Success in Academic Writing - Trevor Day 2018

Final word
Building on Success

Near the beginning of this book we considered how writing helps you to think. Writing, of course, is but one way to express your thoughts. Nevertheless, doing so changes your relationship with those thoughts, whether you choose to share your writing with others or not. When you write and see your thoughts expressed ’outside of yourself, your relationship with those ideas shifts, encouraging reflection and reappraisal. Your ideas transform, advance, and become shaped, refined and clarified. The process of academic writing encourages higher-level thinking - analysing, synthesising, evaluating and applying - that is an integral part of your academic development. Beyond this, the qualities you develop as a skilful writer - even patience and diligence - will be of immense benefit to you in your later life, whatever path you take. In your writing, be guided by others, but open yourself up to the possibility of stepping beyond the guidance you have been given. Be prepared to be inspired.

Key points in the chapter

1Each assignment you carry out represents one or more turns of the experiential learning cycle:

planning, taking action, reviewing and applying.

2You can maximize your learning by reflecting on your learning process for each assignment; especially when starting, finishing, and after gaining feedback.

3At its best, feedback is a two-way process in which you receive guidance and opinion from staff and perhaps other students, and also offer it.

4During an assignment, and after you have completed it and received marks, is where you can ask for specific feedback to clarify your understanding. Reflect on the feedback and take planned action where appropriate.

5In offering thoughtful feedback and guidance to another student you will probably gain as much as you give.

6There are many people and resources to help you develop your writing and your learning more generally. Some are formal, others informal. Make good use of them.

7Each academic discipline has its own acceptable practices. This includes how rhetoric - ethos, logos and pathos - is used to persuade readers. One way to raise the power of your own writing is to learn how good writers in your discipline - and beyond - use rhetoric wisely.

7Remind yourself of the importance of clear and compelling writing. Through writing you have the power to express, influence and impress.

Cited references

Falchikov, N. (2001). Learning Together: Peer Tutoring in Higher Education. London: Routledge.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. London: Further Education Unit.

King, S. (2000, 2012). On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Revised edn. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as a Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Lavers, J. L. and Bond, A. L. (2017). ’Exceptional and Rapid Accumulation of Anthropogenic Debris on One of the World’s Most Remote and Pristine Islands’. PNAS, 114(23), pp. 6052-6055.

Further reading

Pinker, S. (2014). The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. London: Penguin.

Sword, H. (2012). Stylish Academic Writing. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Glossary

Academic writing Writing that is usually formal and follows certain conventions, such as specific document structures, writing styles, and citing and referencing.

Active voice Refers to the construction of a sentence in which the subject performs action.

Adjective A word that describes and modifies the meaning of a noun or pronoun.

Adverb A word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Article In grammar, a type of determiner. There are two articles: the definite article (the) and the indefinite article (a or an).

Audience (readership) The people who will read and might assess a piece of written work. An assessor may take on a particular persona when assessing your work.

Authoritative Refers to a publication that has high credibility based on its authors’ backgrounds, qualifications, experience and/or associations with academic or professional organisations. Such publications normally cite and list their sources.

Balanced Refers to a source, or your own work, seeking to present an unbiased view of a topic.

Bar chart A bar chart plots discrete data where numerical values are shown by the height of bars of equal width.

Biased Refers to a source you are using, or your own argument, seeking to promote one or more sides of an argument at the expense of other sides.

Bibliographic database An electronic database holding bibliographic information about journal articles and conference proceedings within specified disciplines. Such databases are searchable using keywords and may provide an abstract (summary) of the document plus links to providers of the document’s full text.

Bibliography A list of all the sources consulted in the process of writing a document. It is different from a list of references, which lists only sources that have been cited within the main body of a document.

Citation A short note within a document, e.g. ’(Jones, 2013)’, which refers to a source. Full details of the source are normally given as an entry in the list of references at the end of the document.

Cite In text, to refer to a source using a citation.

Clause In traditional grammar, a simple sentence or a group of words in a sentence that contains a subject and a predicate (words, including a verb, that give further information about the subject). For example, ’They voted for the president.’ and ’If they voted for the president ...’ are both clauses.

Code In the IPACE model, ’code’ refers to format, structure and writing style. Code is shaped by the writer’s identity and the purpose and audience for a given piece of writing.

Collusion Collaborating with another person to produce a piece of work that you submit as your own without crediting the other person. It may also involve copying from another person’s work (with or without their permission) or having them produce work for you.

Common knowledge Within a discipline this refers to facts, arguments or opinions that are so well known that when used in written work, citing a reference is not normally required.

Composing For non-fiction writing, the act of writing flowing prose.

Concept map A form of note-taking and planning in which information is organised in a logical hierarchy from top to bottom, with an appearance similar to a family tree. A line between one idea

and the next is usually accompanied by words explaining the connection between the two.

Conjunction A ’joining word’ that links words, phrases or clauses.

Determiner A category of adjective. It includes the definite and indefinite article.

Dissertation An extended piece of academic writing on a specialist topic, normally in the form of a report, which is submitted towards the end of a degree programme.

Editing Implementing changes to text to better match it to its intended purpose and audience.

Essay A piece of prose writing several hundred to several thousand words long. It normally has a recognisable introduction, body and conclusion. It may be a balanced account or promote a particular point of view.

et al. Abbreviated form of the Latin et alii meaning ’and others’. It is used in in-text, author-date citations that refer to a source which has more than two authors. It is normally placed after the first author’s surname.

Experience In the IPACE model, experience concerns what a writer is bringing to a writing task in terms of their knowledge, skills and attitudes in relation to the content of the writing and the process of creating it.

Feedback Information given to a person - in writing, verbally or by other means - that gives that person information about how well they have carried out, or are carrying out, a task.

Figure In relation to visual elements accompanying text it refers to a chart, graph, drawing or photograph.

Finite verbs A verb form that changes to agree with a subject of a sentence. All proper sentences contain at least one finite verb.

Flow diagram (flow chart) A visual device employing arrows together with squares, circles, and other geometric shapes to show relationships between items. Flow diagrams are particularly effective at depicting cyclic and step-by-step processes.

Formative feedback Feedback given before a task is completed and before work is submitted for final assessment.

Freewriting Writing in an unfettered, unselfconscious fashion, usually for 5-15 minutes, without stopping.

Glossary An alphabetical list of words, abbreviations and/or symbols with their accompanying definitions. A glossary may be found near the beginning of a report or dissertation, or at the end of a book.

Grammar Grammar concerns the system of rules to describe words and their use in constructing meaningful phrases, clauses and sentences.

Grey literature Published or unpublished material of potential academic significance that may not be easy to catalogue because it does not carry full bibliographic information. Grey literature includes patents, newspaper articles and editorials, personal letters and diaries, and some technical reports from government agencies or research groups.

Histogram A histogram plots continuous data where numerical values are shown by the height of bars of equal width.

ibid. Abbreviated form of the Latin ibidem meaning ’in the same place’. It is occasionally used in in­text, author-date citations to indicate that the last given citation is being repeated.

Identity The persona that an individual uses, or aspires to use, in writing an assignment and that shapes his or her writing to meet its purpose and audience.

Learning journal (log) A diary of reflections about learning, completed regularly. It may be for personal use only or viewable by a supervisor.

Line graph This type of graph displays a relationship between two continuous variables. It shows plotted points, usually connected by a line joining all the points.

List of references This lists full details of all the references cited within the main body of a document. It is different from a bibliography, which lists all sources that have been consulted in the writing of a document.

Logbook In experimental and highly observational disciplines, such as science, engineering and archaeology, it is a diary recording briefly, often in note form, what has taken place. It may include experimental or other observations, measurements and results. Reflections and questions encourage learning from current investigations and planning for future ones.

Matrix (pl. matrices) A matrix is a table in which items or themes are identified in the headings of rows and columns. Information is placed in the cells where columns and rows intersect. Matrices are particularly useful for summarising and comparing data or themes from different viewpoints or sources.

Mind map A visual means of presenting information that encourages creative and associative thinking. It involves drawing or writing a topic in the middle of a landscape sheet of paper and connecting it by lines to linked ideas that radiate out from the centre. A similar mind map can also be drawn using mind-mapping software.

Narrative When applied to writing, refers to elements being organised into a coherent story, whether in fiction or non-fiction.

Non-finite verb A verb form that does not change to agree with a subject of a sentence.

Noun The name of a person or thing, whether concrete or abstract.

Object Where present in a sentence, it is the person or thing that is the recipient of action as determined by a verb.

Operating system The suite of software that manages a computer’s hardware to run application programs. Common operating systems for desktop and laptop computers are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Paragraph Sentences grouped together in a single block of text on a particular topic.

Paraphrase To restate someone else’s information or ideas but in your own words. It is standard academic practice and is normally accompanied by a citation to the original source.

Passive voice Refers to the construction of a sentence in which the subject is the recipient of action

(is acted upon).

Peer review The process of a document being checked and commented on by other scholars before the document is rejected, passed for publication, or considered for acceptance subject to specific changes being made.

Phrase A group of words in a sentence, which adds information but does not contain a finite verb.

Pie chart A pie chart is a circular (pie-shaped) chart. It is divided into sectors to show the relative contributions of different categories of data.

Plagiarism Presenting someone else’s information, ideas or words as your own without citing or otherwise acknowledging the source. It is unacceptable practice whether it occurs by accident or on purpose to gain an advantage.

Practical report A written account of a practical investigation, reporting on what has happened. Typically, it has a structure based on: introduction, method, results, discussion and conclusion. Writing style and structure are normally modelled on scientific research papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Preposition A short word or phrase that indicates a relationship between a noun, pronoun or phrase, and other words in a sentence.

Presentation Making a visual presentation to a group, usually with a spoken narrative. It also refers to the final visual form of a document or other communication.

Primary source In many disciplines this refers to a publication in which original information or ideas are first communicated.

Pronoun A word that stands in place of a noun.

Punctuation The use of marks in the text that serve to group or separate words and letters to give them specific meaning.

Purpose In the IPACE model, purpose concerns the intention of an assessor in setting a written assignment, the student’s intention in terms of what the intended reader will gain from the writing, and the potential benefits for the student in completing the assignment.

Qualifier A term or expression that narrows a literature search based on key words or phrases when using a search engine on the World Wide Web or within a bibliographic database.

Quote (quotation) Text taken from a source that is quoted word for word. Quotations are normally used sparingly and must adhere to certain conventions to be acceptable in academic writing.

Readability The ease with which text can be read and comprehended by a target reader.

Reference The full publication details about a source document. A reference for a book, for example, includes: author(s), date of publication, title of the publication, edition (if not first), place of publication, and publisher. References are normally placed in a list of references or a bibliography at the end of the document.

Reference management software Computer software that gathers and organises bibliographic information and manages its use for citing and referencing within a document.

Reflective writing Involves documenting a personal view, focusing on recent experience. It usually involves moving beyond mere description, to explaining and justifying what has taken place. It may include critical reflection in which a systematic attempt is made to learn from the experience, often by referring to relevant theory or good practice recommendations.

Reviewing Checking written work. Reviewing can occur at various levels of detail, from developmental editing, to copy-editing, to final proofreading.

Scan To speedily read written material, searching for specific words, phrases or other items, e.g. names, dates, definitions, quotations.

Scatter plot This type of graph displays a relationship between two continuous variables, but unlike a line graph, it plots individual data points, not aggregated ones. A line of best fit may be drawn through the scatter by hand or using appropriate software.

Secondary source In many disciplines this refers to a publication that reports on, summarises, or otherwise reviews one or more primary sources.

Sentence A group of words that has complete meaning in itself and contains a subject and a finite verb. It starts with a capital letter and usually ends with a full stop.

Skim To speedily read written material to gain an overview. It involves paying attention to summaries, headings and subheadings, visual elements, and beginning and endings at different scales, from paragraphs to the whole document.

Subject In a sentence, a person or thing that is performing or expressing the action of a verb.

Summarise To sum up someone else’s information or ideas in your own words. Summarising is shorter than paraphrasing. Like paraphrasing, summarising should be accompanied by a citation to the original source.

Summative feedback Feedback given after a task is completed and after work has been submitted for final assessment.

Thesis statement A sentence or two at or near the end of an assignment’s introduction that summarises a student’s argument and their point of view on the topic they are considering. It is a common feature of essays in social sciences, arts and the humanities but is less common in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) disciplines.

Verb A ’doing or being word’ that expresses action, feelings or state.

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