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Introduction
(Narrator) / In this series of podcasts, I will be giving advice on aspects of academic writing which may be useful particularly to those who are writing a thesis or a dissertation.
I will provide some background information about academic writing and then look at each section of an academic paper, outlining the features and rhetorical patterns of each section. That is to say, I will make observations about the style, the content and the organization of information in each section.
A thesis or dissertation normally includes the following sections: an abstract; an introduction; a literature review; a methodology section; the results; a discussion section and a conclusion. Each of these sections has characteristics which I will identify and exemplify in separate podcasts.
It is advisable to download the additional written and graphical materials which accompany this series of podcasts from . You can then follow the examples and written guidance while you listen.
Before we start looking at the individual sections of an academic paper, I will first talk about the features of academic writing that can be found in all of the sections. John Swales, an eminentapplied linguistics researcher, identified some important considerations when writing for academic purposes.
Firstly, a writer has to take into accountthe audience of the work. This is normally one or more instructor or professor who will judge your work, and may be anyone who subsequently reads the research if it is published. It is your primary role to demonstrate your intelligence, knowledge and understanding of your field of study in order to prove to your assessor that you have read the relevant research, understood it, found a niche for your own research, applied the theory in your own study, and have interpreted the results in a way that is acceptable to your peers, leading to justifiable and accurate conclusions.
Secondly, the purpose and the strategy of writing are strongly connected to the idea of ‘audience’. If the writer knows more about the subject than the reader, the purpose is instructional; whereas if the reader, for example, an advisor or professor, knows more about the subject than the writer, the purpose would be to impress the reader by displaying knowledge and intelligence. The latter is normally the situation for graduate writers.
Another important consideration is how to organize the information that you wish to present. The overall pattern should bedeductive. This means that a paragraph or section opens with a thesis statement, often called a topic sentence. The thesis statement identifies the overall topic of the paragraph or section, and usually contains a controlling or limiting factor which determines and constrains the content of the paragraph.There then follows more specific detail in the form of points and examples that support the thesis statement.This lends support to the claim made in the thesis statement, and may lead to the conclusion that the claim is justified.
For example, the thesis statement ‘‘Mangroves contain a wide variety of flora and fauna which is threatened by industrial and agricultural practices” contains two important parts.The first part is the general topic ‘mangroves’, but the paragraph does not contain everything the writer knows about mangroves because the second part, the controlling idea, limits the content of the paragraph to a discussion of the ways in which flora and fauna are threatened, or damaged, by industrial and agricultural practices. The detail which follows the topic sentence should convince the reader that the thesis statement is correct. The pattern is therefore both deductive and ‘general to specific’.
The style of your writing is also very important. When writing for academic purposes, it is important to give the right impression to the reader. A writer wants to be taken seriously, so it is necessary to write in a style which would encourage that.
Which of the following two sentences do you think makes the research sound more serious and believable?
Example 1: “I did a few experiments in test tubes last week to find out whether the reaction could be made quicker”
Example 2:“To test the effect of the catalyst on the reaction time, the experiments were conducted in vitro”
The second example obviously sounds more scientific and credible than the first. This is because of four factors: firstly, the subject of a sentence represents its focus. While the focus of the first sentence is on the researcher, the focus of the second sentence is on the experiment; secondly, the use of passive voice distances the researcher from the research, making it sound more scientific and less personal; thirdly, the words that are used are more ‘serious’ and technical and assume background knowledge on the part of the reader; and fourthly, the subordinate clause is placed before the main clause todraw attention to the reason why the experiment was conducted rather thanwhatwas done. This demonstrates that the experiment was planned and logical and hada particular purpose, thus giving the research more credibility.
The next important consideration is ‘flow’. A reader should be able to follow the process adopted by the researcher and be able to replicate the research. Consequently, there must be cohesion and connection in the presentation of data and ideas. If you download the supplementary materials you can see an example of a paragraph that lacks cohesion and one that includes the grammatical features which better show the relationships between ideas.
The last feature is presentation. Your work must be presented in a way that is acceptable to the academic community. There are established guidelines about format and layout which are usually provided by academic institutions. In addition, it is essential that you check your work for grammatical errors and spelling errors because failure to do this will have a very negative effect on the impact your research may have on a reader. It would also have a negative impact on your grade if the reader is judging your work.
By employing the features mentioned above, a writer can successfully position him or herself as a junior member of the academic field in which they study.
The features I have introduced in this podcast will all be discussed in greater detail in other podcasts in this series.
This podcast is brought to you free of charge by Dhurakij Pundit University International College. Please visit our website at for more information, tape scripts, supporting materials and other downloads.
The words and phrases highlighted in yellow are defined in the glossary below
Supplementary Materials
Glossary
rhetorical patterns (noun phrase): the way in which information is presented in terms of order and organization.
Example 1: a ‘compare and contrast’ paragraph begins with a thesis statement that identifies the two things that are being compared. There then follows observations about each of the two things, usually point-by-point, where comparison is made with the use of comparative conjunctions and comparative adjectives or superlatives. The paragraph is then summarized with a concluding line.
Example 2: a business letter is headed with contact information and the date. There then follows a greeting; the identification of the general topic; a reference to previous correspondence; details about the topic; a suggested course of action and finally, a closing statement.
Exemplify (verb): to provide examples
Eminent (adj):a very important and respected person in a particular field
applied linguistics (noun phrase): the application of theory in real-world situations normally in the field of language learning, but also in anthropology, sociology and education.
a (research) niche (noun phrase): an area of research which has received little or no attention before, where the researcher can add to the existing accumulated knowledge of a field of study.
Instructional (adj.): for teaching purposes
Deductive (adj.): a style of writing which is characterized by the following, in the following order:
a)A hypothesis, assertion or claim
b)Datasupporting the claim
c)A conclusion demonstrating that the initial claim is justified (or not justified)
Credible (adj.): believable
subordinate clause (noun phrase): a grammatical feature ; the ‘less important’ clause in a complex sentence that does not have independent meaning; a clause that needs a ‘main clause’ to be complete.
e.g. Because it was raining this morning, I took a bus to work.
(subordinate clause) (main clause)
(No independent meaning ) (independent meaning)
to replicate: to do again; to repeat
cohesion: this relates to the flow of writing where ideas are connected by grammatical devices such as ordinal adverbs, adverbs of frequency, markers that show relationships between ideas and so on. See the example below.
Features of a topic sentence
‘‘Mangroves contain a wide variety of flora and fauna which is threatened by industrial and agricultural practices”
Mangroves contain + a wide variety of flora and fauna + which is threatened…
Subject (noun phrase) + verb + object + greater detail (clause)
General specific
Noun Phrase + transitive verb + detail + controlling idea
Style
Spoken style:
“I did a few experiments in test tubes last week to find out whether the reaction could be made quicker”
I + did + a few experiments last week + to find out…
Personal pronoun + informal spoken English + vague, not very scientific + non-scientific word choice
The focus is on the researcher not the research (‘I did ’)
The main clause is in initial position.
Academic style
“To test the effect of the catalyst on the reaction time, the experiments were conducted in vitro”
Subordinate clause first (scientific word choices) + noun phrase + passive verb + academic word choices
(Stating the reason for this approach) (The focus is on the experiment and the reason)
A paragraph without cohesion
Punctuality is essential. An employee needs to demonstrate his or her reliability to the employers. An employee is expected to follow the office rules .All employees are seen to be treated equally. Any offensive or inappropriate behaviourshould be limited. Working efficiently and doing work on-time is also important if an employee wants to be promoted. An employee should also make sure that his or her appearance meets the office requirements.
The same paragraph with cohesion
Research has shown that there are many important factors which affect success at work[U1]. Firstly[U2], punctuality is essential because[U3]an employee needs to demonstrate his or her reliability to the employers. Secondly, an employee is expected to follow the office rules so that all employees are seen to be treated equally and so that any offensive or inappropriate behaviour can be limited. In addition, working efficiently and doing you work on time is also important if an employee wants to be promoted. Furthermore, an employee should make sure that his or her appearance meets the office requirements[U4]. In summary, all of these factors can help an employee to progress[U5].
[U1]The topic sentence established the topic and the focus of the paragraph.
[U2]Ordinal and other adverbs signal the points in a logical order
[U3]Adverbial clause markers indicate the relationships between points
[U4]All of the points and examples in the body of the paragraph support the claim made in the topic sentence. They are relevant and presented in a logical order. i.e. chronological or in order of importance
[U5]A concluding line serves to summarize the main points and support (or refute) the claim made in the topic sentence.