1. Instituto superior de formacion docente n` 41
language and written expression 4
Advice on Academic Writing
Teacher: Stella Maris Saubidet
student: Cintia Santillan
2018
2. Some general advice on academic essay writing
a- An essay should have an argument. it should try to prove
something. develop a “thesis” by reasoning and evidence.
b- Your first effort should be to formulate the questions you
will seek to answer in your essay. Next, develop hypothesis.
C- Essay’s organization should be designed to present your
argument clearly and persuasively.
3. Methods of composing an essay
Start writing early even before you think you’re ready to
write.
Write what seems to be readiest to be written, even if you are
not sure it will fit in.
Keep the essay’s overall purpose and organization in mind.
Revise extensively.
Revise sentences, with special attention to transitions.
4. Organizing an essay
Pre-writing stage: planning your essay
think about the type of essay you’re writing.
Does it belong to a specific genre
Knowing the patters of reasoning associated with a
genre can help you to structure your essay.
5. Avoiding a common pitfall
Remenber this simple principle:
The structure of an essay should not be determined by the
structure of its source material.
At any given point in your essays you will want to leave yourself
free to go wherever you need to in your source material. Your
only obligation is to further your argument.
6. Implications of planning too Little or too much
Advantages of planning:
- It helps you to produce a logical and orderly argument.
- It helps yo to produce an economical paper by allowing you to
spot repetition.
- It helps yo to produce a thorough paper by making it easier to
notice whether something has been left out.
7. Risks of overplanning
- Overplanning:
- Does not leave you enough time to write and revise.
- Leads you to produce papers that try to cover too much
ground at the expense of analytic Depth.
- Can result in a writing style that lacks spontaneity and ease.
- Does not provide enough opportunity to discover new ideas
in the process of writing.
8. Using thesis statements
When you are asked to write an essay that creates an
argument your reader Will probably expect a clear statement
of your position.
Typically this summary statement goes in the first
paragraph of the essay.
9. Introductions and conclusions
A good introduction should identify your topic, provide
essential context, and indicate your particular focus in the
essay. It also needs to engage your reader’s interest.
A strong conclusion Will provide a sense of clousure to the
essay. It Will also, in some instances, add a stimulus to further
thought.
10. Guidelines to construct a suitable begining and end for your
essay.
How to write an interesting, effective introduction
-find a startling statistic that illustrates the seriousness of the problem you
will address.
- Quote an expert ( be sure to introduce him/ her first)
- Mention a common misperception that your thesis Will argue against.
- Give some background information necessary for understanding the essay.
- Use a brief narrative or anegdote that exemplifies your reason for
choosing the topic.
11. How to write an interesting effective conclusion
If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the
posible consequences of not attending to the problem.
Recomend a specific course of action.
Use expert opinions to lend authority to the conclusion you have reached.
Give a startling statistic, fact or visual image.
Return to an anegdote, example or quotation that you introduced in your
introduction, but add further insight.
12. How to unify ideas in a paragraph
An essay is unified if all the paragraphs relate to the thesis,
whereas a paragraph is unified if all the sentences relate to the
topic sentence.
A paragraph is a sentence or group of sentences that supports
one central, unified idea. Paragraphs add one idea at a time to
your broather argument.
The most effective way to achieve paragraph unity is to express
the central idea of the paragraph in a topic sentence.
13. Using topic sentences
What is a topic sentence?
A topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph. It serves as a mini-
thesis for the paragraph.
Where do topic sentences go?
Topic sentences usually appear at the very beginning of paragrasphs.
14. Reading and researching
Critical Reading towards critical writing
Critical writing depends on critical Reading. In order to write your own
analysis of the subject you will need to do careful critical Reading of sources
to make your own argument.
15. Critical Reading: what is it
To make judgements about how a text is argued.
Tips:
• Don’t read looking only or primarily for information
• Do read looking for ways of thinking about the subject matter.
16. How to read looking for ways of thinking
First, determine the purpose of the text (thesis)
Begin to make judgements about context ( target audience, historical
context, etc)
Distinguish the kinds of reasoning the text employs- concepts defined and
used to organize and interpret the data.
Examine the evidence (supporting facts, examples, etc)
Critical Reading may involve evaluation.
17. Writing advice: revising and editing
Steps to follow to transform a mediocre first draft into an excellent final paper:
1- check whether you have fulfilled the intention of the assignment.
2- look at overall organization
* Does your introduction make clear where the rest of the paper is headed?
* Is each section in the right place to fulfill your purpose?
* Have you drawn connections between the sections? (links)
• Would a person Reading your conclusion know what questions you had asked and
how you had arrived at your answer?
3- Polish and edit your style by moving to smaller matters such as Word choice,
sentence structure, gramar, punctuation and spelling.
18. Appearance
Looks do count: basic expectations for any type of
assignment.
- Include a cover page giving the title of your paper, the name of the
course, your name, the date and the instructor’s name.
- Number your pages in the top right –hand corner.
- Double-space your text, including intended quotations, footnotes and
reference lists. Leave margins of one inch (2,5 cm) on all sides of the page.
- Use a standard Font in twelve pointsize.
- Put the reference list or bibliography on a separate page at the end.
- Staple your pages, don’t use a bulky binding or cover.
19. How to cite correctly
APA citation style.
Author(s). (Date). Title of Book/ "Title of Article"/ Title of Periodical/ Volume. Pages.
Place of Publication. Publisher.
BookOkuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star Trek Chronology: The History of the
Future. New York: Book Pocket Books
Article or ChapterJames, N. E. (1988). "Two sides of paradise: The Eden myth
according to Kirk and Spock." In D. Palumbo (Ed.), Spectrum of the fantastic (pp.
219-223). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
WebsiteLynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations review. Retrieved October 8,
2008, from Psi Phi: Bradley's Science Fiction Club Web
site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/ 503r.html
20. Some notes on citing correctly
Notes
Arrange the items on your reference list alphabetically by author, interfiling books,
articles, etc.
Use only the initials of the authors' first (and middle) names.
If no author is given, start with the title and then the date.
If you are using a typewriter that cannot produce italics, then use underlining
instead.
Magazine articles: include the month (and day) as shown under Newspapers.
Websites: if the date the page was created is not given, use (n.d.).
21. Bibliography
University of Toronto. Advice on Academic Writing. Retrieved from
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/
http://essayinfo.com/citations/index.php
