1. It’s Personal! Or Not…
Understanding the Differences
Between Personal and Academic
Writing
2. Personal vs. Academic Writing
• Letters
• Notes
• Texts
• Lists
• Postcards
• Recipes
• Emails
• Essays
• Magazine articles
• Newspaper articles
We read and write every day. Think of all the different kinds of
writing you encounter at home, work and play.
Most of the writing
we do at home or
for fun is personal.
Writing we do for
work is not
personal, but it is
not necessarily
academic.
So what is academic
writing? How can we
tell the difference
between personal
and academic
writing?
3. Personal Writing
Personal writing is usually subjective and informal.
Subjective
•Uses personal experience as evidence
Informal
•Uses pronouns I or we
•Not much attention to formatting
Examples
Letters and emails to friends, recipes for home,
texts, journal articles, lists, etc…
4. Academic Writing
Academic writing is writing we do for school or
publication. It is usually objective, formal and often
research based.
Objective
• Keeps a distance from its subject
• Uses non-personal evidence
Formal
• Includes no reference to I or we
Research Based
• Often uses documentation like references and in-text citations
Examples
• Examples of academic writing include summaries, abstracts, reports, argumentative essays
or position papers, annotated bibliographies, literature reviews, proposals, literary analyses,
reviews, letters and memos, research papers (Flachmann, 2014. pp. 121-122).
5. You Decide!
Here are some writing samples.
Decide if they are personal or academic.
6. “The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology”
by Stephen Hawking
An important
feature of
gravitation, for very
large concentrations
of mass, is that it is
essentially
unstable. This is
due, in the first
instance, to its r—2
attractive
character. But, in
addition, when
general relativity
begins to play a
significant role,
other instabilities
may also arise….
This is a famous
scientific paper
published by physicist
Stephen Hawking.
Notice the
header! Does this
look formal or
informal?
7. Love Letter from Jimi Hendrix
From Jimi Hendrix to a girlfriend
he called “little girl”
little girl…..
happiness is within you….so
unlock the chains from your
heart and let yourself grow—
like the sweet flower you are…..
I know the answer—
Just spread your wings and set
yourself
FREE
Love to you forever
Jimi Hendrix
What does Hendrix’s letter tell
you about personal writing and
formatting?
8. Review of Pulp Fiction by Roger Ebert
-published in Chicago Sun Times
Dialogue drives Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction,'' dialogue of such high
quality it deserves comparison with other masters of spare, hard-boiled
prose, from Raymond Chandler to Elmore Leonard. Like them, QT finds a
way to make the words humorous without ever seeming to ask for a
laugh. Like them, he combines utilitarian prose with flights of rough
poetry and wicked fancy.
Consider a little scene not often mentioned in discussions of the film.
The prizefighter Butch (Bruce Willis) has just killed a man in the ring. He
returns to the motel room occupied by his girlfriend Fabienne (
Maria de Medeiros). She says she's been looking in the mirror and she
wants a pot belly. "You have one,'' he says, snuggling closer. "If I had
one,'' she says, "I would wear a T-shirt two sizes too small, to accentuate
it.'' A little later she observes, "It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to
the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same.''
What kind of evidence does Roger Ebert’s
review use? Is it personal experience or
something else?
9. Apology Letter from teenager Michael
Jordan
My Dearest Laquette
How are you and your family doing, fine I hope. I am in my Adv. Chemistry class writing you a letter, so that tell
you how much I care for you. I decide to write you because I felt that I made you look pretty rotten after the
last night. I want to tell you that I am sorry, and hope that you except my apologie. I know that you feelings
was hurt whenever I loss my necklace or had it stolen.
I was really happy when you gave me my honest earn money that I won off the bet. I want to thank you for
letting me hold your annual. I show it to everyone at school. Everyone think you are a very pretty young lady
and I had to agree because it is very true. Please don’t let this go to your head. (smile) I sorry to say that I
can’t go to the game on my birthday because my father is taking the whole basketball team out to eat on my
birthday. Please don’t be mad because I am trying get down there a week from Feb. 14. If I do get the chance
to come please have some activity for us to do together.
I want you to know that my feeling for you has not change yet. (joke) I am finally getting use to going with a←
girl much smaller than I. I hope you my hint. Well I have spent my time very wisely by write to you. I hope you
write back soon. Well I must go, the period is almost over. See you next time around, which I hope comes soon.
With my Best Love
Michael J. Jordan
This letter attempts to use
correct letter formatting. But
would you say it is personal or
academic? Why?
10. New York Times Article on FDA
Regulations
Does a news article use I or
we or he/she/one? Is it
likely to be objective or
subjective?
11. Amy Winehouse Text
"I’m gonna be here
always xx"
The last message sent by
Amy Winehouse arrived
on her friend Kristian
Marr's phone at 3.10am.
By the time Marr read it,
Winehouse was dead.
Texting has become increasingly
popular. Is this form of writing
personal or academic? Why?
12. Not sure if it’s personal or academic?
Personal Writing
• Likely to use I and we
as pronouns
• Likely to use personal
experience as
evidence
Academic Writing
• Likely to use he, she and
one as pronouns
• Likely to not use personal
experience as evidence
and instead use primary
and secondary sources
• Likely to use a style guide
for formatting
13. References
Ebert, R. (2001, June 10). Pulp Fiction. Retrieved from
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pulp-fiction-1994
Flachmann, K. (2014). Mosaics: Reading and writing essays (6th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson.
Hawking, S.W. & Penrose, R., (1970). The singularities of gravitational collapse and
cosmology. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 1970, (314). doi: 10.1098/rspa.1970.0021.
Labarre, S. (2013, February 12). 12 handwritten love letters from famous people,
from
Henry VIII to Michael Jordan. Retrieved from
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669022/12-hand-written-love-letters-from-famous-people-from
The 10 most important text messages in history. (2012, December 3). Retrieved
from
http://news.yahoo.com/ten-text-messages-that-changed-history-111139844.html
