Study Skills for Higher Education

Assessment - 1

1
Discussing Seven Features of Academic Writing Mentioned in the Article

Academic writing means sharing information and writing with others (Boscolo, Arfé and
Quarisa, 2007). It mainly focuses on a specific line or a topic and other parts of that writing
support to express the main theme. It is one of the major and most important parts of every
student in their academic life. In that process of making academic writing, a student must
follow some instructions or rules. For representing a clear report, academic writing requires
unique templates, criteria and design etc. (Turner, Krenus, Ireland and Pointon, 2012). In
academic life, students face reports, research papers, assignments, examinations and thesis
where students must have the skills about academic writing (Chin, Reid, Wray and
Yamazaki, 2015). Any writing gives information to its readers where readers must understand
the topics clearly. Getting a clear idea in any topic from academic writing, writing should be
well structured, evidenced, critical, balanced, precise, objective and formal. If these features
are present in any academic writing, we can consider this as perfect academic writing to fulfil
its purpose.

Academic writing has more characteristics than mentioned in the introduction part but these
seven features (structured, evidenced, critical, balanced, precise, objective and formal)
are the major part of the writing (Oshima and Hogue, 2017). Here, these will be discussed
and how much these are important for academic writing.

Structured: The first feature name is called structured which means a report or writing
should be well organized and maintain all the recognized templates or design followed by the
writer or student academic writing or report where the writer must maintain the flow of the
topic (Boscolo, Arfé and Quarisa, 2007). For having a great writing or a report there must be
present the quality that it is well structured. Without a clear structure, academic writing will
not be considered as quality writing. Every writing has its own structure but it has to maintain
the flow which means having the right format, relevant source, valid information (Ruetten
and Pavlik, 2012). For example, we can’t consider the structure of the report with the
structure of an essay. Because, essay structure contains an introduction, main paragraph,
conclusion and reference but report has different structures. Structured writing must have a
great plan to start, once we start writing from planning, researching and evaluating then it is
very easy to fix the rest of the part (Oshima and Hogue, 2017). Irrelevant information or data
makes writing misunderstood. A writer or a student should research very carefully for

2
representing a relevant and useful idea. Lastly, writing must be reader friendly or meaningful
that’s why it should be well structured.

Evidenced: The second feature which is mentioned is named evidence. Evidence means
mentioning the real or authentic source from which the information is taken for research or
creating a new idea (Boscolo, Arfé and Quarisa, 2007). This is one of the important qualities.
Without referencing the origin of the data, having information from any source is bad
practice and strongly prohibited. It is very important to mention or make reference to the
sources which are used for research or helping to create the writing (Chin, Reid, Wray and
Yamazaki, 2015). We know that academic writing is formal writing where everything should
be clear even a tiny thing should be clarified very carefully. In academic writing, we must use
text citation and reference parts for making an essay or report.

In another sense, reference or evidence must use whether the information is liable or relevant
(Harrison, Soars and Soars, 2011). Without relevancy and referencing of data, the research is
meaningless and also the writing could be biased. Let’s make another example, a group of
students is said to make a report on consumer law practice in the US market by the course
teacher. Here, students collect the information in various resources for making the research
for the report (Oshima and Hogue, 2017). They do all the things as required to make the
writing. But when their course teacher receives the report and checks the sources whether
these are authentic or not. The teacher finds these sources irrelevant and gets misunderstood.
Because the sources were referenced irrelevantly. And that group gets a low score.

Critical: The third and most important feature is critical. I personally believe that this is the
most important feature. If we can’t think critically when we are researching the information
from different sources or different fields, it could be biased and the purpose of the writing
may be hampered (Harrison, Soars and Soars, 2011). Critical writing means considering all
the resources in one line and then analyzing all the sources and evaluating them correctly.
When a writer or student research they must judge the information weather sources are
relevant to their topic or not. Without having a deep understanding of the topic, we can’t
make great writing. Having deep critical thinking, information should be judgmental and
experimental from the subject of the matter from the writer (Du Preez and Fossey, 2012).
Student or Writer must think both sides of any matter to the subject. It could be positive or
negative. Whatever it is, for getting the best output from writing critically thinking is needed.
If we see an example, two friends decide to form a business in the share market. They

3
research all the information on how they maximize profit. And they also make an investment
there. But they don’t get the profit as they planned before. They just focus only possibilities
but the harshness of the share market has also the same. Share market is a very risky business
where not having great knowledge about it could be a disaster. So, the writer or student thinks
realistically and provides appropriate information for making writing.

Balanced: The name of the fourth feature is balanced. It is also an important feature because
it indicates that all the information should be free from biases and partiality (Chin, Reid,
Wray and Yamazaki, 2015). Bias and partial writing can make any danger anytime to society
and it can also create a social problem to all or a specific group of people. When we are
preparing for academic writing, we should always make sure that writing shouldn’t affect any
individual behaviour. Students and writers always should focus on not having irrelevant or
problem creating statements (Philpot, Curnick, Soars and Soars, 2013). The writing purpose
and topic should be clear to all readers who may use that writing. If having an example,
writing that consists of six points which are related to import benefits of the electric product
of a country. And then the government of this country deals some imports but companies of
that country may be hampered for not selling an electric product that the country produces by
own. So, this type of writing can create arguments for a particular portion.

Precise: The fifth feature of this article or academic writing is precise. What does it say?
Precise means any writing or text expressing the main theme by avoiding the extra or
irrelevant topic for readers. Any writing, it could be academic or non-academic but it must be
a straight statement (Harrison, Soars and Soars, 2011). Any writing should always avoid
unnecessary words or information. For reader friendly writing or well-structured writing, the
text and presentation of the data should be precise (Du Preez and Fossey, 2012). For example,
if writing describes a topic more than needed, then the readers of this writing will lose their
interest to read. Even having unnecessary words or topics can destroy the purpose of the
writing (Graff, Birkenstein and Maxwell, 2014). In the introduction part, it was mentioned
that academic writing is shared with other scholars. So, if readers may lose interest to read
then it is meaningless. That’s why it’s important to precise the writing and maintain common
words that are known to all.

Objective: The name of the sixth feature is objective. Objective makes a thing forceful and
meaningful. Academic writing must have an objective. Objective means writing more
focusing on its facts, arguments, information etc. rather than the main topic of this writing

4
(Ravelli and Ellis, 2015). Without having an objective in writing, it measures that this report
or writing is based on this or anything (Graff, Birkenstein and Maxwell, 2014). It sets the
flow of the writing to be more meaningful to the readers. Readers can easily find out the
purpose of the report or the writing that’s why it gets easier to be readers friendly (Harrison,
Soars and Soars, 2011). An objective may contain many things for a report like facts,
informative content and other topics. In other words, objective more often says about writing
all resources rather than only subjective things.

Formal: The last or seventh feature but not the least is named formal. Academic writing is a
formal format of writing. We can’t easily make any sentence short or shorter words. Formal
always prefers to make more complex sentences. Informal words or informal texts are not
allowed in formal writing (Du Preez and Fossey, 2012). Teachers now provide formal vocabs
to use in writing. Academic vocabulary is used more frequently in formal writing rather than
non-formal writing. Formal writing has unique quality than other writing that’s why it takes
more formality (Ravelli and Ellis, 2015). Like we generally read newspaper in an informal
way but a report we read or present in a formal way. Because it has different accessibility.
Formality makes important in writing.

These are the seven features that depict many aspects of academic writing. Academic writing
should follow these features to be well structured. If any student follows the way of format to
write a report or essay, these will help them to be skilful in academic writing.

5
References

Boscolo, P., Arfé, B. and Quarisa, M., 2007. Improving the quality of students' academic
writing: an intervention study. Studies in Higher Education, 32(4).

Chin, P., Reid, S., Wray, S. and Yamazaki, Y., 2015. Academic writing skills. Sage.

Chittum, J.R. and Bryant, L.H., 2014. Reviewing to Learn: Graduate Student Participation in
the Professional Peer-Review Process to Improve Academic Writing Skills. International
Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 26(3),

Du Preez, I. and Fossey, A., 2012. Developing academic writing skills as part of graduate
attributes in undergraduate curricula. South African Journal of Higher Education, 26(2),

Graff, G., Birkenstein, C. and Maxwell, C., 2014. They say, I say: The moves that matter in
academic writing. Gildan Audio.

Harrison, R., Soars, L. and Soars, J., 2011. Academic skills. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Oshima, A. and Hogue, A., 2017. Introduction to academic writing. White Plains, NY:
Pearson Education.

Philpot, S., Curnick, L., Soars, L. and Soars, J., 2013. Academic skills. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Ravelli, L. and Ellis, R., 2015. Analysing academic writing. London: Continuum.

Ruetten, M. and Pavlik, C., 2012. Developing composition skills. Boston (Mass.): Heinle
Cengage Learning.

Turner, K., Krenus, B., Ireland, L. and Pointon, L., 2012. Essential Academic Skills. South
Melbourne: Oxford University Press.