Introduction
Academic writing skill is very essential for the college students. Through academic writing, the students can express their thoughts, feelings and point of view on a certain issue or topic. In presenting ideas about variety of issues, students need to follow certain rules in writing academic essays. Academic writing is a specific type of writing that is needed in writing formal essays in a certain course. To create a well-constructed essay, it is very important for the students to use academic writing style. It has specific features which include academic tone in the essays. To achieve formality of tone, students must maintain the objectivity of their written texts. Unfortunately, some of the students tend to use personal pronouns
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This is where the writer provides ideas and arguments with corresponding analysis, interpretation and evaluation. It also requires proficiency in grammar usage which means a writer should be mindful of the rules and conventions in writing to avoid erroneous sentence structure. Consistency is one of the skills needed in academic writing by making essays free from personal feelings and biases. A clear sense of argument is very important in academic writing because in writing the thoughts of writer would be vividly expressed. One has to give ideas and perception on a certain thing in the surroundings such as real object, picture, text, artifacts, phenomena and …show more content…
This study aimed to investigate how the speaker employs personal pronouns (we, you, I) in scholastic discourse with special attention to the utilization of "you" through the analysis of the Michigan Corpus of Scholastic Communicated in English (MICASE). The result of the study was that there was only one common pronoun used which is “you”. One is a hypothetical form “if you were/are” in college students’ speeches, which demonstrates that the speaker intends to engage the audience in the talk, rather than using impersonal forms or third person. The use of third person point of view will not make it ambiguous. “You” requires a specific person for addressing to a certain person making it personal and less formal. Because of this, “you” should be avoided in academic writing. In addition, the reason why “you” is frequently used because the pronoun “you” collocates with verb such as “you get”, “You think” “you have” and etc. This stud y about personal pronoun has bearing on the present study since both deals with pronouns. The study supports the present study since both are about academic. In addition, the findings of the study will justify that using the pronoun ‘you’ will not achieve the sense of objectivity in academic writing.
Among the studies conducted, none have delved on the use of personal pronouns in achieving the preferred tone in academic writing specifically in Bukidnon
In this article written by David Bartholomae, the author discusses problems basic writers make and about how they must use the discourse (communication style) of the academic community they are writing to, to be an effective writer. Bartholomae believes that “Inventing the University," is being able to assemble and mimic the universities language(5). Which means, if a student wants to be an efficient writer, he or she must be able to speak the language of his or her audience. Bartholomae writes that a common mistake of basic writers is that they don’t use an authoritative voice, and tend to switch into a more passive voice. This could be due to the fact that students have difficulty establishing their mindset or attitude for an audience
‘Helping students meet the challenges of academic writing’ by Fernsten and Reda is an interesting study how reflective writing practices can be useful for marginalized students, who are struggling with “negative writer self-identity. The possible causes according to Fernsten & Reda are, “issues such as race, class and gender that are marginalized factors for many basic writers”, in addition to the expectations of the dominant academic culture. However, even though Fernsten & Reda illuminated the ‘potential conflicts’ within the academic world, they have failed to provide conclusive evidence that supports their argument regarding their solution. Their reliance on dated research that provides a one sided historical perspective, may no longer accurately reflect current socio/economic issues. In addition, education has been evolving to an inclusive curriculum approach, as immigrated children enter the school system in record numbers. “Persons obtaining legal permanent status in the U.S from the year 2000-2010 are roughly eleven million” (Homeland Security,pg.10/2010). Fernsten & Reda’s confidence of their own limited teaching practices without legitimate comparables from an empirical study leads to their underlying assumptions about the true effectiveness of reflective writing strategies and the causes they believe are associated to a student’s socio/economic background.
...Academic Writing. Ed. Gerald Graff. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 179-189. Print.
In his article, Thompson exposes Koppel’s evidence that women use more personal pronouns when writing than men. A group of Koppel’s computer scientists analyzed the writings of men and women by comparing them with their invented algorithm. The team found that women tend to utilize a greater number of personal pronouns than men. Often times men write about objects rather than people while women enjoy writing about people and expressing their emotions. (365). Personal pronouns such as “he”, “she”, “you”, and “they” produce personal and emotional meanings, and because women express their emotions more frequently than men, women gravitate toward the use of personal pronouns in their writing. By adding factual evidence into the article, the author places the focus of his writing on the usage of personal pronouns in women’s writing. Similar to Thompson, McWroter’s explains how the usage of pronouns should completely be gender neutral in literature (373-379). The entire article concentrates on the personal pronouns “they” and “he/she”. At first, McWhroter discusses the use of “they” as a singular pronoun although grammar experts consider it to be a plural pronoun. According to McWhroter, “they” creates a more gender neutral style in writing than “he/she”
Greene and Lidinsky declared that “by habits of mind, we mean the patterns of thought that lead you to question assumptions and opinions, explore alternative opinions, anticipate opposing arguments, compare one type of experience to another and identify the causes and consequences of ideas and events”(2012). Academic writing is making an argument in order to persuade an audience, or to change someone’s mind. Greene and Lidinsky mention analysis and how academic writers do more than just dissect sources. Writers have to continually ask questions and search for answers for these questions. Academic writing is a way to compare your sources with your beliefs and tie those two together. In the chapter Greene and Lidinsky discuss the four key habits of mind which are; inquiring, seeking and valuing complexity, understanding that academic writing is a conversation, and finally understanding that writing is a process. Inquiry means to seek or request for the truth, information, or knowledge. Inquiry in your writing means you have to observe, ask questions, and examine how there could be other options. In order to seek and value complexity you can’t just look at two perspectives, you have to consider numerous points of view. Writing in many ways is similar to having a conversation with another individual. You have to be able to concentrate carefully on the words of others and also respect what they are trying to say. Academic writing is a long and difficult process. In order to write an appealing academic essay, you have to pick a topic that interests you and you also have to devote long hours for your writing and ideas to flourish. Academic writing involves looking at multiple perspectives and taking all of them into consideration which results in your ideas becoming better. The writing process involves three main
These factors are similar to how writing styles affect your reader. No matter how great your grammar and punctuation are: poor diction, voice, and non-concise writing will ruin your credibility. Many students and writers throw these rough choices around like a jump shot in the d...
...me) frown upon the use of the informal “you” in an academic paper. You may occasionally use first person (I, me, we, etc,) but not second person (you, your) unless it is in a quote.
They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Downs, Doug. "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics." Writing About Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 520-33, 581-594. Print.
Kitzinger, C.. "Some uses of third-person reference forms in speaker self-reference."Discourse Studies 9 (): 493-525. Print.
My English 1310 course was taught by Professor Daniel Stuart. He taught us the concept of academic writing and why it is important. Academic writing is the process of down ideas, using a formal tone, deductive reasoning and third person. Writing done to carry out the requirements of a college or university on a research based level. It requires a starting point or introduction, followed by a thesis on the preferred topic, then comes proving and disproving of the evidence based arguments. Learning academic writing is important because it is a way to communicate our thoughts clearly and originality. It helps us think and see what evidence we can come up to contribute to that thinking. This course approached this idea of academic writing by
In our modern society, we have forgotten the art of writing. When we write, we think to ourselves, the longer the sentence, the more intelligent I will sound. Many may say it is by writing long sentences. But is it all that true? In this piece of writing I would like to focus on an essay written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing. In this essay he explains how and why when we write, we should keep our sentences short. he also explains why students should be assigned essays that are not determinate on other sources as evidence. I will also be comparing this to a piece written by Sarah Manguso, Ongoingness. I will be comparing these two pieces on their writing style, and their essayistic ideas. My belief is that we need
Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. 306. Print. 11 March
Academic Writing. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. N. pag. Print
I have learned many things throughout the course of the term, including such things as: how to write an essay and how to improve on essays that I have already written, how to locate and composite better research through the use of numerous resources found at the campus library, the internet, and the “Common Sense” textbook, how to cite research, examples, and quotations properly within the contents of my research paper as well as document it accurately according to MLA standards. Through the exploration of the “Subjects and Strategies” textbook, I have learned nine different methods used when writing an effective essay and how the different writing styles affect the overall theme and tone of the essay when used properly. This past semester, I have encountered many difficulties when trying to write these essays, but through the use of the textbooks, the aide of the instructor, and once I was able to classify the different types of essays and styles, I found them possible to overcome.