Writing for Specific Communities

Reference:
Anson, Chris M. and Schwegler, Robert A. The Longman Handbook
for Writers and Readers. Pearson Education Inc. pp.188-252
 Instructions:
 After reading the lesson for today, go to the discussion board
tool and answer the question in 3 to 5 sentences.

 This will also serve as your attendance for today.

 The class session will be open at 9:00 am and will end at

10:30 am.
 refers to the forms of expository and argumentative
prose to convey a body of information about a particular
subject.
 is writing an essay, thesis, report, journal article or other
documents for purposes of educating the reader or
achieving some scholarly aim for the writer.
 deals with the underlying theories and causes
governing processes and practices in everyday life, as
well as exploring alternative explanations for these
events.
 Essay Format
 Introduction - informs the reader about the nature of the topic;
summarizes very succinctly, in a sentence or two, your position on
the issue.

 Body - is where the topic is discussed, elaborated and evaluated.

 Conclusion - constitutes a conclusion that summarizes the overall

points made; the concluding paragraph is also a good point at which
to move the essay forward to touch on implications or future
advancements surrounding the issues addressed.
 Report Format
 is often organized around the identification of
problems or difficulties and corresponding
solutions.

 is divided according to clearly labeled sections,

such as “Introduction”, “Discussion”,
“Conclusions”, and
“Recommendations”.
 Audience
 target a more general audience than just your
lecturer and/or marker.

 assume that your readers will be intelligent thinking

people, but they may not be specifically informed
of your topic.

 do not presume that your reader knows all the

terms and concepts associated.
https://www.slideshare.net/jmpalero/english-7-academic-writing
2. Writing in the

 explains or understands the human experience

and human values;

 allows for some flexibility in style and voice;

 still follows specific conventions of format and

documentation.
 Key Points
 Writing falls into one of three categories: research writing,
interpretive/analytical writing, and creative writing.

 When writing a research paper in the humanities, you will

collect (and cite!) information from a variety of different
sources to support an argument.

 In interpretive/analytical writing, you will make a claim

about what a particular text (or film, or painting, etc.) means
or how it goes about presenting meaning; you will make an
argument backed up with specific examples from the text.
Continuation….

 In some analytical writing, you may be asked to interpret a

text through the lens of a particular theory—for example,
modernist theory, psychoanalytic theory, etc.

 Creative writing mostly comprises fiction writing, such as

poems, short stories, novels, and song lyrics; however, there
is also a type of writing called creative nonfiction, in which
creative writing centers around real events.
 Key Terms
 literary analysis: explores and interprets the meaning
behind the story, characters, themes, and purposes of a text.

 thesis: a claim or theory that must be supported with

evidence to argue for or against a specific idea or position.

 humanities: the collection of academic disciplines that study

human expression, ideas, and thought.

 expository: explains, informs, or describes a process or

concept.
3. Writing in the Natural
and Social Sciences

 Scientific writing has two goals:

to inform the reader of new developments in a

specific field; and

to address existing questions with new evidence.

 Key Points
 addresses new scientific developments and clarifications of
scientific questions, most frequently in the form of a
laboratory report, journal article, or literature review.

 Natural sciences include fields such as astronomy, biology,

chemistry, and physics; while

 Social sciences include anthropology, economics,

linguistics, political science, sociology, and psychology.
Continuation…

 Scientific papers commonly follow the IMRAD model, which

stands for introduction, method, results, and discussion.

 The introduction should describe elements such as the

paper’s motivation, aim, problem, tested hypothesis, novel
contributions, background materials, and an overview of the
subsequent material.
Continuation…

 The methods section should cover the writer’s assumptions, system model,
simulation model, and performance measures. For an original study, when,
where, and how the study was conducted, what materials were used, and
who was included in the study groups should all be included.

 In describing the results, the writer should include any empirical data, charts,
and plots that convey the answer to the research question, and state whether
the research hypothesis was proven or not proven.

 The discussion section should analyze the results, state why they matter,
contextualize them in relation to existing research, and suggest the
implications for future research.
 Key Terms
 Objectivity: the ability to perceive a subject without being
influenced by personal biases or emotions.

 Bias: a definite opinion or position on a subject.

 Laboratory report: a step-by-step explanation of the

materials, methods, data, results, analysis,
conclusions, and references of an experiment.
Scientific research papers….

 report new discoveries, apply evidence to answer questions and

identify patterns.

 require a great deal of preliminary work, including research, field

work, and experimentation; translating that work into writing can
be difficult, but academic conventions provide a common template
for communicating findings clearly and effectively.

 writing in these disciplines often takes the form of peer-reviewed

journal articles, literature reviews, grant proposals, case studies,
and laboratory reports.
 Conventions…
General Style
 seeks to explain complex
phenomena in clear,
 straightforward prose minimizes
authorial bias,
 also includes elements of
classical argument, as scientific
papers are expected to
contextualize, analyze, and
interpret the information at hand.
Precision of Language
 Lab reports, case studies, and
other types of scientific writing
must be precise in order to
provide results that can be
tested and reproduced.
 Use simple words and
sentences.
 Precision is a key component
of clarity.
Still on precision…

 has two main applications:

using concrete examples: defining your parameters

accurately; providing exact times, measurements, quantities
and other relevant data;

using clear language to describe them: using precise,

straightforward language to describe your work/paper;
avoiding ‘flashy’ vocabulary words or rhetorical words and
considering style.
 Objectivity

 convinces audience by offering an important, innovative

contribution; as a result, it has an argumentative character.

 has two requirements: hypothesis (testable) and results

(reproducible).

 limits writers’ ability to use persuasive rhetoric however,

make a strong case for the importance, relevance, and
applicability of your research.
 Transitions

 Many students struggle to transition from one topic to the

next.

 Transitions are well worth mastering—they are the glue that

holds your ideas together.

 Never assume that the reader will correctly guess the

relationships between different subtopics; it is your
responsibility to explain these connections.
 Scientific Reasoning

 Keep your chosen model in mind to help ensure decisions and

conclusions are logically consistent.
 Also, watch out for logic traps such as bias and faulty causality.
 Researchers must account for their own biases, or personal
preferences, prejudices, and preconceived notions such as
cognitive bias (irrational thinking), cultural bias (the imposition of
one’s own cultural standards upon research subjects), and
sampling bias (the tendency during sample collection to include
some members of the intended sample more readily than
others).
 Overview: The IMRAD Model
Key Points
 The conventional structural approach to academic writing in
the sciences.

 The IMRAD model has four parts: introduction, methods,

results, and discussion.

The introduction states a brief background of the research topic,

the thesis statement, statement of the problems (general and
specific), importance of the topic, scope and limitation and the
definition of terms.
Continuation…

The literature review provides an overview of relevant research in

your discipline. This may be included as part of the introduction,
or it may stand as its own section.

The methods section should explain how you collected and

evaluated your data. If your project conducts an experiment or an
original data analysis, you should include a separate section that
reports your results.

The discussion section should analyze your results without

reporting any new findings.
 Key Terms
 IMRAD: An acronym for
Introduction, Methods, Results,
and Discussion—the
conventional structure of a
scientific paper.
 literature review: A synthesis of
the critical points of current
knowledge in a given field, which
includes significant findings as
well as theoretical and
methodological contributions to
a particular topic.
 quantitative: Of research methods
that rely on objective
measurements and data analysis.
 result: The discovery (or absence
of discovery) that arises from the
scientific method of investigation.
 qualitative: Of research methods
that create a more subjective
understanding by studying a
subject’s defining qualities and
character.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-
writing/chapter/writing-in-the-natural-and-social-sciences-
the-research-paper-and-the-imrad-model/
 So, what technical report does the
group want to write aligned with your
program?