Chapter 1 Review of Writing Process 1 1 Chapter Review of Writing Process In this chapter, you will know: ¡ÌReasons of writing academic essays; ¡ÌFeatures of academic writing£» ¡ÌTypes of support in academic essays£» ¡ÌWriting process. Critical Thinking Questions1 Directions: Work in small groups and discuss the following open questions. . What is academic writing? Can you list some differences between general writing and academic writing? General Writing Academic Writing . What are the major reasons why college students write academic essays? . What are the general types to support or develop academic paragraphs or essays? (e.g. cause/effect?) . What kinds of possible punishments will be given for academic plagiarism? Please list them and tell the reasons. Introduction to Academic Writing 2 Academic writing is a formal style of writing which is done by students or scholars. The main purpose of academic writing is to inform and not to entertain like novels. Both academic writers and academic readers are eager to know the useful information they are looking for in academic writings. Academic writing is often complex and abstract, partly due to the academic subject matter and academic language itself. Usually, academic writing can take many forms: journal articles, essays, theses, group project reports, research reviews, etc. Although college students are increasingly being asked to write in different forms, the form-essay or dissertation (paper) still remains the most popular type of academic writing. Essays written by students are likely to be read by their tutors as the assignment form. The essay can be set as a coursework assignment to assess a student¡¯s understanding of a subject, or as an exam question. And thesis (paper) is written by students as an evaluation of student college study in four academic years. Features of academic writing A written piece of academic work is linear, which means it has one recognizable central subject or theme. It relates to the craftsmanship of certain rules and procedures of correct quoting and evidencing of sources, with a precise formulation of objectives. As well, it is in the standard written form of the language, without digressions or repetitions. Consequently, there are five main features of academic writing as follows. (Els Van Geyte, 2013) (1) Complexity Academic written language is relatively more complex. It is lexically denser and it has a more varied vocabulary. It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases. Usually, written texts have long complex sentences, and the language has more grammatical complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more passives. (2) Formality/Objectivity Academic writing is relatively formal and its written language is usually objective rather than personal. In general, the student should avoid colloquial words and expressions. Further, it has impersonal tone, usually avoiding some intimacy words such as ¡°you¡±, ¡°we¡± or ¡°I¡±, but rather using ¡°he¡±, ¡°she¡±, ¡°researcher¡±, and so on. It can also be understood as avoiding subjectivity. (3) Clarity Academic writing is explicit about the relationships in written texts. Furthermore, the academic writer or student should be responsible to make it clear to the readers how the various parts of the text are related. These connections can be made clear by the use of different signaling words. Simply, the ideas and information are explicit, accurate and precise. (4) Coherence Academic writing should be coherent about text parts and paragraph sentences. Coherence means unmistakably clear and reasonable connection between academic parts or paragraphs and their relationships. In academic essays, coherence implies the orderly progression of facts and ideas in logic and consistent sequence, and writers usually use transitional signals, substitution of pronouns, parallelism and logical order to achieve writing coherence. (5) Responsibility In academic writing, students must be responsible and be able to provide evidence and justif ication for any claims or statements they make. Students are also responsible for demonstrating the understanding of any source texts they use. They need to document and reference for any information included in academic writing¡ªdo not plagiarize. Despite such statistics, for most farmers in the region growing coca is about making a living and supporting their families, not becoming wealthy or furthering the use of cocaine. More than half of Bolivians live in poverty, with a large portion earning less than $2 a day (the U.S. Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Div. 2). In the words of one coca farmer, ¡°the U.S. says ¡®Coca is cocaine, coca is cocaine,¡¯ but it isn¡¯t,¡± says Argote. ¡°Coca is the tree of the poor¡± (qtd. In Schultz and Gordon). Can we reduce cocaine trafficking without eliminating coca? Evo Morales, the current president of Bolivia, believes the answer is ¡°yes¡± and has advocated a ¡°zero cocaine, not zero coca¡± policy in his country. This policy would allow native Andeans to maintain their cultural practices, boost South American economies, and channel coca into a new market, away from cocaine traffickers. For all of these reasons, the Morales plan should become a model for other coca-growing countries. Morales gained recognition for his ¡°zero cocaine, not zero coca¡± program during his 2005 presidential campaign. His policy aims to legalize the coca crop but not the cocaine that is produced from that crop. He also expressed a desire to get the United Nations to rescind its 1961 convention declaring coca an illegal narcotic. In December 2005, Morales won the election with over 50% of the vote, and made history as the first indigenous Bolivian president (Forero, ¡°Coca¡±). Morales¡¯s plan promotes the best interests of the Andean farmers and offers multiple economic and social benefits. First, South American countries would be able to export non-narcotic coca-based products, such as soaps, toothpaste, tea, alcohol, and candies (Logan). Products like these are already being produced for local use in Bolivia, and manufacturers would like to seek an international market for them. These new coca products would stimulate the Bolivian economy and put money in the pockets of coca growers to support their families, rather than in the pockets of the drug lords. Second, if the market for legal coca were to increase, farmers would be able to make a legal living from a crop that has long been a mainstay of their culture. With legal coca products, the indigenous people of the Andes would not have to sacrifice their way of life. Finally, an increase in the demand for legal coca products might also result in less cocaine being trafficked illegally around the world, since more of the raw material for cocaine will be used for new legal coca products. In order to understand the benefits of Morales¡¯s plan, we must first investigate the failures of the alternatives. The United States has been waging various ¡°wars on drugs¡± for decades, spending up to $1 billion trying to control cocaine trafficking from South America (Forero, ¡°Bolivia¡¯s Knot¡±). In the 1990s, the United States shifted its efforts from fighting the trafficking of cocaine to eliminating the source of the drug¡ªthe coca plants growing in Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru. Coca eradication has taken two main forms. In Bolivia, bands of soldiers move through the countryside, using machetes to hack away coca plants. This process is slow and dangerous, and there have been reports of human rights abuses and extreme violence against the peasant farmers who grow coca (Gordon 16). In nearby Columbia, the United States funded aerial fumigation programs to poison the coca fields; native farmers complain that the herbicide used in the fumigation is causing health problems and environmental pollution (¡°the U.S. Weight Cost¡±). By destroying coca plants in Colombia, the United States has ¡°left 500 million people poorer¡± (Padgett 8). It is unclear whether fumigation results in any benefit, since farmers respond by moving farther and farther into the jungle and replanting their crops there (Otis). Such dense areas are harder to see and therefore harder to fumigate effectively. Another the U.S. effort encouraged farmers to replace coca with other crops, like coffee, bananas, and pineapples. Alternative crop programs seem like a good idea because they will get rid of the coca farms, but they have own drawbacks. First, as coca grower Leonida Zurita-Vargas noted in her 2003 New York Times opinion column, transporting heavy fruits like pineapples from the mountainous coca-growing regions was expensive and difficult. Second, growers are seldom willing to give up coca farming because they can make more money by selling coca than any other crop. Even with government incentives for alternative cropping, coca remains more profitable, a big inducement for poor farmers who can barely support their families and send their children to school. The Houston Chronicle reports that even in areas where farmers have planted alternative crops, the farmers are being lured back to the coca plant by larger profits (Otis). One coca farmer asserted that by growing coca, he could ¡°make ten times what he would make by growing pineapples or yucca¡± (Harman). Ultimately, alternative cropping means less coca production overall, which will drive up coca prices and encourage more farmers to abandon their alternative crops and return to coca. After decades of legislation and various eradication programs, cocaine trafficking remains a major problem. The most recent data show that coca cultivation throughout the region remains steady. Contrary to dire predictions, there has been no major spike in Bolivian coca production since Morales was elected at the end of 2005. Furthermore, critics argue that cocaine is no less available in the United States than before eradication began, and street prices remain low (Forero, ¡°Columbia¡¯s Coca¡±). Instead of curbing cocaine trafficking, America¡¯s war on drugs has turned out to be a war against the peasants of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. Throughout the years, the various wars on drugs have failed to produce effective results for the United States. The programs of alternative cropping and eradication did not succeed due to the legislators¡¯ inability to see life through the eyes of the coca farmers¡ªsomething Evo Morales was able to do. In 2006, Morales addressed the UN General Assembly and waved a coca leaf in the air, ¡°This is a green coca leaf, it is not the white of cocaine. This coca leaf represents Andean culture; it is a coca leaf that represents the environment and the hope of our peoples.¡± Through his bold program of ¡°zero cocaine, not zero coca¡±, Morales aims to improve the lives of Andean farmers and the economies of South American countries, while still remaining committed to controlling the illegal drug trade. Morales¡¯s example illustrates that it is time to work with coca farmers, rather than against them. Plagiarism4 Before creating an academic work, college students or academic writers must provide evidence and draw on sufficient information sources of other researchers to the readers. They need to document for any information they include in academic writing ¨C In Webster online dictionary, ¡°plagiarism/'pl¨¡-j.-, ri-z.m/¡± (noun) means : 1) an act or instance of plagiarizing; 2) Something plagiarized. ¡°Plagiarize¡± is to be defined as: 1) to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one¡¯s own; 2) to use (another¡¯s production) without crediting the source; 3) to commit literary theft; 4) to present as new and original an idea derived from an existing source. Writing Process of Academic Writing5 Brainstorming: Academic writing terms These words are important for understanding the academic writing process. Work in small groups and match each word with the correct definition. a. topic b. edit c. brainstorm d. organize e. proofread f. revise g. draft h. essay i. review j. publish k. outline l. evaluate 1) A short piece of writing, at least three-para long. 2) To change or correct a piece of writing. 3) A subject; what the piece of writing is about. 4) To arrange in a clear, logical way. 5) To check a piece of writing for errors. 6) A first version of a written work. 7) Put forward as many ideas as one can think of. 8) Judge the worth of some information sources. 9) A plan for a piece of writing in which each new idea or fact is separately written down. 10) Read for errors. 11) A careful examination of a situation or process. 12) Have work printed and be available to the public. When writing, students do more than just put words together to make sentences or just search some information from Internet. The reason is that academic writing is a process and not a one-shot act. Academic writing usually has the following general principles (Allan Glantthorn, 1991): 1) Being complex with involving memory, cognition, language, and psychomotor behaviors; 2) Being multiphase with involving several different stages and many sub- processes, like drafting and revising; 3) Being recursive and interactive with each stage related closely and affected by each other. To create effective academic essays, good writers must spend time extracting information and thinking critically. This means that strong academic writing process begins with solid planning, having different stages from the start to final draft. Generally, the process of academic writing is divided into six steps or stages: 1) brainstorming and choosing a topic; 2) doing research and evaluating information; 3) organizing ideas and developing an outline; 4) writing the first draft; 5) reviewing and revising the first draft; 6) editing the final draft and publishing. mind-maps-use-670x3351) The first step is brainstorming and choosing a topic. This means that students should intensely but randomly think about the topic, make a list of appropriate ideas, design a word map, and discuss with partners or teacher to make a quick decision about the topic. It is advisable to go from the general to the specific in choosing a topic. An inappropriate topic may lead to the failure of the whole academic essay or at least a waste of time. 2) The second step is doing research and evaluating information sources. After choosing a topic, students will think about what they will write about that topic. Next, students will identify an audience and the purpose for writing, determine the appropriate form for the piece, and then gather ideas and data. Decide and evaluate which of the ideas they want to use and where they want to use them. Choose and circle which idea to talk about first or last; cross out inappropriate ideas. 3) The third step is organizing ideas and developing an outline. After choosing a topic and researching deeply, students will know to choose which idea to talk about first, which to talk about next and which to talk about last. Organize the useful ideas and then write an outline logically. If one outline is very detailed, students write the first draft quickly and smoothly, otherwise failure of written essays will be possible. 4) The fourth step is writing the first draft. During the drafting stage, students will write their essay from start to end. Use the finished outline and notes to get their ideas down. They should search for words and try out pieces of sentences and think about paragraph shape. A ¡°free flow¡± of ideas is encouraged, without letting concern about correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar get in the way of composing. Students need to be aware that the first draft is not finished product and that any piece of writing can be improved. It is advised that drafting must be done, as far as possible, in one sitting. 5) The fifth step is reviewing and revising the first draft. During this stage, students should review the written work¡¯s structure and content. Check and revise what they have written, looking for errors, rethinking choices, trying out other words and sentences forms. Totally, students will revise the whole written structure and content, involving adding, substituting, deleting, and moving ideas and words around as writers rework and polish their pieces. They might need to explain something more clearly, or add more details. They may even need to change the organization so that the written text is more logical. Also, read your writing silently to yourself or share with a friend. Getting a reader¡¯s opinion is a good way to know if your writing is clear and effective.