1 Writing in Academic Contexts

What’s Expected of Academic Writing

Evidence that you’ve considered the subject thoughtfully. Whether you’re composing a report, an argument, or some other kind of writing, you need to demonstrate that you’ve thought seriously about the topic and done any necessary research. You can use various ways to show that you’ve considered the subject carefully, from citing authoritative sources to incorporating information you learned in class to pointing out connections among ideas.

An indication of why your topic matters. You need to help your readers understand why your topic is worth exploring and why your writing is worth reading. Even if you are writing in response to an assigned topic, you can better make your point and achieve your purpose by showing your readers why your topic is important and why they should care about it. For example, in the prologue to Our Declaration, political philosopher Danielle Allen explains why her topic, the Declaration of Independence, is worth writing about:

The Declaration of Independence matters because it helps us see that we cannot have freedom without equality. It is out of an egalitarian commitment that a people grows—a people that is capable of protecting us all collectively, and each of us individually, from domination. If the Declaration can stake a claim to freedom, it is only because it is so clear-eyed about the fact that the people’s strength resides in its equality.

The Declaration also conveys another lesson of paramount importance. It is this: language is one of the most potent resources each of us has for achieving our own political empowerment. The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence grasped the power of words. This reveals itself in the laborious processes by which they brought the Declaration, and their revolution, into being. It shows itself forcefully, of course, in the text’s own eloquence.

By explaining that the topic matters because freedom and equality matter—and language gives us the means for empowering ourselves—Allen gives readers reason to read her careful analysis.

A response to what others have said. Whatever your topic, it’s unlikely that you’ll be the first one to write about it. And if, as this chapter assumes, all academic writing is part of a larger conversation, you are in a way adding your own voice to that conversation. One good way of doing that is to present your ideas as a response to what others have said about your topic—to begin by quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing what others have said and then to agree, disagree, or both.

For example, in an essay arguing that the phrase “all lives matter” is manipulative, Diablo Valley College student Kelly Coryell says, “It should be acknowledged that some of those who used the phrase did so naively attempting to unify people in a time of division.” But then she responds—and disagrees, arguing that “The phrase ‘all lives matter’ belies the current racial inequality in America by implying that all lives are at equal risk.”

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A clear, appropriately qualified thesis. When you write in an academic context, you’re usually expected to state your main point explicitly, often in a THESIS STATEMENT. Kelly Coryell states her thesis clearly in her essay “All Words Matter: The Manipulation behind ‘All Lives Matter’”: “Saying ‘all lives matter’ as a response to “Black lives matter” is, in reality, sending a dangerous message: it steals attention from the systematic oppression of Black Americans and actively distorts the message behind the BLM movement, manipulating the American people into maintaining the oppressive status quo.” Often you’ll need to QUALIFY your thesis statement to acknowledge that the subject is complicated and there may be more than one way of seeing it or exceptions to the generalization you’re making about it. Here, for example, is a qualified thesis, from an essay evaluating the movie The Lovebirds by Olivia Mazzucato, a student at UCLA: “Though the film’s story gets convoluted, Rae and Nanjiani are able to salvage the muddy plot with their razor-sharp comedic wit and hilarious chemistry.” Mazzucato makes a claim that The Lovebirds achieves success, while acknowledging at the beginning of the sentence that the film’s plot is flawed.

Good reasons supported by evidence. You need to provide good reasons for your thesis and evidence to support those reasons. For example, Kelly Coryell offers several reasons why saying “all lives matter” as a response to “Black lives matter” sends a dangerous message: systemic racism disproportionately affects the Black community and “Black lives matter” does not mean “only” Black lives matter, but that Black lives need to matter as much as White lives. Evidence to support your reasons sometimes comes from your own experience but more often from published research and scholarship, research you do yourself, or firsthand accounts by others.

Compared with other kinds of writing, academic writing is generally expected to be more objective and less emotional. You may find Romeo and Juliet deeply moving or cry when you watch A Dog’s Journey—but when you write about the play or the film for a class, you must do so using evidence from the text to support your thesis. You may find someone’s ideas deeply offensive, but you should respond to them with reason rather than with emotional appeals or personal attacks.

Acknowledgment of multiple perspectives. Debates and arguments in popular media are often framed in “pro/con” terms, as if there were only two sides to any given issue. Once you begin seriously studying a topic, though, you’re likely to find that there are several sides and that each of them deserves serious consideration. In your academic writing, you need to represent fairly the range of perspectives on your topic—to explore three, four, or more positions on it as you research and write. For example, in her report, “Sleepless Nights of a University Student,” Drexel University student Renae Tingling examines sleep deprivation in several ways: through academic research, a survey of students, and a personal sleep-deprivation experiment.

A confident, authoritative stance. If one goal of academic writing is to contribute to a larger conversation, your tone should convey confidence and establish your authority to write about your subject. Ways to achieve such a tone include using active verbs (“X claims” rather than “it seems”), avoiding such phrases as “in my opinion” and “I think,” and writing in a straightforward, direct style. Your writing should send the message that you’ve done the research, analysis, and thinking and know what you’re talking about. For example, here is the first paragraph of Wilkes University student Brianna Schunk’s essay advocating for the casting of actors with disabilities in the roles of characters with disabilities:

When I first saw Gaten Matarazzo in the TV show Stranger Things and some of the first words out of his toothless little mouth were, “I have cleidocranial dysplasia,” I actually cried with joy. Until then, I had never seen another human not related to my family who had cleidocranial dysplasia on television in a popular TV show. I was so shocked, I made my friend rewind the episode so I could hear him say it again. Having cleidocranial dysplasia myself, it is so much easier to be able to compare myself to Matarazzo when explaining my condition to other people, and I only wish he could have come into my life earlier. Representation—how we portray ourselves and are portrayed by others—is incredibly important to all groups of people, but especially to people with disabilities.

Schunk’s use of vivid language (“toothless little mouth,” “I was so shocked”) and her strong final sentence (“Representation . . . is incredibly important to all groups of people, but especially to people with disabilities”) lend her writing a confident tone. Her stance sends the message that she knows what she’s talking about.

Carefully documented sources. Clearly acknowledging sources and documenting them carefully and correctly is a basic requirement of academic writing. When you use the words or ideas of others—including visuals, video, or audio—those sources must be documented in the text and in a works-cited or references list at the end. (If you’re writing something that will appear online, you may also refer readers to your sources by using hyperlinks in the text; ask your instructor if you need to include a list of references or works cited as well.)

Careful attention to style expectations. In academic contexts, you should almost always write in complete sentences, use capitalization and punctuation as recommended in a handbook or other guide, check your spelling by consulting a dictionary, proofread carefully—and avoid any abbreviations used in texting or other informal writing. Grammar conventions are important, and it’s a good idea to follow them in most kinds of academic writing. If you choose not to, however, you should make clear that you are doing so intentionally, for a particular purpose.

What’s Expected of College Writers: The WPA Outcomes

Writing is not a multiple-choice test; it doesn’t have right and wrong answers that are easily graded. Instead, your readers, whether they’re teachers or anyone else, are likely to read your writing with various questions in mind: does it make sense, does it meet the demands of the assignment, are sources documented appropriately, to name just a few of the things readers may look for. Different readers may notice different things, so sometimes it may seem to you that their response—and your grade—is unpredictable. It should be good to know, then, that writing teachers across the nation have come to some agreement on certain “outcomes,” what college students should know and be able to do by the time they finish a first-year writing course. These outcomes have been defined by the National Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA). Here’s a brief summary of these outcomes and how The Norton Field Guide can help you meet them:

Knowledge of Rhetoric

• Understand the rhetorical situation of texts that you read and write. See Chapters 5–9 and the many prompts for Considering the Rhetorical Situation throughout the book.
• Read and write texts in a number of different genres, and understand how your purpose may influence your writing. See Chapters 10–22 for guidelines on writing in twelve genres and remixing what you write in one genre to another.
• Adjust your voice, tone, level of formality, design, and medium as is necessary and appropriate. See Chapter 8 on stance and tone and Chapter 9 for help thinking about medium and design.
• Choose the media that will best suit your audience, purpose, and the rest of your rhetorical situation. See Chapters 9 and 55.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing

• Read and write to inquire, learn, think critically, and communicate. See Chapters 1 and 2 on academic writing and reading, and Chapter 27 on writing as inquiry. Chapters 10–22 provide genre-specific prompts to help you think critically about a draft.
• Read for content, argumentative strategies, and rhetorical effectiveness. Chapter 2 provides guidance on reading texts with a critical eye, Chapter 11 teaches how to analyze a text, and Chapter 48 shows how to evaluate sources.
• Find and evaluate popular and scholarly sources. Chapter 47 teaches how to use databases and other methods to find sources, and Chapter 48 shows how to evaluate the sources you find.
• Use sources in various ways to support your ideas. Chapter 37 suggests strategies for supporting your ideas, and Chapter 50 shows how to incorporate ideas from sources into your writing to support your ideas.

Processes

• Use writing processes to compose texts and explore ideas in various media. Part 5 covers all stages of the processes writers use, from generating ideas and text to drafting, getting response and revising, and editing and proofreading. Each of the thirteen genre chapters (10–22) in Part 3 includes a guide that leads you through the process of writing in that genre or remixing your writing into another genre.
• Collaborate with others on your own writing and on group tasks. Chapter 4 offers guidelines for working with others, Chapter 32 provides general prompts for getting and giving response , and Chapters 10–22 provide genre-specific prompts for reading a draft with a critical eye.
• Reflect on your own writing processes. Chapters 10–22 provide genre-specific questions to help you take stock of your work, and Chapter 35 offers guidance in reflecting on your writing processes and products.

Knowledge of Conventions

• Use appropriate grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Chapter 33 provides tips to help you edit and proofread your writing. Chapters 10–22 offer genre-specific advice for editing and proofreading.
• Understand and use genre conventions and formats in your writing. Chapter 7 provides an overview of genres and how to think about them. Part 3 covers twelve genres, describing the key features and conventions of each one, and includes one chapter on remixes.
• Understand intellectual property and document sources appropriately. Chapter 51 offers guidance on the ethical use of sources, Chapter 52 provides an overview of documentation styles, and Chapters 53 and 54 provide templates for documenting in MLA and APA styles.