In this chapter, you’ve read about critical thinking, inquiry, and academic reading. You’re likely reading about these topics for a writing class. Now, then, it is important to discuss academic writing.

We can practice critical thinking in our academic writing. Writing often demands that we think critically about subjects. Frequently, we are tasked with writing arguments, tasked with trying to convince an audience that a certain position is valid—and an argument is typically stronger and more convincing when it is founded on objectivity (facts, evidence, reason, and logic) rather than subjectivity (opinion, bias, anecdote, and emotion). Not only do we frequently write arguments, but the very activity of writing itself involves inquiry and can help us practice our critical thinking skills. From choosing the “perfect” word to describe an idea, to brainstorming and writing content in paragraphs to support a point, writing is an excellent venue for practicing inquiry and critical thinking insofar as it allows us to explore and think about issues closely. Moreover, writing allows us the space to inquire into our world and learn more about it, perhaps expanding or reshaping our own perceptions of the world along the way. These reasons and more are precisely why critical thinking is important: it is a kind of thinking that helps us shake and rethink our own biases, helps us expand our empathy and understanding for others and what they experience, and helps us explore and find solutions to problems and issues in the world—ranging from individual concerns like purchasing vehicles, to larger-scale concerns, such as environmental decay, poverty, social inequality, and so much more. It is, therefore, through writing that we can develop, practice, and hone our critical thinking skills—skills that will be used in other classes and outside of academic contexts.

So, when your instructor tells you that the goal of your writing class is to learn and develop critical thinking skills, don’t fret: your instructor is not telling you what to think; rather, your instructor—and your writing class—are exposing you to other methods of thought.

Academic writing is different from non-academic writing: academic writing is a kind of writing typically done by scholars and professionals who wish to share information with others in their fields. Non-academic forms of writing can include letters, emails, or text messages to friends or family; journal writing; tweeting or writing posts on social media; or other, similar forms of writing. Academic writing includes (but is not limited to) the following forms of writing:

• College essays (including analyses, research papers, and more)
• Philosophical treatises or arguments
• Lab reports
• Scientific studies
• Literary analyses
• Medical papers
• Historical analyses
• Sociological studies
• Economic reports and studies
• Textbooks
• Scholarly web content
• Business plans and reports

As you can see, academic writing is varied. You’ll also notice that academic writing extends across curricula; academic writing is not exclusive to English courses. In fact, not only will you find academic writing tasks in many college classes, you’ll also find that the kinds of writing you’ll do outside of college and in your career will make use of skills that are commonly found in academic writing contexts. This section introduces you to a few of those skills and shows you how they translate across curricula and outside of the classroom.

Characteristics

Typically, and as is suggested by the examples above, academic writing separates itself from non-academic writing by means of its content expectations, audience, style, and purpose.

Expectations

Academic writing is typically expected to follow more rigorous rules than writing on Twitter or in text messages to friends. When you are tweeting or texting a friend, you can write about nearly anything and you can do so in nearly any way (with some limitations imposed by social media platform Terms of Service guidelines as the exception). When you are writing a research essay on climate change, you cannot reasonably write a paragraph about what you’re having for dinner tonight. Your research paper would also be ineffective if you wrote a few paragraphs on climate change, then wrote a few paragraphs including research on genetic engineering. The expectations in academic writing are more focused and narrow and, as such, are also precise and specific.

Audience

Just as academic writing has specific content expectations, so does academic writing have specific audiences. A tweet is usually broadcast to a Twitter-user’s followers or, in some cases, to a more global audience base. A text message can also be sent to virtually anyone (they just need a cell or smartphone). While these types of writing can reach scholars and academics in specific fields, these audience members are not necessarily viewing these tweets and texts for information relative to their fields. This is because such platforms are not created or advertised for scholars or professionals in specific fields. A scientist does not scour Twitter for scientific studies. All forms of academic writing have their own audiences, and frequently these audiences change with each piece of writing produced within scholarly and professional fields.

Audience is always important to consider when writing, but it is especially important to see how academic writing is presented for an academic audience, rather than a non-academic audience. You might post a tweet, for example, that makes a joke, shares a meme, or even includes a complaint about your day. Such a gesture would typically not be appropriate in academic writing, which is a vehicle to communicate information relevant to a particular field. A reader of a literary analysis is not interested in your day or a funny joke that you heard–they are interested in learning more about the work of literature you analyze.

Style

Academic writing also has specific guidelines governing how you share your information, while non-academic writing usually has few rules and restrictions. When you write a text message, you can write in complete sentences and avoid acronyms. You can also use emojis, forgo punctuation, and otherwise break grammatical and mechanical conventions of your writing language. Academic writing is usually far stricter. Academic writing typically does not allow for acronyms, shorthand phrases (such as “lol”), or emojis. Academic writing also expects proper grammar and mechanics.

Beyond these typical stylistic differences, academic writing usually includes rulesets and guidelines that are established within and are unique to individual fields. For example: English classes and many liberal arts fields adhere to MLA-style writing guidelines, whereas psychology classes and related fields typically adhere to APA-style writing guidelines. These types of guidelines–called style guides–establish consistent frameworks for source attribution, writing format, and even language use. These style guidelines work to uphold quality, reliability, and consistency in works of writing produced. In other words, following such style guides and adhering to rules established helps maintain one’s credibility: when you read an essay that properly cites its sources according to MLA rules, the author of that essay appears more trustworthy and credible than someone that forgoes said rules.

Purpose

As mentioned above, academic writing is a type of writing used to communicate about and within scholarly and professional fields. We write academically in order to better communicate important ideas, and to strengthen arguments and analyses. These outcomes are achieved because such writing has specific (often stricter) expectations for content, demands specific (stricter) awareness of the audience, and because such writing follows specific (stricter), pre-established style guidelines. All of these elements work together to support credibility, professionalism, and scholarly aptitude.

Genres and Examples

Now that we have a basic understanding of academic writing in general, it’s time to look at a few specific genres and examples of academic writing. Below, you’ll find descriptions of kinds of academic writing, but also information about writing skills relevant to each genre and where you might encounter these writing assignments. Pay attention to how these skills overlap with other genres. As you’ll see, writing skills are shared among genres that you’ll write for English classes such as the Summary and Response essay, genres that you might write in other classes, and genres that you might encounter outside of the classroom.

You’ll note that the summary-response essay is a kind of essay that you might write in business classes or medical and nursing classes, among others. This might come as a surprise. You can expect, however, to produce writings that summarize business plans or concepts, that summarize medical findings or even patient statuses; you can also expect to respond to business plans or concepts (perhaps offering a perspective on their quality), just as you can expect to respond to medical findings (perhaps by connecting them to other concepts or describing their uses) or patient statuses (perhaps by interpreting symptoms in order to determine a diagnosis).

Continue Reading: 2.4 How to Read Writing Assignments