“What is Academic Writing?”

Summary:

Academic writing is essentially writing with purpose, integrity, and in a compelling way. It is less about format (not that format isn’t important) like it was in high school and more about effective argument. When given a writing prompt it is crucial that you gather the necessary knowledge to execute your argument in a convincing way. This means knowing how to find good, reliable sources whether that be in a library or online. When you are picking a thesis you need to make sure you haven’t bite off more than you can chew. If you intend to write a three page paper you need to choose a thesis that is narrow enough to be fully and successfully covered in that length of writing. It is also important to prove your claims with evidence and not be too emotionally driven in your essay. Don’t be too opinionated without backing up that opinion with facts. Finally, it is important to constantly have an idea of what you want your audience to take away from your essay while you are writing it. 

Response: 

The main point of “What is Academic Writing?” was to differentiate high school essay writing from college essay writing. It made me realize that in college my research behind a paper is just as important as the writing itself. If I don’t know what I’m talking about I am not going to write a compelling argument. I don’t feel that I got a clear definition of academic writing; I interpreted it as more of a style (an advanced way of writing). This raises the question, is there a straightforward definition? I also felt that the styles of writing the article was recommending wasn’t much different from the way I was taught to write in high school. Is this because I took honors and accelerated English courses or did I not fully understand what the article was trying to teach me?

Something I disagreed with in the article was that it is better to get your sources from books rather than the internet. Did is recommend this because it is an older article or is there something I’m missing? I feel that you can find professional sources on the internet just as well as in books if you know where to look. 

Overall, I found the article helpful and informative. I look forward to exploring the strategies of writing it recommending over my English 130W course.