The Importance Of Academic Writing

The survey result Berrett includes shows that students see writing as “basically a performance”. Berrett also introduced an argument from the “Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing” report, which claims that writing is not a “linear process”. The author states that successful writing requires various processes, habits and experiences, such as “curiosity, flexibility, persistence and metacognition”. Since for most highschoolers, writing is ‘’framed as preparation of tests”, they do not have the opportunity to “develop ideas or raise prose”. The author suggests the students require change in their mindset of writing. However, the only evidence the author provides is from a students’ self-reported survey, instead of actual writing assignments. This rather subjective evidence results in a less convincing argument. Despite this flaw in logic, I personally agree with the author. I find the transformation of writing from high school to university is challenging. The main reason is that my writing experience back then was more about “following directions”. The format and structure of the writing assignment was provided, and all the information I need was spoonfed to me. As a result, there was no researching and developing my own idea, and in the first week of university, when I was asked to write a lab report with my own theory, I brainstormed for hours before eventually generated one. Nevertheless, I hold onto the hope that improvements on creativity in writing can be made as I gradually develop my “curiosity, flexibility, persistence and metacognition”. In general, although I agree with the author’s opinion, I felt his claim lacks

though Cheng-Rui studied in a Master’s program in the US, this English environment experience failed to develop his English academic writing competence due to the absence of training in English academic writing and the opportunity to write long proses in English. In terms of their prior academic learning experience before studying in a doctoral program in the US, all of them were involved in research when studying in a Master’s program. Zhi-Kai and Tian-You further had experience in writing a Master’s thesis. Nonetheless, Zhi-Kai wrote it in Chinese whereas Tian-You wrote it in English but did not obtain feedback from his advisor with regard to English. Their former English and academic learning backgrounds, thus, negatively influenced them to acculturate to the English academic environment and their discipline-specific communities. They, for example, encountered challenges of writing conference proposals, class assignments, and their dissertation in English. This finding corresponds to the result of Sawire’s (2005) and Xu’s (1991) research. As Zhang and Mi (2010) pinpoint that international students’ “prior learning experience and the status of English in their home countries often result in different problems or problems in different areas”.

In L. Lennie Irvin’s What Is “Academic” Writing, this short story is written as an opening and introduction to new young college students to show them how the world of writing really is. Irvin deciphers speaking to generate a discussion and true writing. Irvin explains how college writing is a much higher educational process that is much more unique and requires research skills. Academic writing is described as analytical for most students. Irvin tells the readers about the myths that are said. The main myth is the perfect first draft, “We put unrealistic expectations on first drafts, either by focusing too much on the impossible task of making them perfect”. Irvin’s main point about writing is that It resembles having a blind fold over your

Words are an essential part of everyone's life, from the time a baby is born words are encouraged to stimulate their growth because simply being able to say "milk" or "mama" provides the baby with a huge amount of power. In fact, they were even used to

In “How Do I Write a Text for College” (The World is a Text, 2006), Patty Strong said that writing in in college is much more different than writing in high school and so as the purpose of it. In high school student were told to write texts depending on their prior knowledge while on an institution of higher education students have the flexibility to write not only about what they already learnt but what they are trying to learn. In addition, writing in college requires a higher level of critical thinking and understanding, but it will unequivocally expand their knowledge.

I came to realize that all writing consists of a series of choices” (Bunn 72). From the works, “The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer,” “What Is “Academic” Writing?”, and “How to Read Like a Writer”; Bunn, Allen, and Lennie are well versed in formulating information and tools that can be very beneficial for the student writer, works that complement each other. For example, Mike Bunn explains about the analytical process of reading like a writer, to consider the choices the author made and decide whether to apply them, Lennie Irvin gives a very detailed method on how to tackle academic writing tasks, and Sarah Allen tackles the issues and myths that plague the writer. They understand that writing and reading is a simple task with complex implications and put conscious effort to show that.

Writing a college-level essay can be tricky, especially if there is lack of inspiration or the ideas aren’t organized well enough to articulate into a draft. However, in the case of higher-level education; students are encouraged to stimulate their learning through writing, in order to acquire an analytical and understanding capacity to be successful in college. Coupled with planning, research, and hard work; writing essays for college becomes an easier task in a short time, resulting in the improvement of critical thoughts. In the article, Using Writing to Promote Reading to Learn in College, Hayes Christopher G, states that, “the written text allows both reader and writer to examine thoughts captured in time and recorded in words, thereby encouraging more complex thinking because constraints imposed by memory have been abolished by the written record” (Hayes 4). After all, more than any other invention, writing has transformed the human consciousness. This mastery gives society the ability to improve every day, by enhancing their personalities, considering that having a good use of language and information, will result in achieving great success. In the article: Reconsidering English Teaching for Improving Non-English Majors’ English writing Ability, Yuru Shen declares how, “it is self-evident that grammar plays a very important role in language learning, including English learning” (Shen 74).With this in mind, understanding that college level composition is important will

Coming into college, I have had experience in writing analytical essays, research papers, and creative writing projects. For two years in a row I had the privilege to be taught by the same honor’s English teacher—Mr. McConahay. Mr. McConahay constantly stressed the importance of writing. He spent the past two years preparing us for college level writing because he knows that in college, writing is a big part of one’s English class. We wrote about American citizenship and what it meant to be a citizen of the world as well as a citizen of one’s community. Mr. McConahay valued structure and a good thesis the most out of anything. This writing was very difficult for me because my mind works more creatively than it does analytically. Academic writing has always been my weakest attribute when it came to schooling. I would much rather write a paper full of opinions or made up people rather than write a research paper. Though his class was hard for me, I noticed a difference in my writing as it improved over the course of the years. Mr.

‘Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing’ by Fernsten and Reda is an interesting study how reflective writing practices can be useful for marginalized students, who are struggling with “negative writer self-identity. The possible causes according to Fernsten & Reda are, “issues such as race, class and gender that are marginalized factors for many basic writers”, in addition to the expectations of the dominant academic culture. However, even though Fernsten & Reda illuminated the ‘potential conflicts’ within the academic world, they have failed to provide conclusive evidence that supports their argument regarding their solution. Their reliance on dated research that provides a one sided historical perspective, may

“You should spend about 80 percent of your time doing research, and only about 20 percent in the actual writing of your paper.”

As a writer in college, students will be challenged. Unlike high school writing classes, college writing will be more sophisticated and intimate. In high school, most English classes require students to follow the pace of the teacher, however, college writing requires students to work at their own pace. After reading these two articles by Sommers, my thoughts on academic writing has changed. One of Sommers’s students, David, best exemplifies my expectations of a college writer because his attitude towards the class demonstrates how I believe academic writing is challenging. As a student, David went against the grain of the class and “went beyond the texts [Sommers] offered and chose his own.” I believe that college students like David struggle to find or understand information in the given text.

A learner’s ability to communicate effectively through writing to his/her target audiences is a major prerequisite for academic success. It is also a major pillar of success in one’s career across all areas of practice. Even though, writing clearly is critical to one’s academic and career success, I have not always loved writing. In fact, for a long time I despised writing. At one point, I had a feeling that my writings skills were bound to remain stagnated throughout my life. However, time has proven that I was wrong. My attitude and outlook towards virtually all genres of writing has changed positively. The various helpful methods I have been exposed to by my English teachers through different grades have helped me to improve not only my comprehension and interpretation skills but also my writing skills in general. I contend that, the improvement of my comprehension skills and appreciating the importance of thinking clearly has facilitated the improvement of my writing skills.

Imagine reading the same book over and over and over again. After about the fifth time it would start to get boring. College professors have to read multiple papers and it tends to get boring when they all sound the same. When writing, students do not venture out and get creative. Writing in English is all about perception and varies from person to person. Every piece of writing should be different and based on each individual 's perspective. Sometimes students do not venture out and get creative with their writing, they stick to the bland and boring basic ways that everyone else uses. In the article Freirean Voices, Student Choices, a college professor at Mid Michigan Community College explains the problems students and teachers face with writing and how he has worked to fix this problem. Barry Alford, the author of the article, uses all personal experience to persuade the reader that students should be writing in more complex and rich ways. Another tactic he used to persuade the audience is by expressing other people’s ideas including Kenneth Burke, David Bartholomae and Ira Shor’s ideas. Alford’s main purpose was to express upon readers the idea that students should be writing in more complex and rich ways with more creativity.

Throughout all works I have completed since the writing of my plan for academic improvement, I have looked for other sources, such as video, to enhance the scope of what I am able to incorporate as scholarly examples in my own academic writing. With the aid of Grellier and Goerke, 2014, alongside the Curtin University referencing guide, intelligence from my tutor and other students’ referencing queries, I have been able to expand upon my knowledge base. This has allowed me to reference information that has helped me reach certain conclusions, without the fear of how to accomplish it. I shall continue to refer back to these sources to expand upon my repertoire of referencing in my ongoing academic

There are many important things to keep in mind when developing scholarly writing. Quality scholarly writing should be written with the intent of the audience in mind, which in my case is an academic community.  There must be a clear purpose when I am creating my work and the information provided should be supported by scholarly references.  While I am writing, I must remember the reader needs to know why the topic is important. Also, my writing should reflect the use of credible sources to express the material in a scholarly format.