Writing at postgraduate level
Dr. Rosemary Wilson
Dept. of Applied Linguistics
and Communication
Postgraduate Orientation: September 2012
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Academic writing in English
keeps to the focus of the task/question
sets out the writer’s point of view
develops and investigates one point at a time
moves from one point to the next to develop
that point of view
Key features of academic writing in English
Ideas are
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presented in a logical order
supported with evidence
presented objectively
expressed following the conventions of academic
language
What is the structure of
academic writing in English?
This is what I am going to say.
Here I am saying it.
That is what I said.
So an essay has…
Introduction – general statements to provide a
context/background and your thesis statement /focus
Body:
a series of linked paragraphs
developing the focus that you
stated in your introduction
Conclusion:
a summary of what you have said;
possible speculation on the issues you have raised
So the paragraph has…
Topic sentence: what the paragraph is about
Development of this point
with supporting evidence
Summary
(and link to the next paragraph)
And the next paragraph has…
Topic sentence
linking back to the previous paragraph
Development with supporting evidence
Summary
(and link to the next paragraph)
Example: paragraph structure
The term ‘bilingualism’ is used in linguistics to refer to
speaking two languages and its definition is a matter of
debate related to individual language competency….
(development + sources)
Although monolingual speakers are now in the minority
worldwide (Graddol 1997) , there is still a popular view that
the ‘ultimate attainment’, to use Cook’s term, is to achieve
native-speaker competence.
The kind of popular image of bilinguals that Cook
discourages is that of individuals who are equally
competent in both languages and indistinguishable from a
native speaker in both.
Example: linking points
The studies described above incorporated ratings by
independent observers to a greater or lesser extent, as well
as the participants’ own narratives or self-report
inventories…..
So far, the studies described have taken as their
participants groups of bilinguals and focused on aspects of
their language use at the point in time of the particular
study, with little reference to their preceding language
learning histories. We shall now consider personal
accounts, both written and oral, of individual language
learning histories and the effect of the process on selfperception.
Citation as support for a statement
We each have at our disposal a verbal
repertoire from which we select different
varieties in different situations for different
purposes (Trudgill 1983).
Direct quotation within a sentence
Cook (2002) goes further and suggests that
the term bilingual has so many contradictory
definitions and associations that ‘it seems best
to avoid it whenever possible’ (2002: 4),
offering instead the term ‘L2 user’.
Longer direct quotations
Comparison of the scores of individuals
suggested that they tended to retain their
position in the group but the results for the
whole of the group shifted, thus:
‘an extravert does not suddenly become an
introvert as she switches languages; instead a
bilingual becomes more extraverted when she
speaks English than Spanish.’
(Ramirez-Esparza et al 2006: 115)
An interesting explanation offered for these
findings is the tendency to self-enhancement…
Weaving in your source
In one of her most autobiographical works, Nord Perdu (Huston 1999), she
notes that her immersion in a new culture brings home to her aspects of
her personality of which she had not previously been aware. She notes
that she found an unexpected Puritanism in herself when faced with the
‘farniente’ of Provence and the southern Mediterranean. But ‘le plus gros
morceau’, the biggest bit, is the language. When she makes an error in the
gender of a noun, for example, she notes with terror that her interlocutors
spot the ‘vrai vous’ and accuse her:
‘ Ah, c’est que vous êtes un ALIEN! Vous venez d’un autre pays et vous
cherchez nous le cacher, à vous travestir en Français, en francophone.. ‘
(Huston 1999: 33)
(Aha! You’re really an ALIEN! You come from another country and you’re
trying to hide it from us and pretend to be French and a French speaker.)
Huston is part of a long literary tradition of writers who have chosen to
write in French even though it is not their first language. An extreme
example is the French novelist Romain Gary…
What can I do to make my writing
more academic?
• Note how the ideas in the books and articles that you read on
your course are presented and expressed
• Invest in two very useful little books in the Palgrave Macmillan
Pocket Study Skills series (£5.99 each!)
Writing for University (K. Williams)
Getting Critical (J. Godfrey)
• Enrol for a short course at Birkbeck focussing on writing:
Academic Writing for Postgraduates (one term)
Academic Writing for Native Speakers (one term)
And finally…..
Remember that writing is a process of
drafting, redrafting, revising and editing
and so takes time.