Chittagong University of Engineering
and Technology
Department of Civil Engineering
Assignment
Topic: “Academic Writing and It’s Types, Features and Applications
at Our Level of Education”
Subject: HUM-101
Relevant Professor: [Link] Kamrul Hasan
Submitted By:
Student Name: Tabib Wasit Kabir
Student Id: 2001058
Submission Date: 13.11.2022
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Introduction:
"Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet,
punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a
readable form. It also means a medium of human
communication which involves the representation of a
language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically
transferred, or digitally represented. Taking notes for study purposes is
an example of writing for oneself. Blogging publicly is an example of
writing for an unknown audience. A letter to a friend is an example of
writing for a targeted audience.
Academic writing or scholarly writing is nonfiction produced as part of
academic work, including reports on empirical fieldwork or research in
facilities for the natural sciences or social sciences, monographs in
which scholars analyze culture, propose new theories, or develop
interpretations from archives, as well as undergraduate versions of all
of these.
Though the tone, style, content, and organization of academic writing
vary across genres and across publication methods, nearly all academic
writing shares a relatively formal prose register, frequent reference to
other academic work, and the use of stable rhetorical moves to define
the scope of the project, situate it in the relevant research, and to
advance a new contribution.
Definition:
Academic writing is the formal writing style used in colleges and
universities. It’s what students are expected to produce for classes and
what professors and academic researchers use to write scholarly
materials. It is a means of producing, codifying, transmitting,
evaluating, renovating, teaching, and learning knowledge and ideology
in academic disciplines. Academic writing involves expressing one’s
ideas, but those ideas need to be presented as a response to some
other person or group; and they also need to be carefully elaborated,
well supported, logically sequenced, rigorously reasoned, and tightly
stitched together. Being able to write in an academic style is essential
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to disciplinary learning and critical for academic success. High schools
sometimes require academic writing style in certain classes.
Steps of Writing:
Creating a successful paper is a different process for everyone.
Some writers require complete silence with no distractions, while
others crave noise while they work. While no guide can help you find
what situations will work best for you to write, there are steps in the
writing process that promote a cleaner, better final draft. The general
steps are: discovery, investigation, prewriting, drafting, revising, and
editing.
• Discovery/Investigation
The first step in writing a successful paper in college requires an active
engagement with one’s sources. Once the writer has finished an active
reading of the primary source, it may be necessary to obtain secondary
sources to back up the thesis. If one’s research yields books, one
should remember that it is not necessary to read the entire book. One
can either look for a chapter title that one believes will have
information pertinent to one’s paper, or by looking at the index for
terms that one will be discussing.
• Prewriting
Prewriting is the step in which tools such as free writing, brainstorming,
outlining, or clustering are used. In prewriting, no idea is too off topic
or too strange. It is these sometimes- dissociative ideas that can lead
one to a paper topic that he/she never would have considered.
• Drafting
Drafting is the beginning of “writing” one’s paper. In drafting, the
writer should use materials created in the prewriting stage and any
notes taken in discovery and investigation to frame and build body
paragraphs. Beginning with body paragraphs will allow one to work
through his/her ideas without feeling restricted by a specific thesis, but
one should be prepared to delete paragraphs that don’t fit.
• Revising
There are two different scopes of revision: global and local. Global
revision involves looking for issues like cohesion and the overall
progression of one’s paper. If your topics change from paragraph to
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paragraph, it is necessary to either consider altering the order of your
paragraph and/or revising your writing either by adding to existing
paragraphs or creating new ones that explain your change in topic.
• Editing
The final stage in writing a paper requires a review of what you have
written. In this last read of your paper, you should look for any
grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors that have slipped through the
cracks during the revising stage, or that were introduced in your
revisions. Reading your paper aloud or asking a friend to read your
paper to you is a good way to catch errors.
Types:
The four main types of academic writing are descriptive,
analytical, persuasive and critical. Each of these types of writing has
specific language features and purposes.
• Descriptive
The simplest type of academic writing is descriptive. Its purpose is to
provide facts or information. An example would be a summary of an
article or a report of the results of an experiment.
The kinds of instructions for a purely descriptive assignment include:
'identify', 'report', 'record', 'summarize' and 'define'.
• Analytical
It’s rare for a university-level text to be purely descriptive. Most
academic writing is also analytical. Analytical writing includes
descriptive writing, but also requires you to re-organize the facts and
information you describe into categories, groups, parts, types or
relationships.
The kinds of instructions for an analytical assignment include: 'analyze',
'compare', 'contrast', 'relate', and 'examine'.
• Persuasive
In most academic writing, you are required to go at least one step
further than analytical writing, to persuasive writing. Persuasive writing
has all the features of analytical writing (that is, information plus re-
organizing the information), with the addition of your own point of
view. Most essays are persuasive, and there is a persuasive element in
at least the discussion and conclusion of a research article.
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The kinds of instructions for a persuasive assignment include: 'argue',
'evaluate', 'discuss', and 'take a position'.
• Critical
Critical writing is common for research, postgraduate and advanced
undergraduate writing. It has all the features of persuasive writing,
with the added feature of at least one other point of view. While
persuasive writing requires you to have your own point of view on an
issue or topic, critical writing requires you to consider at least two
points of view, including your own.
Examples of critical writing assignments include a critique of a journal
article, or a literature review that identifies the strengths and
weaknesses of existing research.
Purposes:
The key features of academic writing are clarity, precision,
accuracy, evidence, and structure. Its primary purpose is to convey
ideas and concepts to a reader most effectively and efficiently. And it is
not an average reader we are talking about, but rather the one that
comes from academia and who understands that language style. One
needs to keep that in mind and integrate as many academic features
into one’s paper as one’s reader would expect.
Six Points of Academic Writing:
• Audience
Considering one’s audience is something one should do before writing
one’s paper. If you are a student, your audience will be your instructor
who has definitely some expectations which you will have to meet.
Taking your audience into account will affect the content of your
writing.
• Purpose
Audience and purpose are interconnected. If the audience knows less
than the writer, then purpose is instructional. But if the audience
knows more than the writer, as is the case with students, the purpose
will be demonstration of knowledge and expertise.
• Organization
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Organization is a matter of priorities and structure. One’s audience has
this expectation that the information will be presented in a structured
format that is suitable for the genre of the text, so there are different
patterns one should take advantage of, because most readers are
familiar with them and this helps facilitate the conveyance of
information.
• Style
One has to make sure that one’s writing is based on an appropriate
style. Style should be consistent and suitable both in terms of audience
and the message. Writing one’s research report in an informal style
would be a grave mistake. Also, one should consider the fact that
academic style differs from one field to another, so by analyzing the
papers in one’s chosen field of study one will become familiar with
styles used in his/her field.
• Flow
Another important factor is flow. It means moving from one statement
in a text to another. It is obvious that by keeping the flow and making
clear connection of ideas and concepts you will helps your audience to
follow the text. One of the most commonly used methods for
establishing a flow is moving from old information to new information.
• Presentation
Before presenting your paper, ask yourself these questions: are
information flow and overall format good enough? Is your paper
grammatically accurate? Have you checked for spelling errors?
Features of Academic Writing:
Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one
central point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of
argument, without digressions or repetitions. Its objective is to inform
rather than entertain. There are ten main features of academic writing
that are often discussed. They are given below:
• Complexity
Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language.
Written language has longer words, it is lexically denser, and it has a
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more varied vocabulary. It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-
based phrases.
• Formality
Academic writing is relatively formal. In general, this means that in an
essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.
• Precision
In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely.
• Objectivity
Written language is in general objective rather than personal. It
therefore has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader. This
means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you
want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you.
• Explicitness
Academic writing is explicit about the relationships in the text.
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it
clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related. These
connections can be made explicit using different signaling words.
• Accuracy
Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have
words with narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly
between "phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not.
• Hedging
In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make
decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of
the claims you are making. Different subjects prefer to do this in
different ways.
A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by
linguists as a ‘hedge’.
• Responsibility
In academic writing you must be responsible for and must be able to
provide evidence and justification for, any claims you make. You are
also responsible for demonstrating an understanding of any source
texts you use.
•Organization
Academic writing is well organized. It flows easily from one section to
the next in a logical fashion. A good place to start is the genre of your
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text. Once you have decided on the genre, the structure is easily
determined.
• Planning
Academic writing is well planned. It usually takes place after research
and evaluation, according to a specific purpose and plan.
Applications:
Academics mostly write texts intended for publication, such as
journal articles, reports, books, and chapters in edited collections. For
students, the most common types of academic writing applications are
listed below:
Essay A short, self-contained argument, often using sources from a
class in response to a question provided by an instructor.
Research Paper A more in-depth investigation based on independent research,
often in response to a question chosen by the student.
Thesis/Dissertation The large final research project undertaken at the end of a
degree, usually on a topic of the student’s choice.
Research Proposal An outline of a potential topic and plan for a future
dissertation or research project.
Literature Review A critical synthesis of existing research on a topic, usually
written in order to inform the approach of a new piece of
research.
Lab Report A write-up of the aims, methods, results and conclusions of a
lab experiment.
A noted A list of source references with a short description or
Bibliography evaluation of each source.
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Discussion:
We all agree that writing is a skill that has to be taught. The student
has to develop an interest in it no matter the circumstance. It is
essential in assignment writing. Most importantly, it comes in handy
when the student is handling complex writing assignment, more
specifically academic writing. Every student must understand the
importance that comes with academic writing. It helps the students
communicate, improves critical thinking skills, helps us analyze
different works, improves knowledge and prepares us for the future.
Learning how to write strong essays is important not just for getting
good grades or getting into a good college so we can get a good job or
whatever. It is important because, at its most fundamental level, it is
about taking our own thoughts and then arranging them, so they are
logical and make sense, first to ourselves, and then to our readers. So,
we need to learn the proper way of writing academically and apply at
our level of education.