Academic Writing

This week I had the opportunity to address a brand new group of M.Ed students. I was asked to speak about academic writing and APA. After writing an extensive summary and presentation of both I decided at the last minute to stick with core definitions to avoid overwhelming them on their first day. All students are required to complete one online learning module on each topic so I’m not concerned that will get the information – at a time they are better able to process it. For my presentation, I differentiated academic writing from personal or fiction writing in that it:

•    Concerns underlying theories and causes as well as alternate explanations
•    Follows a formal structure
•    Requires referencing and citation
•    Academic tone
•    Academic audience
•    Traditionally focuses on abstract thought


Additionally, I talked about how the key to academic writing was to provide complete clarity and no surprises for the reader. While this was a great introduction to academic writing the research I did on the topic also provided me with some great tips, that I thought I would share here.
•    Present the goal of your paper – early and clearly
•    Use concrete examples – especially for abstract theoretical concepts
•    Avoid excessive language
•    Provide interpretation of results – not just a summary
•    Add structure
•    Consistency
•    Headings
•    Transitional Phrases
•    Start sentences with old information and end with new information – this helps with follow and transition
•    Limit ideas to one per sentence

References
Wagenmakers, E. (2009, April) Teaching Graduate Students How to Write Clearly. Association for Psychological Science. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2009/april-09/teaching-graduate-students-how-to-write-clearly.html