WU

This is an approach for an entry level course in academic writing for students entering college. It doesn't have any particular prerequisites, but generally presumes that students have graduated from high school with good English.

An entry level course in academic writing does not include some skills (basic English grammar, punctuation, typing, using a word processor), and if students need them, they need to take a study skills or remedial unit.

Basic writing and editing skills apply to all kinds of writing. However, academic writing doesn't cover some other genres such as fiction and how-to books, because they aren't very useful for most college studies.

It would be ideal if students presented papers at a publishable standard of layout and typing, grammar, language style, referencing and bibliography. However, students still make frequent errors during the learning experience.

This page touches upon several of these essential skills that are not explained in other related WU ebooks such as the full style guide and the essay guidelines. The notes below are:

Start: How to write an opinion paper

First, what is an opinion paper? It's an opportunity to present a reasonable, balanced, thought-out view on a particular topic. That's why this kind of writing is so useful for writing letters to the editor in newspapers. It's also helpful to know what it is not. It is not an opportunity for you to fix the world. You can't use it as a soapbox to say what's wrong with the universe or anything else.

Opinion papers are brief, so you don't have a lot of space to spell out all the reasons for it, such as you would in an essay.

Start with an introduction that identifies a particular problem or issue, and say why it is important. Then follow an outline that progresses logically and is easy to understand and follow. Assign the number of words and detail to each point that is proportional to its importance in the paper.

Points to watch:

Be fair if you represent viewpoints other than your own.
If you make generalizations, be careful not to make them too sweeping; that is, so broad that they are incorrect.
They need to be plausible based on the information you have given. You may need to qualify your points, for example, by pointing out any necessary conditions for them to be true, or cases where they don't apply.
It should be easy to understand and help your readers to be sympathetic to your point of view.

Start writing an opinion paper

Your tutor will assign you a general topic.
Decide your opinion on the topic.
Draw a mind map of what you want to say. Do a personal brainstorm and get as many ideas as you can into your rough notes.
Figure out a rough outline. It might help to stand back to get a bird's eye view of your rough notes or mind map. Can you see a big picture that would be a good outline?
Then get your thoughts down on paper without bothering with how good your writing is. Write what you think as you think it. Don't stop.

Assignment: Opinion paper

Write an opinion paper of between 500 and 750 words.

Demonstrate the significance of the problem.
Write an introduction that identifies a particular problem or issue.
Be consistent in your use of terminology.
Use an outline that is easy to understand and follow. It must progress logically.
Give the number of words and detail to each point that is proportional to its importance in the paper.
Clarify which points of your argument are most important and which are less important (if it is relevant to your paper).
Use a line of argument that is fair and responsible.
Use sources fairly and responsibly.
Be fair in representing viewpoints other than your own.
When you make generalizations, they need to be believable, considering the information that you have given.
If you make generalizations, don't be too sweeping. Qualify them as necessary, e.g.:

explain their limitations
mention any kinds of classes of exceptions

Then type it up using the same guidelines as an essay for layout and presentation. It must have accurate grammar and language style, and include a statement of sources.

How to write a book review

A book review is a short article that tells readers about a book and gives a fair evaluation of its main ideas. Most academic and professional journals contain reviews of new books that may interest their readers. The purpose is usually to update readers on new ideas in their field. Authors often submit new books to journals in the hope of a favorable review, so that they will sell more books.

Reviews also have other purposes. Lecturers also ask students to write them as stand-alone assignments to assess their understanding of particular books. Reviews are an essential building block of annotated bibliographies, which in turn are a step to writing a literature review.

A book review normally has the following parts:

Clearly report the author's the main purpose for writing the book.
Clearly report the main points of the book.
Does the book have a particular background that you need to tell your readers about? For example:

What aspects of the writer's background are helpful to interpreting the particular perspective of the authour. For example, if an author wrote about a particular country, is he/she a local person or a vistor? If the person is a vistor, how long did they live there, or are they an academic expert?
Did they work in the field they are describing? If the author was a military veteran writing about a battle, you will interpret what they say quite differently from a young armchair amateur, or a prominent academic writing on the same topic.

Write a critique* identifying any of the following:

its unique features,
its strengths,
its weaknesses,
things that don't make sense (logical fallacies),
topics where it contradicts itself (inconsistencies),
the main ideas that make up the point of the whole book (its constituent elements),
its assumptions, and,
its major implications (i.e. any changees resulting from this book).

You may give your impressions and recommendations. For example, would you recommend the book? If so, who do you think should read it?

Then type it up using the same guidelines as an essay for layout and presentation. It must have accurate grammar and language style, and include include bibliographic details of the book. (See the guide.)

____________
* N.B. Critique does not necessarily mean find fault. You might find that the book is excellent and recommend it. If so, who will it most benefit, and for what particular purpose?

Assignment: Book report

Write a book report of between 750 and 1000 words

Give bibliographic details of the source
Clearly report the main points of the book.
Explain any pertinent assumptions of each point.
Explain any identifiable and distinctive background or contextual features of the book that your readers need to know to correctly interpret it.
Critique* the book by identifying any of the following:

its strengths,
its unique features,
its logical fallacies,
its inconsistencies,
its constituent elements,
assumptions, and,
its major implications

How to write an annotated bibliography

An annotated bibliography is simply a set of organized notes from a reading project on a particular topic or issue. You might like to think of it as a full set of short book reviews on a specific topic.

The preliminaries are simple:

A title
Your name
Date of submission
Your tutor's name

I recommend that you write a brief introduction explaining your purpose. This will most likely be to explore a topic or issue of some kind and say why it is important.

Your content is mostly your list of sources with your comments. While most sources will be books and journal articles, you can also include chapters of large books, anthology articles, articles from major encyclopedias and dictionaries, and Internet sources. You'll need to use a range, and not just Internet sources.

For each item, give the bibliographic details. You already did this in your reviews, so there's nothing new here. You also need to give brief notes and comments on each book relating to your topic. For example, you might say what it's about, why it's relevant and important, what's unique about it, and/or your evaluation of it.

At the end, write some kind of conclusion so your readers know what you concluded from it all. You should mention general patterns, trends, or themes that you can see in the literature. Present your conclusions in an advanced a state as you can justify from the literature. The conclusion should relate to resolving the problem that you started with and described in the introduction.

Then type it up for presentation according to the guidelines.

Assignment: Annotated bibliography

Write an annotated bibliography of between 750 and 1000 words on a topic given by your tutor.

Write an introduction that identifies a particular problem or issue and demonstrate its significance
Use a range of sources (books, journal articles and an Internet search, and other resources when they are appropriate to the topic),
Write a main body of text in which you:
- review each source according to the book review guidelines,
- give general patterns, trends, or themes represented in the literature,
Write a closing section presenting your conclusions for resolving the problem your started out with. Your conclusions should be as advanced possible considering the the literature your have reviewed.