Academic Essay Writing conventions

[loscuatrogatos]

Can anyone give me some examples of what such conventions are? In our essay, we have 5 marks available for good academic essay writing conventions. Thanks in advance.

[hillwalker]

Style is important - it has to remain formal.
No colloquial words or phrases.
Be as precise as possible - no generalisations when figures or specific examples are available.
Avoid intruding personally with expressions like 'I believe' or 'in my opinion'. Instead keep an objective viewpoint.
If you're citing someone else's opinion make sure you include a reference. Remember, though, that you are responsible for checking the accuracy of any facts you share with your readers so choose your research well.

H

[WolfLarsen]

Write two essays! One creative and one conventional.

The creative one will be fun as hell! Sort of like farting real loud and/or smelly in a crowded room! Write whatever you want to write – in any way you want to write it – without worrying about grammar or spelling or any of that crap!
Don't worry if it makes any sense or not! Writing is much better when it makes absolutely no sense at all! And run-on sentences that fly off the page are the best!

And then write a conventional one that you will send to your teacher. It will not be as fun. It will not be as creative. It will probably not be as good. But you need to get good grades.

[islandclimber]

Wolf, do you ever read over what you write before you post it? The OP asked for help with the conventions of academic essay writing. Your answer has no relevance at all to this request. It's quite unhelpful in fact. I'm not the biggest fan of traditional academia myself, but all the same, the nonsense you gave for advice here isn't really necessary. It's fine in the creative writing threads, but not so much when someone asks a question like this...

For the OP, here's a link to a University academic writing advice website. I hope it helps.

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice

[miyako73]

Conventions in essay writing

1) Grammar and Style

2) Conciseness and Coherence

3) Logic and Reasoning

4) Information and Authenticity

5) Intertexuality and Bibliography


Are those what you need?

[hillwalker]

Wolf, do you ever read over what you write before you post it?

I would guess not, because he doesn't come here to offer advice. He's here to promote his personal beliefs on what counts for 'originality'. The literary equivalent of OCD.

H

[WolfLarsen]

Academia sucks!

Nothing will stifle your imagination and your creative ability more than writing endless stupid essays. I know about these stupid academic essays. Anyone can write them! Even Wolf Larsen could score an "A" while DISAGREEING with the professor. And anyone (even a monkey!) can score an "A" when they AGREE with the professor. I don't know about other countries, but "A" is the highest grade in the USA.

Knowing correct grammar is no big deal. Any monkey can do it. Even an ex-dockworker like me.

I think writing two essays is a great idea. Right one for your grade and the other one for creativity – write what you want to write in the second one. Don't let academia stifle your creativity & imagination & individualism!

And while I'm not talking about anybody here, let me say that some privileged kids think that they're so smart for getting good grades. Try working 40 hours a week and studying full-time and raising a kid and trying to get good grades! Or try being homeless and studying full-time! A lot of my co-students at CCNY had challenges that others can't even imagine. They were my heroes! They were a great inspiration to me!

And academia is overrated! Some of the smartest people I ever met were two high school dropouts who worked as ship's crewmen on a barge in Alaska who spent every spare moment of their time reading. They were smarter than almost any college graduate I've ever met (excluding the University of Chicago).

[islandclimber]

Are you serious? You're just making vague generalizations about academia and academic essay writing, without any evidence to support your claims. Not any monkey can get an "A" for agreeing with the prof. Not in any reputable institution for higher education. Otherwise the average GPAs in the arts and humanities would be far higher. And it's certainly just as easy to get an "A" for disagreeing with the prof as it for agreeing in a paper. They don't mark papers on personal opinion. Personal opinion should be almost entirely left out of any research paper. You get your grade for how coherently you present your argument, and how compelling a case you make for it through the compilation and organization of research you have done. Academic essay writing surely isn't the be-all and end-all of life skills, but it sure helps in school and it is a valuable tool in life.

Grammar is essential knowledge if you don't want to sound like a fool. Now, once you have that skill, you may go right ahead and choose if and when to break these rules, but disregarding it out of ignorance is an entirely different thing.

Wolf, I work 40+ hours a week as a handcrafter of timber frame homes. I take a couple classes a semester because learning is something that fascinates me, even of the academic sort. I've been in University full time in the past. In different majors, but I really could care little about a degree, I much prefer to take a smattering of the diverse courses I'm interested in.

Sure, your anecdotal evidence of the two high school dropouts being smarter than the majority of college graduates you've met, means so much. I know many brilliant college grads and many not so brilliant, even those with graduate degrees. I also know that most of the high-school dropouts I have met are woefully ignorant; however, like you, I have met a few dropouts that have educated themselves, and are extremely intelligent. These little anecdotes suggest nothing other than the diverse paths a human being can take in life. They certainly don't logically lead to the conclusion that academia is overrated. Yet, you never were one for logic.

[cacian]

Conventions in essay writing

1) Grammar and Style

2) Conciseness and Coherence

3) Logic and Reasoning

4) Information and Authenticity

5) Intertexuality and Bibliography


Are those what you need?

A lot to think about here. I would question why I am being asked an essay first. What am I trying to achieve and how does it help me later on in life or even help me write a story.
These just few underlying issue I would have with essays. I would rather learn about how to think up a book then write an essay.

[miyako73]

Well in a meaty essay, you convey an information, idea, or opinion you want your readers to appreciate, understand, believe, or root for. So first you have to possess professionalism, authority, and voice as a writer of that essay for you to be believed, admired, and read or listened to. To show that you have those three, you have to follow the conventions I enumerated. A wrong grammar is enough for a reader to question your entire essay even if your points are valid. It screams novice/greenhorn. Who listens to a novice/greenhorn? The most sacred of these conventions in an academic essay are authenticity and bibliography.

[WolfLarsen]

We Must Begin Eating Fireflies at Once
An Essay by Wolf Larsen

Fireflies are threatening the stability of the universe. Fireflies have been moving planets all over the universe with their gigantic tongues. This has occurred for three reasons. The first reason is that Egyptian hieroglyphics are composed of marshmallows, rap music, and dancing spermatozoa. The second reason that fireflies have been moving planets all over the universe is that the sky is blue. And of course the third reason is television evangelism at 2 a.m.

Since the dawn of hip-hop Egyptian hieroglyphics have been composed of marshmallows, rap music, and dancing spermatozoa. This is the main reason that fireflies have grown giant tongues. The giant tongues of the fireflies have allowed them to move planets from one solar system to another. Whenever a firefly moves a planet from one solar system to another the sky above our heads becomes blue.

The blue sky gives God diarrhea. The diarrhea excites the fireflies to ever more frantically move planets from one solar system to another with their giant tongues. In fact, the rate at which the fireflies are moving the planets about has increased ever since God's diarrhea married the blue sky.

We can see the relationship of all these factors when we include television evangelism at two o'clock in the morning. Television evangelism at 2 a.m. gives God an upset stomach and causes ever greater amounts of God's diarrhea to drown the universe. This excites the fireflies to movie even more planets about with their giant tongues.

The interrelationship between God's diarrhea, television evangelism at 2 a.m., the blue sky, and the composition of Egyptian hieroglyphics has caused fireflies to move the planets about with their giant tongues. When you mix in the urban adolescent and post-adolescent brew of hip-hop into the equation it becomes clear that fireflies are a threat to the stability of the universe. It is recommended that everyone begin eating fireflies in order to save the universe.

Copyright 2009 by Wolf Larsen.

[stlukesguild]

I don't often agree with Wolf, but you are incredibly naive if you don't think grades in colleges and universities have been continually inflated over the past half-century or so so that it has indeed become increasingly "easy" to achieve an "A". If grading were done according to the bell-curve then the majority of all students majoring in the Liberal Arts... or any other field... would achieve a "C" grade, denoting that their achievements were "average". But this is not the case. According to one study on the National Trends in Grade Inflation in American Colleges and Universities the average GPA at all American schools is 3.11. At public schools the average is 3.01 and at private schools it rises to 3.30. These averages have all risen continuously over the last decade and more so over the last half century. Sp according to the research the "average" student is indeed able to easily earn an "A".

The reasons for such grade inflation include lowered standards of admission to allow students from poor and minority backgrounds to attend school and to offset declines in public schools. It is also the result of college and university focus on quantity of students as opposed to quality... which spells profits. Schools are adverse to rejecting any paying student. They are also loathe to lose students as a result of low grades that may lead to him or her dropping out. Grade inflation is part of the reason that a bachelors degree has become as valuable (or perhaps we should say as "useless") as a high-school degree was 25 years ago. This, plays into the desire of colleges and universities for students to be required to take post-graduate courses. Colleges and Universities spend large sums of money lobbying state and federal governments to require formal studies in areas where the bachelor's degree... and in some cases vocational schooling... combined with on-the-job training was once all that was required.

While agreeing with a professor won't immediately assure a student of an "A", there are those professors who do make it more difficult for students to disagree, regardless of whether this is professional or not.

I also agree with Wolf is suggesting that success in academia isn't everything, and for the student financially supported by Mom and Dad or government loans and grants it is actually far easier to attain than it is for those lacking such advantages. Until recently, most colleges and universities made little or no effort to accommodate students who don't have the option to quit their day job because they are supporting not only themselves, but also a family. I worked 40+ hours a week on the night shift in a labor job while attaining my post-graduate teaching license. There were days that I was lucky to sleep 2 hours. Maintaining my GPA and my position of the Dean's List was far more difficult then... and I was 15 years younger... than it was over this past semester when I attended classes while on lay-off and collecting unemployment.

Considering the astronomical expense of higher education today I fully agree with Wolf that academia is grossly overrated. Certainly it is so for the student not having the advantage of being born into wealth or the student not majoring in a field with a somewhat assured income after school. Competition for positions in academia is fierce and one often spends years in low-paying part-time professor positions that offer few benefits.

[Reader of Books]

As someone who works in the academic community, there're a lot of generalizations being thrown around here. And while some of what's being said may be true for a good amount of colleges (Wolf's deploring of academic essays and StLuke's claim that it's easy to get good grades) it is in no way universal, because each class is taught by an actual person who will teach the class in their own way. Do some hand out good grades and assign the same old boring, useless essays? Of course. Do all of them? Of course not. My university's ENG 101 class is not an easy class, nor is it easy to get an A. Out of approximately 20 students, only a couple will get an A in my class--it's not some predetermined rule, that's just how it happens.

And, believe it or not, academic essays, even research papers, can be creative. They're better if they are. Coming up with new ideas, alternatives solutions to complex problems, exploring culture (our own and others), it all goes into academic writing if its taught right. Just because you had a bad experience at a college, don't go around telling everyone how inhibiting all academic writing is because it just isn't true. To claim so only prove you've never explore the subject.

As to tips for writing, most of what's said here is good, but I'd ask your instructor, because some will want different things. Some will not want contractions, some will be okay with it. Some will not want a first person perspective, some will. Be okay with it. Etc. Fine out what your instructor wants.

[WolfLarsen]

The steel mills weren't hiring, actually they were laying people off by the tens of thousands, so I went to college.

College was cool in a lot of ways, but being broke was not cool. The guaranteed student loans later became a pain in the ***.

I learned a lot of stuff in college. But there was a lot of stuff I didn't learn either.

I remember standing in front of a "cubist painting" in an art museum in Paris wondering, "It says Cubist painting. I wonder what this painting has to do with Cuba?"

I went out and bought a big book on modern painting & sculpture. I've been obsessed with modern & postmodern painting ever since.

I learned more about modern & contemporary poetry combing through the poetry sections of the libraries in New York City then I learned about modern & contemporary poetry in either high school or college. And I have a BA in English literature! Of course, I went through the ENTIRE poetry sections in the New York City libraries. I was hungry!

If you don't feel hunger for learning you will not learn much, college degree or not.

I think the standard essay is good actually. I just think too much emphasis is placed on it. If the schools are doing their job everybody should know how to write a standard essay by the time they graduate high school, at the latest. The same goes for grammar. By the time you graduate from high school you should have completely mastered most aspects of grammar. I'm surprised how hung up on grammar so many adults in the literary world are. You master it, and then you move on to something more creative.

Too much emphasis on the standard essay puts creativity and self-expression in a mental straitjacket. My observation is is that many students are so hung up on the standard essay that they are unable to express themselves in any other manner. In fact, the overemphasis on the standard essay impinges on their ability to express themselves with writing, because they feel that writing has to be in a standard essay format.

My feeling on the standard essay format: it should be mastered in high school and college students should be encouraged to express themselves with the written word in as many forms as possible!

[cafolini]

This is a lot of BS. America and the UK are lands of opportunity where students are allowed to function at their level the best they can. It does not affect the best at all, who will be the best one way or the other. Inability to be the best is not contagious.

[stlukesguild]

It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to find data on the internet pertaining to grade inflation in universities... even someone lacking an advanced college degree could probably do this:

http://gradeinflation.com/

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/03/college_graduates_are_in_for_a_rude_awakening/

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/

I don't think I suggested that getting an "A" was universally "easy" so this is just a straw man diverting attention away from the fact (supported by data including college records) of grade inflation over the last half century or more.

I think the standard essay is good actually. I just think too much emphasis is placed on it. If the schools are doing their job everybody should know how to write a standard essay by the time they graduate high school, at the latest.

Damn! I find myself agreeing with Wolf again!:eek2: I had the advantage of a strong public school education. When I applied for college, I was required to write a formal essay. The first week of school I had to write two more: one on a painting by Degas and the other on one of Shakespeare's sonnets. These essays were used for academic placement. From the end of my first year until I graduated I worked as a tutor including assisting students in the formal mechanics of writing essays. Although the school was then ranked as one of the 5 best art schools in the nation, not all individuals who are highly skilled visually are equally skillful in the use of the written language. A good many students lacked what many might assume are basic literary skills that would be required of any student accepted into a college of university. I came across more than one instance in which the student didn't grasp the notion that a sentence must have a noun and a verb. A year or two after art school, a friend of mine introduced me to her daughter who was struggling at college with written essays. She was quite a bright girl and had attended the same high-school as I, but by that time, the school no longer emphasized writing essays. She had no concept of the difference between an essay and a book report.

Now obviously neither my personal experiences nor those of Wolf prove declining standards... but there is more than enough data to substantiate such claims.

[MeLiKeyClaSsIcS]

If you still want to go with Wolf's point, which I think is a great idea, be as creative as you want to be when writing your essay the first time around. It's kind of like brainstorming while writing an essay at the same time. I normally write my essays this way, giving myself enough time before the assignment is due to edit and revise as I see fit. Also, you can be creative in an academic essay, you just have to make sure that you come across as an academic professional. I've read countless academic essays that portray wonderfully brilliant and creative ideas as thesis statements, and that's usually the best way to show your creativity--in your thesis statement. Any points backing up your creative thesis statement only further augment your brilliantly creative idea.

As far as the conventions go, you can always ask your professor/H.S teacher, or visit the writing center within your college, and the English department within your high school. Most writing centers/English Depts. usually have essay rubrics on hand. Myako73's list is pretty solid as well, but there is quite a bit more to writing a fantastic essay, as those aforementioned rubrics will show you.

[WolfLarsen]

This is a lot of BS. America and the UK are lands of opportunity where students are allowed to function at their level the best they can. It does not affect the best at all, who will be the best one way or the other. Inability to be the best is not contagious.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You're great! I'm so glad you're here!

[stlukesguild]

America and the UK are lands of opportunity where students are allowed to function at their level the best they can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVB9jdU8wo

:patriot:

In the words of a truly great American:

“Tell me great hero, but please make it brief
Is there a hole for me to get sick in?”

[OrphanPip]

There are difficulties with teaching undergrads essay writing. The introductory English courses are largely viewed by the university as "service courses" that the English department is required to offer to the non-English students to justify its existence within the university. This burdens the English department with quite a few students who often lack basic writing skills. Grade inflation is an issue, I feel that the grading rubric I'm required to follow makes it difficult to fail students.

On the other hand, as an undergraduate the grade distribution in most of my classes only saw 1 or 2 As in a class of 30-40 students. Out of a department of around 120 students, only 6 of us had GPAs above 4.0 (we worked on a 4.3 scale).

[Reader of Books]

Good points, Pip. I guess you gotta be a veteran member to be able to make the same point and not get a snide reply from another member.

[ralfyman]

Try various OWLs. For example,

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/