Unit One Writing Foundation Unit Two Introduction Unit Three Materials and Methods Unit Four Results Unit Five Discussion and Conclusions Unit Six Abstract Unit Seven Title References
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Unit One Writing Foundation
Overview
Writing and publishing academic papers in English is a challenge to most Chinese university graduate students in their path to graduation. To be able to do research in a particular academic field and publish the research results in a paper in the most widely used language is largely a prerequisite and foundation to qualify a master or a doctor education in whatever specialty.
Most possibly, an academic paper is both argumentative and expositive which aims at sharing information on a given research subject. In this unit, pre-writing tasks are designed to shape students’ understanding of a good writing process by discussing purpose, logic, style and some language techniques for academic writing. The actual writing process itself is not elaborated in the first unit at length. However, the issues discussed will be highly relevant to every unit in this book.
Task 1
What is the purpose of writing academic papers? Some students believe that to write academically is to “sound intimidating.” A student claimed, “When you inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity, you create an impenetrable fog in the writing and it may look profound.” According to this statement, it seems that phraseology might be the most important consideration in academic writing, which can excuse “weak ideas,” tolerate “poor reasoning” and produce a web of inexplicable language to “look good.” In contrast, Sol Stein (1995: 27) believes that “much academic writing is counter-educational because its dullness insulates its information from nearly everybody.” What is in your mind when you decide to write something concerning your field of study?
Please read the statement above and discuss with your partner. Then share your answers to the following questions.
1. To whose statement do you agree? The students’ or that by Sol Stein?
2. Do you think phraseology is the most important element in academic writing? If yes, why? If not, what elements are important?
3. What purposes might college students have in writing academic papers? What should be the right understanding of purposes in writing academic papers according to your learning experiences?
