McCoy 1 Michelle McCoy Professor Megan Keaton English 111-09 3 July 2013

Good Academic Writing Every student has written a paper and presented it to a teacher for a grade. This means that good academic writing is something that should be of importance to every student. This can be a challenge to some students for many reasons. There can be someone that may not have the desire to write their ideas out clearly. This can cause them to become frustrated with the entire process. Others may rush to the task and succeed tremendously. No matter the student, the defining traits of good academic writing remain the same. Good academic writing is something that should be taught early on but some may take time to grasp it. Good academic writing is the result of practice with the writing process, a clearly presented topic, and awareness of the audience. The writing process steps can be explained best in five steps. I learned these steps with help from books I read and purchased to see academic levels of writing. One of the books I remember that helped me understand the writing process was, Along these lines writing paragraphs and essays ( Biays, John, Carol Wershoven). The first step is brainstorming. This step is the time where all thoughts on the topic are written down. There are no wrong or right answers when brainstorming. This is mainly because the ideas written down are simply thoughts of what may come to mind when thinking about things to write about for a subject. Some ideas may be used and some may not when brainstorming, the main goal is get whatever came to mind

McCoy 2 about the particular subject on paper. This should be done when focusing on good academic writing. Brainstorming helps most students get ideas together or at least a focal point when writing. This is also a step that is much needed with the writing process because it allows you to think freely and write whatever comes to mind regarding the subject. This is important because it allows a writer to express thoughts without worry of criticism or grading, and instead express any and all views that may be held about a subject. This also provides a good start to how a writer plans to present the first draft. The second step is to organize the ideas. This can be done many ways. Some writers use methods such as mapping and outlines to help organize ideas and information wished to write about. There are no known methods that writers are obligated to use but methods such as mapping and outlining has been proven effective with organizing main ideas and details. An outline helps show the intended points planned to write about and cover within the essay by using a format that shows topic sentences and details to support the topic sentence. A web is also an effective way to organize ideas. This is done by placing a main idea in the center and connecting details and supporting details to the lines that are still connected to its center. Mapping also assists with organizing ideas. This is similar to a web as well. The main point is get your main ideas and details together how you plan to present them. The use of organization is vital because it helps assure that thoughts and ideas presented have an order to them. Organizing thoughts and ideas arrived from brainstorming and knowledge of the given topic leads to good academic writing because it helps a writer present information with less confusion and misinterpretation, making paragraphs easier to follow. It also helps a writer determine what details are necessary to provide and what may need to be taken out depending on the subject.

McCoy 3 The third step is the rough draft. This is the first draft of the ideas after you have organized them. The rough draft can be written more than once and it assists with editing and revision processes. Some writers have been known to write several rough drafts, I myself included. This step is needed with good academic writing because it allows a writer to review written material and make all the desired corrections before submitting the final draft. Rough drafts are usually the beginning forms of good academic writing. This also allows corrections and insight from the audience, such as a professor or classmate. This is optional for the writer to receive insight on their rough drafts, but can be useful to those who choose to take advantage of the option. This third step is a step definitely needed in the writing process. The rough draft is the start to good academic writing. The fourth step of the writing process is editing and revising. After the rough draft has been written it is best to revise it for errors. Spelling and grammar are very important in any essay. This ensures the message is clearly presented and all words used are in proper context and are spelled correctly. Writers have been known to use words out of text and it is important to know the difference between words like then and than when referring to time sequence. This step can be done with the assistance of a teacher or classmate. Most students are reluctant to let someone else read their work, but for the ones that can take criticism, rough drafts can receive feedback from another perspective than just the writer themself. Most times it is best to edit and revise before submitting the final draft. Revision is important to academic writing because writers have time to review and make changes they may not have paid attention to while writing the rough draft. Reading a paper aloud helps give a writer more to work with when hearing how their work sounds. Some writers such as myself use this to ask questions like, am I am staying on topic and should I add something else to support a sentence? To most writers, editing and

McCoy 4 revising are basically the same thing. To others, by definition is not. Revising mostly involves the structure of the essay. Editing by definition involves reviewing the grammar, spelling, punctuations and sentence formats. Both editing and revising are important to good academic writing because it helps a writer make corrections that are needed to the paper before presenting the final draft. The last and final step is the final draft. This step consists of writing the essay after all corrections have been made. The final draft is the finished work. With final drafts, all corrections have to be made and it should be made because this is the polished copy. This is what is presented for grading and should have no errors. The final draft is saying that the essay is complete and has been checked for errors and ready for grading or presenting. Following these steps help result in good academic writing because it is a step by step way to help beginning writers as well as seasoned writers ensure that a paper has good format, organized ideas and proper grammar. These are also suggested steps throughout schools and taught to students of all ages. Good academic writing is presented clearly. No matter what topic is given or chosen, it should not be unclear when presented. This helps eliminate any confusion the reader may have on a presented topic. All points should have a main idea and supporting details to back it up. This is important when reading mainly because most topics require details when spoken about or referred to. An example of this statement, could be an essay that is written about how to make pizza without writing about the toppings used and instead just how long to cook the pizza in the oven. This would confuse the reader mostly because the idea presented should be how to make a pizza and not just how long to cook it. Details are very important to all topic sentences or main ideas written. A good academic writer should not just ramble on and on with no focal point. A

McCoy 5 clearly presented topic gives a reader a wide variety of information and hopefully leaves no room for confusion or misinterpretation. I learned in high school that all topics must have a clear point to allow a reader to understand the point made. If a reader is confused on the topic it is hard to focus on the point intended to make when reading a finished draft. My high school English teacher insisted that all papers were presented clearly and that no questions arose from the given title. I was told that it is pointless to present a fancy title that does not pertain to an essay. This would confuse readers entirely if a title is speaking of cars yet the entire essay is about bikes. A good academic writer is sure of what they are talking about or at least certain of the material written. Most students are reluctant to let someone else read their work, but for the ones that can take criticism, rough drafts can receive feedback from another perspective than just the writer themself. A good academic writer is also aware of the audience. I believe this is a step that is very vital. Although I was not taught this in school, reading different things allowed me to see that the author was aware of the audience when presenting a topic. Certain examples consist of articles that were centered towards youth. Although the author was grown, the language used in the article was catered to youth and made the subject easier to follow and understand. The awareness of the audience allows better ways to present topics along with better insight where needed. If the audience is a class of 5th graders, it would be wise to make sure you are not referring to things that 12th graders are familiar with. The awareness of the audience also helps with writing because it may not be useful to go through explaining antics presented by your peers if the teacher is the audience that is being presented to. The teacher may not be concerned with the antics of your peers unless that is the topic being presented. None the less, an audience

McCoy 6 awareness makes it easier when presenting material and helps avoids confusion or for work to be misconstrued. In conclusion, using the steps of the writing process, awareness of the audience and making sure that the topic written about is presented clearly, will assist in assuring that presented information is at least by definition and teaching throughout schools, good academic writing.