In This Chapter
In her essay, “You Can Learn to Write in General,” Elizabeth Wardle argues that there is no one, single way to write. There is no one set of rules that can teach you to write well in every situation. She argues that understanding this idea can be helpful for writers, because it gives them the freedom to keep learning.
You may wonder why you need a required composition course. Haven’t you already learned to write essays in high school?
If we accept Wardle’s argument, then it means accepting that there is not one single way of writing essays. Because “writing is always particular,” the writing you do for each of your college courses will be specific and particular to the specific course as well.
As Wardle argues, “no single class or workshop can teach people to write, once and for all.” In this course, you will not learn the single key to writing a perfect essay in every class. Instead, you’ll learn strategies for writing in an academic context that you can apply broadly. These strategies will become a tool box that you can apply to various courses.
This course does not focus on writing in general. Instead, we’ll focus on the skills and strategies you can use for a specific form of writing: Academic Writing.
What is Academic Writing?
Academic writing is a specific genre of writing used in academic settings, specifically colleges and universities. Academic writing is mostly found in scholarly journal articles and books on academic topics written by scholars and researchers, but students enrolled in college courses are also required to use the forms and conventions of academic writing in their class work.
Although all academic writing shares certain similarities, it is important to note that there is no single form of academic writing. Each individual discipline (subject) has its own writing requirements and conventions. Using lines from a poem or an older literary critique of a short story might be appropriate in your English Literature class, but using literary works or older sources probably wouldn’t be appropriate for your science courses.
Your success with academic writing depends upon how well you understand the specific situation you are addressing as you write. Understanding that scientists and social scientists, for instance, value the most recent and objective data possible, would be necessary for successful writing in those courses.
However, even if each individual course or discipline might have slightly different expectations, there are similarities that all types of academic writing shares. Having a basic understanding of the general features of academic writing can help you feel more confident as you approach writing tasks in any course.
This class will focus on the shared conventions of academic writing. Over the course of this semester, we will build on your previous knowledge about writing and the skills you already have, so that you can better meet the requirements of this and future college courses.
Before we begin, it might be helpful to go over a few of the general similarities that all academic writing shares.
Features of Academic Writing
Academic Writing Addresses Specific Contexts
Academic writing always addresses specific contexts.
First, academic writing happens in a scholarly context, which values knowledge, objectivity, and information.
Second, academic writing is usually addressed to a specific discipline (subject) that has certain values and, therefore, rules.
Academic writing always addresses the information, discussions, and work that came before it. Academic writers know that they are writing as part of larger conversations that are already happening. The texts written for academic situations address those conversations.
Academic Writing Is Argumentative
Academic writing makes claims in order to create new knowledge. While academic writing can be informative, the goal of scholarship is to discover new ideas. Therefore, most academic writing makes measured and objective arguments to expand knowledge in the field. Rather than relying on personal experience or belief, academic texts present debatable statements that must be supported by objective data and research.
Academic Writing is Rhetorical
For any argument to be successful, the writer must be aware of how to best meet the specific situation’s needs. Academic writing is always aware of the audience, context, and purpose of the text being produced. Academic writing is always exigent: there is a need for it to exist.
Academic Writing Is Well Sourced
Academic writers use authoritative, relevant, and appropriate sources to support the arguments they make. Academic writing requires that a writer understands a topic thoroughly before writing. These sources are always responsibly and clearly cited in the text. Academic writing relies on citation styles like MLA or APA to properly give credit to the resources it uses.
Academic Writing Is Focused and Structured
Whether an essay, research project, proposal, or other type of text, academic writing depends on logical structure and a clear, consistent focus. Strong academic writers use logical organization to help guide their readers through complex ideas. While there are various types of argument, academic writing often relies on classical argument structure.
Academic Writing Is Formal and Unbiased
Academic writing is formal writing. The texts produced for journals and scholarly books use a formal tone and language appropriate to the specific topic or discipline. Academic writing does not depend on the reader’s emotion. Scholarly writers avoid basing their argument in opinion or personal belief. Academic writing responsibly represents ideas and sources neutrally and does not avoid acknowledging other opinions or ideas.
Academic Writing Is Clear and Correct
Academic writing relies on clarity for readability, both in terms of formatting a text and in terms of sentence structure. It avoids errors like misspelling and typos, and it represents all information accurately. Academic essays usually follow prescribed formats for the documents, including specific paragraph structure, margins, and title pages or headers.
Academic Writing for College Students
Now that you have a basic introductions to the features that all academic writing shares, it’s time to look more closely at the writing you will do in your college courses.
The next chapter will detail the differences between the writing you did for high school classes and the expectations your college professors will have.
Reflect on Your Reading
Think about the writing you have done in the past, whether sending text messages to friends, emails for work, or essays in your high school classes. What similarities did those writing situations have with the description of academic writing in this chapter? How does academic writing seem different from the writing you’ve done in the past?
For Further Reading:
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/14011/writing/106/academic_writing
https://wac.colostate.edu/books/writingspaces1/irvin–what-is-academic-writing.pdf