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ENGLISH ACADEMICWRITINGDr. Nuria Calvo Cortés

Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain

INTRODUCTION

• Academic writing varies from language to language

• Academic writing is very different from Creative writing

• Conventions and structures are well-defined

• There are different types of academic essays: descriptive, argumentative, comparison, cause-effect, process essay

• Your academic essays will always contain supportedideas. This means there will be references to otherpeople’s work, both in the body of the text and in a reference list at the end

• Different techniques are used to incorporate otherpeople’s words in your essays: direct quotations, paraphrasing, summarising and synthesising

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DIRECT QUOTATIONS

• This should be present in your work when the original is a keysentence for your essay, e.g. a definition

• Your essay should not be full of direct quotations• Same words as in the original text• In inverted commas• Always identical to the original (including punctuation and

spelling• Incorporated in the structure of the new sentence

• E.g. As Johnson (2010, p. 70) states, “Academic writing…”

• If too long (varies), in a new paragraph, indented, and no inverted commas

• Always including the page number• If original too long, and parts omitted: […]

WHAT ISPARAPHRASING?

• Writing published materials in your own words without changing its original meaning

• It is usually about the same length as the original

• Important: sentence structure and vocabulary should be different from the original

• The main way to paraphrase is to:• change the structure of the paragraph • change the words

• It is not enough to do just one of these, you need to change the structure and the words

• If not, plagiarism

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HOW TO CHANGE THESTRUCTURE

• Write down the main ideas & concepts • Read the paragraph and write down the main points or

words• Do not copy down entire sentences

• Put the original away• Put the paragraph / book away and using the main points,

write your paraphrase from memory

• Check your version against the original • To avoid accidental plagiarism, check what you have

written against the original text• You should check that they are not the same as well to see

if you have left anything out

HOW TO CHANGE THEWORDS

• Read the sentence to be paraphrased a number of times • Read the sentence / paragraph you want to paraphrase a

number of times to get the meaning of the text• Write out the sentence in your own words• Important: if you do not fully understand the text, do not

attempt to paraphrase it, as you will just copy it• Circle the specialised words

• Circle the specialised words (the words that the text is actually about)

• These will need to be included in your paraphrase • Underline keywords that can be changed

• Underline the keywords that can be changed• Find alternative words for the keywords

• Find other words and phrases that have similar meanings that can be used to replace the keywords in the text

• Use a thesaurus or dictionary to help if needed

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WHAT IS SUMMARISING?

• A summary is a short and concise representation of the main points, ideas, concepts, facts or statements of a text written in your own words

• A summary is much shorter than the original text

• When summarising you should not alter:• the author's original idea(s) • the degree of certainty with which the ideas are expressed

• Tips:• Topic sentences provide a quick outline of the main idea(s)

presented in a paragraph• When summarising a chapter or article, the introduction and

conclusion should provide a good overview of the content

HOW TO SUMMARISE

• You should read the article or text a number of times to develop a clear understanding of:

• the author's ideas and intentions• the meaning and details• the force with which the ideas are expressed

• Steps to write a summary:

1. Write notes in point form using keywords; this will make it easier to express the ideas in your own words

2. Write the summary directly from your notes without re-reading the passage

3. Refer back to the original to ensure that your summary is a true reflection of the writer's ideas

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ACTIVITY: WRITING A SUMMARY

The city of Orlando, located in sunny Florida, has experienced enormous growth. Founded in 1844, Orlando was a small town for more than a century. With the arrivalor South Florida Railroad in 1880, Orlando was on its wayto rapid growth. However, no one could have predictedthe extent of what was to come. This growth wasintensified with the development of Cape Canaveralspace complex in 1950. Two decades later, Orlando experienced rapid growth again on an incredible scalewhen Walt Disney World opened its gates to tourist in 1971. Because of the increase in tourism, Orlando has undergone an amazing amount of growth, which willlikely continue in the future

SYNTHESISING

• Grouping together ideas from others within the body of your text

• Synthesis does not focus on a single author (or academic source), it is more complex and draws on insights from a range of literature (or academic sources) to identify both similar and contradictory ideas with a view to establishing links to support your argument

• Important: do not be neutral, present your own position within your work based on the evidence you have synthesized: use a combination of caution, hedging, evaluative adjectives, adverbs and verbs

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HOW TO SYNTHESISE

1. Read your source material2. Make notes from each source using your own words 3. Using a blank piece of paper, create a grid using one

box for each source according to the authors and information

4. Complete the grid by making bullet points of the main ideas from each source

5. Look for common themes and identify the arguments from each author

6. Present your argument, using a new paragraph for each new argument

https://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/526337/A-guide-to-synthesis-Sep-2018.pdf

REFERRING TO OTHER PEOPLE’SWORK INSIDE THE ESSAY

• Different ways of introducing other people’s work• Variety essential• Mainly reporting verbs (present simple tense) and nouns• Reporting verbs: explain, point out, claim, suggest,

indicate, define, describe, …• Reporting nouns: explanation, definition, suggestion,

description, …• Other structures such as ‘according to…’ useful• Examples:

• Smith (2014) explains that …• Samuels’ (2016) description of …• Anderson and Sanders (2013) define … as …

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REFERRING TO OTHER PEOPLE’SWORK IN THE REFERENCE LIST

• Different systems: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, …

• Always in alphabetical order

• Everybody that has been mentioned in your essay has to appear in the list, unless as cited in somebody elses’swork

• Different sources have different styles: • it is not the same a book, an article in a scholarly journal,

an electronic resource. Make sure each of them followthe right pattern

• Not all sources are reliable, only use and include theones that are

WHAT IS IN ANINTRODUCTION?

• Structure of an introduction:

• A hook – to attract the reader’s attention. This may be a quotation, a question, a surprising statement, an unexpected comment or a joke

• Some background information on the topic

• A thesis statement – to state your position, and/or introduce the different subtopics that you are going to include in the body paragraphs

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SOME TYPES OF HOOKS

• Shocking statement (Each year thousands of teanagersdie in driving accidents)

• Definition (The dictionary defines gossip as ‘casual conversation’)

• Quote from somebody relevant (The poet Emily Dickinson once said, “…”)

• Question (Have you ever thought about where yoursalad comes from?)

• Setting the scene (On January 8, 2011, the worst stormin history…)

• Comparison (Sometimes life is like a rollercoaster)

THE THESIS STATEMENT

• Opinion type: The writer’s position about the topic and the reasons or information to support the position

• E.g. in an argument essay (Against E-Voting):• “In particular, societies should not vote with computers or

othr electronic media because elections are tooimportant to trust cyberspace”

• Introduction type: And/ or an introduction to the topics to be discussed in the essay

• E.g. in a comparison essay between a novel and a film:• “The movie is differenet from the book because it leaves

out certain characters, is told mostly through dialogue instead of narration, and ends in a different way”

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WHAT IS IN A CONCLUSION?

• Structure of a conclusion:

• The thesis statement should be rewritten, you should go back to the introduction for this

• The different subtopics that you have included in the body of the text should be mentioned here

• The conclusion should end with a recommendation, a suggestion or a prediction, depending on the type of text. This will vary depending on the type of essay

• IMPORTANT: synthesising is the key, as the ideas developed in the body have to be combined smoothly

SOME FINAL KEY TIPS

• Use formal vocabulary and grammar

• Be impersonal (use passive voice, do not use first person pronouns (I, we) unless you are giving your opinion in an argumentative essay)

• Always include the reference of where you extracted the information from

• Organise your ideas before writing your essay and write them down

• Check your essay after writing it – make sure that grammar, spelling and punctuation are correct

• Have your essay read by somebody else (if possible): more eyes see more