Slideshare based on Advice on Academic Writing, University of Toronto

1. ACADEMIC
WRITING.
Ma. Victoria de la Canal Negri

2. Some General Advice on Academic Essay-
Writing
◦ An essay should have an argument. It should answer a question or a few related questions. It should try
to prove something by reasoning and evidence, especially including apt examples and confirming citations from any
particular text or sources your argument involves.
◦ When an assigned topic does not provide you with a thesis ready-made, your first effort should be to formulate as
exactly as possible the question(s) you will seek to answer in your essay. Next, develop by thinking, reading, and
jotting a provisional thesis or hypothesis.
◦ An essay's organization—how it begins, develops, and ends—should be designed to present your argument clearly
and persuasively.
◦ Successful methods of composing an essay
1) start writing early
2) keep the essay's overall purpose and organization in mind,
3) revise extensively
4) Once they have a fairly complete and well-organized draft, they revise sentences, with special attention
to transitions, diction and economy. Lastly, they proofread the final copy.

3. The Transition from High School to University
Writing
◦ According to Becky Vogan and Jerry Plotnick there are differences between the two institutions in philosophy and
approach:
High School University
Provides formulas. Discourages formulas.
Offers you a ready-made structure to
work with.
Provides freedom for you to come up
with your own way of structuring your
argument.
Teaches just one model for an essay that
you then apply in all of your courses.
Offers discipline-specific guidelines for
approaching written work.
Encourages repetition. Discourages repetition.
Provides rules. Encourages critical thinking.
Rewards you for demonstrating your
knowledge of the material.
Rewards you for engaging in analysis.

4. PLANNING AND
ORGANIZING

5. How do you write an effective
introduction?
Consider these strategies to write an effective and interesting introduction:
◦ Find a startling statistic that illustrates the seriousness of the problem you will address.
◦ Quote an expert (but be sure to introduce him or her first).
◦ Mention a common misperception that your thesis will argue against.
◦ Give some background information necessary for understanding the essay.
◦ Use a brief narrative or anecdote that exemplifies your reason for choosing the topic. In an assignment that encourages personal
reflection, you may draw on your own experiences; in a research essay, the narrative may illustrate a common real-world scenario.
◦ In a science paper, explain key scientific concepts and refer to relevant literature. Lead up to your own contribution or intervention.
◦ In a more technical paper, define a term that is possibly unfamiliar to your audience but is central to understanding the essay.
To avoid some common pitfalls:
◦ Don't provide dictionary definitions, especially of words your audience already knows.
◦ Don't repeat the assignment specifications using the professor's wording.
◦ Don't give details and in-depth explanations that really belong in your body paragraphs. You can usually postpone background material
to the body of the essay.

6. Paragraphs: How do you unify your ideas?
The most effective way to achieve paragraph unity is to express the central idea of the paragraph in
a topic sentence.
A topic sentence has a specific main point.
The topic sentence is the main point of the paragraph.
A topic sentence alone doesn’t guarantee unity unless all the sentences in the paragraph is related to
the topic sentences.

7. How do you develop your ideas in a
paragraph?
The body paragraph demonstrates and develops your topic sentence through an ordered, logical progression of
ideas. There are a number of useful techniques for expanding on topic sentences and developing your ideas in a paragraph.
◦ Illustration in a paragraph supports a general statement by means of examples, details, or relevant quotations.
◦ The definition paragraph does exactly what you would expect: it defines a term, often by drawing distinctions between
the term and other related ones. The definition that you provide will often be specific to your subject area. Try to avoid
perfunctory dictionary definitions that do not inform your analysis in a meaningful way.
◦ The analysis or classification paragraph develops a topic by distinguishing its component parts and discussing each of
these parts separately.
◦ A comparison or a contrast paragraph zeroes in on a key similarity or difference between, for instance, two sources,
positions, or ideas. Decide whether to deal only with similarities or only with differences, or to cover both. Also, keep in
mind that a single comparison can be spread out over two separate paragraphs.
◦ A qualification paragraph acknowledges that what you previously asserted is not absolutely true or always applicable.
◦ The process paragraph involves a straightforward step-by-step description. Process description often follows a
chronological sequence.

8. Topic sentence.
What is a topic sentence?
◦ A topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph: it serves as a mini-thesis for the
paragraph. You might think of it as a signpost for your readers something that alerts them to the
most important, interpretive points in your essay.
◦ Thus topics sentences help protect your readers from confusion by guiding them through the
argument. But topic sentences can also help you to improve your essay by making it easier for
you to recognize gaps or weaknesses in your argument.
Where do topic sentences go?
◦ Topic sentences usually appear at the very beginning of paragraphs

9. How do you write an effective
conclussion?
The following strategies may help you move beyond merely summarizing the key points of your essay:
◦ If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of not
attending to the problem.
◦ Recommend a specific course of action.
◦ Use an apt quotation or expert opinion to lend authority to the conclusion you have reached.
◦ Give a startling statistic, fact, or visual image to drive home the ultimate point of your paper.
◦ If your discipline encourages personal reflection, illustrate your concluding point with a relevant
narrative drawn from your own life experiences.
◦ Return to an anecdote, example, or quotation that you introduced in your introduction, but add
further insight that derives from the body of your essay.
◦ In a science or social science paper, mention worthwhile avenues for future research on your topic.

10. READING AND
RESEARCHING

11. Critical Reading.
◦ Critical writing depends on critical reading. Most of the papers you write will involve reflection on written
texts.
◦ To read critically is to make judgements about how a text is argued.
How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking?
◦ First determine the central claims or purpose of the text.
◦ Begin to make some judgements about context . What audience is the text written for? Who is it in dialogue
with? In what historical context is it written?
◦ Distinguish the kinds of reasoning the text employs. What concepts are defined and used? Does the text
appeal to a theory or theories? Is any specific methodology laid out?
◦ Examine the evidence the text employs.
◦ Critical reading may involve evaluation. Your reading of a text is already critical if it accounts for and makes
a series of judgments about how a text is argued.

12. How to Get the Most Out of Reading
◦ Students often think they need to read fast so they can get through all the material they're asked to deal
with. But there's no point reading and not understanding or remembering what you've seen. A more
important skill is to read with comprehension and memory.
Dealing with new words.
 First, SOUND it out. Use simple phonics to attempt saying the word—try a couple of ways. You
might recognize the word when you hear it.
 Next, examine the STRUCTURE.
 Then look at the CONTEXT. Guess at the word's meaning from the way it is used in the sentence.
 Only then, check the DICTIONARY.
 Then reinforce your understanding by WRITING a usable brief definition or synonym in the margin
of your reading—in pencil, because you won't always need it there.

13. Research Using the Internet
The Net is a tremendous resource, but it must be used carefully and critically. Here are a few basic
guidelines to remember:
◦ Don't rely exclusively on Net resources. Cross-checking information from the Net against
information from the Library is a good way to make sure that the Net material is reliable and
authoritative.
◦ Narrow your research topic before logging on. The Internet allows access to so much information
that you can easily be overwhelmed. Before you start your search, think about what you're looking for.
◦ Know your subject directories and search engines. There are several high quality peer-reviewed
subject directories containing links selected by subject experts.
◦ Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites you use. Doing research on the Net
inevitably means visiting some sites that are useful and many that are not. Keeping track is necessary
so that you can revisit the useful ones later.
◦ Double-check all URLs that you put in your paper. It's easy to make mistakes with complicated
Internet addresses, and typos will make your references useless. To be safe, type them into the
Location box of your browser and check that they take you to the correct site.

14. Previewing
It is common for students to dive into an academic text and begin reading in a hurry,
which is often counterproductive. When reading for academic purposes, it is preferable to read
with certain goals in mind.
◦ Read the title. Titles are chosen to orient the reader and should give a sense of the central
concepts in the text.
◦ Think about the subject matter.
◦ Who wrote this text? What information do you have about this author?
◦ Where was this text originally published? What type of publication is this? Who would be
the audience for this kind of writing?
◦ When was this text originally published?
◦ Read the chapter titles or the headings that break up the chapter or article.
◦ Why has your professor assigned this text? Where does it fit into the course as a whole? What
kinds of facts and ideas are you expected to retain from this reading?

15. Skimming and Scanning
◦ By first skimming a text, you can get a sense of
its overall logical progression. Skimming can also
help you make decisions about where to place
your greatest focus when you have limited time
for your reading.
◦ Scanning is basically skimming with a more
tightly focused purpose: skimming to locate a
particular fact or figure, or to see whether this
text mentions a subject you’re researching.
Scanning is essential in the writing of research
papers, when you may need to look through
many articles and books in order to find the
material you need. Keep a specific set of goals in
mind as you scan the text, and avoid becoming
distracted by other material.

16. USING SOURCES.

17. Use of quotation.
How much should I quote?
The focus of your essay should be on your understanding of the topic. If you include too much
quotation in your essay, you will crowd out your own ideas. Consider quoting a passage from one of your
sources if any of the following conditions holds:
◦ The language of the passage is particularly elegant or powerful or memorable.
◦ You wish to confirm the credibility of your argument by enlisting the support of an authority on your
topic.
◦ The passage is worthy of further analysis.
◦ You wish to argue with someone else's position in considerable detail.
If an argument or a factual account from one of your sources is particularly relevant to your paper
but does not deserve to be quoted verbatim, consider
◦ paraphrasing the passage if you wish to convey the points in the passage at roughly the same level of
detail as in the original
◦ summarizing the relevant passage if you wish to sketch only the most essential points in the passage

18. How do I paraphrase?
Whenever you paraphrase, remember these two points:
◦ You must provide a reference.
◦ The paraphrase must be in your own words. You must do more than merely substitute phrases here and
there. You must also create your own sentence structures.

19. SPECIFIC TYPES OF
WRITING

20. ◦ Book Review or Article Critique
◦ Annotated Bibliography
◦ Literature Review
◦ Academic Proposal
◦ Abstract.
◦ Comparative Essay
◦ History
◦ Literature
◦ Science
◦ Admission letters
◦ Application letters
◦ Lab Reports
◦ Oral presentations

21. REVISING AND
EDITING

22. ◦Revision often means adding or deleting sentences and
paragraphs, shifting them around, and reshaping them as you
go.
◦Edition deals with details of style and language but before
that you should be sure you have presented ideas that are
clear and forceful.

23. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Writing at the University of Toronto. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016