Advice academic writing
- 1. LANGUAGE AND WRITTEN EXPRESSION IV I.S.F.D N° 41 Student: E. Gisela Delgado Teacher: Stella Saubidet Year: 2020
- 2. General Advice on Academic Writing ……………………. 3 • Understanding essay topic………………………………....4 Organizing an Essay…………………………………………..5 • Introduction……………………………………………………..6 • Conclusion………………………………………………..........7 • Paragraph……………………………………………………….8 • Topic Sentence………………………………………………...9 Reading and Researching………………………….…….…10 • Critical reading towards critical writing…………….…...10 • Taking notes from research reading……….………….…11 • Research from internet……………………………….........11 • Skimming and Sacnning……………………….………….…12 • Summarize………………………………………………………13 INDEX Using Source……………….……….……….14 • Paraphrase and summary..………….…....15 Revising…………………………………..…...16 • What things should I need to revise?.......16 • Some tools and rules to improve your spelling………………………………………………17 • Sentence fragments………………………....18 Specific Types of Writing……………………19 Bibliography……………………………………22
- 3. SOME GENERAL ADVICE ON ACADEMIC ESSAY-WRITING An Essay should have and argument and it should try to prove something. Formulate as exactly as possible the question(s) you will seek to answer in your essay. Then develop a provisional thesis or hypothesis. An essay should include citations from any particular text or sources (evidence) Your essay’s organization should be designed to present your argument clearly and persuasively.
- 4. U N D E R S TAN D I N G E S S AY TO P I C S : Note the key term: - Analyse. - Compare - Evaluate - Argue Note which concepts or methods the topic asks you to use. Ask yourself questions about the specific topic in terms of the concepts or methods than seem applicable. Formulate a tentative thesis statement at a fairly early stage.
- 5. ORGANIZING AN ESSAY First of all, ask you the following question: • What type of essay am I going to be writing? • Does it belong to a particular genre? Divide your outline into three parts: • Summary. • Discussion of strenghts and weaknesses. • Overall evaluation. Some techniques for integrating note-taking and planning. • Index cards: write down any idea, fact, quotation or paraphrase on a separate index card. Then order them as best as possible, and reduce this outline to the essential points. • The circle method: when you have an idea, write it down on a paper and draw a circle around it. When you have an idea that support another idea, do the same; but connect the two circles with a line.
- 6. INTRODUCTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS How do I write an interesting and effective introduction? • Find a startling statistic that illustrates the seriousness of the problem you will address. • Provide background information to understand the essay. • Provide a brief narrative or anecdote that exemplifies your reason for choosing the topic. In a personal reflection, you may draw on your own experience; in a research essay, you may illustrate a common real world scenario.
- 7. • How do I write an interesting and effective conclusion? • If your essay deals with a contemporary problem , warn readers of the possible consequences of not attending to the problem. • Give a startling statistic, fact or visual image to drive home the ultimate point of your paper. • Return to an anecdote, example or quotation that you introduced in your introduction, but add further insight that derives from the body of your essay.
- 8. PARAGRAPHS What is a paragraph? A paragraph is a series of related sentences developing a central idea, called the topic. How do I unify my ideas in a paragraph? The most effective way to achieve paragraph unity is to express the central idea of the paragraph in a topic sentence. Topic sentences are similar to mini thesis statements. How do I develop my ideas in a paragraph? • Illustration of a paragraph: general statements by means of examples, details or relevant quotation. • Comparison or contrast paragraph: provide a paragraph that compares or contrasts with the main idea. • The process paragraph: involve a straightforward step-by-step description following a chronological sequence.
- 9. TOPIC SENTENCE A topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph, it serves as a mini thesis for the paragraph. Topic sentences usually appear at the very beginning of a paragraph. Though this is usually the most logical place for it, sometimes a traditional sentence or two will come before a topic sentence. Relating your topic sentence to your thesis can help strengthen the coherence of your essay.
- 10. READING AND RESEARCHING Critical reading towards critical writing: How do I read looking for ways of thinking? • Determine the central claims or purpose of the text (its thesis). • Begin to make some judgements about context. • Distinguish the kinds of reasoning the text employs. • Examine the evidence (the supported facts, examples, etc.) the text employs. • Critical reading may involve evaluation.
- 11. Taking notes from research reading: • Know what kind of ideas you need to record. • Do not write down too much. • Label your notes intelligently. Research using internet: • Do not rely exclusively on Net sources. • Narrow your research topic before logging on. • Know your subject directories and search engines. • Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites you use. • Double-check all URL that you put in your paper.
- 12. Skimming and Scanning: • Read carefully the introductory paragraph, or the first two paragraphs. Try to predict the direction of the coming explanations or arguments. • Read carefully the first one or two sentences of aech paragraph , as well as the concluding sentence or sentences. • In between these opening and closing sentences, keep ypur eyes moving and try to avoid looking up unfamiliar words or terminology. • Read carefully the concluding paragraph or paragraphs. What does the author’s overall purpose seem to be? • Finally, returnto the beggining and read through the text carefully, noting the complexities you missed in your skimming and filling in the gaps in your understanding. Think about your purpose in reading this text and what you need to retain to it, and adjust your focus accordingly.
- 13. Summarizing: • Summarizing a text, or distilling its essential concepts into a paragraph or two, is a useful study tool as well as good writing practice. A summary has two aims: 1. To reproduce the overarching ideas in a text, identifying the general concepts that run through the entire piece. 2. To express these overarching ideas using precise, specific language.
- 14. USING SOURCES Using sources not for plagiarizing, but for the use of quotations, paragraphs, specific facts, authoritative ideas. Using quotations: • How much should I quote? The focus of your essay should be on your understanding of the topic. If you include too much quotation in your essay, you will crowd out your own ideas. • Why is it important to identify my sources? Letting your reader know exactly which authorities you rely on is an advantage: it shows that you have done your research and that you are well acquaited with the literature on your topic.
- 15. PARAPHRASE AND SUMMARY How do I paraphrase? • You must provide a reference. • The paraphrase must be in your own words. You must also create your own sentence structure. How do I summarize? • When you summarize a passage, you need first to absorb the meaning and then to capture in your own words yhe most important elements from the original passage.
- 16. REVISING What things should I need to revise? • First check whether you have fulfilled the intention of the assignment. • Then, look at overall organization. • Polish and edit your style by moving to smaller matters such as word choice, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. • Appearance- cover page , number your pages, double space, standart font, referent list and staple your pages.
- 17. SOME TOOLS A N D R U LES TO IMPR OVE YOU R SPELLIN G Use a good dictionary. Be consistent about using British or American spellings in your writing. Always check certain «troublesome» suffixes in your dictionary. Create your own «difficult-to-spell-» lists. Learn the standard pronunciation for frequently misspelled words. Watch out for homophones, near-homophones, and other easily confusable words. Use your computer spellchecker, but with caution. Become familiar with English spelling rules.
- 18. SENTENCE FRAGMENTS What is a sentence fragment? In the simplest grammatical terms, a sentence fragment lacks a main –or independent- clause. Put more informally, a sentence fragment does not make a statement that can stand on its own. How to identify and fix sentence fragments: • The first type does not make a statement. It is all subject, no predicate – all actor, no action. • The second type of sentence fragment has a subject and a predicate, but the sentence still cannot stand on its own. Usually, that is because it begins with a word - a subordinating conjunction like although or because or when – that makes the sentence want to learn against a neighbouring one.
- 19. SPECIFIC TYPES OF WRITING
- 20. Book review or article critique: it is not primarily a summary; rather, it comments on and evaluates the work in the light of specific issues and theoretical concerns in a course. Annotated bibliography: it gives an account of the research that has been done on a given topic. Like any bibliography, an annotated bobliography is an alphabetical list of research sources. Literature review: It is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers and it is also part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis.
- 21. Abstract: It should represent as much as possible of the quantitative and qualitative information in the document, and also reflect its reasoning. Comparative essay: It is the comparison among several items. These items will differ depending on the assignment. You might be asked to compare: • Possitions on an issue (e.g., responses to midwifery in Canada and The United States) • Theories (e.g., GDP in the United States and Britain) • Texts (e.g.,Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth) • Events
- 22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Rachael Cayley (chair, GCAC), Patricia Golubev (Trinity College), Deborah Knot (New College), Elaine Khoo (UTSC), Jerry Plotnick (University College), Margaret Procter (U of T writing coordinator, retired). (1099, 2017) UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO – Writing courses, Advice on Academic Writing https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/