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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing

Department of English and Literary Studies
Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano

ENG 8305/ENG 9303

RESEARCH METHODS IN ENGLISH

NOTES ON ACADEMIC WRITING

Ibrahim Bello-Kano

SECTION 1: RUDIMENTS OF ACADEMIC WRITING

Introduction
Academic writing is a unique and, therefore, demanding kind of writing which proceeds on four
key premises, namely investigation, reference, inference, and coherence. To investigate a
problem in an academic field, some form of research would be unavoidable. To begin with,
"research" is any form of organized study, or any form of methodical investigation, into a subject
that is intended to discover facts, to establish or revise a theory, or to develop a plan of action
based on the facts discovered, or to uncover the relationship between two or more entities or
objects.

In this case, any systematic enquiry, or any process used or deployed to study an object or a
subject matter or a field of effects would involve using formal or specified methods. That is why
research is a form of methodological enquiry in which the enquirer or the investigator uses
systematic ways or procedures in order to enquire into a subject matter, or carry out research into
a subject or a field of enquiry.

However, before a research process can take off, or even become possible, it must be "thought"
or "imagined" (or both at once). In other words, "research" and "concepts" are intractably linked
because neither is possible without the other. This is chiefly why research into a subject requires
the use of concepts; otherwise the subject of the research may not be accurately studied.

Concepts are ideas, ideals, notions, arguments, perceptions, designs, and theories. A concept may
also be just a word (used technically) as a governing principle in an investigation or research
field. Concepts usually involve inference or "first principles" (intuition or common sense). Yet
concepts may also be counter-intuitive, that is, undermine common sense and the "obvious". A
concept may also be an abstract idea or notion that the researcher has thought up, or even any
"image" of an object that the researcher would be able to visualize (as in symbolic thought where
the sound of a running engine might imply in the mind of a perceiver the presence of a driver or
combustive energy, for example).

In general, then, a concept is a broad principle affecting perception and behaviour. For example,
a concept may be a broad abstract idea or a guiding general principle which determines how a
researcher has to conduct themselves or approach the object of enquiry, or how a researcher
might, will, or could behave or perceive the object of enquiry— whether this be a piece of nature
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
(reality), a culture, a way of life, a personal style, another piece of writing or a manifestation of
human thought or language.

On this view, a concept enables the "understanding", or the "perception", of an object-for-study;

it allows, and makes possible, the most basic understanding of the object of study or
investigation. Concepts also imply the unavoidable way of perceiving the object of study, and
how the object must be perceived or investigated. In this sense, concepts are synonymous with,
and are indispensable to, a method, plan, or design.

Research and the Writing Process

The preceding discussion should indicate the intricate relationship between research,
conceptuality, and writing. Or, to put it in yet another way, writing and research are intricately
related because the research objectives and goals have to be written up first, well before the
research could be conducted or reported, or made coherent and meaningful for the reader— be it
the supervisor or another researcher— to make sense of it or even find it useful and worth their
time and critical attention.

The research process is where form (language) and content (idea or data) meet because it is
within the writing process that the researcher conveys, and can convey, the results of the formal,
systematic, rational inquiry with a view to interpreting it and giving it significance one way or
another through an objective (non-subjective, rigorous) review or analysis of the data.

The Writing Process

 Writing is a process by which the writer seeks to discover, organize, and communicate
her ideas to the reader.

 This means that the writer has only the impersonal structure of writing to achieve these
ends: no facial expression, gesture, tone, or voice would be available to help the writer to
communicate her ideas or explain difficult or misunderstood points to the reader.

 The following are decisive in the writing process: words, punctuation, and organization
(of words, thoughts, and ideas).

Stages of Academic Writing

The writing process has, or goes through, five stages, which range from deciding what one wants
to say, planning how to say it, producing a preliminary but complete initial version of the text,
rearranging or re-writing the structural elements according to sense and narrative flow, to the
actual editing and checking for grammatical errors, wrong spelling, and consistency in point of
view. For these reasons, writing is a process that involves pre-writing, organizing ideas and
thought, drafting, revising, editing, before the finished product, the final draft, the outcome of the
writing, is arrived at.

Pre-Writing
This is the first stage of the writing process. It is used in generating the ideas for the writing; the
narrowing of the topic; and the establishment of a “direction” for the writing. This stage can also
take the following steps:
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
 Free-writing: this is an idea-generating technique, from random selection to writing
anything that comes to mind about the topic. Use this to find a topic, decide on a topic,
and give direction to the writing and the topic.

 Brainstorming: write down words and expressions that come to one spontaneously.

 Keep a Journal: this helps the writer to record her daily thoughts and reactions to events.
This is also the place to think the topic through. Journal writing may also be used for the
practice of spontaneous writing and the reworking of points and ideas about a topic, etc.

 Reading: reading narrowly on a particular topic, or widely on a number of issues helps to

assemble ideas to support an argument or material for the writing as a whole. Reading is
crucial in getting more information about a topic, and this would lead to intelligent, well-
illustrated, well-informed, and well-argued writing.

 Online/Internet Research: surf the internet for information about any topic or subject-
matter. However, it is important to be sure about the authenticity or appropriateness of
the sources.

Organizing
This is the second stage in the writing process. After the pre-writing processes have been
completed, the writer needs to organize her ideas into at least a rough outline, consisting of a
developing structure (a main idea and a set of supporting ideas). This stage can also take the
following steps:
1) Clustering: this technique allows for grouping and organizing ideas within a
meaningful and related structure. It also allows for a view of how ideas relate to one
another. It allows for establishment of connections within a number of ideas or issues
that may yield enough material for a draft. Here, use logic and sense to connect ideas
and issues.

2) Outlining: here, words or phrases should be arranged in such a way as to represent a

group of related ideas, especially in the way they will be discussed in the body of the
writing. At this stage, outlining allows for the development of a topic sentence, and is
particularly effective in writing up the first draft outlines.
Drafting
This is the third stage in the writing process. Once the outline of the essay is done, the writer
should proceed to the drafting stage, which involves getting ideas down on the page. At this
stage, the draft is likely to be very rough. Therefore, write without worrying about grammar and
spelling; concentrate on the content that could be meaningful to the reader. Ensure that the main
ideas and the supporting ideas are fully integrated and flowing smoothly. After finishing the first
draft, don’t read it immediately; keep it away and return to it at a later date, when you are no
longer intimately familiar with it, when you would most likely see it in a new light.
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
Revising
This is the fourth stage in the writing process. Here, revise the draft in the light of logic, sense,
word order, grammatical accuracy, clarity, and organization. Expect to do this several times
before you might be satisfied with the finished product.

Editing
This is the fifth, and possibly, the most important stage in the writing process. The finished essay
or text should be free of the following:
 Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors
 Grammatical and mechanical errors
 Errors in sentence structure
 Inconsistent verb tense
 Inconsistent point of view (I, You, She; personal pronouns)
 Poor writing practices (deformed paragraphs, wrong allusions, ill-formed topic/main
sentences and supporting ideas, etc.).

The Topic Sentence and the Paragraph

In academic writing, the paragraph is the basic unit of composition. But every paragraph should
have one sentence that expresses its main ideas. This is called "the topic sentence", which often
comes at the beginning of the paragraph to signal what comes next. The remaining sentences
must develop the main idea and be subordinated to it. The appearance of a new idea means the
beginning of a new paragraph. This is why the sentence is the basic unit of meaningful writing.
In academic writing, a sentence is a group of words which begin with a capital letter and end
with a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark. Most sentences contain at least a subject
and a verb (example: “Zahra walks to school every day”).

The Topic Sentence

 The Topic Sentence is a sentence that has one main idea and an illustration (an example) of
the main idea.
 The Topic Sentence has two parts: a topic (a key word or phrase) and a direction (a
conclusion; an opinion; a statement about the topic).
 Note: a direction may also be a general word.
 Examples of Topic Sentences:
 Walking long distances is good for overall health
 Typing on a computer can be very tiring
 Human thinking can be very dull
 My trip to Niamey was very interesting
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
Structure of Topic Sentences:

Topic General Direction

1. Walking long distances can be very tiring

2. Human thinking is very interesting

3. Typing on a computer is good for overall health

4. My trip to Niamey was very dull

 Note the ways in which the second part of the above topic sentences can be switched
easily among the other sentences. The important thing is the two main parts as
illustrated above.

 Note: In those sentences, there is a topic (the main idea) and a general direction (a key
word or phrase) which also acts as the conclusion or opinion about the topic.
 Note: in a topic sentence, each main idea is limited to, or focused on, two main or
essential parts, namely a topic and a general direction.

Topic Sentence and Simple Facts

 Note that the topic sentence is essentially general. Therefore, it does not mean or imply
or refer to specific or simple facts.
 This is why a statement about simple or specific facts cannot be developed into a
paragraph. Consider the examples below:

1. Zaffar walks long distances.

2. Zaffar typed on a computer.
3. Zaffar travelled to Niamey.
4. Zaffar said that human thinking began 1000 years ago.

 The point is that a simple or specific fact cannot be expanded into a fully developed
paragraph, and this is why a topic sentence must have more than a simple or specific
fact.

The Paragraph
 In simple terms, a paragraph is a unified or integrated section of a piece of writing.
 A paragraph always begins on a new line and contains at least one sentence.
 A paragraph is a collection of related sentences based on one main idea.
 The paragraph makes possible the overall meaning of a cluster of sentences (the well-
formed, well-written paragraph).
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
 A paragraph has three parts:
 A Topic Sentence
 Supporting Sentences
 A Conclusion

Two Examples of a paragraph in a passage or a piece of writing:

Passage 1:

Our experience of hearing (or overhearing) a voice in [a] text... is an illusion

created by ourselves because of the way we have been trained to read all writing
as if it were speech. Rather than hearing voices from [a text], we create those
voices ourselves through an interpretive interaction with words on a page. Poems
are not the written records of actual speech acts, but written texts which present
themselves as if they were speech acts. Most poems silently ignore their own
written status, and we usually conspire with them (Furniss, Tom and Bath,
Michael. (1993). Reading Poetry. London: Pearson Education, 161).

In-text-citation format: [Furniss and Bath 1993: 161; Furniss and Barth,
Reading Poetry 161]

Passage 2: (note the use of the ellipsis to "string" ideas together into a coherent whole)

In a text even the words that are there lack their full phonetic qualities. In oral
speech, a word must have one or another intonation or tone of voice— lively,
excited, quiet, incensed, resigned, or whatever. It is impossible to speak a word
orally without intonation. In a text punctuation can signal tone minimally: a
question mark or a comma, for example, generally calls for the voice to be raised
a bit. Literate tradition... can also supply some extratextual clues for intonation,
but not complete ones. Actors spend hours determining how actually to utter the
words in the text before them. A given passage might be delivered by one actor in
a shout, by another in a whisper... Extratextual context is missing not only for the
readers but also for the writer. Lack of a veritable context is what makes writing
normally so much an agonizing an activity than oral presentation to a real
audience... They must set up a role in which absent and often unknown readers
can cast themselves. (Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy. London: Routledge,
1982, pp. 101-102).
In-text-citation format: [Ong 1982: 101-102; Ong, Orality and Literacy 101-
102]
Components of a Well-formed Paragraph
The well-formed paragraph has four essential components:
1. Completeness (enough information about the main idea or the topic sentence. Absence of
this will make the paragraph incomplete or undeveloped. A paragraph must have a topic
and a conclusion, and enough details to make the main idea clear).
2. Logical/Sensible Order (without this a paragraph will be meaningless).
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
3. Unity (ideas in a paragraph must be related to one another, must be unified, integrated
and held in a meaningful chain of relationships).
4. Coherence (sentences in a paragraph must be connected to one other, using connecting
words or phrases. Without this, supporting ideas will not make sense, and will be hard to
follow).

Branches of Writing
Writing is the interaction (working together) of four elements within a meaningful whole.
Writing is thus like a tree which consists of the following branches:
 Topic: the subject matter or focus of the writing
 Purpose: reason for the writing
 Audience: the intended reader
 Voice: the way or manner the writer/writing “sounds” to the reader

A piece of writing should have a focus without which it will lack a purpose; but without a
purpose, the reason for writing, it would not have a sense of audience. Yet it is the sense of the
intended reader (audience) which makes a piece of writing to have a voice (which, in academic
writing at least, should be formal, polite, and engaging).

Purpose and Organization

 The “purpose” of writing shapes the “organization” of the writing.
 Once the writer finds a topic, she will also need to be clear about the purpose of the
writing, and the pattern of organization that will give her writing a logical or sensible or
order, unity, and coherence.
 In general, “purpose” influences “organization”.
 “Organization” is also determined by “purpose”:

Topic, Purpose, Audience, and Voice

 If the purpose of a piece of writing is to persuade an audience or a reader, then the topic
has to be organized in such a way as to appeal to the reader (e.g. the most persuasive
points first, with emphasis on the most important points that the reader could understand)
and the right voice should be adopted (formal, or informal yet polite, serious, and
straightforward).
 Ask this question: Who is my audience?
 Know the reason for the writing (purpose); know who your reader is (audience), and
choose your points (topic) and words (voice) carefully.
 That is how topic, purpose, audience, and voice work together.

Features of Academic Writing

Academic writing essentially proceeds by deduction, supposition, presumption, and implication,
or what may be called inference. This means that ideas in a piece of writing are interconnected,
and there is usually (as we have indicated above) a main or central point or theme or concept
running through it. This is how argument (and argumentation) is carried out in academic writing:
consistent, coherent line of argument backed by deduction or supposition, themselves grounded
in objectivity in standard written English expression.
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Ibrahim Bello-Kano... Notes on Academic Writing
As has been emphasized previously, academic writing is well planned, and takes off only after
the research topic and the evaluation of the best possible methods have been decided based on a
specific principle and preparation. In general, then, the following are the features of academic
writing:

Formal Diction
Proper or appropriate language use; no colloquialisms, journalese, and slang; the right kind of
tone and style, a mix of complex, compound and simple sentences, varied use of grammar
structures, etc.

Complexity
This means academic discourse should be lexically intense, variable use of words and
expressions, grammatically sophisticated, little or no passive verbs or verb-phrases, engaging
noun-phrases.

Objectivity
There is little or no allusion to the writer as a person but rather a greater focus on the premises
and conclusions, deep detachment and impartiality in the construction of arguments and
conclusions, little or no use of emotional vocabulary (based on adverbs).
Coherence
All the parts of the writing "hang" together in a meaningful and structural way, so that one
argument flows to the next.

Precision
Claims and counter-claims are explicitly stated, and the grounds for accepting or rejecting
premises and conclusions are precisely stated in clear, deductive prose. All parts of the writing
are well organized; sections and sub-sections are arranged in logical order.

A Sense of the Reader or Audience

Academic writing has to have a sense of the audience, real and potential, for the writing. Thus a
clear sense of audience, a sense of possible expectations of the audience or reader is central to
academic discourse.

Reference to, and Acknowledgement of, Sources

Academic writing is based on acknowledged sources, or the literature consulted, or appraised,
reviewed or critiqued in the writing. These must be properly acknowledged and documented.
Failure to do this will be considered plagiarism. In sum, plagiarism is the intentional or
unintentional, the intended or unintended, theft of another person’s work. To avoid the risk of
accusations of plagiarism, the researcher should develop good habits or methods of source
attribution, proper note-taking based on source identification, and be alert to the precise sources
of the academic, scholarly, or intellectual materials in their writing.

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