Academic writing

Academic writing is a skill that very important and useful for us, especially for students in senior high schools, in skill education institutes or courses, and of course for students at universities. Academic writing is designed for everyone who is studying or takes studying in senior high school moreover at university (Bailey, 2003). As a student at university of course we have to know about the elements in academic writing and processes in academic writing before we do our academic work.

The elements of writing are the various skills that we need in many types of academic writing such us in short report, in essay, or in dissertation (Bailey, 2003). These are some of the elements in academic writing the first is cause and effect. In causes we give our reasons and in the effects we give the results, in cause and effect there are also called block organization and chain organization which in block organization is needed a transition paragraph to make causes and effects and then for chain organization the causes and effects are linked each other in a chain (Oshima & Hogue, 2006). Then unity and coherence are important also in the element of writing, unity means that all of ideas to a single topic have to relate to the thesis statement as like as with the supporting ideas that have to relate with the topic sentence also and then for coherence is related to the unity (Zemach & Rumisek, 2005). Besides unity and coherence, there is called for a comparison or contrast essays also. “In a comparison/contrast essay, you can explain the similarities and the differences between two items. Comparison and contrast is a very common pattern in most academic fields” (Oshima & Hogue, 2006, p.111). The last is references, today many styles in referencing had developed in the world, currently there are four main styles of referencing in academic article such us the APA style, the modern languages association (MLA) style, the institute of electronic and electrical engineers (IEEE) style, and the vancouver style but in generality the primary function of reference is to avoid the plagiarism (Hartley, 2008).

After we have known about the elements in academic writing, then let’s start the writing process. The first is prewriting. In prewriting there are five techniques that can help us in do the writing process, such us freewriting, questioning, making a list, and clustering then there is also called writing a first draft, when we write it we ought to make an additional thoughts and details that did not appear before in prewriting and in this part don’t spend your time to make a correction, then after it let’s do the revising, revising means rewriting an essay, building on what has already been done, to make it stronger, the next is make an editing, in editing part we have to check and repair the errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling, so we must work carefully in editing part. Now you have done the writing process from prewriting till editing then the last is you can review your activity (Langan, 2011).

Certainly, we realize that what the high school writing teachers taught for us will be useful to improve our academic writing at universities (Gocsick, 2004). And thereby, we can conclude that we have to learn absolutely about academic writing especially learning the element and process of academic writing because academic writing is important for us as a student to do our obligation in university such us to make a thesis or a simple paper from our lecturer.

References

Bailey, S. (2003). Academic writing a practical guide for students. Retrieved from   http://www.4shared.com/document/kVTZJFQU/Bailey_S-Academic_Writing_A_.htm

Dartmouth College. (2004). Writing for college. Retrieved from http://darthmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/what.shtml

Hartley, J. (2008). Academic writing and publishing a practical handbook. Retrieved from http://www.4shared.com/document/A6K0sRUZ/Hartley_James_-Academic_Writi.htm

Langan, J. (2011). College writing skills with readings eighth edition. New York: Mcgraw-hill companies.

Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing academic English fourth edition. USA: Pearson

Zemach, E. D., & Rumzeck L.A. (2005). Academic writing  from  paragraph to essay. Oxford: Macmillan education.