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1. 31
Academic Discussion: From Informal to Formal Writing in Online Forum
Su-Hie Ting
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Fatimah Puteh
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Conventional academic reading and writing courses are usually paper-based with many readings,
exercises and writing. Nowadays with technological advancements and students' penchant for
internet usage, an evolution in teaching materials to include online resources is taking place. One
of the readily available online language resources is MyLinE (Online Resources for Learning in
English) developed by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and supported by the Ministry of Higher
Education for use in institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. This study examined how MyLinE
resources facilitate transfer from informal to formal discussion of issues in an academic reading
and writing course. The specific aspects studied were the initial generation of ideas to pooling of
ideas, and changes in formality of the language used in the written texts. Data for the study were
discussion texts written by undergraduates in an academic reading and writing course in a Malaysian
university. Analysis of the undergraduates' initial informal discussion of a given issue in a forum
platform and the final written discussion text posted in the forum showed that they progressed
from expressing single ideas to discussing other views. In addition, the comparison of the semi-
spoken and written discussion texts indicated changes in word choice, use of nominalisations and
objectivisation of views expressed. The findings suggest that the undergraduates were able to adapt
their language to context and the MyLinE resources enhanced the teaching-learning environment
by giving quiet students a voice in the language class.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Academic reading and writing courses are often delivered in a traditional classroom setting. It is
often associated with using the pen and paper approach where most input come in the form of
print materials and the output in the form of progress writings by the students or activity sheets
prepared by the teachers and completed by the students. Faced with a generation that grows up
surrounded by the technology explosion where instant communication is standard practice and
technology is seen as a necessity, today's classroom may require a facelift. With such a scenario,
the young generation today may prefer learning and communication to be done instantly with the
aid of technology.
However, the number of reading and writing courses that use online materials as supplements
is rather low in number mainly due to the absence of websites that can cater to the specific needs
of the learners in terms of skills required, teaching-learning strategies used and their cultural
backgrounds. There are some that incorporate the necessary input and skills required for the
reading and writing courses but the learning strategies incorporated and the topics included in the
websites may not meet the culture of the target learners such as a topic may be considered acceptable
in one culture but seen as taboo in another. In addition, materials for reading and writing courses
in printed forms are abundant, so much so that many educators prefer this mode of teaching.
MyLinE, an online resource for learning in English, offers more than what a typical language
learning website offers. It is available for use by all registered students in all public institutions of
higher learning in Malaysia. It is developed and maintained by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and
Correspondence: Su-Hie Ting (shting@cls.unimas.my) & Fatimah Puteh (m-fatima@utm.my )
c
ESP Malaysia, Vol. 18, Dec. 2012, 31-40
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

2. funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. Not only is it developed for learning Englishand
learning in English, the resources available also cater to the needs of learners at the tertiary level
of education. The resources are divided into several categories that tap into the different skills of
language learning. In addition, forum, a platform which learners can use to express opinions,
exchange views, respond to others' postings and share knowledge is also available, which language
teachers can easily incorporate for the purpose of developing writing skills among learners. Not
only that, through the MyLinE portal, every public institution of higher learning in Malaysia is given
its own space within the portal for teachers to develop materials which can specifically cater to the
needs of their own students. It is through this space that every institution can upload its own tailor-
made resources specific to the needs of their own learners. With such features and resources that
MyLinE offers, language professionals can encourage learners to use the available resources and
activities to enhance their reading skills while at the same time use the forum as a platform to
practise and improve their writing skills.
Effectiveness of online materials in academic reading and writing courses is relatively
underexplored as research on use of technology in language learning tends to be in areas specific
to writing such as Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) through the use of email technology
to enhance learning. Warschauer (1999, p.6) stresses that computer technology is "an essential
new medium of language and literacy practice apart from face-to-face communication and the
printed page" while Desanctis, Fayard, Roach and Jiang (2003, p.565) suggest that success of
learning through online forum depends upon "how the electronic environments are structured and
how the participants manage their interaction processes". In another study, Hiltz and Wu (2004,
p. 139) found that "online discussions do improve students' perceived learning". Research on
academic reading and writing courses however, tend to be those using print materials (Ting &Law,
2008; Ting & Tee, 2008a; Ting & Tee, 2008b). Based on these and several other findings, language
professionals should take advantage of the potential strengths that the technology offers, tap into
the skills that the younger generation has on the use of computer technology, embrace their interest
in instant online communication and translate them through their English academic reading and
writing courses. Aside from the student interest that is generated by the hype of using online
materials, there is a need to investigate the tangible benefits of online academic reading and writing
courses on the students' writing.
2.0 PURPOSE OF STUDY
This study examined how the resources in MyLinE facilitate transfer from informal to formal
discussion of issues in an academic reading and writing course. The specific aspects studied were
the initial generation of ideas to pooling of ideas, and changes in formality of the language used in
the written texts.
3.0 METHOD
Data for the study were discussion texts written by 23 students in an academic reading and writing
course in a Malaysian university in September and October 2009. The course aims to develop
students' ability in reading and writing for academic purposes. The academic reading and writing
course is an optional English proficiency course offered to undergraduates who either score Band
4 and above in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) or have passed the two pre-requisite
foundation English courses. The pedagogical framework for the design of materials in the course
is the genre-based approach which emphasises the effective fulfillment of text purpose through
the use of a particular text organisation and significant language features (Derewianka, 1991). The
academic genres taught in the course are information report (classification-type), explanation and
discussion. Besides getting students to read and write academic genres relevant to their fields of
stu dy, t h e cou r se a lso t e a ch e s t h e m r e a din g, cita tion a n d r e fe r e n cin g skills.
The discussion module from which the data for the study were taken consists of four two-hour
sessions. In the first week, students read three discussion texts for meaning before the text structure
and language features of the genre were highlighted. Then the students deconstructed the fourth
text on their own. In the second week, students were given more practice of the same nature. The
Su-Hie Ting &Fatimah Puteh
32

3. Academic Discussion: From Informal to Formal Writing in Online Forum
33
third week saw the students moving into writing after being familiarised with various examples of
discussion texts, first with the instructor and then in pairs. The joint effort in generating ideas and
writing the text prepared them for the individual writing in the fourth week of the discussion
module, which doubled as a coursework assessment.
The data for this study were taken from the practice writing in the third week of the module.
First the students were asked to use the MyLinE online forum to voice their ideas on the issue,
"Should academic reading and writing course be compulsory?" Following the online exchange of
ideas, they wrote a formal discussion piece incorporating the views of their peers. Both the informal
and formal texts were analysed to examine how the students' viewpoints developed from the
exchange and how the language used changed to reflect the change in purpose and context of
communication.
To analyse the development in students' ideas on the issue, the informal discussion texts were
analysed to map out the ideas of individual students. For comments such as "yeah …totally" and
"I agree with you", a note was made on the passive agreement, indicated by parentheses in Table
1. The analysis revealed that most of the students offered their ideas on the issue at some later
point in the discussion although they might passively agree with the ideas of their peers at the
beginning. Atotal of eight ideas were generated, numbered as 1 to 8 in Table 1. For the subsequent
analysis of the formal written discussion text, the Idea Number was written on the texts to find out
which additional ideas the students incorporated from their peers and which ideas were new. Their
combination of ideas to make their arguments were analysed, particularly in terms of which ideas
were used as main ideas or supporting details.
Analysis of the formality of language focused on word choice, nominalisations and objectivisation
of views. It is expected that as students move from an informal oral discussion to a written discussion,
they would shift from using everyday language (e.g. when you are writing reports for your work)
to more academic language (e.g. writing reports at work). They would also be inclined to describe
processes as nouns (e.g. to cite other people's work ' citation of other people's work). Objectivisation
of views is also expected and may be expressed with the passive voice or omission of personal
pronouns and views. With these notions in mind, the informal and written discussion texts were
compared.
The next section presents the results to show that they progressed from expressing single ideas
to discussing other views, and adapted to the context of with changes in word choice, use of
nominalisations and objectivisation of views.
4.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Development of Ideas from Informal to Formal Discussion
Based on the students' responses in the informal discussion, the most commonly expressed benefit
of the Academic Reading and Writing course is learning citation and referencing conventions, and
this is useful in assignments, the final year project report and in avoidance of plagiarism.
Table 1 Expression of ideas during informal discussion of issue
Ideas
Learn how to do citation and referencing
Help me in my fyp (final year project)
Learn to appreciate other's work/ avoid plagiarism
Help in assignments with proper academic writing
Learn skills for good writing
Upgrade writing to advanced level (genres)
Learn a lot
Help me to write reports for work
Course needs more emphasis on other citation and
referencing style
Diploma students have learnt basics of referencing
Too difficult for first year
Students
Ho, (Boi), KC, Boi, Fong, Lee, Chow, Niza,
Tiong, Chiew, Nor, Ng, Tong
Chong, Boi, (Choo), Ho, Lee, Choo, Niza
Vikki (Ho) (Lee) Lee, Ho, Chong (Vikki)
Choo, Fong, Vikki, Cynthia, Lee, Vikki, Fong, Tong
Chow, Nor
Vikki, Kui
Vikki
SC, KC
Vikki
Lee
Idea Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

4. Out of the class of 23 students, 20 were present at the session for the informal discussion of the
given issue but three of them did not offer their views although they read the opinions posted by
their peers. The students with the most active participation were Vikki and Lee who offered seven
and six ideas respectively. The next group comprised those who voiced opinions three to four times
(Ho, Fong, Choo and Boi). Twelve other students expressed their views one to two times only. Vikki,
Lee, KC and SC were the only students who argued against making the course compulsory for
students in the informal discussion but in the formal discussion almost all the students did so.
The analysis of the formal discussion revealed that two ideas emerged as preferred main ideas,
that is, the course enabled them to learn skills for good writing (Idea Number 5 by 15 students) and
they learnt citation and referencing (Idea Number 1 by 8 students). Table 2 shows that the other
ideas were mainly used as supporting details (between 10 and 16 ideas). The results showed that
the "stand-alone" ideas expressed in the informal discussion were reorganised into main ideas and
supporting details. The informal discussion had provided a platform for students to pool their ideas
and organise the ideas hierarchically to make better arguments. The general idea of "learning a lot"
from the course, brought up in the informal discussion, was completely dropped from the written
discussion.
Table 2 Pooling and expression of ideas in formal written discussion text
34
Su-Hie Ting &Fatimah Puteh
Learn how to do citation and referencing
Help me in my fyp (final year project)
Learn to appreciate other's work/ avoid plagiarism
Help in assignments with proper academic writing
Learn skills for good writing
Upgrade writing to advanced level (genres)
Learn a lot
Help me to write reports for work
Get reference source
Get higher marks
Organise ideas better
Raise interest and fun
Stressful
Right to choose course
Have already learnt earlier
Burden on time
Inadequate course materials
No interest and won't do well
Not relevant
Difficult
Main Idea
8
0
1
2
15
3
0
0
1
1
2
1
4
3
7
4
1
1
1
4
Supporting Details
11
14
16
10
2
5
0
2
0
3
1
0
2
0
0
0
2
2
0
0
Idea Number
Ideas from Informal Discussion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
New Ideas in Written Discussion
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
However, as most of the views expressed in the informal discussion were in support of making the
academic reading and writing course compulsory, the students had to think of new contrary
arguments. Twelve new ideas appeared in the written discussion texts, eight of which were contrary
arguments (New Idea 5 - New Idea 12). As most of these contrary arguments were thought of at
the time of writing the discussion text, the students' thoughts on them were not well-developed.
This was reflected in the lack of support and elaborations for the contrary arguments, as shown in
the following discussion by Tan KC (with some editing for grammaticality):
There are many reasons for and against making academic reading and writing course compulsory.
The benefits of taking the course are that students will enhance their knowledge and essay writing skills in
English. Besides that students can learn proper citation and referencing to appreciate others' work when doing
assignment and final year project.
This course should not be made compulsory for all students because it will create more burden to those students
who are taking more than 18 credit hours. Some students that had learnt this course will be wasting time to
take this course again.
There are pros and cons of this course. If students think that this course is important to them, they can take
this course for extra knowledge. This course should be strongly recommended for students that always deal with
writing reports. (Tan KC)

5. Academic Discussion: From Informal to Formal Writing in Online Forum
35
The contrary argument brought up by Tan KC in the third paragraph refers to specific groups of
students who are taking many courses or who have taken the course. The specific reference weakens
the argument as it may not be applicable to the majority of students. Furthermore, he had put
together two contrary arguments which could be elaborated with their own supporting evidence.
Table 2 shows that for the contrary arguments the students put forward, 25 were main ideas
but there were only six supporting details. Instead of providing supporting evidence, the students
were inclined to merely explain what the main idea meant. The skeletal development of ideas for
contrary arguments is typical of the writing of a majority of students in the class although some
wrote equally well-developed arguments for and against the issue. Figure 1 shows the growth in
number of ideas from the initial informal discussion to the final written discussion which was
posted in the forum.
The next part of the results shows the growth in the number of ideas discussed in the informal discussion
and expressed in the written discussion. Figure 1 shows that 20 out of 22 students included more ideas
in their second discussion than the first discussion, and almost all the students thought of new ideas
to include in the written discussion. The results show that the informal discussion is important to kick-
start their thinking on the issue, and provides an avenue for pooling of ideas and generation of new
ideas for the subsequent written discussion. As far as the development of ideas is concerned, the MyLinE
forum is effective for the brainstorming of ideas as students' opinions are posted for the viewing of all.
In a traditional teacher-facilitated brainstorming session, the instructor usually asks questions to elicit
students' responses and write the main points on the board for all to see. Inevitably, the less vocal
students do not participate in the discussion and they do not have the opportunity to share their
knowledge and experiences about the topic.With an online forum for discussion,even the quiet students
are able to voice their opinions and there is no instructor to control their turns to speak.
4.2 Changes in Formality of Language from Informal Discussion to Written Discussion
In this section, the contributions of four students who participated actively in the informal discussion
were selected to illustrate the changes in formality of language which accompanies the change in mode
of communication. The students with more postings in the informal discussions were selected to obtain
a bigger chunk of language for comparison.See Appendix for full unedited transcript of their discussions.
Table 3 shows some examples of language changes that students made as they progressed from the
informal discussion to the written discussion.
Figure 1 Growth in number of ideas from informal discussion to written discussion

6. Su-Hie Ting &Fatimah Puteh
36
In terms of word choice, the change can be seen from the use of the word "copy" used in everyday
conversation to "plagiarize" in the academic context. Plagiarism carries a more precise meaning
and is appropriate in the written discussion. In fact, Vikki also used the word "copy" in her informal
discussion but dropped it in the written piece. In the written discussion, Vikki and focused on the
opposite of copying the work of others in an article, "Students can cite the intellectual's article in
a proper manner". Another example of changes in word choice from the informal to the written
discussion can be seen in Lee's texts. During the informal discussion, Lee talked about the problem
that students would have if they were to learn referencing techniques in the first year but he referred
to the "problem" as "difficulty" later. Lee demonstrated awareness of avoiding negative-sounding
words by choosing more neutral words for the written text.
As for nominalisations, an example can be seen in Fong's postings in the MyLinE forum. In the
informal discussion, she said "many or all of the first year students do not know how to write a
proper academic writing" but she changed the verb to a noun, "a good write-up" in the written
discussion. Nominalisation turns a "process" into a "thing", and it is a technique adult writers use
to pack more meanings into the clause as there can only be one verb but several nouns in a clause
(see Derewianka, 1991, p. 64). By nominalising "write", Fong managed to pack two clauses into
the sentence: …produce a good write-up …
, and …involves a few crucial aspects. However, there
were not many examples of nominalisations in the comparison of the informal discussion and
written discussion text. Like the other students, Fong's tendency is to transfer many of the verbs
used in the informal discussion to the written discussion. In fact, many of the verbs can be
nominalised (see boxes in Fong's discussion texts). For example, "expose to" could be rewritten as
"exposure to" or "know only the basic" could be rephrased as "knowledge of the basics". The
potential of nominalisation has not been exploited to move the ar gument along.
Objectivisation of views took the form of dropping a personal reference. In the informal
discussion, Ho used the pronoun "our" (our final goal is FYP) but the subject shifted to the academic
reading and writing course in the written discussion, as follows: ARW help[s] tremendously in our
FYP. Similarly, Vikki who wrote "We are able to learn a lot and enhance our writing" in the informal
discussion, presented the same idea two times as "…enhance students' writing" and "…enhances
their writing". The personal relevance of the academic reading and writing course is removed and
replaced with a general reference to students in general. By omitting the use of personal pronouns,
the students in the course were able to make a stronger argument.
These examples show that the students are capable of producing texts using the appropriate
features of spoken and written language. The informal discussion may have taken place in a written
medium but the forum constitutes a semi-spoken context of conversation for the students. The
language use of some students also reflects their perspective of the forum as a form of spoken
medium, for example, when Ho agreed with Vikki's view on the importance of citing to appreciate
other people's work, she wrote "yeah...totally...." - similar to what she would have said in speech.
Table 3 Changes in wor d choice, nominalisation and objectivisation of views in wr itten discussion
Word choice
Most student just spends their time
copy from from internet without
knowing what they are copying ' Many
students are just plagiarize other
people's work without citing them.
(Lee)
All they do is copy and paste people's
works into their own writing. ' Students
can cite the intellectual's article in a
proper manner. (Vikki)
Nominalisation
many or all of the first year student
do not know how to write a proper
academic writing. ' Aproper way to
produce a good write-up in the
university level involve a few crucial
aspects. (Fong)
Word choice
Objectivisation of views
of course our final goal is FYP
' Apart from that, ARW help
tremendously in our FYP as
proper referencing and citation
are a way of showing
appreciation to the authors'
works (Ho)
We are able to learn a lot and
enhance our writing ' the
course Academic Reading and
Writing helps to enhance
students' writing …I believe
the Academic Reading and
Writing course is necessary in
the sense that it provides
students the knowledge of
writing citations and reference
lists thus enhances their
writing. (Vikki)

7. Academic Discussion: From Informal to Formal Writing in Online Forum
37
At a later point in the discussion, Vikki said "yeah, me too me too". The language for most of the
informal discussion may not have as many abbreviations and verbal expressions with omissions
of auxiliary verbs (Ting, Mahadhir, &Chang, 2010) because the MyLinE forum is part of an academic
reading and writing course. The students were very aware that their lecturer was going to read
their postings, and they kept to proper English as much as they could. Even with this constraint,
it is possible to see students making adaptations in the construction of their ideas to discuss the
issue language features considered effective for discussions.
5.0 CONCLUSION
The study shows that using an online forum for discussions in academic reading and writing courses
can develop students' academic writing skills in terms of the development of ideas and adaptation
of language used to mode of communication. The online forum, although technically a written
medium of communication, has the versatility to function as an oral medium of communication.
When students were asked to discuss a given issue informally, their language showed features of
spoken language. Subsequently when they were asked to write a formal discussion text, they made
the appropriate adaptations to suit the written mode of communication. Besides developing
communicative adaptability among the students, the use of the online forum is particularly useful
for facilitating sharing of ideas, particularly among students who may be reluctant to voice their
opinions. However, the findings are preliminary and further research is needed to investigate the
potential of online forums as a channel for improving other aspects of academic writing among
university students.
REFERENCES
Desanctis, G., Fayard, A., Roach, M. and Jiang, L. 2003. Learning in online forums. European
Management Journal. 21(5): 565-577.
Hiltz, S. R. and Wu, D. 2004. Predicting Learning from Asynchronous Online Discussions. JALN.
8(2) (April 2004): 139-152.
Ting, S. H., & Law, L. 2008. March 17-19. Effect of English for Academic Purpose course on
organisational structure and language features of undergraduate writing. Proceedings of
International Conference on Teaching and Learning (IMCICON), Petaling Jaya.
Ting. S. H., Mahadhir, M., & Chang, S. L. 2010. Grammatical errors in spoken English of university
students in oral communication course. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies
10: 53-69.
Ting, S. H., & Tee, P. F. 2008a, February 16. English for Academic Purposes and quality of
undergraduates' academic writing. Proceedings of 2nd National Conference on Skills and
Competencies in Education: Emerging issues, trends, challenges and directions
(NCSCE 2008), Pulau Pinang.
Ting, S. H., & Tee, P. F. 2008b. TESL undergraduates' ability to handle academic text-types at
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Asiatic Journal of Languages and Literature. 2(2): 85-100.
Warschauer, M. 1999. Electronic literacies: Language, culture and power in online education.
Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

8. 38
Appendix: Informal and written discussion of students participating actively in the forum
Su-Hie Ting &Fatimah Puteh
VIKKI
Informal Discussion
Yes. It is a very useful course. We are able to
learn a lot and enhance our writing.
There are many students who plagiarize other
people's articles without citing them. All they
do is copy and paste people's works into their
own writing. Through this course they can learn
to appreciate other's works.
it also helps in the future after you graduate,
when you are writing reports for your work.
But some 1st year students who have
undergone diploma studies should know the
basics of referencing.
Written Discussion
The statement 'Academic Reading and Writing course
should be made as a compulsory course' can be argued in
many ways.
The course Academic Reading and Writing provides students
the knowledge of writing reference lists and quotations.
With the knowledge of referencing and quotation writing,
students do not need to waste time to search for the
techniques to write reference list. Students can cite the
intellectual's article in a proper manner. It is important to
include references and quotations in writings as it is a way
to prevent plagiarism.
In addition, the course Academic Reading and Writing helps
to enhance students' writing. Through this course, students
are able to learn skills and techniques in producing good
pieces of writing. The writings include assignments and
final year project. Students are also able to organize their
paper work. With an organized paper work, readers gain
interest in reading the pieces. Readers are also able to
know the source of citation through the writer's reference
list.
On the other hand, the course Academic Reading and
Writing gives pressure to students. Due to unfamiliarity in
writing citations and reference lists, students may feel
stressed while going through this course. This is because
the Academic Reading and Writing course emphasizes in a
lot of citation techniques, and a small error written degrades
the whole writing.
There are good arguments for both sides of this discussion.
After careful consideration, I believe the Academic Reading
and Writing course is necessary in the sense that it provides
students the knowledge of writing citations and reference
lists thus enhances their writing, but students should not
be forced in taking this course due to pressure.
LEE
Informal Discussion
Informal Discussion
Yes, I agree with you. Most student just spends their time
copy from from internet without knowing what they are
copying. Well, this is what we call plagiarism......
Ya, I'm strongly agree with you. Fyp surely needs proper
referencing
I strongly disagree with the idea of making this course
compulsory for second year. Basically i think this course
is more suitable for the second year because they are
familiar with the referencing techniques. But, for the first
year who first time learn it, it would be a problem as this
is the first time they learn it. Pressure would be steer for
first year definitely.
Yes, of course. This course is very important for student
to cite correctly their reference so that they would not
be alleged of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence
in university and the course taught us to do reference
properly. In addition, proper referencing makes our paper
work organized and provides interest for the reader to
read it.
This course provides an opportunity for us to learn various
type of reference, mainly the APA style. Student should
appreciate the important knowledge of citing which is
derived from this course. By knowing the importance of
this course, they would be interested to learn it.
Written Discussion
There are many factors for and against
academic reading and writing course be made
compulsory.
This course provides an opportunity for the
student to learn how to do proper quotation
and referencing. Many students are just
plagiarize other people's work without citing
them. It is very important that this course
provides an understanding so that students
are not alleged of plagiarism. Proper
referencing gives an added marks to our paper
works.
On the other hand, academic reading and
writing course can have some disadvantages.
Some students face difficulty learning how to
reference because it is time-consuming and
difficult to cite other articles which do not have
any author and date. In addition, there are
some reference techniques that make students
confuse.
There are pros and cons for the idea of
making this course compulsory. After taking
full consideration, I think that this course is
good for students to learn citing the material
but not compulsory for all students.

9. 39
FONG
Informal Discussion
This course should be made compulsory
especially for first year student. This is
because many or all of the first year student
do not know how to write a proper academic
writing. This is due to they are not expose to
this kind of writing especially in the Form six
student.
Yea, the students from Diploma would know
only the basic and it is not sufficient at this
university level. Moreover, diploma students
are the minority among the 1st year students.
Most of the first year students come from
Form 6 or matriculation.
Yea, it would be hard to learn but it is very
important for the future use. I think the
earlier this course is introduce, the better it
is. When the 1st year students are expose to
it from the beginning, it would be easy for
them in doing any assignments. This way
would reduce more of their stress.
Yes! because we can learn how to write with
proper citations and reference. The proper
citations would give more information to the
reader. The reader would know the source
of the citations through the reference list.
This can let the reader of the assignments or
write up to get further information easily.
Moreover, this course also provide students
with many skills n techniques to produce a
piece of good writing. For example the
information report helps a lot in writing
assignments that we need to categorise
things accordingly.
es. It is a very useful course. We are able to
learn a lot and enhance our writing.
There are many students who plagiarize other
people's articles without citing them. All they
do is copy and paste people's works into their
own writing. Through this course they can learn
to appreciate other's works.
it also helps in the future after you graduate,
when you are writing reports for your work.
But some 1st year students who have
undergone diploma studies should know the
basics of referencing.
Written Discussion
This academic reading and writing course is an optional
course that the university offer for now. The question on
should academic reading and writing course be compulsory
can view from many different points.
Academic reading and writing course could help in
enhancing student's writing. A proper way to produce a
good write-up in the university level involve a few crucial
aspects. These aspects are taught in this course. The aspects
include the proper way of citation and referencing,
organisation of paragraphs and many rules to do different
types of academic writing. Moreover, with proper style of
writing, the reader would find it interesting and easier to
understand. This could help in gaining more marks for
assignments write-up.
Besides that, this course is beneficial for university students
in various ways. University students espacially first year
students that previously in Form six level are not expose
to academic writing. Therefore these students face difficulty
in completing their assignments and task given by lecturer.
This course would definitely help these students because
the module is designed based on the important aspects
that a student need to include in their write-up. By this, the
students would face less problems in their final year project
as they continue their studies.
On the other hand, this course could be made not
compulsory as there might be students that already learned
the basic of academic reading and writing. There are
students that come from matriculation and diploma level.
These students have been exposed to academic reading
and writing from their own institutes. Therefore it would
be a waste of time for them to take the course again.
There are many point of views for this issue. In my opinion,
academic reading and writing should be made compulsory
or not compulsory based on the academic background of
the student. This course need not made compulsory for
students who came from matriculation and diploma level.
They can join this course if they think it is neccessary. In
addition, students that come from Form six level should
be made compulsory to take this course in order to help
them in academic writing
FONG
Informal Discussion
Yes, ARW should be
compulsory....I strongly
recommend my friends to take
this course. This course enable
us to learn how to do references
and quotation correctly as these
are important for our
assignment. These techniques
are given marks for our
assignment.
ya i agree...but still ARW is
important for tasks other than
FYP...of course our final goal is
FYP la....hehe
Written Discussion
The statement "should academic reading and writng course be
compulsory" can be argued in many ways. ARW is the only course
that is teaching the skills of refencing and citation.
Many advantages we can gain from the ARW. Early exposure of ARW
help enhances our writing skills in term of writing in a more organized
and well-connected way with proper referencing and citation.
Moreover, Further research can be done easily. ARW also provides
exposure of various style of referencing style which are globally
accepted.
Apart from that, ARW help tremendously in our FYP as proper
referencing and citation are a way of showing appreciation to the
authors' works. More importantly, techniques of referencing and
citations are ways to avoid plagiarism.
Academic Discussion: From Informal to Formal Writing in Online Forum

10. 40
Su-Hie Ting & Fatimah Puteh
Informal Discussion
yeah~~as a way to show
appreciation to the authors'
works
Written Discussion
On the other hand, compulsory ARW in our syllabus can have
disadvantages. As lecturers may introduce their own referencing style
which may differ from the techniques that are taught in ARW. This
may create confussion among students. Moreover, students who
already have the knowleadge of refencing and citation may seem to
be a waste of time. Students should also have the right to choose
what they are interested in. There are other English courses that are
offer by UNIMAS which are also important in our learning progress
such as EPP.
As conclusion, i believe that ARW is as important as other courses
that are offer by UNIMAS in our learning progress. ARW should be
strongly recommended to students but not compulsory in our learning
syllabus.