itle “ Study on Strategies to Improve Writing
Skills for Academics in a Paragraph”
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A Study On Strategies To Improve Writing Skills For Academics
In A Paragraph
Part A. INTRODUCTION Part B. DEVELOPMENT I. RELATED
LITERATURE REVIEW
I.1. The definition of the word “Academic”
I.2. The definition of Academic writing
I.3. The organization of a paragraph in general
II. FINDINGS ON STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS FOR
ACADEMICS IN A PARAGRAPH
II.1. Strategies of pre-writing
II.1.1. The audience
II.1.2. The purpose
II.1.3. The format
II.2. Strategies of writing process
II.2.1. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar
II.2.1.1. Spelling
II.2.1.2. Punctuation
II.2.1.3. Grammar
II.2.2. Style and tone
Part C. CONCLUSION
A Study On Strategies To Improve Writing Skills For Academics
In A Paragraph
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used in both of life situations as well as a variety of studies such as letter, report,
notice or even diary. Basing on the definition of “Academic”, the set expression
“academic writing” is seen as the use of formal and solemn language in a piece
of writing often found in scientific activities.
I.2. The definition of Academic writing
As for Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue in “Writing Academic English”, “academic
witing” as the name implies, is the kind of writing that you are required to do in
college or university. It differs from other kinds of writing (personal, literacy,
journalistic, business, etc).
In academic writing, there is a variety in kinds of pieces of writing such as:
- Notes (lectures)
- Compositions (included the three parts as: Introduction, Development,
and Conclusion)
- Reports (factual pieces in basic sciences, history, psychology, and so on)
- Projects (concentrated on researches)
- Journal articles
- Thesis and Dissertation
With the view of improving writing skills in term of academic aspects, this study
only concentrates on strategies of how to get an effective paragraph in academic
style and tone.
I.3. The organization of a paragraph in general
The organization of a paragraph is rated at the complete when it contains three
elements of paragraph structure: a topic sentence, supporting sentences and a
concluding sentence. Furthermore, a paragraph is considered effective when it
contains time-order transition signals such as: First, Second, and Third… An
English paragraph is like a sandwich, the topic and concluding sentences are the
audience is will help the sent message reach the goal of communicating in an
effective way, especially in academic writing of a paragraph.
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I.1.2. The purpose
Not only the author should be concerned with the audience, but should be also
concerned with purpose and the topic of the writing. To each kind of writing,
there should be specific and clear purpose with the aims of satisfying the
reader’s entertainments. In academic writing, the purpose are most often
explained, that the reason why the purpose decide which field of study the topic
is related, for example, an article that tries to persuade nuclear power plants are
unsafe has an notice on the physics more than the evidences in politics or the
perspective in the future of a Eastern country using it as a weapon. As a matter
of fact, the author often raises the questions on their minds before starting to
write just as: “Write for whom?”, “For which purpose to write” and so the last
question is that “What to write?”. Dealing with these questions helps the writer
has an over-look on the matter that he/she is facing at, the position of the
standing view becomes more objective and realistic.
I.1.3. The format
Apart from the audience and the purpose factors, there still exists one of the
main elements making pre-writing strategies is that the format of a paragraph in
academic writing. It is obvious that without the factor of audience or purpose,
the effectiveness of the paragraph will be loosened much more than ever;
however, the format is also played an important role in forming a paragraph of
academic standardizations.
For example, the topic of an article is about nuclear weapon, the journalist has to
decide which form/organization and style to write, the persuasive article is
organized in one way, but the expository should be arranged in another way, that
spellings. Using the wrong word of a homophone pair is one of the most
common spelling pitfalls for all writers. Learn to check these types of commonly
misspelled words carefully during the proofreading.
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accept/except
discreet/discrete
oral/aural
adverse/averse
elude/allude
palette/palate
affect/effect
eminent/imminent
populace/populous
altar/alter
ensure/insure
precede/proceed
cite/site/sight
its/it's
there/their/they're
climactic/climatic
led/lead
tortuous/torturous
compliment/complement liquor/liqueur
waver/waiver
conscience/conscious
lose/loose
whose/who's
desert/dessert
naval/navel
your/you're
II.2.1.2. Punctuation
particularly if the learner does extensive reading in English
II.2.2. Style and tone
As a matter of course, the tone and the style of a piece of writing are determined
more by its intended audience and the purpose than by its subjects. The tone of
the writing is seen as the author’s attitude, and the style is the way of the piece
of writing. In academic writing, the style is denoted as the rhetorical form, in
which, the composition should be considered in a variety of styles such as
formal, reasoned, elaborate, serious, objective, unbiased, and knowledgeable.
The author can combine many styles in a composition to make his writing more
informative and persuasive, for example, a scientific article should be elaborate
and reasoned, objective, and unbiased; if possible, explained words in the article
should not be terminology because the intended audience, the general public
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might not understand highly technical or subjective words. In general, the tone
and the style of academic writing are chosen in formal and rhetorical form.
Part C. CONCLUSION
Writing, particularly academic writing is not easy, that is, it takes study and
practice to develop this skill. For both native speaker and new learners of
English, it is important to note that writing is a process, not a “product”. This
means a piece of writing, whether it is a composition for writing a paragraph or
even an essay, is never complete; that is, it is always possible to review and
revise, and review and revise again. This needs a nonstop attempt for a very long
time, so that to start up, the recommended suggestion is to build up with each
branch of an essay, each paragraph in particular.
Due to the condition of sourcing materials and several different reasons, this
study still contains some shortcomings regardless of the willing of the writer; yet