This
paper presents an analysis of (1) how academic professionals gain insight into
good academic writing, (2) common mistakes by academic writers, (3) criticisms
against poor academic writing, and (4) solutions for avoiding poor academic
writing. Analyzing and critiquing
sources, which elaborate upon good writing mechanics as provided by the APA and
other reliable references, creates a standardized across-the-board utility when
academic writing is required and produced for evaluation. Knowledge of common writing mistakes, and how
to avoid such mistakes provides writers with the basic and advanced skills
required for today's doctoral learners' writing activities.
Academic Professionals' Identification of Good
Academic Writing
Completing
years of post-secondary education, and gaining practice as an academic
professional, does not necessarily enable academic professionals and students
to have an ability to discern good academic writing. However, if academic professionals and
students supplement reading and writing skills by reference materials such as the
6th Edition of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Manual
(2010), the web sites of The Little Brown Handbook and The Online English Grammar Guide as
well as from libraries, and other reliable sources, significant reading and
writing expertise is gained. Furthermore,
academic professionals and students who seek resources appraised by peers gain
assurance that the material presented is reliable. However, it is of the utmost importance that
when reviewing such material that one impose critical thinking skills, and not
assume that what is written and peer-reviewed is necessarily correct.
For
example, Anonymous' (2010) composition recounts examples from the Bulwer-Lytton
Fiction Contest, the brain-child of the English Department at San Jose State
University sponsoring the contest, which is "a whimsical literary
competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the
worst of all possible novels" (para 6).
While this article is locatable in the ProQuest database, the article is
not peer-reviewed nor is Kelly's (1999) or Smith's (1999) articles according to
ProQuest. However, Kelly (1999) notes
that Professor Sokal, a New
York University physics professor, was "published
in a respected journal, Social Text, (which) was thoroughly researched and
footnoted, but was essentially nonsense" (para 3). Professor Sokal (Kelly, 1999)
purposely wrote his article as a test for the staff at Social Text to see if
his thesis would be challenged, and remarkably, it was not. While peer-reviewed articles offer academic
professionals a means to evaluate good academic writing, academic professionals
must frequently evaluate non-peer-reviewed student compositions, which requires
the use of expertise attained using other means such as from the APA (2010) as
previously mentioned.
Common
Writing Mistakes of Academic Writers
Academic writers' common writing
mistakes include attributes such as dense, "obscure, often incomprehensible writing"
(Kelly, 1999, para 2), "jargon-filled" rhetoric (para 11), and
"incomprehensible sentence structure" (Smith, 1999, para 1). In addition, academic writers frequently avoid
authenticity while writing because it "requires more courage and more
hard work than being educated since it can only be achieved by standing alone
from, and by becoming independent of, those surrounding communal voices and
texts" (Badley,
2008, p. 364). Badley (2008) also wrote
that "less proficient writers tend to write syntheses
by simply borrowing sentences and connecting information from each source,
without elaboration and integration" (p. 422). Badley's (2008) research demonstrated that
"When considering top-level (composition) structure, paragraphing, topic
sentences and use of conclusion, students’ pre-test written syntheses scarcely
met the structural criteria of a good exposition" (p. 434 ).
Criticisms
of Poor Academic Writers
Smith (1999) wrote that "scholars
(are) increasingly making themselves irrelevant" (para 7). In an attempt to fit ideological agendas,
academic writers change the structure of words and sentences, which distorts meaning
(Smith, 1999). Kelly (1999) indicates that a "major factor in tolerance of
bad writing has been a lack of hard-nosed editing by academic journals" (para 18).
More up-to-date evaluations of academic writing provides insight about
whether improvements in academic writing prevail or not since 1999. For example, Addison and McGee (2010) wrote
that "college faculty are not adequately
preparing students for required writing tasks in the private or government
sector" (p. 164), and recommend that "an online peer-reviewed journal
(be) established that allows for more timely and detailed reports than possible
with print publications" (p. 171).
A preponderance for academic writers to make writing
mistakes continues as they create "incomprehensible writing and factionalism, resulting even
more in their diminishment and incoherence" (Smith, 1999, para 2).
Avoiding
Poor Academic Writing
The focus of good academic writing
is well stated by James Cook University (2011): "Good writing is
unambiguous. The reader does not have to make a choice about what the writer
possibly means" (James Cook University, 2011, para 24), and ambiguousness
is avoided by using concrete rather than abstract terms (Australia's James Cook
University, 2011). The James Cook
University (2011) summarizes other core principles and characteristics for
academic writing. Core principles
include a "reader-centred approach, outlining and drafting, a clear
layout, logical presentation of material, pre-emption of reader’s questions,
parallel structure, concise writing, precise details and information as well as
good grammar, spelling and punctuation" (para 6). Characteristics of academic writing include
that "all statements can be
supported by evidence; paragraphs have a single, but developed, theme;
paragraphs begin with a theme sentence; (contain) neutral language; omit slang
and jargon; avoid pronouns; (have a) judicious use of adjectives; (contain)
precise information, verbs and word choice" (James Cook University, 2011,
para 9).
Addison
and McGee (2010) further indicated that college faculty identified "the
five most important characteristics of good writing as…organization…analysis
data/ideas/arguments, and use of supporting evidence" (p. 166). Supporting the five characteristics is the
systematic step-by-step writing process, which includes prewriting, higher
order concerns, lower order concerns, and editing. By learning and applying proven writing
processes, poor academic writing is avoided.
Conclusion
This
paper presented an analysis of (1) how academic professionals gain insight into
good academic writing, (2) common mistakes by academic writers, (3) criticisms
against poor academic writing, and (4) solutions for avoiding poor academic
writing. Analyzing and critiquing
sources, which elaborate upon good writing mechanics as provided by the APA and
other reliable references, creates a standardized across-the-board utility when
academic writing is required and produced for evaluation. Knowledge of common writing mistakes, and how
to avoid such mistakes provides writers with the basic and advanced skills
required for today's doctoral learners' writing activities.
References:
Anonymous (2010, April 3). Robert Rector: Bad writing gets its just reward. San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Retrieved January 8, 2011, from ProQuest.
American Psychological
Association (2010). Publication manual of
the American Psychological Association,
6th Ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Badley, G. (2008). Developing (authentic?) academic writers. Quality Assurance in Education, (16), 4, p. 363. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from ProQuest.
James Cook University
(2011). What is effective academic writing? Retrieved January 9, 2011, from https://egrs.jcu.edu.au/workshops/
academic-writing-workshops/what-is-effective-academic-writing
Kelly, R. (1999, April 8). Bad
blood over bad writing: Critics say US
academic language has become so
convoluted that it is largely incomprehensible to the point where argument is becoming impossible. The Irish Times, p. 15. Retrieved
January 8, 2011, from Proquest.
Smith, D. (1999, March 7). Academic: When the writing is bad, ideas get lost. Winston - Salem Journal, p. 17. Retrieved January 8, 2011, from ProQuest
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