ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS – Part 2

A. ACADEMIC PAPER/RESEARCH PAPER

Academic writing is the formal writing style used in colleges and universities. It’s what students
are expected to produce for classes and what lecturers, students, and academic researchers use to
write scholarly materials.

WHAT IS AN ACADEMIC/RESEARCH PAPER? A research paper is an essay in which you explain

what you have learned after exploring your topic in depth. In a research paper, you include
information from sources such as books, articles, interviews, and Internet sites. You also use
your own ideas, knowledge, and opinions. Most of your paper (as a rule of thumb, at least
80%) must be in your own words.

A simple academic writing definition is hard to come by because there are many types and forms
of academic writing, produced for a variety of reasons. Different types of academic writing
include: abstract; annotated bibliography; academic journal article; book report; conference
paper; dissertation; essay; explication; literary criticism; research paper; research proposal;
textbook; and thesis. While this is not an exhaustive list of every possible form academic writing
can take, it does contain the most common types.

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS/STRUCTURE OF A RESEARCH PAPER?

1. Cover Page: Contains students’ details: Name, course name, course code, registration
number, university name, faculty, school, title of the assignment etc
2. Abstract (200 – 250 words): An abstract is a short summary of the research paper
3. Table of Content
4. Introduction: Can be two to five paragraphs long. Briefly describe the focus of the overall
paper and its main points. It highlights background information or issues necessary to
understand the direction of the paper. Finish with your thesis statement.
5. Discussion/Development: Main section of the research paper. Include direct and indirect
quotations. Follow the 20% (directly quoted) - 80% (original/paraphrased) rule.

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 6. Conclusion: Restate your thesis from the introduction in different words. Briefly
summarize each main point found in the body of the paper (1-3 sentences for each point).
Give a statement of the consequences of not embracing the position (argumentative paper
only). End with a strong clincher statement: an appropriate, meaningful final sentence
that ties the whole point of the paper together.
7. References: All documents mentioned in the paper should be included in the reference
list so that the reader is able to refer to the original sources.
Key Points on Referencing and citation (also refer to Section B below)
• If you make judgments about something in academic writing, there is an expectation
that you will support your opinion by linking it to what a published author has
previously written about the issue.
• Citing the work of other authors is central to academic writing because it shows you
have read the literature, understood the ideas, and have integrated these issues and
varying perspectives into the assignment task.
• The importance placed on referring to other authors in your work can be reflected in
the elaborate referencing conventions.
Note: Most departments in UoN have adopted APA Referencing Style

B. DOCUMENTATION SYSTEMS AND REFERENCING

WHAT ARE DOCUMENTATION SYSTEMS? Documentation systems are tools by which one participant
in an academic discipline, or field of study, acknowledges the work of another. Using one is
much more than a professional courtesy: it is a requirement.
WHY? The most obvious reason for documenting your sources is to avoid plagiarism and its
consequences. There are other reasons as well, all related to preserving the integrity of academic
inquiry, the process involved and the results produced.
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM? This is intentionally representing another person's ideas, findings,
statistics, language, sentence structure, etc. as one’s own.
Deliberate or not, plagiarism is academic dishonesty. The consequences are significant: failure
or expulsion from an academic institution for students; loss of credibility and severely damaged
reputations for professionals.

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WHAT ARE THE FORMS OF PLAGIARISM?
1. Direct Plagiarism
Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription (copy and pasting) of a section of someone
else’s work, without attribution or quotation marks. The deliberate plagiarism of someone else's
work is unethical, academically dishonest, and grounds for disciplinary actions, including
expulsion.

2. Self Plagiarism
Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes parts of
previous works, without permission from all lecturers involved. For example, it would be
unacceptable to incorporate part of a term paper you wrote in high school into a paper assigned
in a college course. Self-plagiarism also applies to submitting the same piece of work for
assignments in different classes without previous permission from both lecturers.

3. Mosaic Plagiarism
Mosaic Plagiarism occurs when a student borrows phrases from a source without using quotation
marks, or finds synonyms for the author’s language while keeping to the same general structure
and meaning of the original. Sometimes called “patch writing,” this kind of
paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is academically dishonest and punishable – even if
you footnote your source!

4. Accidental Plagiarism
Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or misquotes their
sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups of words,
and/or sentence structure without attribution. Students must learn how to cite their sources and
to take careful and accurate notes when doing research. Lack of intent does not absolve the
student of responsibility for plagiarism. Cases of accidental plagiarism are taken as seriously as
any other plagiarism and are subject to the same range of consequences as other types of
plagiarism.

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HOW SOURCES ARE DOCUMENTED? Conventions/rules for documenting source materials differ
slightly from style to style; however, both
1. in-text citation, and
2. end documentation are universal requirements/references.
They are used in conjunction with each other: First, the in-text citation flags the reader's attention
identifying the source material and second, the end documentation catalogues the bibliographic
information highlighted by the in-text citation.
Examples:
A. In-text citation
i. Direct Quotation (not more than 50 words):
• “Gambling involves betting – both legally and illegally” (Mboyah, 2017, para. 29).
• According to Mboyah (2017) “Gambling involves betting – both legally and illegally”
(p.29).
• Mboyah (2017) defines gambling as “betting – both legally and illegally” (p.29).

Paragraphs/huge chunks of information directly quoted should always be indented:

They are used in conjunction with each other: First, the in-text citation flags the reader's
attention identifying the source material and second, the end documentation catalogues
the bibliographic information highlighted by the in-text citation. Generally, all published
or copyrighted information must be documented. This means anything summarized,
paraphrased, or quoted. The same goes as well for any unpublished material. If it's not
yours you have to say so: You have to give credit where credit is due.

ii. Indirect Quotation:

Mboyah (2017) describes gambling as act that may be sanctioned by government and it generally
entails gaming, wagering, or betting. Gambling can been as an act sanctioned by government or
not and it generally entails betting (Mboyah, 2017).

B. End Documentation/Reference List/Bibliography/Sources

Mboyah, A. J. (2017). Introduction to Gambling in Kenya. Nairobi: Longhorn Publishers.

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WHAT SOURCES ARE DOCUMENTED? Generally, all published or copyrighted information must be
documented. This means anything summarized, paraphrased, or quoted. The same goes as well
for any unpublished material. If it's not yours you have to say so: You have to give credit where
credit is due.
Here are some types of information that should always be documented:
❖ Facts not widely known or debatable, especially if their veracity can be challenged in any
way.
❖ Hard evidence such as statistics, graphs, charts, diagrams, or figures unless they are
products of your own field research.
❖ Opinions, claims or assertions that illustrate a point that may be perceived as questionable
or controversial.
❖ Unique Phrasing and Terminology that does not fit your writing style, personal voice or
level of academic experience.
The types of information that need not be documented include:
❖ Information largely considered general knowledge.
❖ Information that can be found in encyclopedias, dictionaries or any of a variety of other
sources.
❖ Information derived from personal experience, observations, or field research.
TYPES OF DOCUMENTATION/CITATION STYLES
1 American Psychological Association (APA) – Preferred by UoN
2 The Modern Language Association (MLA)
3 Chicago Manual
4 Harvard Referencing style

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