The Academic Writing Process Mel Kinchant Academic Skills Adviser academicskills@napier.ac.uk

Academic writing involves a process which happens in stages To produce a well written piece of academic writing takes time and it can feel like a messy process! Through effective planning and time management, you can maximise your potential to do well in your written assignments.

The stages of the process include … Picking apart your assignment brief Spend as much time as you can doing this so that you are very clear about what you are being asked to do. A fantastically written piece of work (which may be well structured & well referenced) will not gain high marks if it does not answer the question or goes off topic. Look for key words/ terms related to the broad topic area and the narrow or specific focus, instruction terms that tell you what to ‘do’ with the information (i.e. discuss, critically analyse, define) and any scoping or limiting words (i.e. using one example …).

The stages of the process include … Create a timeline Work backwards form the deadline & get started as soon as you can. Allow for other commitments; academic and personal. Quite often, certain aspects can end up taking far longer than we had anticipated, so do allow for this wherever possible.

The stages of the process include … Read & Research the subject Use the key words in the assignment brief to help you get started with your literature search. Remember that it can take a long time to locate & access your sources, as well as read them and take effective notes. It is very difficult to go straight from reading a text into writing for your assignment. You need to ensure that you have some ‘thinking’ time as well to help you to formulate your own ideas & argument.

The stages of the process include … Create a plan for your essay or report Divide up your word count and decide how many words (approximately) for each part of the assignment (refer to the assignment brief and marking criteria). Create a plan of your essay structure and the content to go within each section. Initially it is helpful to bullet point the content for each section of your assignment. Consider your plan as a map to help you towards completing your assignment journey. It will help you to stay focussed and on track.

The stages of the process include … Decide what is relevant Conduct an audit of the information you have gathered from your reading & research and decide what is relevant. See how the information fits in with your essay plan. Are you missing any information? Do you need to locate further academic sources? This can be reviewed as an ongoing process as you work through several drafts of your assignment. Consider what you already know and what else you may need to find out.

The stages of the process include … Prepare a rough draft … and then more drafting Develop your plan and notes from your reading into an initial rough draft. At this stage do not worry too much about details such as style, grammar and spelling. Sometimes we can put off getting started because we expect to produce something which is ‘perfect’ the first time. This is not possible! A well crafted piece of writing comes right at the very end of several messy drafts. So, draft and draft and draft again! Each time you can make changes which will help you towards achieving a piece of work that you are happy with.

The stages of the process include … Review and edit in several stages Every time you redraft your work, you will be making edits and polishing your writing. As you approach your final editing & polishing stage prior to submission, you will need to try to do this in separate stages as it is very hard to check for everything all in one go. Try to check content separately to aesthetics such as formatting & presentation for example. Create a checklist to help you with this.

Submit your assignment Finally … Submit your assignment Allow time to submit your assignment ahead of the final deadline, particularly if you are able to view a draft Turnitin report in advance of your final submission. You will need to allow time for your report to be generated and then time for you to make any changes to your work should you wish to do so.