Academic Writing Part 2 - Academic Writing

Academic writing skills Anneke & Gustav Butler 17 September 2025 Part 2 Academic writing conventions Introductory remarks •Postgraduate research focuses on making a contribution to knowledge through convincing argumentation for a specific audience – therefore you need to present research appropriately for readers in your discipline •Postgraduate students are users of the discourses (how we present ideas and language) in specific disciplines – be aware of how academics write in your discipline •Existence of generalizable features/conventions of academic writing Questions to ask ourselves Why is language use such a crucial aspect of postgraduate studies? •Does written academic language differ from other types of language use (e.g. spoken [conversational] language)? •Does a specific set of characteristics/conventions exist for academic writing? •Are you, as an academic writer, bound by such writing conventions? Yes! Yes, this presentation will focus on the conventions Yes, if you want to be taken seriously in the academic world Why do students experience difficulty with academic writing? •Postgraduate students not always adequately prepared for the type of academic writing done at postgraduate level – have not had enough (or any?) exposure to genres/types of texts (and accompanying academic writing conventions) used at postgraduate level •No one is a mother-tongue user of academic language (academic language is another additional language that we need to learn) •Students therefore often procrastinate (put off starting to write) – do not realise that postgraduate writing is a process (a multiple draft activity) Why do students experience difficulty with academic writing? •The sheer scale •A lot of pressure •Writing is a complicated skill •Language difficulties (2nd, 3rd, 4th language) •Writing while doing your research • Don’t know where to start •Other unique circumstances … (James Hayton – YouTube) Basic conventions/features of academic writing 1. Structural features 2. Textual writing conventions 3. Argument features 4. Integration of sources (ideas) 5. Writing as a process 1. Structural features Use appropriate text structures to organise ideas •General text structure: introduction; “body”; conclusion; references •Specific formats: e.g. research proposal; academic article; dissertation; thesis Coherence (1.1) and cohesion (1.2) •Logical flow and connection between chapters, sections, paragraphs and ideas •How do we create such coherence and cohesion? 1.1) Text coherence (overall structure) Introduction (beginning) – stating key issues Body (middle part) – elaborating on key issues in separate paragraphs Conclusion (end) – draws together the main points TIP The middle part is not “Body” – takes headings from the content Examples of cohesion (golden thread) •This thesis is organised as follows. Chapter 2 presents a theoretical exposition of the concepts ‘internal control systems’ and ‘gruesome threesome’ from the available literature. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the control systems applicable to Section 21 Public Schools in Sedibeng East. In Chapter 4, an analysis and interpretation of empirical data on the effectiveness of Section 21 Public Schools in Sedibeng East is presented. The last chapter … •In the previous section Kant’s view of the faculty of the ‘will’ has been discussed. The next issue that needs to be addressed is what conditions make a will positive or negative. Examples of cohesion (golden thread) The findings also supported the fact that a small group of social workers was sympathetic towards the abused wives. In contrast, the rest of the social workers did not display clear sympathy towards the abused wives. Therefore, it is important to determine whether the sympathies of some social workers resulted in them being biased in favour of the wives. James Hayton – common solutions to common problems “Fundamentally writing is all about taking the information and knowledge that you have in your head and putting it on the page in a way that somebody else can follow.” “The problem is that writing is linear, but the knowledge in your head isn’t stored in a linear order. It’s more of a tangled mess of interconnected ideas and insights.” 2. Textual writing conventions 2.1 Formality 2.2 Conciseness and exactness 2.3 Impersonality 2.4 Nominalisation 2.5 Grammatical correctness 2.1 Formality Formal register – vocabulary shift, avoid colloquial words (e.g. dumb [ignorant]; kid [child]), slang (e.g. geaser [man]; rozz [policeman]), contractions (aren’t [are not]; can’t [cannot]) •Creating a sense of seriousness •Authoritativeness of claims •Condition of appropriateness for the academic context •Example: the use of GOOD 2.2 Conciseness and exactness To the point and exact (as economical as possible) to meet the requirement of clarity •The fact that the author believes that social justice is possible leads her to defend the claim that people should participate in their democratic systems. (25 words) oShe argues that people should participate in their democratic systems because social justice is possible. (15 words) •Avoidance of indeterminate/vague lexical items (e.g. ‘thing’), verbosity & redundancy (e.g. "a tiny little child“), emotional words (‘great!’) Examples of verbosity (Steven Pinker) • “Most importantly, there is a lot of variability in this population regarding the level of linguistic difficulty that is being exhibited …” •Children differ a lot in their language problems … • “Comprehension checks were used as exclusion criteria …” •We excluded participants who did not understand the task … 2.3 Expressing your own 'voice' in your study (impersonality?) •Historically, no place for a personal voice (‘self-mentions’) in academic writing – avoidance of 1st person pronouns (I; we; my; us; our) •Important: what is your discipline's stance on this? •What is the real function of avoiding a personal style? •Distancing oneself personally from what one writes creates an impression of being more objective Example: integration of ideas Example: integration of ideas Example: integration of ideas 5. Writing as a process •Writing is a process: your first attempt is NEVER your final attempt •Revise: you constantly revise your CONTENT •Edit: you constantly edit your language and style Conclusion •Academic discourse not to be separated from social and disciplinary context •Academic discourse varies according to disciplines •Key normative features can be identified – regulated by functional conditions •How do we accomplish this? ▪(i) what you see in your reading of your discipline ▪(ii) feedback from your study leader ▪(iii) multiple draft approach to writing Discussion and reflection on AI tools RULES •AI cannot replace the need for you to develop your own writing skills •Always review ALL AI outputs critically IDEAS •AI can, for example, give you quick feedback on your writing (e.g. grammar and structure) •AI is not good to give you feedback on disciplinespecific, nuanced content •Do not allow AI to make radical changes to your work that would change the meaning •Good for suggesting graphs, images and visuals E.g. NWU & AI tools https://services.nwu.ac.za/artificial-intelligence-ainwu/ai-hub Good luck with your academic writing!