Writing in the narrow sense of the term is a graphic verbal fixation of a text.
Writing in the broad sense of the term is a system of writing means and rules of their usage.
It means that such kind of activity requires a person to have an academic literacy.
Learning Methods of Academic Writing
There is a variety of learning methods in academic writing. Sometimes writing is given as a separate skill, sometimes together with reading, and sometimes as a part of an integrated course of development of all academic skills.
Characteristics
Academic writing has a number of characteristics that are universal for any language and are characterized by the formal style of teaching. Thereby, it’s used as an academic language which is focused on the topic or issue but not on the expression of the personal opinion. The style and vocabulary are chosen strictly, but reduction, colloquial vocabulary and phraseological units aren't used.
The distinguishing features of English academic writing are the frequent use of lexical revolutions, a high degree of nominalization (actions and events presented in the form of nouns), wide use of impersonal constructions and the existence of specific norms of use of verbs tenses.
Skills Required
For successful mastering of academic writing, the following skills are required:
- research skills – the ability of people to search, recognize and read authoritative scientific sources;
- note-taking skills – the ability to find and start to write out the main information instead of copying the entire text;
- self-control – the ability to rationally allocate the time required to write a draft of the article and its editing;
- making a plan and draft of the text;
Academic Literacy
Successful development of competent academic writing is possible on condition of learning together all aspects of academic literacy, namely an academic reading, discussion and presentation, development of the ability to listen to the speaker and evaluate information.
Control in academic writing is an integral part of the learning process. It is used to check the formation of speech lexical and grammatical skills and development of communication skills of academic writing of a person to show what he or she has learned.
Creative Writing: The Rules
A special type of academic writing is the so-called creative writing. It is such kind of training when a person writes a text in a foreign language, based on his or her own imagination and life experience. Examples of the results of creative writing can be stories, essays, plays, poems, etc.
As for parts, they are introductory paragraph, body, and concluding paragraph, the observance of which is compulsory.
Introduction
The introductory paragraph usually begins with general statements by which an author introduces a topic to a reader. Its main purpose is to attract attention and arouse the curiosity of a reader, therefore, while writing it, you should clearly understand what will be your target audience, and what exactly attracts its attention. Another and probably the most important element of the introductory paragraph is the thesis sentence which carries the basic idea of the whole essay and reflects the author attitude to the topic or problem. That is why it is necessary to analyze it in detail.
Body
The body usually consists of several paragraphs, though sometimes there may be only one. This is the largest part of the essay, as it opens and substantiates the idea that was stated in the thesis. Each paragraph should be written and structured as follows: topic sentence, supporting sentence and concluding sentence.
It is essential to comply correct logical order of paragraphs and links between them. The logical order ensures compliance with the order of ideas that are set out in the thesis sentence, while a logical link is ensured by implicit and explicit logical links. They are called implicitly in case when the topic statement of the next paragraph logically continues the idea of the concluding sentence of the previous one. And the communication is called explicit in case when the topic statement of a new paragraph starts with the words and link expressions like: on the contrary, on the other hand, nevertheless, however, yet etc.
Final Part
The final part of the essay is conclusion, in which we give our final comments and evaluation of what was said in the body.