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Федеральное агентство по образованию

Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования «ЧЕЛЯБИНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»

Английский язык

Теоретические основы академического письма: эссе и изложение

Методические рекомендации для студентов профильных вузов

Челябинск 2011

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Одобрено методическим советом факультета Евразии и Востока ГОУ ВПО

«Челябинский государственный университет».

Составитель: старший преподаватель кафедры восточных и романо-

германских языков, кандидат филологических наук А.В. Таскаева

Методические рекомендации составлены с целью обучения студентов теоретическим основам академического письма на английском языке.

Для достижения этой цели решены следующие задачи: объяснить студентам,

что такое эссе, какова его структура и основные типы; познакомить с основными принципами написания эффективного эссе; обучить студентов основным техникам, используемым в процессе письма; объяснить учащимся,

что такое изложение, каковы основные правила и этапы написания краткого изложения.

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Introduction

In this paper we are going to discuss the problem of academic writing and fully describe two types of academic writing: an essay and a summary. The aim of this paper is to help a student to get to know the main principles of writing process and learn how to write an effective essay and a good summary.

There are several common principles of academic writing. These principles are the following:

1.Structure of any academic paper is required, such as a beginning, middle, and end.

2.Academic writing in contrast to other writing genres is based on the citation and referencing of published authors.

3.Academic writing has its own tone, which dictates the choice of words and phrasing. Academic writing typically aims to be objective, concise and formal (e.g. avoiding slang, exclamation marks, contractions, etc.)

4.It is important to remember who you are writing for. Being conscious of academic tone suggests that you are aware of your audience.

5.In academic writing you should always follow rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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An essay

Definition and origin of a word “essay”

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English a word “essay” has

several meanings:

1.a short piece of writing about a particular subject by a student as part of a course of study;

2.a short piece of writing giving someone's ideas about politics, society, etc;

3.an attempt to do something [Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English]. According to Webster's New World College Dictionary this word has the following meanings:

1.a trying or testing; an attempt; trial;

2.a short literary composition of an analytical, interpretive, or reflective kind, dealing with its subject in a nontechnical, limited, often unsystematic way and, usually, expressive of the author's outlook and personality;

3.a proposed design for a new postage stamp or piece of paper money [Webster's New World College Dictionary].

According to Collins English Dictionary “an essay” means:

1.a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively;

2.an attempt or endeavour; effort;

3.a test or trial [Collins English Dictionary].

In this paper we will talk about an essay as a piece of academic writing that corresponds to the 1st meaning in Longman and Collins and the 2d meaning in

Webster’s dictionaries.

Let us apply the following definition:

An essay is a short and creative student’s work written about a certain subject. The main aim of writing an essay is to fully describe a subject by adducing different arguments. They have to be supported with evidence and illustrated by different examples.

A good essay should be:

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focused;

logical;

clear;

well-structured;

deeply-argumentative; It also should

grab the reader's interest from the first lines;

provides illustrative evidence;

gives credits to sources.

The roots of the word “essay” derive from Old French “essayer” meaning “to try, to attempt” [Online Etymology Dictionary]. From the origin it becomes clear that an essay is essentially your attempt to explain your point of view on the topic.

Three main concepts of essay writing process

1.Determine the audience you are writing for. The writer should know who will be reading the paper to predict what information should be omitted or included. Answer the following question before writing: Who is your audience? Who are you communicating with? What does that audience need to know? What do they already know? What information does that audience need first, second, third? Write about who you are writing to and what they need.

2.Determine the purpose of your paper. If the writer has no idea what effect the paper should have on the reader, the paper becomes meaningless. Answer the following question before writing: What is your purpose? What are you trying to do? What verb captures your intent? Are you trying to inform? Convince? Describe? Each purpose will lead you to a different set of information and help you shape material to include and exclude in a draft. Write about why you are writing this draft in this form.

3.The structure of an essay should be well-identified. It consists of introduction (including thesis statement), main body and conclusion.

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Following a certain structure is one of the most important tasks when dealing with writing an academic paper.

Structure of an essay

Introduction

Introduction is the first paragraph of your writing. It refers directly to the title of an essay. The aim of an introduction is to grab and impress the reader to induce him to read further on. If the introduction is dull and mediocre the reader will not proceed. Present your introduction in a clear, precise and interesting way. Convince your reader that your essay is worth reading.

In the introduction there should be a clear thesis statement. The thesis should reveal your point of view on the matter, or position you intend to support in your paper. A well-formulated thesis is the central part of your essay, and all other parts of the essays are built on the basis of a strong thesis.

Thesis statement

The thesis statement is a single sentence in which you state your point of view on the topic. The thesis statement serves as a summary of the argument you will make in the rest of your paper and tells the reader what to expect from it. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

The thesis should guide in the course of writing; certainly you will acquire new information and ideas as you go along but the thesis should serve you as one of the starting points.

To formulate the thesis you should reconsider it several times and make some preliminary work: you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts, and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis”, a basic or main idea, an argument that you think you can support with evidence but that may need adjustment along the way. A working thesis functions like a seed from which your paper, and your ideas, will grow.

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Main body

Essay body is the main part of your writing where you present your thoughts and evidence. Main body consists of several paragraphs. The information in each paragraph must be related to that idea. In other words, your paragraphs should remind your reader that there is a recurrent relationship between your thesis and the information in each paragraph.

Your paragraph should include supporting evidence to back up your ideas. In the body of your essay you should show that you have examined, researched your topic and that your arguments are reasonable and reliable.

Every paragraph in a paper should be unified and clearly related to the thesis.

All of the sentences in a single paragraph should be related to a single controlling idea and all refer to the central idea, or thesis, of the paper.

Each paragraph should have an identical structure:

Open it with a topic sentence bringing in the main idea of the paragraph.

Write down the supporting points for the idea. They will make your thoughts and assertions as much convincing as possible.

You may include some conclusive or summary sentence, though it is not obligatory.

Conclusion

Conclusion is the final part that summarizes your main points. You should not face any difficulties in this part, especially if you have had clear understanding of your thesis all way through. If you experience some difficulties in summing up your main points, then apparently you have not developed your thesis.

Your final part, conclusion, should correspond to your first part-introduction. The main idea should be restated again (it should not be repeated or paraphrased in the same words). The conclusion should emphasize the issue of your discourse. Pay close attention to the main idea presented in the introduction. If the main idea has been changed or modified during the process of writing the essay, then you should reformulate your thesis in the introduction.

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You may open your summary by reminding your thesis to the reader. First, you must look trough the different components of your essay. Then emphasize your thesis and convince your reader that you have made true and right assertions. In the introduction you have acquainted your reader with your idea, you should restate it, bearing in mind that the reader has already read the main part of the paper.

Brainstorming as a writing technique

Brainstorming is an effective and efficient activity to generate new ideas, creative solutions to a problem, develop new ways of looking at things and deepen your understanding of the topic's potential, thoughts that eventually lead to the solutions of several problems at a time.

Brainstorming can be performed in groups or you can do it on you own. Start brainstorming, when you are refreshed and relaxed to produce ingenious, original and creative ideas. Sit at the table and write down as many ideas on this subject as possible.

There are several ways of brainstorming: freewriting, listing, mindmapping and asking journalistic questions

Freewriting

Freewriting is a writing technique when you let your thoughts flow as they will, putting pen to paper and writing down whatever comes into your mind. You don't judge the quality of what you write and you don't worry about style or any surfacelevel issues, like spelling, grammar, or punctuation. If you can't think of what to say, you write that down.

Rules

When you freewrite you can set a time limit ("I'll write for 15 minutes!") and even use a kitchen timer or alarm clock or you can set a space limit ("I'll write until I fill four full notebook pages, no matter what tries to interrupt me!") and just write until you reach that goal. You might do this on the computer or on paper, and you can even try it with your eyes shut or the monitor off, which encourages speed and freedom of thought.

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The crucial point is that you keep on writing even if you believe you are saying nothing. Word must follow word, no matter the relevance.

When you're done with your set number of minutes or have reached your page goal, read back over the text.

There will be a lot of unusable thoughts but there also will be little gems, discoveries, and insights. When you find these gems, highlight them or cut and paste them into your essay or onto an "ideas" sheet so you can use them in your paper.

Advantage

The advantage of this technique is that you free up your internal critic and allow yourself to write things you might not write if you were being too self-conscious.

Listing

Listing is a writing technique when you jot down lists of words or phrases under a particular topic. Your list can be based either:

on the general topic;

on one or more words from your particular thesis statement;

on a word or idea that is the complete opposite of your original word or idea.

Rules

You could brainstorm a list on the general topic and two different lists, presenting opposing views on the topic, to ensure you are covering the topic thoroughly and that your thesis will be easy to prove. The first list might be based on your thesis. The second list might be based on the opposite claim. Compare the evidence from all your lists.

Using multiple lists will help you to gather more perspective on the topic and ensure that your thesis is solid or your thesis is full of holes and you'd better alter your claim to one you can prove.

Advantage

The advantage of this technique is that it helps to organize your thoughts and make sure your thesis is reliable.

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