This document provides advice on various aspects of academic writing such as writing essays, paragraphs, introductions, and conclusions. It discusses developing a thesis statement, organizing an argument, and revising written work. Specific tips are provided on effective note-taking, reading strategies like skimming and scanning, writing introductions and conclusions, incorporating quotations and paraphrasing sources, and creating bibliographies. The document emphasizes clear organization, using topic sentences, and developing ideas in a logical progression to write effective academic essays and papers.

1. ADVICE ON ACADEMIC
WRITING

2. AN ESSAY
• # SHOULD HAVE A TENTATIVE THESIS STATEMENT.
# SHOULD TRY TO PROVE SOMETHING.
#SHOULD BE ORGANIZED TO PRESENT AN ARGUMENT CLEARLY AND PERSUALIVELY.
#SHOULD HAVE QUESTIONS THAT WILL NEED TO BE ANSWERED BY THE WRITER.

3. STEPS TO WRITE A CORRECT ESSAY
• # START WRITING EARLY.
# WRITE WHAT SEEMS READIEST TO BE WRITTEN.
# KEEP THE ESSAY’S PURPOSE AND ORGANIZATION IN MIND.
# REVISE EXTREMELY.
# PUT THE ESSAY ASIDE FOR A FEW DAYS.
# PROOFREAD THE FINAL COPY CAREFULLY.

4. INTRODUCTION
• IT SHOULD IDENTIFY THE TOPIC.
• IT SHOULD PROVIDE A SPECIFIC CONTEXT.
• IT SHOULD ENGAGE READER’S ATTENTION.
• IT SHOULD HELP THE WRITER EXPLORE HIS/HER OWN THINKING ON THE TOPIC.
• THE SIZE OF THE INTRODUCTION SHOULD BEAR SOME RELATIONSHIP TO THE
LENGTH AND COMPLEXITY OF THE PAPER.

5. PARAGRAPH.
• IT IS A SERIES OF RELATED SENTENCES DEVELOPING A CENTRAL IDEA,
CALLED THE TOPIC.
• THE TOPIC SENTENCE IS THE MAIN POINT OF THE PARAGRAPH.
• THE BODY PARAGRAPH DEMONSTRATES AND DEVELOPS THE TOPIC
SENTENCE THROUGH AN ORDERED, LOGICAL PROGRESSION OF IDEAS.

6. CONCLUSION
IT SHOULD PROVIDE A SENSE OF CLOSURE TO THE ESSAY.
IT SHOULD REFLECT UPON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT YOU HAVE
WRITTEN.
THE LENGTH OF THE CONCLUSION SHOULD REFLECT THE LENGTH
OF THE ESSAY.

7. REVISING
# IT GIVES THE WRITER THE CHANCE TO PREVIEW THE WORK
ON BEHALF OF THE EVENTUAL READER.
# IT INVOLVES SOME CHECKING OF DETAILS.

8. SPECIFIC TYPES OF WRITING
.
1 THE BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE
CRITIQUE.
2 WRITING AN ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
3 THE LITERATURE REVIEW.
4 THE ACADEMIC PROPOSAL.
5 THE ABSTRACT.
.
6 THE COMPARATIVE ESSAY.
7 WRITING ABOUT HISTORY.
8 WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE.
9 WRITING IN THE SCIENCES.
.
10 EFFECTIVE ADMISSION LETTERS.
11 LETTERS AND RESUMES.
12 THE LAB REPORT.
13 ORAL PRESENTATIONS.

9. MARKERS LOOK AT FOUR GENERAL AREAS IN
DECIDING ON A MARK FOR A WRITTEN
ASSIGNMENT:
• HOW WELL YOU HAVE HANDLED THE TOPIC AND FOLLOWED THE ASSIGNMENT.
• THE QUALITY OF YOUR IDEAS.
• THE WAY YOU HAVE ORGANIZED YOUR PAPER.
• THE QUALITY OF YOUR WRITING STYLE AND GRAMMAR.

10. SOME TOOLS AND RULES TO IMPROVE YOUR
SPELLING
# USE A GOOD
DICTIONARY.
# BE CONSISTENT ABOUT
USING BRITISH OR
AMERICAN SPELLINGS IN
YOUR WRITING.
#ALWAYS CHECK CERTAIN
"TROUBLESOME" SUFFIXES
IN YOUR DICTIONARY.
#CREATE YOUR OWN
"DIFFICULT-TO-SPELL"
LISTS.
#LEARN THE STANDARD
PRONUNCIATIONS FOR
FREQUENTLY MISSPELLED
WORDS.
.

11. SOME TOOLS AND RULES TO
IMPROVE YOUR SPELLING
#WATCH OUT FOR HOMOPHONES, NEAR-HOMOPHONES,
AND OTHER EASILY CONFUSABLE WORDS.
#USE YOUR COMPUTER SPELLCHECKER, BUT WITH
CAUTION.
#BECOME FAMILIAR WITH ENGLISH SPELLING RULES

12. A NOTE ON APPEARANCE:
• INCLUDE A COVER PAGE GIVING THE
TITLE OF YOUR PAPER, THE NAME OF
THE COURSE, YOUR NAME, THE DATE,
AND THE INSTRUCTOR'S NAME.
• NUMBER YOUR PAGES IN THE TOP
RIGHT-HAND CORNER.
• DOUBLE-SPACE YOUR TEXT.
• USE A STANDARD FONT IN TWELVE-
POINT SIZE.
• PUT THE REFERENCE LIST OR
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON A SEPARATE PAGE
AT THE END.
• STAPLE YOUR PAGES.

13. NOTE-TAKING AND PLANNING
HERE ARE THREE ALTERNATIVES THAT PROVIDE GREATER FLEXIBILITY:
METHOD 1 - INDEX
CARDS
# WRITE DOWN EVERY IDEA ON A
SEPARATE INDEX CARD.
# RESHUFFLE THEM TO HAVE AN
OUTLINE..
METHOD 2 - THE
COMPUTER
#COLLECT YOUR POINTS
CONSECUTIVELY.
#SORT YOUR IDEAS WHEN YOU ARE
READY TO START PLANNING.
METHOD 3 - THE
CIRCLE METHOD
#AFTER HAVING AN IDEA, WRITE IT
DOWN ON PAPER AND DRAW A
CIRCLE AROUND IT.
#AFTER HAVING AN IDEA WHICH
SUPPORTS ANOTHER ONE, DO THE
SAME, CONNECTING BOTH CIRCLES
WITH A LINE..

14. HOW TO GET THE MOST
OUT OF READING
1) TEXTBOOKS
# PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE SECTIONS THAT ARE RELEVANT
TO THE COURSE.
# BE AWARE OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT. THE CHAPTER
TITLES, HEADINGS AND SUBHEADINGS WILL NAME THE MAIN
CONCEPTS TO BE COVERED.
# MAKE BRIEF SUMMARIZING NOTES IN YOUR OWN WORDS.

15. 2) PRIMARY SOURCES
• READ THROUGH EACH LITERARY WORK OR HISTORICAL
DOCUMENT, PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR
OWN RESPONSES AND QUESTIONS.
• WRITE OUT A BRIEF JOURNAL ACCOUNT OF WHAT WAS
READ.

16. 3) RESEARCH READINGS
In going through sources for a research
essay, the writer is looking for facts to
support or modify the original view of
the topic.

17. SKIMMING
# BY FIRST SKIMMING A TEXT, YOU CAN GET A SENSE OF ITS OVERALL LOGICAL
PROGRESSION.
# THE AIM IS TO PICK UP THE LARGER CONCEPTS OF THE OVERALL PATTERN AND
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEXT.

18. Some techniques for skimming a text:
# Use some of the previewing techniques.
# Read carefully the introductory paragraph, or
the first two paragraphs.
# Read carefully the first one or two sentences of
each paragraph, as well as the concluding
sentence.
# Try to avoid looking up unfamiliar words or
terminology.
# Read carefully the concluding paragraph.
#Try to think about the author’s overall purpose.

19. SCANNING
• SKIMMING WITH A MORE FOCUSED PURPOSE: TO LOCATE A PARTICULAR FACT
OR FIGURE, OR TO SEE WHETHER THE TEXT MENTIONS A SUBJECT YOU ARE
RESEARCHING.
• KEEP A SPECIFIC SET OF GOALS IN MIND AS YOU SCAN THE TEXT, AND AVOID
BECOMING DISTRACTED BY OTHER MATERIAL.

20. PREVIEWING
• SPEND A FEW MINUTES PREVIEWING A TEXT BEFORE STARTING TO READ, IN ORDER
TO ORIENT YOURSELF TOWARD WHAT IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU IN THIS READING.
• 1) READ THE TEXT IN ORDER TO HAVE A SENSE OF THE CENTRAL CONCEPTS IN THE
TEXT.
• 2) THINK ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER.
• 3) LOOK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
• 4) LOOK FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE BOOK.
• 5) READ THE CHAPTER TITLES TO HAVE A PROGRESSION OF THE IDEAS.
• 6) THINK ABOUT THE INFORMATION YOU WILL NEED TO RETAIN FROM THE READING

21. QUOTATION.
• CONSIDER QUOTING A PASSAGE FROM ONE OF YOUR SOURCES IF ANY OF THE
FOLLOWING CONDITIONS HOLDS:
• THE LANGUAGE OF THE PASSAGE IS PARTICULARLY ELEGANT, POWERFUL OR
MEMORABLE.
• YOU WISH TO CONFIRM THE CREDIBILITY OF YOUR ARGUMENT BY ENLISTING
THE SUPPORT OF AN AUTHORITY ON YOUR TOPIC.
• THE PASSAGE IS WORTHY OF FURTHER ANALYSIS.
• YOU WISH TO ARGUE WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S POSITION IN CONSIDERABLE
DETAIL.

22. QUOTATION
IF AN ARGUMENT IS RELEVANT BUT DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE QUOTED,
CONSIDER
• PARAPHRASING THE PASSAGE IF YOU WISH TO CONVEY THE POINTS IN THE
PASSAGE AT ROUGHLY THE SAME LEVEL OF DETAIL AS IN THE ORIGINAL
• SUMMARIZING THE RELEVANT PASSAGE IF YOU WISH TO SKETCH ONLY THE
MOST ESSENTIAL POINTS IN THE PASSAGE

23. HOW DO I PARAPHRASE?
WHEN YOU PARAPHRASE:
- YOU MUST PROVIDE A
REFERENCE.
- YOU MUST USE YOUR OWN
WORDS AND CREATE YOUR OWN
SENTENCE STRUCTURES.
HOW DO I SUMMARIZE?
WHEN YOU SUMMARIZE A
PASSAGE:
-YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND
THE MEANING AND THEN TO
EDIT THE INFORMATION USING
YOUR OWN WORDS.
- YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT A
SUMMARY IS NECESSARILY
SHORTER THAN A PARAPHRASE.

24. SUMMARIZING
• A SUMMARY HAS TWO AIMS:
• 1) TO REPRODUCE THE OVERARCHING IDEAS IN A TEXT, IDENTIFYING THE GENERAL CONCEPTS
THAT RUN THROUGH THE ENTIRE PIECE.
• 2) TO EXPRESS THESE OVERARCHING IDEAS USING PRECISE AND SPECIFIC LANGUAGE.

25. SOME STEPS TO SUMMARIZE:
1) USE SOME OF THE PREVIEWING TECHNIQUES.
2) INCLUDE THE TITLE AND IDENTIFY THE AUTHOR IN YOUR FIRST SENTENCE.
3) THE FIRST SENTENCE OR TWO OF YOUR SUMMARY SHOULD CONTAIN THE
AUTHOR’S THESIS, OR CENTRAL CONCEPT, STATED IN YOUR OWN WORDS
4) DIVIDE THE ARTICLE INTO SECTIONS AND WRITE A SENTENCE OR TWO TO COVER
THE KEY IDEAS IN EACH SECTION.
5) OMIT IDEAS THAT ARE NOT REALLY CENTRAL TO THE TEXT, MINOR DETAILS AND
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES AND OPINIONS.
6) BE CAREFUL NOT TO PLAGIARIZE THE AUTHOR’S WORDS.

26. TOPIC SENTENCES
• THEY ALERT READERS TO THE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS IN AN ESSAY.
• THEY SHOULD GUIDE READERS THROUGH THE ARGUMENT.
• TO COME UP WITH A TOPIC SENTENCE, YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF WHAT IS
GOING ON IN YOUR PARAGRAPH.
• SOMETIMES A PARAGRAPH HELPS TO DEVELOP THE SAME POINT AS IN THE
PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH, AND SO A NEW TOPIC SENTENCE WOULD BE
REDUNDANT.

27. BIBLIOGRAPHY
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO- WRITING COURSES, ADVICE ON ACADEMIC WRITING, UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO PRESS, TORONTO.