Advice on academic writing

1. Advice on academic writing
University of Toronto- Writing courses.
I.S.F.D N°41
Oral and Written expression 4
Stella Maria , Saubidet Oyhamburu
Manuela, Sierra Devita
May, 2020

2. INDEX
General………………………………… 3
Planning and Organizing…..…………. 4
Reading and Researching……………..9
Using Sources…………………………..11
Specific Types of Writing……...……….12
Revising and Editing………………..…..16.
English as a Second Language…....….20
Bibliography………………………………21

3. General
Organization Should be designed to
present you argument clearly and
persuasively
An essay should have an
argument and a topic
Should answer few related
questions.
It should try to prove something
by reasoning and evidence,
including apt examples and
confirming citations from any
particular source or text

4. Planning and organizing
Organizing an essay.
The best to time to organize your paper is during the pre-writing stages.
When you begin planning, ask the following questions:
1- What type of essay am I going to be writing?
2- Does it belong to a specific genre?
You can avoid one of the most common pitfalls by remembering this simple structure:
The structure of an essay should not be determinated by the structure of its source
material . You need to do some research and weighing of evidence before you start
to plan.
PLANNING AND ORGANIZING

5. .
Reverse Outlines: Read through you essay and every time you make a new
point summarize it in the marging. If the essay is well organized, you should
have one point in the margin for each paragraph.
Some techniques for integrating note taking and planning.
Method 1 : Index cards
When you are researching, write down every idea,fact, quotation, or phrase on a
seperate indexcard. When you have collected all your cards, rushuffle them into the
best possible order and you have an outline.
Method 2: The computer.
A different way of moving your notes around is to use the computer.Then sort your
ideas when you are ready to start planning
Method 3: The circle
The advantage of this method is that you can see at a glance how things tie together
the disadvantage is that there is a limit to how much material you can cram on the
page.

6. ◊ Doesn't live you enough
time to write and revise.
◊ Leads you to produce
papers that lack of
spontaneity and ease.
◊ Does not provide enough
opportunity to discover new
ideas in the process of writing
Helps to produce :
◊ a logical and orderly
argument that your readers can
follow.
◊ An economical paper by
allowing you to spot repetition.
◊ A trough paper by making
easier for you to notice whether
you have anything out.
◊ Makes drafting the paper
easier by following you to
concentrate on writing issues
such a as grammar, words
choice , and clarity
Overplanning poses
the following risks

7. .
A thesis statement must give three points of support. It should
indicate that the essay will explain and give evidence for its
assertion, but points don't need to come in any specific number
Using thesis statements
Every paper requires one.
.
A thesis statement must come at the
end of the first paragraph but some
thesis can be stated in the opening
sentences of an essay.
A complex argument may require a whole
tightly-knit paragraph to make its initial
statement of position.
You can’t start writing an essay until
you have a perfect thesis statement

8. Introduction and conclusion:
A good introduction should identify your topic , provide essential context, and
indicate your particular focus in the essay. It also needs to engage your
readers´ interest.
A strong conclusion will provide a sense of closure to the essay while again
placing your concepts in a some what wider context. It also in some
instances, add a stimulus to further thought.
Paragraphs:
A paragraph is a series of related sentences developing a central idea, the topic.
Techniques for expanding on topic sentences an developing your ideas in a
paragraph:
1-The definition of a paragraph.
2- The analysis of classification paragraph.
3-A comparison or a contrast paragraph.
4-A qualification paragraph
5-The process paragraph.
6- To show connections .

9. .
 Critical reading toward critical reading.
To read critically is to make judgement about how a text is argued . Do read
looking for ways of thinking about the subject matter.
◊ First determine the central purpose of the text.
◊ Begin to make some judgments about the context.
◊ Distinguish the kinds of reasoning the text employs.
◊ Examine the evidence
◊ Critical reading may involve evaluation.
Some practical tips :
◊ Textbooks: Be aware of the structure of the text as you read: The Chapter
titles, headings, and subheadings will name concepts concepts to be
covered.
◊ Primary sources : A quick review of the work will then led note how
techniques have developed trough the work as whole or how your questions
were answered.
◊ Research reading: You are looking for facts to support or modify your
original view of the topic.
Reading and researching

10. 1- know what kind of ideas you need to record: focus your approach to the topic before
you start detailed research. Then you will read with a purpose in mind and you will be
able to sort out relevant ideas.
2- Don't write too much. Compress ideas in your own words.
3- Label your notes intelligently.
Dealing with new words.
A key point is that you don't need to interrupt your reading to look up every word in the
dictionary. First try to :
◊ Sound it put. You might recognize the word when you hear it
◊ Look at the context.
◊ Check the dictionary if you can’t understand what are you reading after using de
above steps.
◊ Reinforce your understanding by writing a usable brief definition in the margin of your
reading
Previewing: Read the title, think about the subject matter and also the audience, look
up information related to the author.
Skimming and Scanning: By skimming a text you can get sense of its overall
logical progression. Scanning is basically skimming with a more tightly focused purpose,
skimming to locate a particular fact or figure.
Summarizing a text is a useful study tool as well as good writing.
Taking notes from research reading:

11. Using sources
How not to plagiarize
◊ Its against the rules to buy essays or copy chunks from your friend´s
homework, and its also plagiarism to borrow passages from books , articles or
web sites without them.
◊ Standard documentation formats
Different disciples use their own systems to set out information about sources.
◊ Quotations
Come from somewhere and your reader will want to know where. Consider a
quoting passage from one of you sources if: The language of the passage is
particularly elegant, the passage is worthy of further analysis or if you wish
argue with someone´s else position in considerable detail.
◊ Paraphrase and summary.
To paraphrase means to restate someone else’s ideas in your own
language at the same level of detail. To summarize means to reduce
the most essential point of someone else’s work into a shorter one

12. Specific types of writing
◊ The book review or article critique:
Comments on and evaluates the work in the light of the specific issues and
theorical concerns in a course.
◊ Annotated bibliography:
Gives an account of the research that has been done on a given topic.
◊ The abstract:
Abstract are important because the give the first impression of the document
that follows, letting readers decide whether to continue reading and showing
them what to look for if they do. An abstract should represent as much as
possible of the quantitative and qualitative information in the document and
also reflect its reasoning
◊ The comparative essay : asks that you compare at least two or more
items. These items will depend on the assignments.

13. Writing about history:
Ask good historical question.
Tell how its interpretation connect to previous work by other historians
Offers a well organized and persuasive thesis of its own
Writing about literature:
◊ Avoid plot summary
◊ Master the art of analytical thesis
◊ Let the structure of your argument determine the structure of your paper.
◊ Opt for analysis instead of evaluative judgements.
◊ Don't confuse the author with the speaker.
◊ Integrate quotations fully into your argument
Writing a philosophy essay : Students aim to do the following :
◊ Understand such philosophical questions and the concepts, arguments
and theories that philosophers use to address them-
◊ Think critically about such arguments and theories
◊ Develop their answer to philosophical questions.
Writing sciences:. A science should written in clear and concise style, its
paragraphs should be coherent and its ideas should be well- organized

14. Effective admission letters tips:
◊ Be focused.
◊ Be coherent.
◊ Be interpretive.
◊ Be specific.
◊ Be personal.
Specific points about the
application letter.
◊ Write a letter for each application,
tailored for the specific situation.
◊ Use standard letter format, with
internal addresses and
salutations.
◊ Start strong and clear.
◊ Use paragraph structure to lead
you reader from one interpretive
point to another.
◊ End strongly by requesting an
interview
Specific points about the
résumés
◊ Have more than one on hand.
Emphasizing different aspects of
you qualifications or aims
◊ Make them easy to read by using
heading, point form, and lotsof
white space.
◊ The basic choiceness between
traditional chronological and the
functional one.
◊ List facts in reverse chronological
order, with the most recent ones
first.

15. The academic proposal:
An academic proposal is expected to
containing these elements;
◊ A rational for the choice of the topic.
◊ A review of existing published work that
relates to the topic.
◊ An outline of your intends approach or
methodology.
Oral presentation:
It Becomes easier with preparation and
practice:
◊ Sign up early
◊ It helps to know what's expected of you
◊ Choose your topic carefully
◊ Organize you talks as you would do in
an essay
◊ Try to use a supplentary media to
illustrate aspects of your talk.
◊ Feel comfortable.
◊ Take time to asses your presentation.

16. Revising gives the chance to preview your work on
behalf of the eventual reader. Revision is much more
than proofreading, though in the final editing stage it
involves some checking or detail.
Guide to avoid the most common errors:
1 - faulty agreement
2 - sentence fragment
3 - run on sentences.
4 - over use of the passive voice.
5 -faulty parallelism.
6- vague pronouns
7- Dangling modifiers.
8 - Misplaced modifiers
9 -Wordiness
10- comma splices
11- Misuse of comma, semicolon, and colon
12 -incorrect comparison
Revising and editing

17. Wordiness: One of the most efficient way to
improve your writing.
Punctuation: Provides you with considerable control
over meaning and tones.
Fixing comma splices:
A comma splice occurs when you use a comma to
join two complete sentences without placing an
appropriate joining word between them
Faulty parallelism:
The clauses or phrases joined by the conjunctions
should have similar grammatical structure to ensure
that you reader can follow the logic of your
sentences and to avoid awkwardness.
Dangling modifiers: The term a dangling modifier
refers to a word or phrase, usually at the start of a
sentence, that does not connect properly to the rest
of the sentence.

18. SOME TOOLS AND
RULES TO IMPROVE
YOUR SPELLING
1- Use a good dictionary.
2- Be consistent about using British or
American spellings in your writing.
3 Always check some “troublesome”
suffixes in you r dictionary.
4Create your own “difficult to spell” lists.
5Learn the standard pronunciation for
frequently misspelling word.
6Watch out for homophones.
7 Use your computer spellchecker.
8 Become familiar with the English
spelling rules

19. Plurals : These can be regular,or irregular.
We can find special cases.
Possessives: A singular noun is usually
made possession by adding ‘s to the end of
the word
A plural noun that ends in S can be
possessive either by adding only ‘ to the end
of the word or by adding ‘s to the end of the
word
Subject- verb agreement:
The two essential parts of a complete
sentence are the subject and the verb. The
verb refers to the main action in a sentence,
and the subject refers to the persons or
things responsible for the action

20. English as a second
language.
Using articles: Articles are special modifiers that appear before nouns or
noun phrases. The help clarify the meaning of the noun in your sentence.
There are only two
articles in English
language a/an and the.
1- a noun is countable if
you can have more than
one instance of it.
2- A noun is definite when
its clear to your reader with
specific instance or
instances of an identity you
are referring to.
To decide in you should use
the word THE, ask yourself
three questions.
1Is the noun indefinite or
definite?
2-Is the noun modified?
3- Is the noun generic?

21. Bibliography
Professor Anderson Silver. (n.d) “ Some general advive on academic Essay
Writing”.Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto.
Website: www.advice.writing.utoronto.ca