Academic Conventions
- discussing the necessities for having a structured writing technique
- why you should have your own personal writing style
Academic Conventions are like an institutional framework for your work
- structure and standardise
- aspire to academic honesty
- showing the reader where your arguments are coming from
- formulas with a certain reason and logic behind them
Superficial Surface Approach - Things NOT To Do:
- concentration on learning outcomes
- passive acceptance of ideas
- routine memorisation of facts
- no level of critique
- ignoring guiding patterns or styles
Deep Approach - Things You SHOULD Do:
- independent engagement with material
- critical and thoughtful about ideas and information
- relates ideas to own personal experiences and knowledge
- relates evidence to conclusions
How to do this:
- following certain academic conventions
- formal style and tone
- specialist vocabulary for each academic discipline (graphic design talk)
- the substance of academic writing must be based on solid evidence and logical analysis and presented as a concise, accurate argument
- academic writing allows you to present your argument and analysis accurately and concisely
- opinions must be based on thought through and logical analysis
Tips for academic writing
- aim for precision
- don't waffle or use unnecessary words
- get straight to the point
- if there is any uncertainty about a particular point, use cautious language and back it up
- avoid repeating the same words
- avoid abbreviations and contractions
- avoid slang words and phrases
- avoid conversational terms
- avoid vague terms
- everything has to be referenced using Harvard Referencing
- bibliography should be alphabetised and seperated out into types of reference (books, webpages, etc)
- pictures should be included as a list of illustrations in accordance to the Harvard referencing system
- use a combination of extended quotes, in text quotes and paraphrasing
General Essay Structure
Preliminaries - Title / Acknowledgements / Contents / List of illustrations
Introduction - The Abstract / Statement of the problem / Methodological approach
Main body - Review of the literature / Logically developed argument / Chapters / Results of investigation
Conclusion - Discussion and conclusion / Summary of conclusions (answer the question)
Extras - Bibliography / Appendices
