Academic Writing Mirjaliisa Charles Aalto / Mikkeli campus Autumn 2015

Team chat 1) When you submit an essay or a research report to a professor, does it matter how well it is written? 2) Do you think academic writing differs from other kinds of writing? If yes, how? If not, why not? 3) Why do we ask you to write in academia?

Introduction to Academic Writing Menu Why do we ask you to write in academia? Why do we teach academic writing? ◦ ‘Community’, ‘Genre’ How does academic writing (and its language) differ from ‘ordinary’ writing (and language)?

Why do universities require students to write? Because writing benefits YOU YOUR INSTRUCTOR and THE UNIVERSITY. HOW?

Benefits to YOU Writing helps you remember facts makes you conscious of what you know, and what you do NOT know is useful when you analyze concepts creates an ENTITY out of bits of knowledge

How does your INSTRUCTOR benefit from making you produce written assignments? Reading your assignments enables your teachers to appreciate your thinking processes get a better picture of your progress understand what (s)he has taught well, and what still needs to be gone through see how you can use what you are learning grade you more accurately.

How does the university benefit? Students who can write well become high class graduates, and contribute to the university’s reputation / brand produce good research

Overall, Writing SHARES your thinking, findings, conclusions … And thus constructs new knowledge

So it’s obvious why we teach academic writing … We want you to Make the most of a university learning situation. Become a member of the academic community Learn to operate in the genres of different communities

Groups of people / ‘Communities’ have their own genres of writing Examples: the business world, the young >< the old, engineers in a specific company A genre is a type of text with a specific layout, organization of information, and often specific type of language expected by the community within which it is produced. Adherence to generic conventions increases readability and ease of understanding of documents.

Examples of academic genres Research reports ◦ Inform, but also argue for a point Theses / Dissertations Abstracts and summaries Essays ◦ Essay answers in examinations Academic ‘papers’ ◦ Articles in academic journals ◦ Conference presentations

You are now in an academic community. An academic community has clear expectations for what purposes your papers should address, how they should be organized, and what they should look like. Different (academic) disciplines have different conventions, but all disciplines share certain values:

The academic world believes in 1) Truth of your writing -Rigorous research methods -Knowledge of what has been done in the field 2) Being given evidence for what you write - Credible support for your findings SO: Academic writers TELL / INFORM / CONVINCE people BUT …

The academic world also believes in … 3) Balanced argumentation - serious, unemotional writing and language SO: You have to learn to write in a suitable style 4) Dialogue, Debate - Engagement with others - Argument and persuasion through evidence SO…

How does ‘academic arguing’ differ from ‘ordinary arguing’? In the ‘real’ world we argue if ◦ we are provoked. ◦ someone has said or done something (or perhaps not said or done something) and we want to respond. ◦ 'I can’t see why you like that team so much'; ◦ 'I didn’t like the film. Did you?‘. If it weren’t for other people and our need to challenge, agree with, or respond to them, there would be no reason to argue at all.

You enter an academic debate for the same reason … You read/hear what someone else / others has/have said about the topic, and you think it’s not (quite) right. Therefore, you tell your readers why you are entering the discussion: you write about what has been said that you do not agree with: the background of your argument/topic. you summarize the main point(s) of what others have said about your topic. This produces a structure of ‘They say’ – ‘But I say’

Characteristics of academic writing 1 Purpose: to inform, or to convince ◦ NOT to entertain ◦ Main point: the information you want to give and the arguments you want to make – NOT just what you yourself THINK. ◦ Thoughts and beliefs should be put in relation to your lectures / readings / discussions / research

Characteristics of academic writing 2Usually applies the standard written form of language: ◦ Can be more complex than spoken language ◦ More sophisticated sentence structure/vocabulary ◦ No colloquialisms/slang

Characteristics of academic writing 3 Aims to be as precise and transparent as possible. Incorporates citations to background literature uses specific expressions; avoids vague / generalizing language – unless the vagueness or generalization is deliberate

Example: Compare (a) and (b) (a) “ We don't really know what language proficiency is but many people have talked about it for a long time. Some researchers have tried to find ways for us to make teaching and testing more communicative because that is how language works. I think that language is something we use for communicating, not an object for us to study and we should remember that when we teach and test it.”

Text (b) “The question of what constitutes "language proficiency" is at the core of many hotly debated issues in the areas of bilingual education and second language pedagogy and testing. Researchers have suggested ways of making second language teaching and testing more "communicative" (e.g., Canale and Swain, 1980; Oller, 1979b) on the grounds that a communicative approach better reflects the nature of language proficiency than one which emphasizes the acquisition of discrete language skills.”

Informal, spoken style (a) “ We don't really know what language proficiency is but many people have talked about it for a long time. Some researchers have tried to find ways for us to make teaching and testing more communicative because that is how language works. I think that language is something we use for communicating, not an object for us to study and we should remember that when we teach and test it.”

Academic, more formal, written style (b) “The question of what constitutes "language proficiency" is at the core of many hotly debated issues in the areas of bilingual education and second language pedagogy and testing. Researchers have suggested ways of making second language teaching and testing more "communicative" (e.g., Canale and Swain, 1980; Oller, 1979b) on the grounds that a communicative approach better reflects the nature of language proficiency than one which emphasizes the acquisition of discrete language skills.”

Ways to achieve preciseness DON’T write "a lot of people" if you know how many Write "50 million people“ OR write WHO these people are (eg. a specific group) “Researchers in the field of pedagogy (eg Swales 2012; John and Smith (2013)

Or if you don’t know, say so Hedge Use cautious language (when necessary) “Being confidently uncertain.” Controlling the strength of the claims Often used when drawing conclusions rather than stating facts.

Examples of hedging ‘Economic sanctions are ineffective.’ … may well be ineffective (in a situation where…) … can be ineffective if … … are frequently ineffective when … … are by some (e.g..... ) considered ineffective…’ … are sure to be ineffective when …’

Features of Academic Writing (4)Relations between ideas explicitly signalled to increase READABILITY -Signposting / signalling words organise ideas in text and make your text unambiguous -Examples therefore, thus, the reason is that, firstly... secondly, however, on the other hand

Example: Relations between ideas NOT signposted explicitly “ … An earlier generation of writers had noted this feature of the period. It was not until the recent work of Cairncross (2014) that the significance of this outflow was realized. The current account deficit appears much smaller in current (2013) data than it was thought to be by contemporaries…”

Example: Signalling relations between ideas explicitly While an earlier generation of writers had noted this feature of the period, it was not until the recent work of Cairncross (2014) that the significance of this outflow was realized. Partly this was because the current account deficit appears much smaller in current (2013) data than it was thought to be by contemporaries

Therefore your texts should be clearly structured, and the structure made explicit with signalling words Linear (in Anglo-American writing) ◦ one central theme, with every part contributing to the main line of argument ◦ no / few digressions/repetitions.

To sum up: Academic writing should be... Credible Informative or persuasive Precise ◦ Readers want to know who to credit and how reliable the information is Well and clearly structured Easily readable enter a conversation … ◦ so you have to write what 'they say.‘... have a thesis/argument which is a response to others’ arguments

THUS Academic texts are structured as ‘they say … but I say … because…’