Beef Up Your Academic Writing - Part Two

There may be numerous questions you have about academic writing: What is it? How do I start? What should I avoid? 

Well who better to ask than our very own Writing Mentors on campus? They help with the Writing Café, which runs twice a week, and are here to answer any questions students asked them. In the second part of this tips guide we will be looking at what you need to include in introductions and conclusions, as well as what the most common mistakes are when it comes to academci writing, and why proof reading is so important. 

What needs to be in the introduction and conclusion of an assignment?

An introduction should present how the argument of the essay fits within a bigger argument, or a definition of the terminology it is going to use. The introduction also needs to inform the reader what the essay is going to be about, for example by using a sentence like 'the aim of this essay is...’

The conclusion should summarise the main ideas discussed in the essay, trying to establish a link with the introduction by reminding the readers how these ideas fit within the discipline. Sometimes, ending with a quotation can be a very powerful way to finish. However, if this quotation does not reflect exactly what you want to say, you can lose some of the strength of your argument.

I would advise to write both introduction and conclusion once the whole body of your assignment is finished. In this way, your argument will look rounder and stronger.

(Laura, PhD Candidate in Music)

Is it important to relate any points made in the assignment back to the question?

Yes. Ultimately the grade you get reflects to a large extent how satisfactorily you have answered the question, not how much you know, nor how much effort you have put into writing it. My two main recommendations to ensure that you relate your points back to the question are: 

1) Asking yourself ‘so what? How is this relevant?’ at the end of each paragraph. If you can explain it to yourself, but your explanation is not yet part of the paragraph containing your factual information, citations, quotes, etc, then make sure you add that bit in. In terms of using evidence, quotes, etc. to answer the question, don’t simply say ‘As the Book of Kells says: ….. ’. Say ‘The fact that the Book of Kells says ‘…… ’ demonstrates that '……’, making sure that the second bit links it back to the question.

2) Analyse your question before you start writing your paragraphs. Quite often questions contain clues to the ingredients that need to go into the essay. For example, ‘to what extent do you think X is relevant to Y?’ has four elements:

i) An explanation of what X is/means/represents/involves, ii) the same for Y, iii) the question of extent and, iv) what you think, requiring your considered opinion in view of all the evidence you’ve discussed earlier on in the essay.

(Leen, PhD Candidate in Classics)

In your view what are the most common mistakes students make in their writing?

Common mistakes include the use of non-academic references. While we do live in a world with an alarming reliance on Wikipedia, it is not an academic source and should not be used as a reference. References and research should be limited to published books, academic journals and/or other forms of formerly published materials. 

If ever you are uncertain if something is considered an academic source, consult the Library’s resources – they have the links you need to academic e-journals and web-sources – in other words, avoid general google searches.

Finally, another common mistake is the use of the personal pronoun ‘I’ and the use of multiple tenses. Unless you are at the postgraduate stage writing a substantial thesis, you should not be using the first person in an assignment.

The appropriate tense would be the third person – ‘this paper aims to address…’; ‘it can be argued…’ etc.  It is also important to ensure you are using the correct grammatical tense and is more often than not the present tense.

(Michelle, PhD Candidate in Italian)

Why is it important for students to proof-read their work?

A few years ago, I was given the following advice by my supervisor: ‘Writing is 40% getting words on the page, and 60% proofreading and editing.’ I remember thinking at the time that this must be the wrong way round. Over the years since, I’ve learnt that this is absolutely true. Proofreading isn’t just about looking for places where you’ve accidentally speed-typed ‘thus’ instead of ‘this’ and autocorrect or spell-check hasn’t picked it up. It’s a vital part of the writing process.

For shorter pieces of work, I’d recommend at least 2 days before the deadline to let ideas settle, and for you to be able to go back through and critique your own writing as if you were reading someone else’s, and for longer pieces of work, the proofreading process can often take weeks.

If this sounds strange or impossible to you, and you think you’ll always be a ‘get it down and hand it in’ kind of writer, try the following exercise: take your essay, and on a separate piece of paper, summarise each paragraph in a single sentence. Read back through the sentences you’ve written. If they make sense on their own, and represent the argument you thought you were making, then good job! If not, you may have to go back through your essay and tweak things slightly to reinforce your original argument. This counts as proofreading too, and is vital in securing the top marks at any level of study.

(Rebecca, PhD Candidate in Music)

The Writing Café runs every Wednesday in Tommy’s Lounge, 3-5pm and every Thursday in Imagine, at 4-6pm. Be sure to come along with any piece of writing you’re working on, to get advice from the Mentors.

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