Writing has existed for centuries, and the art never gets old, and with the introduction of academic writing following, it has become a key part of academics all over the world. Virtually all schools, institutions and places of learning have put measures in place to ensure students and scholars exchange and share information with their peers and instructors. This way, the students not only communicate but also develop the habit of writing into perfection.
Academic writing is a part of degree or diploma awarded to a student on successful completion of the course. This practice is being followed worldwide. Academic writing is different from other form of writing as it is meant to evaluate the pupil on number of skills systematically. We will be taking example of thesis and dissertation in this article. This form of writing can also include research paper, essays, articles, abstract or even a art work depending on the course/degree you are pursuing.
What is the importance of Academic Writing?
Students and scholars often ask this questions, “why is academic writing important?”, because at one or other point of time in their studies and career they need to undertake academic writing. Professors and faculty members cannot overemphasise the importance of academic writing for a college student, academician or a working professional. There are various useful skills which people gain while working on their writing skills. Some of the broad skills and advantages include
- Enhancement of research skills and framing research questions
- improvement in written communication and formal style of writing
- language skills and better understanding of subject
- Critical evaluation and analytical thinking
- conducting independent research, internet search and surveying skills
Academic writing can be a part of a writing assignment, coursework, office report or product report. Many graduate students struggle with writing in college and thus it is important for them to understand the role it plays in college life. Apart from the benefits mentioned above, there are many other direct and indirect advantages. Academic piece is usually written in a formal tone and often allow students to work on the chosen topic. While most of the writing assignments are in English, there might be a few which require you to translate or write in some different language. Some of these are explained below which are helpful for everyone.
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It helps the students communicate
Good academic writing is an excellent tool for communication. It reflects the level of assimilation a person has on a particular issue or topic. Further, students learn how to scrutinize and pass on their understanding of a topic in a style or technique demanded of them. What’s more, some students find it difficult to speak openly even among peers. Their next bet to get their thoughts across is to put them into writing. For example, as a student, you might have issues explaining your ideas or building coherent sentences when you have to express yourself orally. Academic writing provides a base for communication, even if you have work on improving your writing abilities.
The above scenario plays out most times in higher institutions where it’s often difficult for students to explain complex subjects and thus requires hard work. Through academic writing, they can get to learn phrases that make their sentences more meaningful and clearly put strong focus to their reading audience.
It improves Critical Thinking Skills
Faced with an academic paper, a lot of things go through your mind. You’re searching out ways to research and, perhaps, align your chosen words with the style you’re expected to deliver in. This process involves a moment of brainstorming; you can call critical thinking.
In your bid to get things right, you’ll look at possible scenarios, academic work, answers, and solutions from different dimensions. More so, it takes a lot of planning to produce a good academically written paper. With adequate time given to organizing your information, the nature and flow of your essay will be consistent with what’s required of you in any writing process. Also, your works will be better-expressed language-wise when you involve your thinking faculties.
Helps you analyse different works
Good academic writing is not an innate ability, although some people are admittedly better at it than others. However, it helps students build the ability over time through constant analysis of other people’s works and ideas. Usually, academic writing involves analytical thinking by getting students to form an opinion on a chosen idea, topic or book. It could even be a work of art. For example, students may be asked to produce academic content on any of Shakespeare’s books or quotes. This will most likely take a fair bit of analysis by an essay writer, centred on the writing style, diction, and other styles associated with the author.
Academic writing and the analysis that comes with it help students get a good grasp of the art. They read the subject of discussion, and come up with various explanations before settling on what’s ideal and acceptable in terms of technique and style. Understanding and evaluating work of an educated person requires you to do a systematic analysis and involves a lot of thinking process. Based on the complexity of the subject, understanding of some work might also require high order thinking skills which a person develops over the time.
Improve Knowledge
Of course, you’re in an institution to learn a great deal about certain courses you’ve chosen. But knowledge doesn’t end there. You could be assigned a task to produce good academic content on several topics. This invariably means that you have to develop your writing skills.
In line with this, students build on their knowledge across different academic disciplines in hope for a successful life. Their outlook on life and the information they garner helps them approach issues constructively. For example, you may be charged with writing a paper on “why academic writing is necessary.” Because of the information you’re expected to provide, you’ll come across different perspectives you’ll have to scrutinize.
Furthermore, you get to be innovative in how you respond to questions. This is because academic writing on varying topics will improve your vocabulary and use of the language in particular. Based on your research and acquired knowledge, you get a chance to use academic writing as a communication tool.
Learning to write according to rules and regulations
Most people do not know how to write according to the rules and regulations provided. This also includes the style and technique required of them to come up with good academic writing. For this reason, some of them turn to academic writing services to bail them out. Not that it’s a bad idea, but at some point, people, especially students, have to figure out how to produce good academic content without resorting to external help.
When you’re given guidelines, it can seem overwhelming at first but over time, you’ll get the hang of it and probably produce great academic writing others will refer to. Most academic writings involve research but you might be asked to use certain words, writing style or even provide a listicle on any topic. As you write, you learn how to organize your content to suit the needs you’re required to meet, and even beat the deadline. Citation, referencing, para phrasing, is one of the most useful skill a person can develop.
Writing work is also seen as a serious addition of knowledge to the field and closely related to work ethic by few. In academic style writing you are required to have sound understanding of subject and able to write about it in ethical manner and without plagiarism. Appropriate language should be used depending on the reader base and detailed explanation should be provided.
Prepare for the Future
There’s no better way to prepare students for a future that might likely involve drawing up a lot of complex projects. Such tasks involve analytical and creative thinking skills to master. Think of it this way, being a successful student, especially on the academic writing front, will help you fit into many job positions that require such skills. You can add to that the ability to approach problems from various angles and still arrive at a suitable solution.
The need for students to be able to take on academic writing has become more important. Research has shown that many students heading for college are Ill-prepared to produce good academic papers. This ultimately leads to problems in the future, with most jobs keen to exploit the creative processes applicants can deliver. But with an excellent background in good academic writing, such worries are put to bed.
How do academic writing works and evaluates a student?
As already discussed above, the significance of academic writing is highest for students. Any academic project is meant to help you grow and provides you a learning opportunity. Depending on the topic and nature of submission these are largely focused on:
- Coming up with the topic/ research question
- Finding out the need of study
- Evaluation scope and limitations of work
- Providing Abstract
- Developing methodology
- Literature review
- Preparing surveys and questionnaires for data collection and validating the question
- Analysing the collected data
- Presenting the findings
- Conclusion
- Suggestions/ Proposals
This sequence can be followed for number of research based topics. Such studies forms part of last semester or the summer project. It helps in developing and polishing the analytical and reasoning skills of the student. It helps them in conducting a research work independently and effectively.
Conclusion
Good academic writing is a combination of different factors, including reading comprehension, grammar and sentence building. Students who learn how to put these and more together will produce good academic content.
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