This document provides guidance on academic writing from the University of Toronto. It offers general advice on essay writing, such as having a clear argument and supporting thesis. It also discusses organizing essays, such as formulating questions and maintaining a logical sequence. Additionally, it covers researching topics, integrating sources, revising writing, and different writing styles like annotated bibliographies and comparative essays. The overall document serves as a comprehensive guide for students on various aspects of effective academic writing.

1. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO-
Writing courses, Advice on
Academic Writing
A few guide points for the
improvement of written
assignments
by Ignacio Sánchez Aquino

2. General Advice on Academic
Essay-Writing
1- Academic texts should always have a definite argument.
In this argument, you should try to prove something, as a short set of closely related
points or a single “thesis”, supported by your reasoning and including evidence,
mostly external sources which should enhance your propositions.
2- Formulate questions.
In first place, you should define which are the questions you will seek to answer in
your text. Following this same path, and sustained by your own thinking and
reading, you should already be drafting a hypothesis. The last but not least
question you will have to ask yourself is what might be said against it, revising
and reformulating ideas as you progress.
3- Order is the key.
Independently of how you present your argument, it should follow an organized
sequence taking into account the beginning, the development and the ending to
present your argument clearly and persuasively.

3. General Advice on Academic
Essay-Writing
4- Methods of composing.
Start writing early. Use writing as means of exploration and discovery.
Try writing everything you think is ready to be written, even if you are not sure if it will
fit according to the text structure
Keep the text's overall purpose and organization always in mind.
Draft constantly. Revising extensively through the complete text allows changing its
sequence and adding sections on what you discover in the process of
composition.
Revise. From sentence to sentence, from paragraph to paragraph, bearing in mind
specially transition between the sequences of ideas, diction (exactness and
aptness of words) and economy (the fewest words without loss of clear
expression and full thought).
Proofread the whole final text.

4. Organizing an Essay
Some basic guidelines

Organize your paper during the pre-writing stage.

Ask yourself the following questions: What type of essay am I going to be writing?
Does it belong to a specific genre? Knowing the patterns of reasoning associated
with a genre can help you to structure your essay.

Be aware that genres are not fixed. Different professors will define the features of a
genre differently. Read the assignment question carefully for guidance.

You must be ready to come up with whatever essay structure helps you to convince
your reader of the validity of your position.

You must be flexible, and you must rely on your wits. Each essay presents a fresh
problem.

5. Organizing an Essay
Some techniques for integrating note-taking
and planning
Method 1: index cards
When you are researching, write down every idea, fact, quotation, or paraphrase on a
separate index card. When you’ve collected all your cards, reshuffle them into the
best possible order, and you have an outline. Then, reduce this outline to the
essential points should you transcribe it to paper.
Method 2: the computer
You can collect your points consecutively, just as you would on paper. You can then
sort your ideas when you are ready to start planning. Take advantage of “outline
view” in Word, which makes it easy for you to arrange your points hierarchically. This
method is fine so long as you don’t mind being tied to your computer from the first
stage of the writing process to the last.

6. Organizing an Essay
Some techniques for integrating note-taking
and planning
Method 3: the circle method
This method is designed to get your ideas onto a single page, where you can see
them all at once. When you have an idea, write it down on paper and draw a circle
around it. When you have an idea which supports another idea, do the same, but
connect the two circles with a line. Supporting source material can be represented
concisely by a page reference inside a circle. The advantage of the circle method is
that you can see at a glance how things tie together; the disadvantage is that there is
a limit to how much material you can cram onto a page.

7. Researching
Research using the internet
Researching in the internet is very different from the traditional
library way. The resources you could find in a library were all
examined by experts before they were published and constantly
catalogued and cross-referenced, while the information provided
by internet may or not be revised or catalogued.
Although Internet is a extraordinary powerful tool, it must be used
carefully and critically. There are several “safe” online resources
to which you may appeal when researching in the web, yet
essentially, you should abide by this rules:

8. Researching
Research using the internet
1- Net resources are not an outright source on its own. Always combine library and net
resources, if possible cross-examining each other.
2- Formulate a straight question before looking on the net. You can be easily overwhelmed
by the immense quantity and variety of sources you will find unless you narrow your
search to a specific question or concept.
3- Get acquainted with different search engines. You can find several high quality peer
reviewed directories with links reviewed by subject experts. Some examples are
Beaucoup, Academic Info, and Infomine.
4- Keep a detailed record of the sites you use. Try to write the adresses of the sites you use
and visit, it will help you keep track of the information you research in a neat way,
making it easier to identify those useful examined sites from those which are not.
5- Double-check all the URLs that you use in your text. It is common to make mistakes in
the directions, double check them to make sure you are sourcing the right site.

9. Using sources
How Not to Plagiarize
The purpose of any paper is to show your own thinking, not create a
patchwork of borrowed ideas. The point of documenting sources in
academic papers is to demonstrate that you know what is going on in
your field of study. It’s also a courtesy to your readers because it helps
them consult the material you’ve found. That’s especially important for
Internet sources. So mentioning what others have said doesn’t lessen
the credit you get for your own thinking—in fact, it adds to your
credibility. The real challenge is establishing the relationship of your
thinking to the reading you’ve done.
Here are some common questions and basic answers:

10. Using sources
How Not to Plagiarize

Can’t I avoid problems just by listing every source in the bibliography? No, you
need to integrate your acknowledgements into what you’re saying. Give the reference
as soon as you’ve mentioned the idea you’re using, not just at the end of the
paragraph.

If I put the ideas into my own words, do I still have to clog up my pages with all
those names and numbers? Sorry—yes, you do. In academic papers, you need to
keep mentioning authors and pages and dates to show how your ideas are related to
those of the experts. It’s sensible to use your own words because that saves space and
lets you connect ideas smoothly.

But I didn’t know anything about the subject until I started this paper. Do I have
to give an acknowledgement for every point I make? You’re safer to over-reference
than to skimp. But you can cut down the clutter by recognizing that some ideas are
“common knowledge” in the field.

11. Using sources
How Not to Plagiarize

How can I tell what’s my own idea and what has come from somebody else?
Careful record-keeping helps. Always write down the author, title and publication
information. Summarize useful points in your own words. If you find as you write that
you’re following one or two of your sources too closely, deliberately look back in your
notes for other sources that take different views; then write about the differences and
why they exist.

So what exactly do I have to document? With experience reading academic prose,
you’ll soon get used to the ways writers in your field refer to their sources. You should
include:
1- Quotations, paraphrases, or summaries: If you use the author’s exact words, enclose
them in quotation marks, or indent passages of more than four lines.
2- Specific facts used as evidence for your argument or interpretation
3- Distinctive or authoritative ideas, whether you agree with them or not: The way you
introduce a reference can indicate your attitude and lead into your own argument.

12. Revising
Faulty parallellism
Look out for faulty parallelism whenever you use one of the following constructions:

a and b

a, b, and c

a or b

a, b, or c

not only a but also b
The clauses or phrases joined by the conjunctions should have similar grammatical
structures to ensure that your reader can follow the logic of your sentence and to avoid
awkwardness. Consider the sentence,
My first-year philosophy professor was informative, lively, and a source of inspiration.
Notice that the first two phrases in the a, b, and c construction are adjectives, while the third
is a noun phrase. This sentence suffers from faulty parallelism.

13. Revising
Unbiased Language
Recent changes in social awareness have made people think about the ways language
tends to downgrade certain groups. Common sense and some specific strategies can
help you avoid suggesting putdowns where you don’t intend them.

The “Man” Trap: Many standard wordings seem to assume that every
individual is male. Finding alternatives can be as simple as using plural rather than
singular, or avoiding a pronoun altogether.
seems to exclude women Man is a tool-building animal.
inclusive Humans are tool-building animals.
seems to exclude women Every artist has learned from those who came before him.
inclusive but awkward Every artist has learned from those who came before him
or her.
inclusive Every artist has learned from previous artists.

14. Revising
Unbiased Language

Confusing the Group and the Individual:
Don’t get stuck in the habit of referring to people only as representatives of categories.
That’s especially important if you’re writing about (and perhaps to) individual clients or
patients or students. Avoid using adjectives as collective nouns: females, natives, gays,
Orientals, the blind, etc. Nouns like women or blind people are easy substitutes in most
cases. Terminology can reflect important distinctions. That’s the justification for terms
like hearing-impaired or partially sighted.

Gendered Labels:
Terms that label people simply on the basis of their sex have often gathered negative
overtones: Feminine forms of words such as poetess or woman doctor are certainly
outdated, since they underestimate women's in the role of poet or doctor. You can
nearly always replace such terms with a non-gendered form.
Use only last names when you refer to your sources, even if they are eminent
authorities.You may give the full name on first mention, then revert to last name only.

15. Types of writing
Writing an annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography gives an account of the research that has been done on a given
topic. It is an alphabetical list of research sources, and also provides a concise
summary of each source and some assessment of its value or relevance.
Selecting the sources
The quality and usefulness of your bibliography will depend on your selection of sources.
Your research should attempt to be reasonably comprehensive within well-defined
boundaries.

What problem am I investigating? What question(s) am I trying to pursue? try
formulating your topic as a question or a series of questions in order to define your
search more precisely.

What kind of material am I looking for? (academic books and journal articles?
government reports or policy statements?

Am I finding essential studies on my topic? (Keep an eye out for studies that are
referred to by several of your sources.)

16. Types of writing
The Academic Proposal
An academic proposal is the first step in producing a thesis or major project. As well as
indicating your plan of action, an academic proposal should show your theoretical
positioning and your relationship to past work in the area. An academic proposal is
expected to contain these elements:

A rationale for the choice of topic, showing why it is important or useful within the
concerns of the discipline or course. It is sensible also to indicate the limitations of your
aims—don’t promise what you can’t possibly deliver.

A review of existing published work (“the literature”) that relates to the topic. Here you
need to tell how your proposed work will build on existing studies and yet explore new
territory (see the file on The Literature Review).

An outline of your intended approach or methodology (with comparisons to the existing
published work), perhaps including costs, resources needed, and a timeline of when
you hope to get things done.

17. Types of writing
The Comparative Essay
A comparative essay asks that you compare at least two (possibly more) items. These
items will differ depending on the assignment. You might be asked to compare:

positions on an issue (e.g., responses to midwifery in Canada and the United States)

theories (e.g., capitalism and communism)

figures (e.g., GDP in the United States and Britain)

texts (e.g., Shakespeare’s Hamletand Macbeth)

events (e.g., the Great Depression and the global financial crisis of 2008–9)
Although the assignment may say “compare,” the assumption is that you will consider both
the similarities and differences; in other words, you will compare and contrast.

18. Types of writing
The Comparative Essay

Develop a list of similarities and differences
Once you know your basis for comparison, think critically about the similarities and
differences between the items you are comparing, and compile a list of them.
The list you have generated is not yet your outline for the essay, but it should provide you
with enough similarities and differences to construct an initial plan.

Develop a thesis based on the relative weight of similarities and differences
Once you have listed similarities and differences, decide whether the similarities on the
whole outweigh the differences or vice versa. Create a thesis statement that reflects
their relative weights. A more complex thesis will usually include both similarities and
differences.

19. English Language
Using Gerunds and Infinitives
Gerunds and infinitives are verb forms that can take the place of a noun in a sentence.
Following a preposition (gerund only)
Gerunds can follow a preposition; infinitives cannot. Examples:
Can you touch your toes without bending your knees?
He was fined for driving over the speed limit.
She got the money by selling the car
Following an indirect object (infinitive only)
Some verbs are followed by a pronoun or noun referring to a person, and then an infinitive.
Gerunds cannot be used in this position.
Some common verbs followed by an indirect object plus an infinitive:
ask “I must ask you to reconsider your statement.” beg “They begged her to stay for another term”

20. English Language
Verbs for Referring to Sources
You can indicate your attitude to the sources you cite by choosing specific verbs to refer to
them. There is a wide choice of such verbs in English. Use a dictionary to check that you
have chosen a verb with the nuance you intend. Here are some grammatical patterns to
follow in using these verbs: Pattern 1: reporting verb + that + subject + verb
Acknowledge Allege Admit Agree Argue
Assert Assume Believe Claim Conclude
Consider Decide Demonstrate Deny Determine
Discover Doubt Emphasize Explain Find
Hypothesize Imply Indicate Infer Note
Object Observe Point out Prove Reveal
Say Show State Suggest Think

21. Bibliography
Deborah Knott. “Writing an Annotated Bibliography”. Canada. University of
Toronto.
Website:
https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/annotated-bibliography/
Jerry Plotnick. “Organizing an Essay”. Canada. University of Toronto
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/organizing/
Jerry Plotnick, University College Writing Centre. “Faulty Parallellism”. Canada.
University of Toronto.
Website:https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/faulty-parallelism/
Margaret Procter, “The Academic Proposal”. Canada. University of Toronto.
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/academic-proposal/
Margaret Procter, “How Not to Plagiarize”. Canada. University of Toronto.
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize/
Margaret Procter, “Unbiased Language”. Canada. University of Toronto.
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/revising/unbiased-language/

22. Bibliography
Prof. C.A. Silber, Department of English. “Some General Advice on Academic
Writing Essay”. Canada. University of Toronto.
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca
Vikki Visvis and Jerry Plotnick. “The comparative Essay”. Canada. University of
Toronto.
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/comparative-essay/
W. Brock MacDonald, Academic Skills Centre, and June Seel, “Research using
the internet”. UTM Library
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/research-using-internet/