INTRODUCTION TO WRITING FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSE

           INTRODUCTION TO WRITING FOR      ACADEMIC PURPOSE

                                                 The Importance of Writing

writing in school Most people never consider the complexity and difficulty of the writing process. In fact, relative to all other academic activities, writing requires more basic skills than perhaps any other.

Even during their earliest handwriting exercises, children must combine complex physical and cognitive processes to render letters precisely and fluidly. As writing tasks become more difficult, students must call on an increasingly wide range of skills to not only write legibly, logically, and in an organized way but also to invoke rules of grammar and syntax. This combination of requirements makes writing the most complex and difficult use of language.

It is probably no accident that many adults have chosen jobs that limit the amount of writing they have to do. Unfortunately, children have no such luxury. From first grade on, they write nearly every day and they are asked to do more with this skill than with any other except reading. And as children progress through school, writing requirements from homework assignments and class work to note taking and tests  increase across the curriculum. Even newer high-stakes tests are moving towards requiring more answers in the form of short paragraphs and essays.

Like all learning problems, a writing disability can be devastating to a child’s education and self-esteem and can dramatically limit what that child can achieve later in life. School requirements demand a high level of writing proficiency, and a child who struggles with an unrecognized writing disability will find it increasingly difficult to express his knowledge on many subjects, as the writing process itself will stand firmly in the way of learning.

What Makes Writing So Important?

• Writing is the primary basis upon which your work, your learning, and your intellect will be judged—in college, in the workplace, and in the community.

• Writing expresses who you are as a person.

• Writing is portable and permanent. It makes your thinking visible.

• Writing helps you move easily among facts, inferences, and opinions without getting confused—and without confusing your reader.

• Writing promotes your ability to pose worthwhile questions.

• Writing fosters your ability to explain a complex position to readers, and to yourself.

• Writing helps you refine your ideas when you give others feedback.

• Writing requires that you anticipate your readers’ needs. Your ability to do so demonstrates your intellectual flexibility and maturity.

• Writing out your ideas permits you to evaluate the adequacy of your argument.

• Writing stimulates you to extend a line of thought beyond your first impressions or gut responses.  

• Writing helps you understand how truth is established in a given discipline.

• Writing equips you with the communication and thinking skills you need to participate effectively in democracy.

• Writing is an essential job skill.

How To Write In A Simple And Straightforward Manner

Simple and straightforward – that’s how all the best writing usually is.  Sure, you can dress it up with style and flair, but it needs to foster those two characteristics at the core.

Any type of writing, from class essays to magazine articles to online posts, should be simple to read and easy to understand.  At least, that’s how it should be if you want the reader to take the most that they can from it. Here are a few ways to ensure that happens.

Word Selection. The right word is always the simpler, shorter one.  For example, “explain” is about a couple of degrees less complicated than “elucidate.”  As such, use the former and save the latter for when it’s really necessary.  When faced with the option of two words, one simpler than the other, try choosing the more elementary one in the same piece about 80% of the time.  Use the more convoluted version for variation later.

Be exact in meaning. Don’t leave the audience with the option of interpreting your ideas.  Tell them exactly what you mean.

Keep it brief. Narrow down your word count, avoiding superfluous language, both in every sentence and in the whole text.  Use just enough words to communicate your message, adding no more than is necessary.

Ensure correct grammar. Proper usage always helps the communication process.  As such, put that grammar correction software to good use and guarantee that mistakes don’t get in the way.

Use the subject-verb-object sentence structure as your default. As the basic sentence form, it’s the simplest way to produce readable, easy-to-use text.  Sure, you can employ other structures to vary the way your paragraphs flow, but stick to the basic format, for the most part.

SOURCE

·         http://www.writeenglish.org/improve-english-writing/write-simple-straightforward-manner/

·         http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/learning-disabilities/types/writing/the-importance-of-writing/