Academic Writing

• Academic Writing

  -a type of writing produced by students in an academic setting

  -main purpose is to inform and persuade not entertain
• Types of Academic Writing

  1 Book Review or Article Critique

  2 Literature Review

  3 Research Report

  4 Project Proposal

  5 Position Paper
• Book Review

  -specialized form of academic writing evaluates the contribution of scholarly works such as academic books and journal articles

  -ranges from 250 to 750 words

  -addresses more specific audience
• Structure of a Book Review

  1. Introduction (5% of the paper)

  2. Summary (10% of the paper)

  3. Review/ Critique (75% of the paper)

  4. Conlcusion (10% of the paper)
• Introduction (5% of the paper)for Book Review


  Title of the book/article, writer's name, and writer's thesis statement
• Summary (10% of the paper)for Book Review


  Writer's objective or purpose, method's used, and major findings and claims
• Conlcusion (10% of the paper)for Book Review


  Overall impression of the work, scholarly value of the reviewed article, benefits of the intended audience, and suggestions for future directions
• Literature Review

  -provides an overview of a specific topic

  -survey scholarly work such as academic books but not textbooks, dissertations/theses, journal articles, monographs, and statistical handbook

  -combines both summary and synthesis
• Research Report

  -an expanded paper that presents interpretations and analyses of phenomenon based on experiments

  -produced through formal investigation and scientific inquiry
• Parts of a Research Report

  1 Title Page

  2 Abstract

  3 Introduction

  4 Literature Review

  5 Methodology

  6 Results

  7 Discussion

  8 Conclusion

  9 References
• Project Proposal

  -highly perusasive and informative

  -aims to address particular problem or issue

  -bid to offer or initiate project for an individual or group

  -ranges from 1000-2500 words
• Types of Project Proposal

  1 Solicited Internal

  2 Unsolicited Internal

  3 Solicited External

  4 Unsolicited External
• Parts of a Project Proposal

  1 Cover Letter

  2 Title Page

  3 Abstract

  4 Context of the Proposal

  5 Project Justification

  6 Personnel Invovled

  7 Project Implementation

  8 Budget

  9 Monitoring and Evaluation

  10 Reporting Scheme

  11 Conclusion

  12 References
• Position Paper

  -presents one stand or viewpoint on a particular issue

  -main objective is to take part in larger debate by stating arguments and proposed course of action
• Introductionfor Position Paper


  • Uses a lead that grabs the attention of the readers
  • Defines the issue and provides a thorough background
  • Provides a general statement of the writer's position through a thesis statement
• Bodyfor Position Paper


  • States the writer's main arguments and provides sufficient evidence
  • Provides counter arguments against possible weaknesses of the arguments presented in the paper
• Review/Critiquefor Position Paper

  -Restates the writer's position and main arguments, suggests a course of action, explains why the writer's position is better than any other position, ends with a powerful closing statement
• Introduction for Literature Review


  Purpose for writing and importance of the topic, scope of the review, criteria used for selecting literature, and organizational pattern of the review
• Body for Literature Review

  Historical backgrouns, relevant theories, relationship among studies and how each study advanced a theory, strengths and weaknesses of each study, various viewpoints on the topic
• Review/ Critique for Literature Review

  Restatement of the main argument or thesis, main agreements and disagreements in the literature, stand-alone paper (conclusions, implications, and direction for future studies), Thesis or research paper (linking of the literature review to the research questions), overall perspective on the topic
• Review/ Critique (75% of the paper)

  for Book ReviewAppropriateness of methodology to support the arguments, theoretical soundness, soundness of explanation, sufficency of explanation, coherence of ideas