ACEDEMIC ESSAY WRITING FOR POSTGRADUATES

Unit: 01
WHAT IS "GOOD" ACEDEMIC WRITING?
As an international student at the University you probably have some concerns about your written
English. However the use of correct English is only one of the factors that acedmic staff consider when
making your work. The answer to the question " What is good acedmic Writing?" Is Writing that meets
the expectations of the audience. When you are doing a written assignment for a postgraduate degree, it
is important to keep in mind the criteria that the reader will use in marking your work.
Task 1.1
Have you written any assignments yet for your degree course? It so, what sort of comments did you get
form the reader/
assessas?
Most Master's course aganisers provide information, like that in the box below, about the criteria that will
be used in marking your work.

CRITERIA OF ASSIGNMENT
Project work takes many different forms which will be reflected in the way it is assessed.
However, the following list summarise the eight main criteria used in evaluating written work.
1. Evidence of adequate and appropriate background reading.
2. A clean statement of aims and relevant selection of content.
3. Sensible planning and Organisation.
4. Evidence of systematic thought and argument.
5. Clarity of expression.
6. Careful presentation (e.g. accurate typing and proof-reading, helpful diagrams, etc.)
7. Observation of conversation of academic discourse, including bibliographic information.
8. Observation of length requirements

Notice that only criteria 5 relates to language. Criteria 1-4 are to do with content and criteria 6-8 involves
issues of presentation.

TASK 1.2
The five extract below come form feedback given to British and international students on a project for the
course whose
Criteria are shown on the previous page. Underline the positive words or phase, and
circle the negative ones.
Criteria
EXAMPLE 1
Balanced, well argued and well presented. The summary of advantage and disadvantage
was succinct and comprehensive. We noted, however, a number of errors in the bibliography.
EXAMPLE 2
You covered a great dead of ground, although at times you needed to add definition of technical terms.
In general, a solid piece of work, weakened by poor proof- reading, spelling, bibliographical omissions,
odd spelling and punctuation. Clear attention to detail would have improved the whole impression.
EXAMPLE 3
Comprehensive, partly because it was too long. What should have been the "Introduction" occupied to
much space and
was out of balance with the rest. Extensive use of references, although it was not always clear that you
understood all the issues discussed. You seem still to have serious self- expression problem in English.
EXAMPLE 4
Superficial treatment-e.g. lack of discussion of underlying principles. Over-Simple acceptance of term
used in the literature; insufficiently criteria. You should have sought more guidance from your tutor.
EXAMPLE 5
Yours work is still hampered by difficulties of expression- many points where your arguments needs
clarifying. You tend to adopt others terms without questions them critically. A number of inconsistent in
your bibliography entries.
TASK 1.3
Decide which criteria in the list on page 3 those comments match. Write in the appropriate number (s) on
the right-hand side.
TASK 1.4
Some of the marker's criticisms seem not to match the eight criteria. What implict criteria do these
markers seem to be using in evaluating their writing.

MARKING YOUR POINTS

In this process of persuading your readers to accept your arguments, there are three main intellectual
sources you can uses:
1. Logical reasoning
2. Texts written by authoritative researches in your field.
3. Data that you garher yourself

Will be discussing the use of all three

sources in these materials.
In the case of the third source, different disciplines have different nations of What is acceptable as data:
● observation of yourself (introspection) or of other people
● Opinion of people you have interviewed.
●Finding of other researchers.
●Results of your own practical experiments.
● Non-acedemic texts (e.g. law reports)
● Professional experience and judgement.
TASK 1.5
Which of those are acceptable in your own field?

LOGICAL ARGUMENT
LANGUAGE BOX: ARGUMENT
To show reasons:
Because (of) /as/since
Given (the fact) that....
In the light of (the fact) that.....
As is shown/implied/suggested by....
Due to /owing to...

To show consequences and conclusions

If ..... then .....
Therefore/so / consequently
As a result/ consequences
Hence/ Thus (very formal; more common in science)
For this ( these) reason (s), we can say that....
This leads / points to
This suggests/ implies/ indicates/ shows / proves that....
Form this we can see |conclude| deduce that.....
It can be assumed/ inferred/ argued that....

BALANCE
One key element in a successful
assignment is balance. in two sense: physically, it refers to the distribution of information in your text;
and intellectually, these is an expectation that you will present both sides of an issue.

BALANCE IN PRESENTATION
You need to decide roughly how much space ( how many words) to allocate to the various sections of
the assignment. Sometimes, the instructions make that clear; sometimes you have to interpret what the
lecturer had in mind, as in this example, for an essay in Educational Management:
Outline the problems
Likely to arise form the introduction of large lecture classes and discuss the possible solution.

By using outline (meaning summarise) the

lecturer showed she wanted her students to write more on the second aspect (discuss) of her question.
Other words with a similar meaning to outline include sketch. List and the adverbs briefly a in brief.
If you ate unsure about the expected balance in an assignment, ask for advice form the lecturer
responsible for setting it. Otherwise you may discover too late that you have given to much space to one
element and not enough to another.

BALANCE IN ARGUMENT
The second aspect of balance in acedmic writing is that you are expected to present an "even-handed"
argument. Making a strong logical case to persuade your reader to accept your point is really only half
the picture. Effective argumentation also involves:
 1. Anticipating possible objections to your reason or evidence.
2. Showing that you have considered those objections.
3. Using counter-arguments-the process known as refutation.

TASK 1.6
The text below discuss a proposal to extend university library hours. Underline the arguments in favour of
the change and those against. Which side does the writer finally come down on?
o The students Union demands for a 24-hours library service has much to commend it. Recent increases
in average class size have led to greater pressure on library resources, both in terms of study space
available to students and of access to point materials. The parallel move in some
courses towards more self-directed learning packages has also encouraged or required, students to
make greater use of recommended reading, including electronic sources. At the same time, a number of
possible objections have been raised in perhaps the most worrying is the strain on family life caused by
increased or altered work hours, including "unsocial" hours such as weekends. Another is the
implications of the recent European directive on the 48-hour working week, which does not specifically
exempt library (or acedmic) workers form the regulations. However, it should be feasible to devise and
negotiate librarian working schedules that would bring. Edinburgh universities that have already adopted
24-hour opening.
LANGUAGE BOX:
COUNTER ARGUMENT
ANTICIPATING THE COUNTER-ARGUMENTS
Opponents/ Critics of this position (may, might, etc)
Argue that....
Another argument against X is......
It may be objected that....
One possible objection is that.....
Several questions comes to mind:....
One might ask/ wonder whether....
Certain objections must, of course, be considered......
Smythsom (1995) has recently argued.....on the ground (s) that....
It is true that.....

REFUING THEM
But.....
On the other hand....
However....
Nevertheless.....
This is merely......
While this may be true in cases where ..... It does not apply to.....
...and to strengthen a refutation you can use surely:
While this is valid for past-time staff, it surely does not apply in the case of full time workers.

TASK 1.7
Below is a students discussion of card sorting, an experimental technique in psychology. How many
counter-arguments does he mention? Does he then confirm that the technique is valid, or does he
indicates that he accepts the counter-arguments?

THE CARD -SORTING TECHNIQUE

Psychologist have used sorting- also known as direct grouping-as one of several methods to investigate
the mental lexicon. Typically, subjects are given a set of cards with words printed on them and are asked
to sort them according a similarly of meaning into as many groups as they wish. The theory behind each
experiments has depended on the preferences of the researcher. Miller (1969), for example, made the
assumption that native speakers would sort nouns according to the semantic features they share, while
ignoring their distinguishing features. However features theory is no longer as fashionable as it was when
Miller wrote his paper. It has come under attack from various quarters..... it has been criticised for its
reductionist approach to meaning, which imposes an arbitrary structure in which there is no self-evident
way of
showing which sense are more important than other. There is also no theoretical limit to the number of
features that can be identified.....Nevertheless, it seems difficult to carry out any kind of contrastive
lexical analysis without making use of some kind of semantic features.
Adapted form Hill (1992:68)

BEDORE YOU READY UNIT 2

Later un these materials we will be referring to sample essays on acedmic used of the Internet, written by
an international student at Edinburgh.
Before you start Unit 2,read the first sample essay, which you will find on page 22-25 of the Supplement
Materials, which are in a separate file.
We stress that it represents a sample, and
 not a model-in other words, it could be improved in a number of ways. Later we will be considering those
improvements.

Unit:02
WRITING THE INTRODUCTION
SHORT ESSAYS
An essay introduction will often contain these elements:
o GENERAL ORIENTATION
General statement (especially on the important of the topic)
Background information
Reference to recent developments/ previous work (specialist literature)

FOCUS ON YOUR PAPER

Content structure : aims/ thes is (main
 point or idea)

FIGURE 1. Model of an introduction to a (short) essay.

GENERAL ORIENTATION:
A common structure for the General-Orientation element in an introduction is a combination of four
elements situation-Problem-Solution-Evaluating. They may appear in a different order, a they may not all
be present look at the example below.
o Cloning (the replication of an organism by the manipulation of a single cell is no longer mere fantasy. The
idea od human cloning is not new,but until recently it was a subject for fiction rather than science. That
change in 1997,when researchers at the Roshin Institude near Edinburgh cloned dolly
the sheep, the first animal cloned from an adult cell. But even Dolly's creator professor Iam Wilmut has
serious concerns about the apparent success of cloning technology. Most animal cloning experiments
have resulted in unsuccessful implementation or abnormal foetuses of the animals that are born alive,
many die of catastrophic organ failure. There is no reason to think that cloned human babies would not
also suffer form these problems. However, Dr. Panayiotic Zavos and Dr. Severino Antonori claims that
they have developed the technical skill to begin the greatest human experiment of our age and have
announced that they will clone the first human within a year. Many people object to their intentions an
ethical as well as medical grounds.
TASK 2.1
Cas you find all four SPSE elements in that text?
TASK 2.2
Read the first page of the sample essay and then work on the questions below:
(i) Where do you think the essay introduction ends:
(ii) Analyse which element of the model each sentence represents and write in the letter next to it
(G=General statement, B=Background, etc)
(iii) Decide how the students could have improved the introduction, by omitting or adding sentences.
( There are some language mistakes in the text, but don't worry about them yet- we will come back to
their issues later).

LONGER ASSIGNMENTS
For a longer assignment, such as project a
 MSc dissertation, the introduction needs to be more substantial and more complex. One important
feature of a project- and especially a dissertation-is that you may be expected not just to discuss work
and idea already in your field, but also to present the findings for your own research, whether that is
based on reading observations, and experimentation. For that reason, the introduction needs to justify
your contribution to the field.

o STAGE 1: ORIENTATION
1a-General statements (especially on the important of the topic)
1b- Background information
1c- Reference to previous studies
STAGE 2: JUSTIFICATION
2a- Indicating a gap
2b-Questions / Problems
2c- Value of further discussion (i.e. by you)
 of the topic

STAGE 3: FOCUS ON YOUR PAPER

3a-Content : aims/ thes is
3b- structure
3c- limitations
3d- means (methods)
3e- Evaluation

Figure 2: Stages of the introduction to a project or dissertation

(Adapted from Anderson 1993)

N.B That is not a fixed model of how you must write your introduction; it shows the range of options you
have when deciding what to include. In this session and the next we will be practicing the language you
can use in the different stages.

o LANGUAGE BOX: STAGE 1-

ORIENTATION
1A- GENERAL STATEMENTS
Hunger striking has a long.... history in Ireland. The sceptical paradox is well known:......
There has been much interest recently in the concept of ...... and its relevance Research and speculation
on.... have been growing at a rapid rate......
In recent years the study of has focused on....

1b- BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Stage 1b sometimes contains essential facts about the subject-matter which the reader has to know in
order to understand the text- for example definitions or other basic information.
1c- REFERENCE TO PREVIOUS STUDENTS
Halliday (1978) has developed an elaborate framework to show that....
There is now a considerable body of research which suggests......
Most researchers in the field agree that....
Recent studies have shown that......
Much recent work ..... has indicates that....
Jones (1978) found ..... that.....

STAGE 2: JUSTIFICATION
This is an important element in the introduction, and is more substantial in project and dissertation in
essay. We will come back to it in more details in Unit 3.

LANGUAGE BOX: STAGE 3- FOCUS ON YOUR PAPER

3a- Content: aims/ central idea
My primary purpose is to....
I will discuss..... In... I shall argue that.... In this paper I will claim.....
In this paper I paper results of a pilot
study.....
These aim of this paper is to demonstrate that.....
This paper investigates/ describes.....
The object of this paper is to look critically at.....
The study attempted to explain....

3b-STRUCTURE
This paper will first.... and then .....
Having analysed .... I will go on to.....
First, brief definitions of.... Will be offered,...... Second,..... the language data and the analysis will be
presented; third, an attempt will be made....., finally

3c- LIMITATION
Since .... is beyond the scope of this study.... It is not the purpose of this study to... but rather to.....
I will not attempt here to ..... Rather than
focus upon... my intention is ......
I do not attempt to describe or compare.... instead, I seck to .....
Only the data form.... are considered here

3d-MEANS (method)
My approach is characterised by two assumption.... I have based my study on.....
The data on which the discussion is based comprises.....
The present paper uses and extends those concept and is based on.....

3e- Evaluation
....offer a possible explanation for....
The study offers new proposals.....
There is some evidence to suggest that the ...... should be widely applicable, although the problem of....
is likely to limit their use.
SUPPLEMENTARY TASK
If you have time, here are two suggestion for further activities
(1) Do study tasks 2 in the Supplementary material(page 5) it involves comparing and improving different
studies introduction to the same essay.
(2) Study the language of the opening paragraph of the first sample interest essay. Identify and connect
the mistakes- you should be able to find same in every sentence.

UNIT: 03
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SOURCES
An essential rule of the academic "game" is that you should display your knowledge of the field, showing
that you are aware of important sources relevant to your topic. In
a postgraduate essay, you need both to read and report what has been written, and also to evaluate and
criticise where appropriate ( We look at this area in more detail in Unit 4). For a Postgraduate project
including an empirical element (e.g experiment, questionnaire or survey), you also need to locate your
work within the framework of existing research.

In any assignment you must provide evidence for the argument you are making, by citing Publications in
the field. Citation includes summarising what you have read or directly quoting an appropriate extract
from a source. Whether you summarise or quote, you must acknowledge the source, by providing the
author's name and the publication details- both in your text and also in a list of References or
Bibliography, at the end of your assignment.
WHY ACKNOWLEDGE?
One answer to that question is thus: full acknowledgement is expected and required in all acedmic work-
Whether by students in course- work,or by acedmic ( lecturer and researchers) in their Publications.

TAKS 3.1
Read the University of Edinburgh advice (below) and check any unfamiliar words.

The process of referencing may seem rather complicated and arbitrary, if it is new to you, but it should
begin to make more sense as you progress through your studies here. In order to assess your work and
to give you useful feedback your markers need to have a clear sense of what ideas you have developed
for
yourself and what comes from else- where. To be fair to all of the students on the course, it is important
that each student is given grades that accurately reflect their own efforts. As you learn to produce work at
a university standard, you are developing the skills that will allow you to participate within wider
communities of scholars. In these communities, new knowledge and understanding is developed by
building on the work of others.
By properly acknowledged earlier work, you give credit where it is due and help to maintain the integrity
and credibility of acedmic research in this area. Clear referencing also allows readers to learn about the
wider literature through your work. Understanding the ways in which particular scholars have contributed
to the development of the literature makes it
much easier to make sense of the current state of play.
However, in all subjects there are certain facts which are so well-known that it is not necessary to provide
references for them in your work. This is what is known as the 'common knowledge' of this subject
area. At first it can be difficult to know what is and it is better to give references to a source if you are in
doubt.

A different answer to the question " Why acknowledged?" Is that, if you don't you commit Plagiarism.
Below is some practical guidance for university students, adapted from Andy Gillett's University of
Hertfordshire website.

Plagiarism:
is the representation of another person's work as your own. There
are three main reasons why you shouldn't do this.

1.It is not helpful:

If you plagiarise you suggest that something is your work when it isn't. This will not get you good marks.
To do well