Tuesday 24 June 2014

Learning about academic writing





Academic writing is one of the most complex and yet understandable English course at the University level.
Let's start by outlining the "Do's" and "Don't" of academic writing. The first thing not to do is to underestimate the module; furthermore, never try to seek work and or handouts for essay online, because plagiarism is taken seriously. Your "Do's" are very clear and seems understandable. Firstly, try to gain knowledge on critiquing an article, premises of a sentence and mostly literary devices before your classes begin.
In some universities it may be called different names, but it's all the same actually. As such, in some cases there are "Academic Writing 1" & "Academic Writing 2".
When writing your essay try to seek a credible online and or offline source for information. Using online sources maybe tricky, thus, you must look for scholarly sources that can bring out the informative and professionalism of your work.
Examples of scholarly sources:
  • Journal of Agricultural Education
  • Journal of Extension
  • Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education
  • Adult Education Quarterly
  • NACTA Journal
  • International Review of Education
  • Journal of Continuing Higher Education
  • Google Scholar

Examples of non-scholarly sources:
  • Newsweek
  • New York Times
  • Time
  • USA Today
  • Christian Science Monitor
  • National Geographic
  • Wikipedia
  • Most website 


Writing an article critique in Academic Writing
The first thing one should do when considering to critique an article is to:
Read the article very carefully to gain a primary understanding of the writer’s intention.
Re-read the article to make sense of the language, tone and purpose of the article. 
Ask yourself what else you think you should know about this article. Gain an outlook on the topic, discuss with friends if you of to and or if your allowed to do so about the topic. Build on your knowledge of what you may already know about the article.

When you’ve finish getting an understanding, the next approach is to compile information about the article by starting off with:

  • ·         introduce the name of the article/book and name of author(s)

  • ·         summarize the article/book’s main claim, goals, methods, and findings

  • ·         show how the article/book supports its claims

  • ·         indicate the main position or claim that your review will make in response to the article

  • ·         develop your critique in relation to aspects of the article/book, offering thoughtful, well-supported proof for your claim(s)
  • ·    conclude by pointing to the scholarly value (worthy or limited) of the article, suggesting particular   audiences who might benefit from the work and proposing further directions that research might take in relation to the article’s topic

N.B.  All essay writing should be done in APA six edition formatting style.


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