Elements of Academic Texts

Paragraph

In many languages, the fundamental unit of composition is the paragraph. The division into paragraphs is an important feature of any type of writing. A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic (Other definitions: a paragraph may be defined as a textual unit usually consisting of a number of sentences which deal with one main idea; a paragraph consists of several sentences grouped together which discuss one main subject). Skillful paragraph division greatly assists readers in following a piece of writing. The basic rule of thumb with paragraphing is to keep one idea to one paragraph. If you begin transition into a new idea, it belongs in a new paragraph. You can have one idea and several bits of supporting evidence within a single paragraph. In U.S. formal academic writing, for instance, paragraphs have three principal parts. These three parts are the topic sentence, body sentences, and the concluding sentence.

In writing, a paragraph is defined by indentation. Indentation means starting a line (of print or writing) farther from the margin than the other lines. Indentation signals the beginning of some kind of a change. In English academic writing, all paragraphs with the exception of the first one should be indented.

The length of a paragraph is often between 75 to 125 words (although it can be much longer). In a short piece of academic writing (for example, the conference abstract or text summary), each major point may be developed into a separate paragraph. In longer types of papers (eg., the journal paper), several paragraphs may be necessary to develop one point.

Paragraphs should be short enough for readability, but long enough to develop an idea. Overly long paragraphs should be split up, as long as the cousin paragraphs keep the idea in focus. One- sentence paragraphs are unusually emphatic, and should be used sparingly. Articles should rarely, if ever, consist solely of such paragraphs.

A paragraph is a group of closely related sentences dealing with a single topic or idea. Usually, one sentence called the sentence states the main idea of the paragraph. All the other sentences must be related to this topic sentence. These sentences further explain or support the main idea and give the paragraph a feeling of unity.

The topic sentence of a paragraph tells what the paragraph is about. It indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going to deal with. A topic sentence can be put in any place in the paragraph, but putting it at the beginning guides paragraph development. Sometimes the main idea is implied rather than stated.

Ensure that paragraphs have clear topic sentences which state the key point of the section. In the writing process you will often find that the main idea does not appear until the end of a piece of writing. This is because we tend to write our way toward the main idea, clarifying our thoughts as we write up the data. The reader should not have to wait this long for the main point.

A topic sentence usually comes at the beginning of a paragraph; that is, it is usually the first sentence in a formal academic paragraph. Not only is a topic sentence the first sentence of a paragraph, but, more importantly, it is the most., general sentence in a paragraph. What does “most general” mean? It means that there are not many details in the sentence, but that the sentence introduces an overall idea that you want to discuss later in the paragraph.

For example, suppose that you want to write a paragraph about the natural landmarks of your hometown. The first part of your paragraph might look like this:

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep.

Note how the first sentence. My hometown, Wheaton, is famous for several amazing geographical features, is the most general statement. This sentence is different from the two sentences that follow it, since the second and third sentences mention specific details about the town’s geography, and are not general statements.

Here are some examples of sentences that cannot be used as topic sentences. Can you figure out why they are inappropriate?

1. My hometown is famous because it is located by Wheaton River, which is very wide, and because it is built near an unusually steep hill called Wheaton Hill.
2. There are two reasons why some people like to buy cars with automatic transmission and two reasons why others like cars with manual transmission.
3. Clouds are white.

The problem with sentence #1 is that it contains too many details. Topic sentences are general, and details should appear later in the paragraph. A better topic sentence would be like the one mentioned above, My hometown is famous for several amazing geographical features.

Sentence #2 is not appropriate as a topic sentence because it mentions two topics, not just one. Paragraphs are usually about one main thing and so their topic sentences should also be about only one main thing.

The problem with sentence #3 is that it is Zoogeneral. It is also very boring! Would you like to read a paragraph with this topic sentence? Most people would not.

We can rewrite sentences #2 and #3 in the following ways to make it better:

. There are two reasons why some people like to buy cars with automatic transmission.

OR (in a different paragraph):

* There are two reasons why some people like cars with manual transmission.

. The shapes of clouds are determined by various factors.

Supporting Sentences

Consider again the above-mentioned, short paragraph:

My hometown, Wheaton, is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep.

When a reader reads a topic sentence, such as My hometown, Wheaton, is famous for several amazing natural features, a question should usually appear in the reader’s mind. In this case, the question should be like, “What are the natural features that make Wheaton famous?” The reader should then expect that the rest of the paragraph will give an answer to this question.

Now look at the sentences after the topic sentence. We can see that the second sentence in the paragraph, First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful, indeed gives an answer to this question. That is, the second sentence gives some explanat ion for the fact that Wheaton is a famous town. Similarly, the third sentence also gives some explanation for the fact that Wheaton is famous by giving another example of an “amazing natural feature,” in this case, Wheaton Hilt

The second and third sentences are called supporting sentences. They are called “supporting” because they “support,” or explain, the idea expressed in the topic sentence. Of course, paragraphs in English often have more than two supporting ideas. The paragraph above is actually a very short paragraph. At minimum, you should have at least five to seven sentences in your paragraph. Here we can see our paragraph about Wheaton with a few more supporting sentences in bold font:

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep. The third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree. This tree stands two hundred feet tall and Is probably about six hundred years old.

The Concluding Sentence

In formal paragraphs you will sometimes see a sentence at. the end of the paragraph which summarizes the information that has been presented. This is the concluding sentence. You can think of a concluding sentence as a sort of topic sentence in reverse.

You can understand concluding sentences with this example. Consider a hamburger that you can buy at a fast-food restaurant. A hamburger has a top bun (a kind of bread), meat, cheese, lettuce, and other elements in the middle of the hamburger, and a bottom bun. Note how the top bun and the bottom bun are very similar. The top bun, in a way, is like a topic sentence, and the bottom bun is like the concluding sentence. Both buns “hold” the meat, onions, and so on. Similarly, the topic sentence and concluding sentence “hold” the supporting sentences in the paragraph. Let’s see how a concluding sentence (in bold font) might look in our sample paragraph about Wheaton:

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hili, which is unusual because it is very steep. The third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree. This tree stands two hundred feet tall and is probably about six hundred years old. These three landmarks are truly amazing and make my hometown a famous place.

Notice how the concluding sentence, These three landmarks are truly amazing and make my hometown a famous place, summarizes the information in the paragraph. Notice also how the concluding sentence is similar to, but not exactly the same as, die topic sentence.

Not all academic paragraphs contain concluding sentences, especially if the paragraph is very short However, if your paragraph is very long, it is a good idea to use a concluding sentence.

Details in Paragraphs

Whenever possible, include enough details in your paragraphs to help your reader understand exactly what you are writing about. In the paragraph about Wheaton, three natural landmarks are mentioned, but we do not know very much about them. For example, we could add a sentence or two about Wheaton river concerning HOW wide it is or WHY it is beautiful. Consider this revision (and note the additional details in bold):

My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. On either side of this river, which is 175 feet wide, are many willow trees which have long branches that can move gracefully in the wind. In autumn the leaves of these trees fall and cover the riverbanks like golden snow. Also, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep. Even though it is steep, climbing this hill is not dangerous, because there are some firm rocks along die sides that can be used as stairs. There are no trees around this hill, so it stands dearly against the sky and can be seen from many miles away. The third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree. This tree stands two hundred feet tall and is probably about six hundred years old. These three landmarks are truly amazing and make my hometown a famous place.

If we wished, we could also add more details to the paragraph to describe the third natural feature of the area, the Big Old Tree.

Why are details important? Consider the example of the hamburger, mentioned above. If the hamburger buns are the topic and concluding sentences, then the meat, the cheese, the lettuce, and so on are the supporting details. Without the food between the hamburger buns, your hamburger would not be very delicious! Similarly, without supporting details, your paragraph would not be very interesting.

Academic Names

The names of English academic authors normally (’(insist of the first (given) and last (family) names, the given name always being placed before the last name (but, certainly, not in bibliographies), for example, “Richard Winkler.” Sometimes a middle initial is added, e.g. “Dwight K. Stevenson.” Academic names are considered to be formal, although shortened versions of the first names may sometimes be met, e.g. “Bob Jordan” (instead of “Robert Jordan”) or “Liz Hamp-Lyons” (instead of “Elizabeth I lamp – Lyons”). Such a naming practice may not be acceptable for Ukrainian academics accustomed to a more formal style of self­presentation. On the other hand, the Slavic tradition of using patronymics is not generally known to English and international audiences. Ukrainian authors writing in English may be advised, therefore, to use their full first and family names with the observation of appropriate rules of transliteration.

Titles

Titles are important components of academic and research writing, “responsible” for gaining readers’ attention and facilitating positive perceptions of any kind of written research.

Titles may have quite different syntactic structures. The main structural types of English titles are as follows:

1. Nominative constructions, that is titles with one or more nouns as principal elements. E.g.:

Non-verbal Communication and Language Teaching A Script of Today’s Russian Feminist Biography

2. “Colon”-titles consisting of two parts separated by a colon. E.g.: Gossip and insecure Workplace: Look before You Speak Academic Writing for Graduate Students- What Do They Really Need? 3. Verbal constructions, that is titles containing a non-finite form

of a verb as a principal element. E.g.:

Analyzing and Teaching Research Genres

4. Titles in the form of complete sentences. E.g.:

Language is not a Physical Object

Proxemics is Relevant in Foreign Language Teaching Can You Really Trust your Lawyer?

5. Proverbs can be turned around:

The Mossy Rolling Stone.

6. Alliteration:

Switzerland’s Super Skiers.

There are also some other types of titles, which are, however, less widespread in English academic discourse (than, for example, in Ukrainian and Russian ones):

1. Titles beginning with the prepositions on, to, toward(s):

Toward a Sociocultural

Theoiy of Teacher Learning about Student Diversity

On the Reproductive Behavior of the Seal in Atlantic Canada 2. Nominative titles with the conjunction os: Writing as Language

Political Speech as Discourse

Sometimes, articles in the titles may be omitted, e,g.:

Clinical Aspects of Modeling Cancer Growth

Titles of books, plays, movies, music should be capitalized. But do not capitalize articles, conjunctions, or prepositions unless they are the first word of the title, e.g.:

How English Works {a book)

The New Yorker {a magazine)

The Marriage of Figaro (an opera)

My Fair Lady {a movie)

References

In academic literature, a reference is a previously published written work within academic publishing which has been used as a source for

Quotes

When you write a paper related to literature, history, current events, and many other fields, direct quotes may be essential to a full discussion of the subject. In science, there is very rarely any call for a direct quote. On student papers, there is no reason at all to include direct quotes, except in the case when the student doesn’t understand the concept and uses the quote to avoid having to explain it his/hetself. Obviously, this does not go over too well with the grader. As a rule, do not use direct quotes in a scholarly technical paper. Your own thoughts must be expressed, not those of someone else.

In publishing, a reference is citation of a work, in a f< win ole, from which an idea was taken.

A research paper summarizes a study. It does not identify who did what. Reference to instructors, fellow students, teams, partners, etc, are not appropriate, nor is it appropriate to refer to “the lab,”

Acknowledgements

In the creative arts and scientific literature, an acknowledgment (also spelled acknowledgement) is an expression of gratitude for assistance in creating a literary or artistic work.

Receiving credit by way of acknowledgment rather than authorship indicates that the person or organization did not have a direct hand in producing the work in question, but may have contributed funding, criticism, or encouragement to the author(s). Various schemes exist for classifying acknowledgments; Giles & Councill (2004) give the following six categories:

• moral support
• financial support
• editorial support
• presentational support
• instrumental/technical support
• conceptual support, or peer interactive communication. Apart from citation, which is not usually considered to be an acknowledgment, acknowledgment of conceptual support is widely considered to be the most important for identifying intellectual debt. Some acknowledgments of financial support, on the other hand, may simply be legal formalities imposed by the granting institution.

Acknowledgements, i.e. expressions of gratitude to colleagues, sponsors, supervisors, etc,, have become a standard part of English academic papers and research publications. They are usually placed at the end of the paper, or, in case of books, at the beginning before the main text. Acknowledgements also allow the author to demonstrate that he/she is a member of a certain academic community. They are usually written in the first person – I for a single author and we for co-authors.

Below are several patterns of the most widespread elements of acknowledgements:

1. Financial support. E.g.:

This research was supported by a grant from … (e.g., International Fund…)

The work of… was supported by …

2. Thanks to colleagues. E.g.:

/ would like to thank Prof. X for his invaluable commentary and guidance.

3. Thanks to editors and reviewers. E.g.;

/ wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.

We are grateful to the (…) publishers for the permission to use copyright material

The writing process

The assignment writing process consists of several stages. The process is usually described in a linear fashion, proceeding from the first stage to the last in an orderly sequence. In a real writing situation, however, the process is more complex and more ‘messy’ than this linear representation suggests.

As you write, you may develop new ideas or realise that you need more information. This may cause you to change the original plan or consult new reading sources. Some students find this frightening: they feel they are losing control over their writing. If you accept that this ‘messiness’ is an integral part of the writing process, you will manage the situation better as long as you allow enough time for any necessary revisions to the plan or draft.

Stages in the writing process

Understanding the question

The first stage in the process is extremely important because your interpretation of the question has a direct impact on the remaining stages and on the quality and relevance of you answer.

Gathering information

Decide what information you need to tackle the assignment. Your lecture notes and reading list will help you to identify key sources. Other sources of information include; journals (many of which you can access online), electronic databases, statistical information, reports and theses.

It is important to be selective. Bear in mind your deadline for submission and word limit when deciding how much to read. Evaluate sources so that you do not waste time reading materials that are out of date, of poor quality or irrelevant to your question.

Recording information

Take notes as you read, making sure that you record all the information you need to reference your sources properly. Over time, you will develop a note-taking style to suit your preferences, but remember to use your own words if writing full sentences. This will help you to avoid plagiarism. If you think it is important to copy an extract word for word, indicate this clearly in your notes so that you remember to change the words in the assignment.

Planning and structuring the content

First of all, formulate the central idea and write it down in a single sentence or a small number of sentences. Then make an outline of the assignment, clearly showing how you will develop the central idea. The outline must include the different sections and the main points in each section. Next, add the supporting points for each main idea and briefly indicate which sources of information you intend to use. Take a break and then reread your plan to decide whether you need to change or add anything.

Writing the first draft

At the first draft stage, it is advisable to concentrate on the content and structure rather than language and style. Focusing on language and style at this early stage will interrupt the flow of ideas and delay progress. Once you have completed the first draft, put it aside and take a break. Then evaluate your draft and decide what improvements you need to make. Is the argument clear? Have you provided enough evidence to support your claims? Are ideas linked together logically?

Redrafting

This stage involves improving and refining early drafts. When redrafting, you may have to move sentences or paragraphs, delete repeated or unnecessary information, clarify the relationship between main and subsidiary ideas, use linking words to make the connection between ideas more explicit rewrite ambiguous or unclear sentences, and select more appropriate language.

Editing and proofreading

Allow enough time to check your assignment thoroughly before submission. If possible, leave it for a day or two. This will enable you to examine it with some detachment and make any changes that are still needed to ensure that it is clearly and accurately written. Check paragraphing, grammar, word choice, spelling and punctuation, and make sure that all sources are correctly cited in the text and included in the list of references.

Strategies to improve foreign text reading

Are you a good reader in your first language? You might be frustrated because reading ability in English does not match that of your first language. The following ideas could give you some transferable reading strategies that you might have already used when you read in your first language.

The structure of writing

The structure used to present and explain ideas could be different from what you are familiar with in your first language.

You need to be aware of the overall structure of an English language academic text. For example:

The introduction tells readers what to expect.

• The body presents a number of ideas which support or are directly related to the introduction.
• These ideas are then supported by explanations and/or evidence.
• The conclusion reminds readers of what to expect.

Efficient reading

Have a purpose for reading.

Seek answers to questions.

Don’t panic if the answers are wrong — look for other likelihoods and adapt to new perceptions.

Don’t waste time. Try reading the conclusion first, look for summaries and abstracts. Scan the text to see if you can find and understand main ideas.

Take risks

Being correct is not always important: understanding the message is what counts.

Before you read make predictions. If the predictions are wrong you will need to make new predictions.

Take control

Some ideas are difficult to understand. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t understand some of the new concepts in the university texts.

Decide what you MUST read. You can’t read everything on the reading list. The reality is that not even texts expect you to read everything.

Be discriminating about what you read and know your own style.

• Do you like knowledge to be presented with a minimum of words?
• Do graphics help you to follow the written information?
• Some students need to read many words in order to process information and absorb ideas.
• Do you know what your style is?

Adjust the attention you give to the words you are reading. Some words need to be understood. Some words reveal the connections between ideas and so can be important in a certain context. At the same time, there are words whose presence adds little to the message. Active readers decide not to give much attention to these words.

Reading every word slowly and carefully is exhausting. Don’t tax your short term memory by reading too slowly; sometimes reading quickly helps to maintain concentration.’Good readers are confident about their own judgment and decide when to read quickly and when to read carefully and slowly.

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Опубліковано Максим на 16 09 2024. Поданий під Наука. Ви можете слідкувати за будь-якими відповідями через RSS 2.0. Ви можете подивитись до кінця і залишити відповідь.