WISDOM HOLY BIBLE UNIVERSITY

COURSE GTS 422 ACADEMIC WRITING

COURSE LECTURER:
REV DR. RICHARD BESTER FOLOKIYA, PHD CAM, MATDS, BAT, DIP. THEO, DIP.
JOURNALISM, PROF. TEACHING CERTICATE

INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING

By the end of the lesson, students must be able to:
. define Academic writing.
. explain the purpose and audience in academic writing.
. differentiate between essays, reports and research papers.
. describe planning, drafting, revising and editing.

ACADEMIC WRITING
Academic writing is a type of writing that is completed for assessment and certification purposes.
The aim is to communicate the information that you have researched, processed, discussed and
analyzed, in a way that a reader can understand to meet the purpose for which the writing is being
completed.
The writing has to be clear, concise, objective, understandable and informative to the reader
[University of Leeds, 2019]. As a researcher, you should learn to acknowledge where you got the
information and research that you used in your academic writing.
Academic writing needs direction, practice and feedback. Students should develop good academic
practices for drafting and writing assessment work to obtain and improve overall grades.
It is a clear, concise, focused, structured and backed up by evidence. Its purpose is to aid the
reader’s understanding [University of Leeds, 2019]. It is also structured and logical in order to
bring the reader from one key point to the other.
The student’s writing should be supported by evidence/ research which shows understanding of
underlying theories, processes and practices. Sources of the ideas, thoughts, and information must
always be referenced.
When writing, use plain English and avoid jargon slang words or phrases. And the author must be
experts in formal tone, using appropriate sentence structure, specific word choice and use of a third
person.

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COMMON ACADEMIC WRITING PROBLEMS RESEARCHERS ENCOUNTER
Language:
It means grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and coherence. These challenges can make
your work unclear, confusing, or unprofessional, lead to plagiarism or misunderstanding.
Nevertheless, what is required is to proofread your work, edit wherever necessary. It is workable
if you seek your peers and others to assist you in order to learn from your mistakes.
Structure difficulties
The organization and layout of your writing should be done nicely. If not, then bear in mind that
your writing can be too difficult to follow, understand or evaluate and can also affect your
argument and evidence. Therefore, make sure you plan and outline your writing. Have clear and
concise sentences, paragraphs and sections that are linked and relevant to the main point.
Academic writing is a complex and challenging skill that needs mastery of various aspects such as
language, structure, style, research and citation.
Style issues
The use of tone, voice etc. The writing can be unprofessional, biased, or vague and can reduce
your credibility as well as your authority. You should always adopt a formal and academic style
with clear and precise language.
Research difficulties
The process and skill of finding, evaluating and using sources. These lead to lack of depth, quality
or originality in your writing and plagiarism or ethical issues. Hence, begin your research early
and allocate adequate time and effort to conduct a comprehensive research. Get different books,
journals, websites, and databases for credibility, accuracy and relevance.
Citation problems
The rules and practices of acknowledging and referencing the sources you have used in your
writing. Problems can arise leading to confusion, inconsistency or error in using various citations
styles namely; APA, MLA or Harvard. So, familiarize yourself with the style you want to use and
follow its guidelines and examples well. Avoid copying and pasting from other sources but rather
use your own words.
QUALITIES OF GOOD ACADEMIC WRITING
i. Be understandable to everyone who reads it.
ii. Clearly communicate relevant information.
iii. Minimize the use of jargon or buzz-words.
iv. Be concisely written and keep to the key point [s].
v. Be focused on providing information and presenting facts.
vi. Analyze the findings of the research.
vii. Include objective reflection.

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 viii. Acknowledge sources.
ix. Avoid broad, sweeping or generalized statements.
x. Ensure that each point of view is supported by research.
PURPOSE OF ACADEMIC WRITING
i. To report on a piece of research the writer has conducted.
ii. To answer a question the writer has been given or chosen.
iii. To discuss a subject of common interest and give the writer’s view.
iv. To synthesize research done by others on a topic.
SIGNIFICANCE OF ACADEMIC WRITING
i. It helps develop critical thinking, analysis and problem-solving skills.
ii. Improves research abilities and prepares students for career success.
iii. Helps build a scholarly community, shapes research across disciplines.
iv. It contributes to the advancement of knowledge.
v. It addresses complex issues that require higher-order thinking skills applied to the
understanding of the research problem.
vi. It assists to communicate multifaceted ideas in a way that makes them least likely to
be challenged.
vii. It is a key to achieving success not just in your studies but also in your selected
career.
DEFINITIONS OF SOME WORDS
Article – is a piece of writing that is included with other pieces of writing in a publication like a
magazine, journal or newspaper.
Assessment – the means by which it is possible to judge what a learner knows, understands and
can do as a result of engaging in a learning experience.
Paraphrase – saying the same thing that another author or source says but using different words.
Citation – is a reference to the source of information used in a learner’s research/written
assessment work, for example, (Folokiya, 2018).
Information – can be knowledge gained from research, investigation, study or other sources.
Plain English approach – is a way of communicating with your audience or reader so that they
understand what you are saying the first time they read or hear it.
Syntax – refers to how words and phrases are arranged in order to create well-formed sentences.
Research – an organised and systematic investigation into a topic and the study of information,
materials and sources in order to know the facts and draw conclusions.

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THE WRITING PROCESS: PREWRITING, DRAFTING, REVISING, EDITING, AND
PROOFREADING

Writing takes time, it is a process, and it doesn’t happen all at once. Make sure that you allow
yourself adequate time explore your topic, draft, reflect and revise, and edit and proofread.

Each writer has his or her own unique writing process: a way of prewriting, drafting, and revising.
As you practice writing, you are also developing an understanding or your individual writing
process. Pay attention to the things that get you writing and thinking so you can use these strategies
in future writing assignments.

BRAINSTORMING, PREWRITING, AND PLANNING

• Brainstorm ideas

• Discover what to write about

• Explore your topic

• Discover material

• Identify your audience and purpose

• Organize information

• Develop a plan or outline

Remember that long assignments are normally set many weeks before their deadline, hence, this
makes that students should have plenty of time to organise their writing.

Schedule the time you need to finish each stage of the writing process. Know your own writing
and editing speeds. Record the time it takes you to perform a task, such as writing or editing a
paragraph, using a stopwatch app. Write down your speeds. Remember that it often takes writers
twice as long to finish a task than they expect. Learn to anticipate this and plan your time
accordingly. Finish the rough draft a few days before the due date. This will give you time to revise
and edit. You can also ask your teacher for feedback on your draft.

DRAFTING

• Write your ideas in sentences and paragraphs

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• Continue to explore your ideas as you write

• Organize your writing into an “introduction,” “body,” and “conclusion”

• Create a “first draft” by writing all the way through the paper

• You don’t have to begin at the beginning

Just write. Edit later. Do not worry about spelling or grammar. Get your paragraphs on paper, using
your outline as a guide. Just because an essay begins with an introduction does not mean you have
to start by writing it. If you get stuck writing, write a part of your essay you know you can complete
first, then return to where you had the difficulty. “Drafting provides writers some substance with
which to work. The key to drafting, therefore, is to keep writing so that later there will be
something to revise. . . .Organization is critical to drafting, too, for a writer must think how to
begin, where to go next, how and when to end. The hardest line to write is the first one.”

REVISING [REVISION]

• Re-reading and re-writing

• Adding facts, details, explanation

• Read aloud

• Rephrasing for clarity and coherence

• Reorganizing

• Eliminate unnecessary details and redundancies

Set your essay aside for a few days to revise and edit with a fresh perspective. Make sure all the
components of the essay are in place: your introduction should have a thesis statement and your
body paragraphs need topic sentences that support your thesis. Ensure that evidence and quotations
clearly help you support your thesis. You can adjust or completely rewrite your thesis at this stage,
if needed, or change the order of your paragraphs. Imagine you are a stranger reading your own
essay. Highlight where you feel confused reading it and then make it clearer.

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“Revision is more than a way to make writing better. Revision enables us to live and think as
problem solvers. Most writers want to revise. Toni Morrison likes to get that first draft down,
because she knows she can go back again and again. For her, the ‘most delicious part’ is revising.”

While revision occurs throughout the writing process, editing and proofreading assume that the
writer is working on the final draft and is in the process of making the paper correct. In general,
effective editing and proofreading require that you reread your writing carefully, that you play the
role of reader rather than writer, and that you use strategies to help you slow down and examine
your writing.

EDITING AND PROOFREADING

• Review word choice, word order, and sentence structure

• Check for correct sentence structure, grammar, mechanics, usage, and spelling

• Make sure that you have followed formatting guidelines

After gathering plenty of ideas, you require to go back and edit them. This is the juncture to select
which ideas are the most interesting and most relevant to your topic. You can also add new ideas
if you think necessary while you are reading your work.

Sometimes, you can do peer editing where you show your work to another student to improve
your writing. Editing involves several stages such as reviewing the manuscripts, structural
[substantive] editing, copy editing, proof reading and checking proofs.

Check run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Edit your
writing for formal, academic English, if required. Read your writing out loud. Does it sound
logical? Are there unclear phrases that leap out at you? Proofread. Correct all errors and mistakes,
and check your MLA or APA citations.

SUMMARIZING:
“When you summarize something you boil it down to its essence, picking out the major points or
ideas and restating them in a succinct way” (The New Century Handbook 2).
• Identify key points (words, phrases, ideas).
• Put the thoughts in your own words, condensing information as you go.
• Check the summary for accuracy. Have you been fair to the author’s intent?
• Create lists or tables as appropriate.

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• Document the source. Place author’s actual words in quotation marks and cite page numbers.

A REPORT
A report is a piece of informative writing that describes a set of actions and analyses any results in
response to a specific brief. A quick definition might be: “This is what I did and this is what it
means.” A good way to understand the key features of reports is to see how they differ from essays
as a type of academic writing.

Reports are formally structured, Informative and fact-based, Written with a specific purpose and
reader in mind, Written in a style appropriate to each section, Always include section headings,
Sometimes use bullet points, Often include tables or graphs, Offer recommendations for action.

While essays are often concerned with abstract or theoretical subjects, a report is a description of
a situation or something that has happened. In academic terms, it might describe:
(a) an experiment you have conducted
(b) a survey you have carried out
(c) a comparison of alternative proposals to deal with a situation
Clearly there is a big difference between describing a scientific laboratory experiment and
reporting on students’ political opinions. In some areas (e.g. laboratory work), your teachers will
make it clear what format you should follow. However, most reports should include the following
features:
Introduction
• background to the subject
• reasons for carrying out the work
• review of other research in the area
Methods
• how you did your research
• description of the tools/materials used
Results
• what you discovered
• comments on likely accuracy of results
Discussion

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• discussion of your main findings
• comments on the effectiveness of your research
Conclusion
• summary of your work
• suggestions for further research

ESSAY
Essay is a group of paragraphs that support a controlling idea called a thesis. It comprises a couple
of paragraphs put together in order to convey ideas. If someone writes on a topic in less than two
sentences that does not constitute an essay. Essay paragraphs are composed of a specific topic with
an aim to come up with ideas that are properly organized, nicely written and professionally
presented.

Essays usually focus on analysing or evaluating theories, past research by other people, and ideas.
They may include applying theory to practice if you are in a practice-based field. Semi-structured,
argumentative and idea-based, not written with a specific reader in mind, written in single narrative style
throughout. Usually do not include sub-headings and bullet points, rarely include tables or graphs and offer
conclusions about a question. Essays are usually divided into a small number of broad sections, and focus on
building a sustained, evaluative argument which develops from one part of the assignment to the next.

THE STRUCTURE OF ESSAYS

This contextualises and gives background information about the topic or questions being discussed.
It sets out what the essay is going to cover.
Main Body.
This is divided into paragraphs, which help make a continuous, flowing text.
Conclusion.
This summarises the main points made in the essay. You should never put new information in the conclusion.
Bibliography, or Reference List.
This is usually presented alphabetically by authors’ surname.
Reference for the Table of Distinctions above.
Cottrell, S. (2003). The Study Skills Handbook (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

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PARTS OF AN ESSAY
The Greek Philosopher Aristotle likened an essay as to an animal because an essay has a head,
body and tail, just like an animal. Similarly, the head of an essay is an introduction, the body is
where your facts are properly explained and the tail shows the conclusion. Hence, you should
always remember that an essay must have an introduction, body and conclusion.

An effective introduction explains the purpose, scope and methodology of the paper to the reader.
The conclusion should provide a clear answer to any questions asked in the title, as well as
summarising the main points under discussion. With coursework, it may be better to write the
introduction after writing the main body.

Introduction
Sentences put in an introduction aims at attracting the reader’s interest and it is where you find a
thesis statement. It refers to a statement or opinion that is discussed in a logical way and presented
with evidence in order to prove that it is true. It contains main idea in your piece of writing.
Introductions are usually no more than about 10% of the total length of an assignment. Therefore
in a 2,000-word essay the introduction would be approximately 200 words. There is no standard
pattern for an introduction, since much depends on the type of research you are conducting and
the length of your work, but this is a common structure:

a) Definition of key terms, if needed

b) Relevant background information
c) Review of work by other writers on the topic
d) Purpose or aim of the paper
e) Your research methods
f) Any limitations you imposed
g) An outline of your paper

FUNCTIONS OF THE INTRODUCTION

i. It attracts the reader’s interest. The introductory paragraph should start with several
sentences that attract the reader’s attention and encourage them to continue reading the
essay.

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 ii. It states the thesis statement. It provides a plan of development or a preview of major
points supporting the thesis.
iii. It leads the readers smoothly into the support paragraphs such as the body of the essay.
It supplies any background information that may be required to understand the essay.
TYPES OF INTRODUCTION
When writing an essay, you are required to use any one method or a combination of methods, to
introduce your subject in an interesting way to the readers.
i. A direct statement of the thesis statement: with this introduction, you simply state
the thesis statement directly. Attempt to give a preview of what your thesis is all about
and how you will go about writing your essay.
ii. Background information: in this type, you give details about something. Make sure
that you elaborate the way things are done or occur. For example, if you were to write
an essay on problems faced by poorly established private schools, you could firstly
provide information on how private schools came into being and what happens when
people are opening private schools.
iii. Definition of terms: in this type of introduction, writers can begin their essay by firstly
providing a definition for the most important terms in the thesis. For instance, if the
essay is on impacts of deforestation, the writer can begin by providing a definition for
the term deforestation.
iv. Use of a quotation: another method of introducing an essay is by using a quotation.
This quotation can be something you have read in a book or article. It can also be
something that you have heard, a popular saying or proverb, a current or recent
advertising slogan or a favourite expression used by friends or families. Example;
According to Rubenstein, “most developing countries are in danger of desertification
due to tremendous pressure being exerted on forest due to rising population.”
v. Use of a shocking statement: you deliberately begin with a startling fact that is aimed
at raising curiosity in your readers. This will motivate your readers as they will want to
find out more about the shocker that you have given them.
vi. Ask one or more questions: here you may ask a rhetorical question that simply wants
the reader to think about possible answers or you ask a question you intended to answer
yourself later in the essay. For instance, you were to write a paper on love, you would
come up with questions such as; “what is love? How do you really know that we are
really in love? When we meet that special person, how can we tell that our feelings are
genuine and not merely infatuation? And if they are genuine, will these feelings last?
[Langan, J, 2003]
vii. Use an incident or brief story: stories are naturally interesting. They appeal to a
reader’s curiosity. In your introduction, an anecdote will grab the reader’s attention
right away. The story should be brief and should be related to your main idea. The
incident in the story can be something that occurred to you, something you have heard
about, or something you have read about in a newspaper or magazine. For example, “A
couple of months ago, I was travelling to the Eastern Region. I left Lilongwe early in
the morning. And as I drove, I kept looking sideways with an interest on our forests.
My eyes didn’t like what they saw. Most forests have been cleared and I was
particularly touched by the way trees are being removed in……..”

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A PARAGRAPH
A paragraph is a group of sentences which deal with a single topic. Dividing up the text into
paragraphs helps both writer and reader to follow the argument more clearly.
II. The length of paragraphs varies significantly according to text type, but should normally be no
less than four or five sentences.
III. Usually (but not always) the first sentence introduces the topic. Other sentences may give
definitions, examples, extra information, reasons, restatements and summaries.
IV. The parts of the paragraph are linked together by the reference words, conjunctions and adverbs
shown in bold in the table. They guide the reader through the arguments presented.

CONCLUSIONS
Conclusions tend to be shorter and more varied in format than introductions. Some articles may
have a summary or concluding remarks?. But student papers should generally have a final section
which summarises the arguments and makes it clear to the reader that the original question has
been answered.
This s a crucial part of an essay and it requires to be given all the time and effort. You don’t need
to rush otherwise you will spoil all the good work you have done in the introduction and the body.
Make sure you impress your readers for the last time by writing a conclusion that is catchy. You
need to present a concluding thought about the subject of the paper. You can conclude with a
quotation, end with a summary and final thought, conclude with a though-provoking question or a
series of questions, conclude with a call to action, conclude with a warning and conclude with a
restatement of the thesis.

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