Have you ever asked yourself what is academic writing? The entirety of the scientific community is dedicated to the public dissemination of its results through the use of online forums located all over the world. They hire professional paper writers to format their texts for them. The idiosyncrasies of each language increase the likelihood that the scientist’s idea will be misunderstood or misread by other researchers.
However, this risk is proportional to the number of researchers who speak that language. Academic writing was developed to alleviate these risks by establishing a standard for the composition and editing of scientific publications across the board.
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Why you need academic writing skills
Writers in different nations express their views in a variety of unique ways, each according to the unwritten but generally acknowledged standards of rhetoric in their own country. Arabs, for example, may frequently repeat the same thought many times in their written letters. In their writing, Japanese authors seldom employ the technique of gradually dropping hints about the work’s primary subject.
The British, on the other hand, are more inclined to make a rapid and strong announcement of thought before expanding on it and supporting it in writing. This is in contrast to the American tendency. The writers of scientific journals frequently employ jargon-filled language, provide extensive explanations of their positions, and delve profoundly into the topics they cover.
Because of these characteristics, it is only natural for individuals who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds to struggle with interacting effectively with one another. The problems start with editing the content and translating it into another language, but that’s only the beginning.
Academic writing is a subject designed to help students avoid just such pitfalls. A well-organized piece of scientific writing aids the reader in both navigating the material and, more crucially, grasping the author’s central point.
To ensure comparability between research papers published in different parts of the world, it is essential that academics everywhere adhere to a standard set of guidelines.
The objective of academic writing courses is to train students to create scientific texts that are clear, convincing, and easy to navigate. In order to publish the content on a foreign platform without needless complications, the right lexical design of the text and the organization of the structure of the article is required. It will be a simple question of technique to translate an article formatted according to the standards of scholarly writing.
The importance of academic writing
Since more than half a century ago, members of the international scientific community have been expected to demonstrate proficiency in academic writing in order to have their research articles published.
Nevertheless, over the course of the past ten years, a number of efforts have been made to educate students about academic writing.
- Academic writing centers are common in research universities; these centers assist students in mastering the necessary competencies on four different levels, including fundamental academic writing skills, the writing of brief academic texts, publication in international journals, and presentation.
- The curriculums of a variety of different fields of training are currently undergoing an experiment in which classes on academic writing are being included.
- Only a select number of schools, primarily colleges and universities, offer academic writing degree programs. There has been a recent surge in the number of programs that are available to study scientific argumentation, rhetoric, and discourse. Students in higher education institutions are gradually socialized into the convention of writing in academic settings.
Benefits of Academic Writing
A significant advantage of academic writing is that it requires the writer to employ a text structure that is both lucid and well-organized. This structure has been used by the international scientific community for more than half a century.
Every piece of academic writing belongs to one of several genres, which can be identified by the following 5 purposes of academic writing:
- straightforward organization (with an introduction, primary body, and conclusion);
- citations and allusions to the works of various other authors;
- consciousness of the prospective audience;
- the clarity and precision of the statements;
- observing all of the appropriate punctuation, grammar, and spelling rules.
In academic writing, punctuation and grammar rules are adhered to very precisely since it is understood that if the reader is confused, he will not be able to understand what the author is trying to convey. In light of this, it is of the utmost importance that the problem statement is as explicit as is humanly feasible.
The difference between academic text and other genres
It is essential to differentiate academic writing from other types of writing, such as journalism, among other forms of writing. As the label suggests, writing is intended for a broad readership. The most pressing problems facing society, whether they be social, political, cultural, or any other type, are typically the focus of journalistic writing.
Negative Aspects of Journalism:
- absence of a fair and impartial evaluation;
- absence of a complete study;
- there is not a methodological nor a scientific foundation to correlate with it;
- nor is there any evidence or bibliographic reference to the sources.
The credibility of the sources used in journalism is extremely important. In spite of this, the purpose of this piece of writing is not to serve the same function as that of a scientific article. Journalists have been given the responsibility of bringing the matter to light and drawing the attention of the general public to it. These types of articles frequently take an emotional stance when discussing the problem at hand, and they substitute scientific facts in a selective manner in order to confirm the author’s position.
This approach cannot be used to write a paper in an academic setting. It would be unethical to include a piece of publicity in the list of works mentioned since there is a possibility that it lacks neutrality.
Every new piece of writing introduces its reader to fresh ideas, objectives, and challenges. And, of course, a fresh effort to locate the expression that most accurately captures the meaning of what it is that we are attempting to communicate. Regardless matter how well the textbook is written or how effectively the course is constructed, the only way to properly understand these technologies is via prolonged practice. There is no other way.
In the following post, we will discuss in greater detail the material that is presented in academic writing classes. This material will include the mechanics of writing, such as the correct construction of sentences, the appropriate utilization of commas, and the use of various other punctuation marks.
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