Academic writing requirements
Writing academically means following certain particular characteristics which distinguish academic writing from other types of writing styles. It has its own set of rules and genres for instance the use of a particular kind of language and technique and specific writing styles. These features are closely related to the different characteristics that a discourse community has to have in order to be recognized as such (Pintos & Crimi, 2010 b).
The purpose of this work is to analyze Myles’ (2002) article and find examples of the specific features which characterize academic writing, such as acknowledging of sources, introductory phrases and use of reporting verbs. In addition, analysis of the American Psychology Association (APA) requirements is compared to those used by Myles in his work.
There are many systems to cite sources and avoid plagiarism in the academic field (Pintos & Crimi, 2010 a). According to APA (2006), writers employ a combination of in-text citations to sustain their arguments. Myles (2002) makes use of a variety of in-text citations in her article following APA rules for academic writing in order to validate her claims about second language writing.
APA (2006) establishes three systems for integrating in-text citation in an academic writing: quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing. The uses of them give credibility to the writing, support the author’s arguments, and provide examples of different points of view on the writing topic among others.
Miles (2002) recurs to a combination of quotations, paraphrases and summaries which sustain her arguments, give credibility to her work and attempts to obviate plagiarism. For instance,
The nature of academic literacy writing often confuses and disorients students, particularly those who bring with them a set of convention that are odds with those of the academic world they are entering (Kutz, Groden & Zamel, 1993, p.30)
According to APA (2006) style, “in-text citation consists of a combination the author’s last name, date of publication, and location reference, all separated by commas” (as cited in Purdue Owl, 2006, para. 1) and there are different modes of citing sources. “(Grabe & Kaplan, 1996)”, “Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) also propose...” exemplify the accurate usage of APA (2006) rules and the variety of in-text citation which Myles (2002) utilizes in her article to crediting her arguments.
As regards long quotations, APA (2010) states that a block quotation that it is longer than 40 words should start in a new line separated from the text, indented five spaces from the left margin and quotation marks should be omitted (cited in Purdue Owl, 2010). In Myles’ (2002) article two quotations are found. By using block quotations in her paper, the author avoids omitting any important word which can destroy the integrity of original source. For instance, when she cites Mc Laughlin
[L]earners lack the necessary information in the second language or the attentional capacity to activate the appropriate second-language routine. But such an account says little about why certain linguistic forms transfer and others do not. (1988, p. 50)
Another requirement for academic writing is the use of introductory phrases and reporting verbs, being both closely related. Pintos and Crimi (2010 a) state that “the key to good writing is using a variety of structures and lexis” (p. 22). To make writing more academic, it is necessary to employ a diversity of formal language and this variation is given by the use of different reporting verbs in introductory phrases (Pintos & Crimi, 2010 a).
Introductory sentences are a means of in-text citations. They are composed by the source and the main idea (Pintos & Crimi, 2010 a). Myles (2002) employs a diversity of introductory phrases and reporting verbs. For instance, “Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) also propose…”, “The Flower and Hayes (1980, 1981) model focuses on…”, “According to Bialystok (1998)” are found in her article. Thus, Myles (2002) gives her paper an academic tone with a rich of structures and styles.
Considering that reporting verbs are fundamental to write an appropriate academic writing, Myles (2002) applies a range of reporting verbs such as point out, stress, advocate, argue, state, observe, analyze, mention and many other to make her writing flows smoothly and to provide it with a variety of structures. In addition, Myles’ (2002) use of reporting verbs helps her to include in her writing the ideas of other writers who support her concepts avoiding plagiarisms.
All in all, writing academically implies the application of a wide assortment of requirements which provides academic writing with particular features and it can be distinguished from other types of writing. The aim of this work is to analyze, compare and provide examples of the requirements of academic writing styles such as sources acknowledging, introductory phrases and reporting verbs established by APA (2006) in Myles’ (2002) article. By employment of the different APA rules the author gives her paper an academic tone with an extensive variety of structures and styles.
References
Myles, J. (2002). Second language writing and research: The writing process and error
analysis in student texts. TESEL-EJ 6 (2) Queen’s University. Retrieved October 2010
Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2010 a) Unit 2 Personal narratives in teaching. Retrieved September
Pintos, V. & Crimi, Y. (2010 b) Unit 3 Academic writing Retrieved October 2010, from
Purdue OWL. (2006).Quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing. Retrieved August 2010,
http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/course/view.php?id=54
Purdue OWL. (2010). In-text citations: The basics. Retrieved August 2010, from
http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/course/view.php?id=54
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