Week 1 - Writing in English at University: an introduction

Writing in English at University

Lund University

Week 1 - Writing in English at University: an introduction

1] What is academic writing?

     
     First there was a short video about “what is academic writing?” and in that video Dr. Ellen Turner has introduced the basic features of an academic writing. She describes general features of writing like

General features of writing

       

      1)   Communicative writing:

         In academics it could be a fact – based arguments)

         Target audience (Identify the readers)

      2)   Objective writing: 

     

          Writer should avoid generalization in academic writings

         Writer should not bring personal opinions.

     Academic writing is a formal genre and a writer should be very conscious about this. Writing should be based on the topic. In academic writing, the topic is more important for writer and the content should be relevant to the subject.

 But the question is how can we develop our level to professional writing? 

The answers is reading text provided by university such as,

    University library resources

    Books

    Journals

    Student papers

    Degree projects

     Beginners should learn that how degree students and scholar writes. The most important thing is to learn that what is expected from you from the text and how you are writing.

2] Interpreting the task:

The second step was how a student can interpret a task and Dr. Satu Mannien has explained the process by giving such steps as below,

ü Follow teacher’s instructions

ü Understand the subject and topic

ü Focus on what is expected from the student’s text

In this part the professor has explained four guidelines.

1)   Essay type

2)   Layout

3)   Text structure

4)   Referencing Style

Essay guidelines:

§  Follow the instructions

§  What type of essay is?

§  Describe the points

§  Explain with illustrations

§  Assessment

§  Grading

       Essay guidelines or instructions can give information about how to write an essay or answer. Here are some guidelines of essay content. First and important hint is how the essay should be descriptive or argumentative? Second is about expected length of an essay. Third is about layout, which font type should be used, line spacing, margins and text justification.

      A guideline of essay structure is also important. Structure includes Separate introduction of the topic as expected or instructed by the teacher. Text levels and heading are also the important part, it includes paragraph or sections. Should they have heading and then paragraph or numbers and sections.

     Third part is guidelines of references. It includes styles like APA or MLA. It should be comfortable with text structure.

3] Writing Process:

     After understanding the concept of academic writing and the structure the main part comes which is “The Writing Process”. Dr. Cecilia Wadso-Lecaros has explained the process.

There are 3 different stages of Planning of Process writing.

Stage 1 – Pre-writing stage/ Invention stage

             i.        Define your topic

            ii.        How to approach it

           iii.        Collect material

·        Plan your writing

·        Outline your presentation

·        Use of bullet points

·        Mind map of your writing

Stage – 2 – Writing

             i.        Produce a first draft

            ii.        Add sections and aspects

           iii.        Evaluate and rethink

   Stage 3 – Rewrite

         It is all about to recognising the need of development and revision.

The last stage is creating a distance from your writing. Put the essay aside for one or two days. After a break when student will read again his/her work, there will be chances of good evaluation.

Thus the week 1 was all about basic strategies of writing with organization.