Academic Writing

By Nicola Nakashima

Topics

Academic writing

Academic honesty and plagiarism

Academic assignments

Introduction to Referencing

Harvard Referencing Style

Introduction to Academic Writing

Introduction to Academic Writing

• Used in universities for assignments

• Written for a specific audience – scholars in your field of study

• Has an argument – presents different views for better understanding of the subject

• It is an analysis – engages in an inquiry, open to multiple suggestions

• Has a clear structure and uses formal language

Characteristics of Academic Writing

• Use of correct grammar and punctuation • Uses cautious language • Avoids subjective and emotive language • Is precise and concise • Uses linking words and phrases • Uses correct referencing • Clear language • Formal writing style

Cautious Language• Language that is not cautious

Kotter’s (2010) research shows that marketing indeed leads to profitability.

• Cautious language

Kotter’s (2010) research would appear to show that marketing could lead to profitability.

Concise Language

Not concise:

• Owing to the fact that differentiation creates a competitive advantage (Porter, 2004) ….

Concise:

• Because differentiation creates a competitive advantage (Porter, 2004) ….

Precise Language

Not precise:

• Inflation in Sri Lanka is low.

• The US dollar is expensive in Sri Lanka.

Precise:

• Inflation in Sri Lanka is at ..% this year (….., xxxx).

• The US dollar was at an average of … LKR in 2016 (….., xxxx)

Subjective and Objective Language

• Subjective

Brown’s (2005) contribution to the field of strategy is extremely important because...

• Objective

Brown (2005) made a significant contribution to the field of strategy because…

Formal Writing Style

• Don’t use texting language

• Avoid using SMN language

• Avoid etc. e.x. %. i.e.,

• Always spell out words in academic writing –

For an example, percent, that is…..

Contradictions

• Don’t use

Can’t, Won’t, Isn’t, Shouldn’t

• Use

Cannot, Would not, Is not, Should not

Always spell out these words

First Party/Person Language

• First party language (do not use):

I, Me, Mine, We, Us, Ours….

Third Party/Person Language

• This report will discuss the effect of…

• The researcher found that the results seemed to indicate …

• It could be argued that..

• The results appeared to show that...

Second Party/Person Language

• Use second party language as linking reference words

He, She, His, Hers, They, Them

• Note: The in-text citation should be directly given within the sentence

In-text citation

• Porter (2006) conducted research on the potential profitability of an industry.

• Research was conducted on the potential profitability of an industry (Porter, 2006).

DIRECT CITATION

INDIRECT CITATION

Using Second Person Language

• Porter (2006) conducted research to identify the forces influencing an industry’s profitability. Further, he presented three generic strategies to overcome these forces.

REFERENCE WORD: You can refer to the source as HE / SHE / THEY and you don’t have to use in-text citation again.

Direct Quotes

• Porter (2006, p.118) referred to these as the “forces influencing the profitability of an industry”. Indeed, hesuggests that …..

or

• An industry analysis can be conducted to identify the “forces influencing the profitability of an industry” (Porter, 2006, p. 118).

INDIRECT CITATION

DIRECT CITATION

Requirements of Academic Writing

• A clear structure – Where do you get the structure from?

• An objective – What is the objective of your assignment?

• Acknowledgement of all sources that you used – Where do you find your sources and which types can you use?

Active and Passive Voice

• Use an active voice in academic writing.

• Don’t use a passive voice.

Video: 5 tips to improve academic English.

Achieving clarity and accuracy

• Use short words, rather short sentences, and plain language.

• Avoid using two or more words with the same meaning: new innovation, past history.

• Use British spelling conventions: behaviour, colour instead of behavior, color; analyse, generalise instead of analyze, generalize.

• Use your spell checker: correct spelling and punctuation is essential in academic writing.

Academic Honesty

Providing Evidence

• Unlike other forms of writing, all claimsmade in academic writing must be backed up by evidence

• In academic writing, you must provide appropriate justification for your claimsthrough arguments and evidence.

Referencing

• All claims made in academic writing should be backed up with reference.

• All your sources, including tables, charts or photos, must be acknowledged through references.

• In-text citation (within sentences) and end-text citation (reference list) should be provided

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Over the past thirty decades, strategy has been a highly-researchedtopic in academic literature. Yet, no universal definition for strategy hasemerged (Ulwick, 1999; Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel, 2005; Ansoff,2007). For instance, one school of thought witnesses’ strategy as aconceptual process where organisations match their capabilities to theopportunities presented in the external environment (Selznick, 1962;Chandler, 1998; Andrews, 1971). On the other hand, another school ofthought views strategy as formal process where organisations undergoa set of prescribed steps to adapt to the environment (Ansoff, 2007).Whereas, Porter (1996, p.45) argues that ‘‘strategy is the creation of aunique and valued position, involving a different set of activities”.These definitions of strategy are more prescription to formulating astrategy rather than defining what strategy is. Nevertheless, strategy isvital to organisations.

Sample academic writing

Academic Honesty

• If you understand the reasons for referencing it is evident why you should not pass off work of others as your own.

• Failing to reference appropriately could result in your assessors thinking you are guilty of plagiarism – the act of using somebody else’s work or ideas as your own.

Plagiarism

• Using someone else’s words or ideas without properly acknowledging them – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own.

• Deliberate or inadvertent and even if you reference an author but your words are considered too close to the original work you can be accused of plagiarism.

• It is very important that you take steps to avoid plagiarism and learn to reference correctly.

Characteristics of Plagiarism

• Copying information from any source without acknowledgement (web, book, magazines, journals, papers).

• Writing about someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

• Writing about someone else’s ideas without giving a reference.

• Using someone else’s words exactly without indicating that it is a direct quote and including the reference.

Characteristics of Plagiarism• Using more or less the same words as

another writer even if you acknowledge their work.

• Copying another student’s work or letting another student copy from you.

• Submitting work written for you by another person.

• Downloading chunks of text from the Internet and putting them together to form an essay.

How to avoid Plagiarism

• Get into the habit of taking down full references when making notes so you know where the ideas have come from.

• Don’t forget to make a note of the URL and date accessed for any web based information.

How to avoid Plagiarism

• Do not copy word for word when making notes.

• Try reading a paragraph at a time and then summarising the main points using your own words.

• This is an alternative way of referring to an author's ideas and is called paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing & Summarising

Paraphrasing

• Essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form by you.• one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.• A more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single main idea.

Paraphrasing

Preferable to direct quotes.Citing page number is optional.

Usually shorter than the original.

Condense, reframe, and restructure the author’s idea.

Relate author’s ideas to your own ideas, perspective, and

argument.

Placing ideas or information from a source in your own words

Read passage until you understand its

meaning

Consider context of assignment: What will

you do with this evidence?

Look away from passage to write main points of

what you read

Cite source in your paraphrase

Summarizing

• Providing a brief account of someone else’s work, concentrating on the main points and omitting the details.

• involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Academic Paragraphs

Academic ParagraphsDivide your text into meaningful paragraphs. This makes it

easier for you to develop your argument, and for the reader to follow it.

Each paragraph should contain one main idea or topic.

The idea or topic is often introduced in the opening sentence. The rest of the paragraph is then used to give examples, evidence, definitions and further explanations of the idea/topic.

Avoid paragraphs of just one or two sentences.

Paragraph MEAL Plan

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Over the past thirty decades, strategy has been a highly-researchedtopic in academic literature (Main idea). Yet, no universal definition forstrategy has emerged (Ulwick, 1999; Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel,2005; Ansoff, 2007) (Main idea + Evidence). For instance, one school ofthought witnesses’ strategy as a conceptual process whereorganisations match their capabilities to the opportunities presented inthe external environment (Selznick, 1962; Chandler, 1998; Andrews,1971) (Evidence). On the other hand, another school of thought viewsstrategy as formal process where organisations undergo a set ofprescribed steps to adapt to the environment (Ansoff, 2007)(Evidence). Whereas, Porter (1996, p.45) (Evidence) argues that‘‘strategy is the creation of a unique and valued position, involving adifferent set of activities”. These definitions of strategy are moreprescription to formulating a strategy rather than defining whatstrategy is (Analysis). Nevertheless, strategy is vital to organisations(Link + Signal)

Sample academic paragraph

Focusing sentence (MAIN IDEA)

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• This is often called the topic sentence.

• It explains what the paragraph is about, most often by making a single claim or statement.

• Most topic sentences are the first sentence of the paragraph.

• They transition from the content of the prior paragraph, establishing a relevant connection between the two ideas.

• A topic sentence may appear at the end of a paragraph only if a substantial connection to the prior paragraph has been established at the start of the current paragraph.

Supporting evidence (Referenced sentences)

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• This is the proof from other academic sources used to support each topic sentence. Forms of this include

• Data, facts, and figures

• Charts, graphs, and tables

• Illustrations, and descriptions

• In all cases, proper summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting using the appropriate style for in-text citation and documentation is expected.

Discussion (ANALYSIS)

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• Discussion involves the use of your own words and ideas to build connections between each item of support, between each item of support and the topic sentence, and between the topic sentence and the primary goal of the assignment (the purpose and/or thesis)

• Discussion explains a connection which the writer sees but which the reader might not see.

• Discussion must precede and follow each item of support evidence, which is the reason why two or more quotes cannot be stuck together back-to-back-to-back.

• Use references words such as “These, This, Those, Such, It…”

Coherence

Coherence means that the text within paragraphs is well linked, and that the paragraphs are linked with each other. Coherence can be achieved with linking words and phrases.

Linking Words

Commonly used:

• Additionally Nonetheless• Moreover Furthermore• Nevertheless Further• In addition Correspondingly• However This suggests• On the contrary This implies• In contrast Likewise • Similarly Accordingly

Reporting Verbs

Reporting verbs help you express clearly:

• State

• Argue

• Emphasize

• Conclude

• Elaborate

• Describe

Activity - Paraphrase

“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating,

communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer

relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders”

Author: AmericanMarketing Association

Year: 2008

Activity - Paraphrase

“Marketing is a customer focus that permeates organizational functions and processesand is geared towards making promises through value proposition, enabling thefulfilment of individual expectations created by such promises and fulfilling suchexpectations through support to customers’ value-generating processes, therebysupporting value creation in the firm’s as well as its customers’ and otherstakeholders’ processes”

Author: Gro nroos

Year: 2006

Activity - Paraphrase

“Marketing as a phenomenon represents the customer focus of an organization.

However, marketing both as a management practice and as an academic discipline

seems to be in crisis”

Author: Marketing Renaissance

Year: 2005

Types of Information to Reference

• Thoughts, ideas, definitions or theories

• Research and other studies

• Statistics

• Information from the Internet, including images and media

• Designs or works of art

• Facts that are not common knowledge

What not to Reference

Common knowledge

Example: Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

Academic Assignments

Academic Assignments

• Either reports or dissertations/projects

• Has a clear structure

• Starts with an introduction

• Presents a main body (argument)

• Ends with a conclusion

• Uses referencing (in-text citation and end-text citation/reference list)

Academic Assignments

• Uses journals, newspaper articles, government reports, books or specific chapters of books.

• Don’t use wikipedia, blogs, general websites, slideshare.com, mind tools etc

Signposting/Signaling

• Signposting is an important feature of academic writing which enables the reader to follow your development of the topic.

• You need to signal how the various sections of your writing link together, and what you are going to discuss next and why.

There are two aspects to signposting:

1) saying where you are2) saying where you are going

The Elements of a Good Paper

The Introduction

The Body Paragraphs/Main-Text/Main-Body

The Conclusion

Introduction

• The Introduction sets the scene. • It introduces the question/problem and explains

the purpose and focus of the paper.• It provides definitions of the key term(s). • Finally, the Introduction outlines in summary

form how you are going to deal with the topic, and the various stages you will take before reaching the Conclusion. If appropriate, you also may state here why the topic is relevant to you, for instance in relation to your professional context.

Main Text/Body

• The Main Text includes a critical review of the literature.

• Based on this review, you will develop your argument.

• Most assignments ask for theory to be related to a real organization.

• Information on practical examples should be linked back to theory and state if it is supported or not.

Conclusion

The Conclusion should give the reader the clear impression that the purposes of the assignment have been achieved.It typically includes:

– A summary of the main points (discussed in the Main Text)– Concluding statements drawn from these points

The Introduction and Conclusion must link together; at the end of your paper, you should look back at the goals you set out in the Introduction and discuss how you achieved them.

Harvard Referencing

Referencing

Why do I need to provide references in my work?

• To show anyone who reads your work that you understand the topic and can demonstrate your own thoughts on this.

• To demonstrate that you have read widely and deeply.• To enable the reader to locate where you obtained each

quote or idea.• By providing a reference to the original source you are

acknowledging that you have read the work and recognize the original author(s) ideas.

Referencing

Why do I need to provide references in my work?

• To demonstrate that you have read widely and deeply.

• To enable the reader to locate where you obtained each quote or idea.

• By providing a reference to the original source you are acknowledging that you have read the work and recognize the original author(s) ideas.

Referencing

When do I need to reference?

• In academic reports, essays and projects for the sources that you have used.

Citations and references

• In-text citations are to be used in the main-body of the assignment.

• The in-text citation is a pointer to the items in the reference list.

• Failing to provide in-text citations could lead to being accused of plagiarism.

Reference list

• The reference list should include details for everything that you cite in your assignment. It should be in alphabetical order by author with all the different types of material in one sequence

• A reference list should always be included

Bibliography

• Cite work you used for background information.

• Also known as the sources of reading.

• These sources are not referred in your body of work.

• List everything that was useful to prepare the assignment but which you didn’t cite.

Harvard Referencing Style

• In the Harvard system, the author's surname and year of publication are cited in the text of your work.

• The full details of the source are included in a reference list at the end of the assignment.

• This system does not use footnotes or endnotes.

In-text citation

• Direct citation

• In-direct citation

Direct Citation Format

Grant (2012) argues that resources andcapabilities are the primarily sources ofcompetitive advantage that firms centrally focusas a strategy.

Author’s last name appears outside of the brackets

A reporting verb is always used

Indirect Citation Format

Resources and capabilities are the primarilysources of competitive advantage (CA) that firmscentrally focus as a strategy (Grants, 2012).

Author’s last name appears inside of the brackets

More than one author cited in the text

• Smith (2010) and Jones (2015) have both shown …

• Further research (Smith, 2010; Jones, 2015) led to major developments …

Citing multiple authors (Synthesizing the literature)

In other words, a manager’s duty is to convertinputs in to outputs with greater value (Grant,2012; Slack et al, 2012). In fact, retaining ofcompetencies leads to sustainable CA anddepends on the skills of managers (Ward andPeppard, 2002; Yang, 2006). Similarly, anorganisation’s health depends on sufficientresources and strategic competencies(Hinterhuber, 2013; Nasution and Mavondo,2008).

Two or three authors for a work

White and Brown (2004) in their recent research

paper found …

Recent research (White and Brown, 2004) suggeststhat…..

Further research (Green, Harris and Dunne, 1969) showed

Three or more authors for a work

Green et al. (1995) found that the majority …

Recent research (Green et al., 1995) found that the majority of …

‘et al’ in Latin means ‘and others’

Several works by one author in different years

As suggested by Brown (1992; 1994) who found that

Research in the nineties (Brown, 1992; 1994) found that …

Several works by one author in the same year

Earlier research by Smith (1993a) found that…but later research suggested again by Smith (1993b) that …

Kotter (1993a; 1993b) stated on more than one occasion that …

Secondary sources (second-hand references)

Research recently carried out by Brown (1995,cited in Cooper, 2005, p.142) found that …

Note:– Use a minimum of secondary referencing.– Always try to download the original article, read

it and use it as a source.– If you are unable to access the original

publication, you can use secondary referencing.

Reference List (end-text citation/end reference list)

Link your references

• If you cite it in the text, then it MUST appear in the reference list

• If you list it in the reference list, then it must have been cited in the assignment

Purpose of a Reference list

• Provides full information to the reader of the original sources that you cited

Information in References

1. The author(s) of the work (a person, people or corporate body)

2. The year of publication

3. The title

4. Publishing data

Reference List

One author book:

Bell, J. (2005) Doing your research project. 4th

edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2007) The health needs of young people leaving care. San Francisco: Addison-Wesley.

Reference List

Online book (E-book):

Henry, W. (1823) The elements of experimental chemistry. Google Books [Online]. Available at: http://books.google.lk/books?id=E7OkpIXzVPoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+elements+of+experimental+chemistry&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jivrUrCiMoulrQe6m4FQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=The%20elements%20of%20experimental%20chemistry&f=false (Accessed: 30 January 2014).

Reference List

Online Journal Article:

Bass, B.M. (1997) ‘Personal Selling and ransactional/Transformational Leadership’, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales and Management, 17 (3), pp. 19 – 28 [Online]. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com(Accessed: 1 October 2010).

Reference List

Journal Article (DOI):

Burke, R.J. (2006) ‘Why leaders fail: exploring the darkside’, International Journal of Manpower, 27 (1), pp. 91 – 100. DOI: 10.1108/01437720610652862 (Accessed: 1 October 2010).

Reference List

Website:

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2010) Leadership: an overview. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk (Accessed: 15 October 2010).

Topics Covered

Academic writing

Academic honesty and plagiarism

Academic assignments

Introduction to Referencing

Harvard Referencing Style

Thank you!