Question Three
Academic writing is a communication form that enables an individual to communicate
their ideas or present their research findings in a written form. This concept can be divided into
two types: student and expert academic writing. Student academic writing is a type of assessment
in educational institutions, while expert academic writing is mainly used in academic journals
and other media publications. Both forms of academic writing should meet the same standards.
Characteristics of academic writing include the use of a formal tone, thesis, precise word choice,
evidence-based reasoning, citations, and references.
Formality
Unlike most journalistic or creative writing, the overall structure of academic writing is
formal and logical. It must have a logically organized flow of ideas meaning that different parts
are connected to convey a unified concept. In academic writing, there is a narrative connection
between sentences and paragraphs for the reader to easily follow the argument under discussion.
The opinions are presented fairly with an appropriate narrative tone, free from discriminatory
language. The author is expected to examine the research problem from an authoritative point of
view. Therefore, they should state the strengths of their arguments confidently through the use of
neutral language.
Thesis Driven
Academic writing is always thesis-driven, meaning that its starting point is a specific idea
or takes a position on the topic under discussion. At times, academic writing is characterized by a
problem statement that has research questions.
Language
Academic writing uses unambiguous, precise language for the reader to get the exact
meaning. Abbreviations like "i.e., a.k.a.' are not used as they do not convey any message. Well-
structured paragraphs with clear topic sentences help the reader follow your line of thinking
easily. Additionally, academic writing relies on precise words and language; punctuation marks
are used deliberately. For instance, exclamation marks are rarely used to express a heightened
tone, as they can be unsophisticated.
Academic Conventions
The key characteristic of academic writing is citation sources and a list of references as
either endnotes or footnotes. In every context of academic writing, it is vital to recognize the
sources of ideas, data, quotes, or research findings that have been used in the paper. The purpose
of citations is to act as a defense against plagiarism allegations. Additionally, the academic
conventions allow the readers to identify the sources used in writing to independently verify the
quality of the findings and conclusions based on literature reviews. It is also characterized by
using headings, subheadings, and appropriate formatting style, either MLA, APA, CHICAGO, or
HAVARD.
Evidence-Based Reasoning
In academic writing, the assignments often ask one to express their opinions about a
research problem. The valuable characteristic of academic writing is that the statements are
constructed from evidence-based reasoning. This means clearly understanding the academic
discussions that exist within the field of the topic under discussion. In this case, the arguments
presented must be evidenced with scholarly materials. The objective of academic writing is to
convince the reader of the validity of the thoughts through precise documentation and logical
ideas. Lastly, academic writing deals with complex matters that require higher-order thinking
skills to understand the research problem. These higher-order skills are the cognitive processes
used to solve problems and express concepts that cannot be easily shown in pictures. In academic
writing, the complex information must be well-organized to synthesize ideas and concepts that
aid in a better understanding of the problem under research.
Cohesion in writing refers to unifying words, sentences, and paragraphs to form a text
where the relationships between these elements are clear and logical to the readers. In simpler
terms, it means combinations of words and sentences to give the text a clear flow. The main aim
of cohesion is to direct the reader's attention to the main argument of our writing. We can ensure
cohesion in our writing by using cohesive tools like pronouns, repetition, parallelism, and
transitions. Repetition is the use of a specific phrase across various sentences. It helps to improve
the reader’s understanding of what is written through pointers. Pointers are words or ideas that
appear in a sentence and are repeated in the next sentence. For instance, "Epilepsy is a
neurological condition where the excess electrical energy causes seizures. Seizures occur when
the brain's cells produce abnormal electrical activity. However, when repetitions are used too
much, they become dull. To prevent this, one may consider using pronouns, synonyms, or
variations of the words.
Transitional words, also known as tags, hold the writing together. They can be simple
conjunctions like "and" and "but" or more complex ones like "furthermore, moreover, or finally."
Other transitional words are used for comparison and contrast. Cohesion can also be reached
through the use of pronouns. Pronouns are used to refer to phrases that are already used. For
instance, when experiments do not work out as expected, they are considered failures until
scientists try them again. The pronouns “they” and “them” refer to the experiments. These
pronouns tie the sentences together to display the meaning of the text. Parallelism means using
similar grammatical forms and sentences to emphasize similar concepts in a sentence. It makes
sentences clear and easy to read. For instance, "after I finished cleaning the house, I folded my
clothes and loaded the dishwasher."
The 7 C’s of communication are principles that guide people in their communication.
They help one to create clear messages that portray the required information. The 7C’s include:
concise, complete, coherent, clear, courteous, concrete, and correct. Coherent and concrete
augment writing cohesion. Coherence entails the organization of the message so that all the ideas
flow clearly for easier remembrance. When the writing is coherent, all the opinions are relevant
and connected to the main topic, and the flow of these ideas is consistent. It ensures the building
of logical introductions and conclusions. On the other hand, concrete ensures the message
conveyed is logical, valid, and specific. It also augments cohesion by replacing adjectives or
adverbs with their synonyms. For instance, instead of saying, "he sprinted," one can say, "he
ran." This increased concreteness improves writing cohesion by promoting an increased flow of
ideas.
