Academic Writing
Features of academic writing
Organisation
Academic writing is well organised. It flows easily from one section to the next in a logical fashion. A good place to start is the genre of your text. Once you have decided on the genre, the structure is easily determined..
Academic writing is well organised. It flows easily from one section to the next in a logical fashion. A good place to start is the genre of your text. Once you have decided on the genre, the structure is easily determined.
Students are asked to write many different kinds of texts. Depending on your subject, these could be essays, laboratory reports, case-studies, book reviews, reflective diaries, posters, research proposals, and so on and are normally referred to as genre families or genres.
Genres are defined by their purpose, their audience and their structure. Looking at typical structures can help you with your organisation.
The following genres are common in higher education.
- Essays
- Reports
- Case-Studies
- Proposals
- Book Reviews
- Brief Reports
- Literature Reviews
- Reflection
- Introductions
- Methods
- Results
- Discussions
- Conclusions
- Abstracts
- Dissetations & theses
Which of the above genre families is expected?
A useful start is your brief or assignment title or question. See: Preparing: Understanding the Task
See: Writing Genres; Writing Paragraphs and Organisation
