Academic Writing

Scholarly Work

 

Imagine you are talking with a group of friends about a movie. You might be willing to express an opinion about the movie without doing much research, but what if you were having dinner with one or more of your professors or employers and you were discussing a novel or a particular software application. Would you be as willing to express an opinion without having read the novel or done any research? Academic writing is much like the second scenario. It is a special form of writing used in scholarly work that, according to Lee Ann Carroll (2002), involves the "...knowledge of research skills, ability to read complex texts, understanding of key disciplinary concepts, and strategies for synthesizing, analyzing, and responding critically to new information, usually within a limited time frame."
 

Features of academic writing:

• A well-crafted, thoroughly researched argument
  
  
• Written with the appropriate audience in mind
  
  
• Displays critical thinking, reading, and writing
  
  
• Free from common errors of spelling, punctuation, syntax, and grammar
  
  
• Avoids all forms of plagiarism
  
  
• Cites all sources

References

Carroll, L. A. (2002). Rehearsing new roles: How college students develop as writers. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Levin, L. L. (2010). What is Academic Writing?. In C. Lowe and P. Zemliansky (Eds.), Writing spaces: Readings on writing, Vol. 1 (pp. 3–17). Retrieved from http://writingspaces.org/essays/what-is-academic-writing.