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Introduction In many ways, academic writing is unlike any other writing, even
writing which may seem of a similar formality, such as business or legal writing.
The demands of academic writing are specific, and usually clearly defined by the
particular university department or school that will assess it. However, these
demands often seem unclear or hard to follow for many university students. At the
simplest level, the differences between academic writing and other writing are the
expectations of the academics who will assess the paper. Therefore, it is essential
for every university student to both know and practice the standard for writing
expected at their institution. This essay will give a brief description of the main
factors that contribute to a well-written university-standard essay. It will first
explain the importance of an effective essay-writing process, and suggest stages to
use in an essay’s development. Many students and researchers are still confused
about how to write good academic papers of various different kinds in English.
Academic writing must be distinguished from other formal styles of writing such as
official and business as stated by Jordan (1986 p. 18). The main characteristics of
“good academic writing” have been the focus of much debate in the general field of
writing skills, as have the significance of language discourse functions and the
important role that they play when it comes to producing “good academic writing”.
This essay will define what “academic writing” is and identify the main
characteristics of “good academic writing”. The main aim of this essay will be to
explain the importance of academic writing in universities and for students.
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Academic Writing First of all, we must define what “academic writing” is to

identify its features. Jordan (1999, p. 8) states that “academic writing” must be
written in a proper formal style. Hamp-Lyons and Poole (2006, p. 16-17) also define
“academic writing” in terms of formality. They state that academic writing is a
formal piece of paper for which credit has to be given to the writer and that the
work will contain specific grammatical patterns, organisation and argument. They
outline the formality of academic writing suggesting it comes from its readers who
must be academics. Its contents that must be a serious thought and it should be
constructed using a variety of complex grammatical structures which have no errors.
The vocabulary utilised should be varied and of a technical level appropriate to
the subject matter. This will be discussed further in Section 3. Moreover, Anderson
and Poole (2001, p. 9) focus on defining the problem in academic writing. They
assert that the first step must be to define the problem which involves determining
what is being asked in the question or the title. As mentioned before, I can
summarise that Academic writing can be defined as the way that we express our
ideas, knowledge and information clearly in terms of discussing an academic
problem. It must address a topic or title clearly. It has some characteristics that
must be addressed in the text such as accuracy, organisation, argument, coherence,
cohesion, appropriateness and referencing. These characteristics help the reader to
understand the academic problem in a crucial way by discussing many points of view
relating to it.

Characteristics of good academic writing There are many characteristics of “good

academic writing”. Many researchers such as Anderson and Poole (2001), Jordan
(1986, 1999) discuss those features in different ways. I have outlined the main
characteristics under the following sub-headings: Organisation When we talk about
organisation in academic writing, we really need to focus on a clear introduction,
body and conclusion. The progression of ideas and paragraphing must be clear and
supported with examples. We also have to present a reasonable number of alternative
points of view and to achieve a sense of argumentation. Greetham (2001, p. 182-202)
focuses on the importance of the introduction, paragraphs and conclusion that must
be clear and coherent. He thinks that the introduction is a key part in which the
writer must interpret the title or question and tell the readers the map that they
are going to follow through the piece of writing.
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He also emphasises that the paragraphs, which are in the main body of the academic
writing, must follow the map the writer outlined in the introduction. He recommends
that the writer should have a topic sentence for each paragraph which gives the
reader a brief description about what is going to follow. Regarding conclusions,
Greetham (2001 p. 197) says: “The opinions you express in the conclusion must
reflect the strength and balance of the arguments that have preceded them in the
body of the essay.” Anderson and Poole (2001, p. 17) suggest that we should have an
introduction, body and conclusion. They believe that the introduction has to begin
with an obvious statement of the problem and provide the readers with all essential
data that is to follow. Anderson and Poole (2001, p. 17) argue that the body
“should be an attempt at a progressive solution to the problem stated in the
introduction”. They believe that the conclusion should present the results of the
investigation and provide a solution to the problem that has been set. Furthermore,
the conclusion can be used to suggest further areas of investigation. Task
achievement In academic writing, your work must be directly relevant to the title.
You have to approach the task in a direct and efficient way. The development of the
argument must be relevant, accurate and appropriate. Davies (2008) believes that
successful academic writing must address a topic or title clearly. He suggests that
writers must be careful what information they include in the essay noting that
“interesting information” may not necessarily be orientated towards the question
that is being asked. When doing a final review of your work, it is important to
focus on the relationships between the ideas that have been discussed. Accuracy In
accuracy, we have to have high standards of grammar, word choice, vocabulary,
spelling and punctuation. Jordan (1986, pp. 10-18) also provides many examples and
exercises that reveal the importance of grammar, vocabulary, spelling and
punctuation. The misuse of tenses changes the meaning and spelling mistakes causes
confusion. I do not think it is the reader’s job to guess what words the writer
chose. He also distinguishes the differences between some verbs lead to confusion
such as ‘lend’ and ‘borrow’, ‘rise’, ‘arise’, ‘raise’ and ‘increase’, ‘make’ and
‘do’ and ‘say’ and ‘tell’ as a part of taking care of word choice and the use of
words. Coherence and cohesion In an academic context, it is necessary to have good
use of linking words to join the ideas within and between sentences and paragraphs,
and an excellent usage of ‘signposting words’ to show the development of your
argument. This is called cohesion. Defining coherence, Carter (1999, p.245) states
“A is perceived as coherent when it makes consistent sense, with or without the
help of devices of “. He defines cohesion as “the
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demonstrable pattern of the‘s integrity, the marks of its ‘hanging together’”. In

other words, coherence implies that the text must make sense and cohesion means
that it must be appropriately structured and interlinked by suitable signposts and
linking words. For instance, ‘In the next section we will…’ and ‘As we have argued
previously…’ are good examples of signposts. Linking words include ‘moreover’,
‘however’, ‘therefore’ and many others.

Appropriateness and referencing The language must be appropriate to the given topic
within an academic context. The writers have to make appropriate use of source
texts and of direct and indirect quotations too. They also have to provide adequate
references and/or bibliography details. Jordan (1986, p. 18) points out the most
important features in academic writing. He outlines them as follows stating that
written academic English rarely contains the following: Contractions: ( I do not
agree…..) would be used instead of ( I don’t agree…); (I am trying..) instead of
( I’m trying…).

Importance of Academic Writing in Education The web page:

(http://www.papersunlimited.biz/importance-academic-writing/), pointed out that
“Academic writing is one of the most dreaded academic activities that students
inevitably come across. Academic writing is no way an easy task as it consists of
lengthy procedures of conducting thorough research and the ability to write
skillfully. Most of the students either lack sufficient writing skills or they fear
criticism from their professors once they complete their papers. In either way
academic writing is something that cannot be avoided as far as a student is a part
of academia. Academic writing is indeed vital for growth and enhancement of
important skills to be able to lead a successful life after the completion of
studies. This section highlights some of the important aspects of academic writing
that are vital for growth and to be able to lead a successful life. Read below to
learn more about the importance of academic writing. Critical Thinking Skills When
a student is involved writing academic papers he/she is not limited to just
providing information. The procedure of academic writing also consists of
conducting thorough research and identification of relevant and irrelevant
information. In the process a student has to identify what is relevant and what is
not with ample evidence to prove or disprove the claims made. This process enhances
intellectual capacity and enables students to think critically on a number of
problems. Moreover, it allows students to look into a problem from
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various dimensions and come up with appropriate solutions relevant to the situation
discussed in the term paper, research paper or an essay. The positive impact of the
writing process cannot be over-emphasised. In particular, a most vital stage is
that of planning. As the next section describes, good essays need clear structure.
In order to ensure that a clear structure is used, the student needs to take time
to organise all of the information, known or researched, about the topic into a
logical order. The planning stage allows this to happen. Further, without the
stages of drafting and editing, even the best planned and structured essay can
remain untidy, unclear and full of mistakes that will badly affect the eventual
grade. However much the student edits on computer while going through the paper a
final proof read can make significant improvements. Increases Knowledge During high
school, college or University studies students come across a number of subjects and
courses from different academic disciplines to write academic papers. This varying
aspect helps increase knowledge in many other academic disciplines. It broadens a
student's horizon and enables him/her to write on any given academic topic.”
“Prepares you for the Future Academic writing assignments prepare you for the
future to take on more challenging projects requiring analytical skills. When you
enter the real practical world you become accustomed to take on complex challenges.
Academic essay writing helps you solve various problems. It allows you to see a
problem with different dimensions. Intellectual Growth Academic writing develops
your mental faculties. It sharpens your observational and analytical skills. It
helps you identify what is relevant and what is not. It sharpens your memory and
helps you remember things easily. Improves Writing Skills When you are involved in
academic essay writing your language improves. You become good at making research
on numerous topics from a number of academic disciplines. Intellectual Capacity
Academic writing facilitates intellectual growth. When you get a term paper to
write you get involved in an in-depth analysis of a particular topic to be able to
present something rational and relevant as to make it debatable and argumentative
among the audience. This exercise increases your intellectual capacity thus making
you ready for more complicated future assignments. Research making Skills
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Academic writing allows you to sharpen up your research making skills. Obviously,
when writing term papers and research papers you just do not go on to write
anything. To be able to write effectively you need to engage in thorough research
of the topic. Once you have the information you need to skim through it to identify
what is relevant and what is not. Time Management When you have to write an
academic writing paper you have a deadline to submit it. You just cannot complete
it anytime you want to else you may flunk in the course. In the process academic
writing allows you to manage your time according to the priority. You learn to
manage time as you have other important tasks to fulfill.

After reading this article you must not underestimate the benefits of academic
writing. Rather, embrace it to make yourself prone to stiffer challenges of life
ahead. Adds to your Knowledge Every time you write an academic paper you learn
something new. You learn to have various perspectives on a particular argument or
object. Academic writing increases your knowledge. It gives you an opportunity to
be innovative and come up with ideas that did not exist before. So from now on take
academic essay writing assignments more seriously if you really want to achieve
something fruitful in your future career. If you are not good at academic writing
aim to improve it with hard work and dedication as it is going to benefit only you
in your future.”
(http://www.onlineessayspro.com/essays/ImportanceOfWritingEssays.html)

According to the web page

(http://researchwriting4u.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/importanceof-academic-writing-
in-education/) says that “The time you get an academic essay writing assignment
your mind goes haywire. You become confused and worried whether you will be able to
complete an academic writing assignment. Every student you meet and ask what you
hate the most in the world and the answer will be academic writing. Students do not
realize the importance of academic writing. They do not realize how it can have an
impact on their academic career. There is no use avoiding writing academic papers
or an essay as it has to be done throughout the academic career. A student begins
academic writing with simple essays and as he/she progresses to the higher academic
levels academic essay writing becomes difficult with times. It basically depends on
your intellectual growth. When you reach a higher academic level your professors
expect you to be developed mentally to take on more challenging academic essay
writing assignments. One might question the feasibility of a student watching a
fruitful academic work. Nevertheless, if a goal of academic writing is the
education, the students play an important role in the evaluation of literature
produced by their professors. In this context, a measure of academic writing is the
ability to give a balanced description of a particular case to provide.
7

Secondly, academic writing is useful for students as it articulates coherent

theoretical explanation beyond the immediate case study that some future
applicability for the reader to have. Finally, a good academic writing is an
example of a level of accuracy for students to strive for in their own work.
Whereas the academic writing it is useful to scholars workplace writing is
important in the place of work or the jobs and helps the professionals to write
resumes, memos, reports that will be persuasive and usable for the intended group
of people. Two important concepts are applied in this kind of thesis writing: a.
The first is the rhetorical consciousness. This concept takes into considerations
the fact that the workplace written to convince the intended party and it follows
that the rhetorical situations should be considered. These situations are
rhetorical purpose of the writing of the audience, interested parties are affected
and the context in which the background situation to take.

b. The other concept employed in writing the work reports the use of user-centered
design. This concept provides the following: the treatment of the public attention
of the readers on the basis of their expectations, their characteristics and
whether they have a direct influence on the decisions to be made to have the goals
that the readers are focused on what to which includes a clear picture for readers
and finally the context of the readers.”

Important aspects of successful written assignments at university “This section is

concerned with academic writing, which is a specific type of writing with its own
rules and conventions. Unlike informal letters, notes and personal journals,
academic writing is not modelled on everyday speech, but has a particular language
style. Academics write in full grammatical sentences and express ideas in a concise
and clear way. They concentrate on relating concepts or main ideas to each other
rather than describing things in particular detail. One of the most important
aspects of successful written assignments at university is analysing questions, or
the ability to understand what the assignment question asks you to do. This applies
to all assessment tasks, but particularly to academic writing tasks such as essay
writing and report writing. Each of these writing tasks follows particular rules,
but paragraph structure is important to all of them, as clearly structured
paragraphs can help you develop clear arguments and descriptions. Another important
aspect of academic writing is critical analysis. The usual way to satisfy the
requirement of critical thinking is to look at what different academics have said
about an issue and then decide who you agree with. Because you discuss other
people's ideas and
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arguments, you need to indicate where you got those ideas from, which is why a good
understanding of referencing and plagiarism is very important to academic writing.
Academic writing is indeed very difficult and boring. The amount of time you put in
to write a quality academic writing paper is too much. You go through the rigors of
making research, analysis of material found and lastly writing without making
errors. Such a long process is something that many students hate to get involved in
but they do not realize it all pays off richly at the end. Be it your personal life
or professional life academic writing reaps seeds of rational thinking and decision
making ability. This article provides some useful information on the importance of
academic writing.” (http://www.usq.edu.au/learningcentre/alsonline/acwrite) Keys to
Effective Academic Writing “There are a variety of factors that contribute to
quality academic writing. It is important that you understand how to write for
academic purposes as there are different types of writing and not all writing
styles are sufficient or appropriate for certain audiences. There are a few keys to
writing for academic journals that should be recognized: First, it is important for
you to remember that academic writing is very formal. It is not the same as writing
a short story or poetry. Understanding this will allow you, as the writer, to make
sure that the tone of the written piece is very professional and free from the use
of clichés, jokes or personal anecdotes. Second, academic journal writing is
analyzed for its writing quality. It is very important that you take the time to
make sure that such aspects as spelling, grammar and format are correct. Academic
pieces that have a numerous errors will not be taken seriously. Third, effective
academic journal writing should always be supported by citations and references.
Correctly citing your sources is extremely important when writing for academic
purposes as it shows that the proper credit is given to the individuals that were
used throughout your academic piece for support of subject matter.”
(http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/effective-academic-
journalwriting.html)
9

Conclusion: The goal of academic writing is to inform an audience about a

particular topic in a very professional manner. Effective academic journal writing
does involve clearly stating your purpose and presenting your information in a
manner that is simplistic enough for others to read and understand while still
having the tone of an academic piece. It is very important you are able to present
your ideas clearly when writing an academic piece. Academic writing should be
concise, without being completely stripped of the necessary facts that are needed
to support your topic. Take the time to review your academic pieces prior to
submission in order to ensure that the content is valid and informative and that
the topic is properly supported by other sources in the correct manner. In academic
writing, students are, in the majority of circumstances, asked to present their
ideas in the form of an essay, a text possessing a clearly definable "outer shape"
with equally identifiable "inner parts". From the outside, an essay appears to
possess three distinct parts, namely a beginning, middle, and an end, which we
refer to in academic terms as the introduction, body, and conclusion. Within the
essay, each of these parts performs a specific function. In summary, importance of
academic writing is to increase knowledge for the student and prepare them to the
future challenge and it helps to improve your writing skills. Knowing the academic
writing structure you are able to write effectively and up to avoid Plagiarism.
10

Bibliographic References JORDAN, R.R., 1986. Academic Writing Course. Collins,

London. GREETHAM, B., 2001. How to write better essays. Palgrave, Basingstoke.
ANDERSON, J., Poole, M., 2001. Assignment and thesis writing. Wiley & Sons
Australia, Milton. DAVIES, B., 2008. Academic Essay Writing: Some Guidelines. The
University of Edinburgh http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/study/undergrad/essays/ (accessed
7.12.09). http://www.articlesbase.com/self-publishing-articles/academic-writing-
importance-inpresent-generation-5838869.html
http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/3101/mod_book/chapter/1783/
Linear_essay_flow _chart_and_notes.pdf http://academic.ezinemark.com/importance-of-
academic-writing-16cba1fa67c.html http://www.a2zessays.com/articles/Academic-
Writing-Importance.html http://www.ideamarketers.com/?
Academic_Writing_Help&articleid=1719334
http://researchwriting4u.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/importance-of-academic-writing-
ineducation/ http://www.papersunlimited.biz/importance-academic-writing/
http://www.onlineessayspro.com/essays/ImportanceOfWritingEssays.html
Índex
Introduction ......................................................................
.......................................................... 1 Academic
Writing ...........................................................................
........................................... 2 Characteristics of good academic
writing ...........................................................................
....... 2 Importance of Academic Writing in
Education .........................................................................
4 Important aspects of successful written assignments at
university ............................................ 7 Keys to Effective
Academic
Writing ...........................................................................
.............. 8
Conclusion: .......................................................................
......................................................... 9 Bibliographic
References ........................................................................
................................. 10
Tomé Manejo Mero

The importance of academic writing

Universidade Pedagógica Chimoio 2012

Tomé Manejo Mero

The importance of academic writing

Faculdade de ciências de linguagem comunicação e arte Delegação de Manica Essay

writing of study skills 2 dr. Milton Coqui

Universidade Pedagógica Chimoio 2012