

“What is academic writing and how does it differ from other kinds of writing? What, in short, makes academic writing academic? This is a big question. It is, in fact, the question of this six-part guide.”

http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/Gloess.htm

“The word essay means an attempt. Like a single throw in a javelin competition, it should deal with one issue in a unified way. Essays, therefore, focus on their title, rather than discussing everything to do with the subject. Some people say that the unity should come from taking the form of an argument that takes the reader from the title at the beginning to a conclusion at the end.”

http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html

“Critical writing depends on critical reading. Most of the papers you write will involve reflection on written texts - the thinking and research that has already been done on your subject. In order to write your own analysis of this subject, you will need to do careful critical reading of sources and to use them critically to make your own argument. The judgments and interpretations you make of the texts you read are the first steps towards formulating your own approach