This lesson begins by asking several important questions: What is academic writing?

What does it mean

to write in the register of academic discourse? What are the significance of the terms “academic,”
“documented,” and “scholarly” when describing words produced by students and researchers? This lesson
is divided into two main parts: (1) the register of academic discourse and (2) research and documentation
in the twenty-first century.

Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Know the characteristics of academic writing by reading excerpts from academic papers;
2. Write a paragraph using a register (language and style) appropriate to the academic context;
3. Know the principles and methods of and research in the twenty-first century;
4. Evaluate and select sources of information on a relevant topic; and
5. Organize bibliographic information from a variety of sources into a sample reference list.

Academic Writing

Many people, students included, believe that academic writing means “sounding like a research paper”
which they associate with (1) “highfaluting”’ or jargon-filled language, (2) a stiff style and the absence of
the writer’s voice or opinion, and (3) boring and rehashed topics. These are common misconceptions. In
truth, the label “academic” refers to a student’s informed, scholarly, and insightful contribution to on-
going discussions of relevant topics or issues. Thus, it is important to clear such misconceptions about
academic writing.

SPECIFIC AND CLEAR LANGUAGE

ACADEMIC WRITING SHOULD NOT SOUND POMPOUS.

Academic writing should not be difficult to read because academic knowledge is meant to be shared with
others. Besides, obscure and pompous prose is irritating. Instead of using unnecessarily difficult words- or
falling prey to the “thesaurus syndrome” of looking for the longest possible synonym for a word-students
should aim for precise and appropriate language.

Specifically, one should write in the register or style of academic writing. This means following the rules
of Standard English or avoiding usages that are considered ungrammatical or non-standard. This also
means avoiding language used in colloquial or conversation and informal contexts. For example, when
one is talking casually with close friends or family members, conversational shortcuts or contradictions
such as “I’m” for “I am” and “don’t” for “do not,” are common, so are other shortcuts like “kinda,”
“sorta” and “wanna” for “kind of,” “sort of,” and “want to.”

Other terms one should avoid or use with care are technical or specialized terms that are specific to a
professional discourse community. For instance, when lawyers converse with each other, they use
“legalese” such as “bench trial” for a trial without a jury and the Latin reclusion perpetua for life
imprisonment. Doctors communicate with one another using such medical terms and shortcuts such as
“CBC” for “complete blood count” and “stat” from the Latin statinum, meaning immediately.

When these words are used for an audience or readers outside of the discourse community, they are
unnecessarily difficult. At times, there may be a need to include some technical terms from the discipline
or area one is writing about. If this is the case, definitions of these terms should be provided for readers
unfamiliar with them.

Quite importantly, academic writing is also characterized by bias-free language, which was discussed at
length in Chapter 1. A student, scholar, or academic should be careful to use words and phrases that do
not discriminate against particular groups, whether in terms of race, gender, age, social class, or disability.
This is why most academics no longer use “he” as the generic pronoun for both men and women or
“man” as the sweeping term for all humans. Academics are also careful to avoid offensive terms such as
“Jesus killer” (for Jews), “lady president,” “little old woman,” “redneck,” and “retard.”

A Balanced and Credible Voice

Besides using clear and specific language, academic writing should not be stiff or stilted and somber in
tone. The writer’s voice need not disappear entirely, but this voice should sound credible and, therefore,
balanced, objective, and not overly emotional. In academic writing, this means doing away with emotive
punctuation marks like exclamation points, whether single (!) or multiple (!!!), and dramatic ellipses (…)
used as a way of trailing off.

Many students believe that writing “I” in an essay is somehow wrong, but this is not true for all types of
academic papers. In some disciplines, one has the choice of writing more formally either using the third
person point of view (e.g., “This researcher believes that”) or in what Professor Lynn Bloom calls the
“Middle Level” of language. This is “somewhat less personal” than the informal level, and while it allows
the use of personal pronouns like I and you, “the author’s personality and reactions are more subdued”
(1995).

Moreover, the writer’s voice in an academic paper seems more subdued because of the focus on
supporting examples or on other people’s voices. A writer may begin with an original argument or thesis
and say, “In this essay, I argue that….” She or he then proceeds to support this argument with facts,
concrete illustrations and examples, and other evidence. As the tagline of Google Scholar suggests,
researchers and scholars “stand on the shoulder of giants” or discover truths by building on previous
discoveries. Essentially, the student’s opinions, reactions, and analyses should build upon and be
supported by other people’s voices and opinions.

Socially and Culturally Relevant Topics

One final important myth to debunk is that academic papers deal with topics that are likely to bore both
the writer and the reader.

In reality, Student writers are often allowed to select their own topics within a more general area specified
by the teacher, the course, or the discipline. Academics often identify their research interests, that is,
subjects or questions that they are eager to engage with and study. Later, when they have studied more on
these subjects, these research interests become areas of expertise. A student should begin by considering
the topics that are particularly interesting and relevant for him/her. There are the topics s/he would like to
find out more about.

It is also essential to consider such topics or research areas in light of their social and cultural
significance. Academic papers are read by members of the academic community – professors, fellow
students, future students, and other scholars – as well as researchers outside the community, like
journalists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, etc. What students should write, therefore, be both interesting and
useful to this larger community, and it is the writer’s task to help them to better understand the topic or to
see it in a new way.

Documented Essays

The term “academic” suggests more than just the style and tone of writing.

An essential aspect of an academic paper is its credibility and its contribution to scholarly studies.
“Documented essay” is another term for “academic paper”; here, the term “documented “emphasizes that
any kind of scholarly or academic writing requires the writer to (1) read and gather information from a
variety of relevant sources on a chosen topic, (2) clearly acknowledge these supporting sources, and (3)
add to scholarship by selecting, arranging, commenting on, or even debunking the information from these
sources.

Documented Essays versus Standard Essays

Both a standard essay and documented essay consists of an introduction with an explicitly stated central
argument or thesis, three or more supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, while in a standard
essay, generally known facts and personal experiences of the writer are sufficient to support the thesis, the
documented essay requires concrete supporting information from relevant sources.

Moreover, in this type of essay, when these sources or any material quoted, paraphrased, or summarized
from them are mentioned, there is an explicit acknowledgement or citation of these sources. Failure to
properly cite a source results in the deadliest of academic sins: plagiarism.
Plagiarism, along with its various forms and implications, is explained in an illuminating and entertaining
essay entitled “What is Plagiarism?” written by Teresita Gimenez-Maceda, a professor of Philippine
Studies and Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines. As she gives examples of
plagiarism cases, the author also explains why plagiarism is considered a deadly sin.

What is Plagiarism? Teresita Gimenez-Maceda

1. Every semester at the start of every class, whether undergraduate or graduate, I emphasize one
rule: DO NOT PLAGIARISE. Then I go on to give lecture on the “crime” of plagiarism.
2. Simply explained, plagiarism is when you borrow someone else’s words and make these appear
as your own. But there are several ways of plagiarising as there are several ways of detecting the
deed.
3. The first and most obvious kind of plagiarism is when a person copies word-for-word a sentence,
a paragraph, a whole article, a section of a book, or different sections of a long article or book
written by another author and does not enclose the copied words in quotation marks.
4. The second kind of plagiarism is when a person borrows someone else’s ideas, rewards them to
make the ideas seem like her/his own.
5. The third kind of plagiarism is when a person translates to Filipino or other Philippine languages
someone else’s ideas that were expressed in English or other foreign languages and fails to
enclose the translated material in quotation marks.
6. Even when a person frames the ideas of a writer in another way or in a different language, and
conveniently forgets to acknowledge the source of the idea/s, that still constitutes plagiarism.
7. There is nothing wrong with borrowing an author’s ideas.
8. I summarize my lecture on plagiarism with one Filipino word: KATAPATAN. It means honesty,
truthfulness, and integrity.
9. I think of plagiarism as lacking the Filipino value of “utang na loob.”

Telltale signs of plagiarism

10. A plagiarist always leaves behind a trail of telltale signs.

11. Sometimes, the trail begins with just a turn of phrase without the quotation marks.
12. At other times, the student may have become desperate (especially toward the end of the
semester) and so surfs for an article in the internet in a website s/he thinks is obscure enough.
13. In the internet age, it is for students to copy and paste.
14. Some students are not that clever in plagiarising.
15. We would like to think that graduate students would already have attained sufficient maturity and
independence of thinking and would likely not commit plagiarism.
16. In UP, we have been known to remove from our faculty roll a teacher who copied an American
textbook and simply changed the American names to Filipino names.

III effects of plagiarism

17. Borrowing is not a crime.

18. Why do students copy? It begins with the way students in elementary and high schools are
trained.
19. For undergraduate students, I believe that their plagiarism is borne more out of desperation than
malicious intent.
20. Why do I rail against plagiarism? It is because claiming another one’s words is dishonest.
21. KATAPATAN is all that is required of us to keep our integrity and dignity intact.

The Principles of Documentation

Different disciplines (and professors) require different documentation styles. Some example styles for
referencing sources are American Psychological Association or APA, which emphasizes the author and
the date of a piece of work. Students need not memorize all of these different styles as there are many
templates and guides available online. Here are some useful sites with documentation guides:

The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides guides for APA, MLA, and Chicago
Style. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/

The Monash University Website provides guides for Vancouver, Harvard, CSIRO, and other styles of
referencing. http://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/home
 More important than memorizing formats, which may be easily looked up, is knowledge of the
basic principles of documentation. While the essay that follows both teaches and applies only the MLA
style of documentation, it usefully emphasizes the key points to remember when citing sources in an
academic paper.

Writing a Documented Essay and Avoiding Plagiarism

1. “Do not plagiarize… or else!” is one of the most ominous warnings a college student will hear in
the classroom.
2. Students first need to be aware of the purpose and style of the documented essay.
3. Secondly, when writing an academic essay, students need to keep in mind that all borrowed
materials have to be documented.
4. Armed with the knowledge of what to document, students should next know how to acknowledge
their sources properly.
5. Thirdly, at the end of the paper, students must list all the sources that have been cited or
mentioned.
6. There is no reason to plagiarize, especially when it is so easy to acknowledge one’s sources in
writing and when information about how to properly give attributions is so readily available.
7. Works cited.