A presentation of how we do an essay.

1. I N S T I T U T O S U P E R I O R D E F O R M A C I Ó N D O C E N T E N ° 4 1
I N G L E S L E N G U A Y E X P R E S I Ó N E S C R I T A I V
T E A C H E R : S A U B I D E T O Y H A M B U R U S T E L L A M A R I S
S T U D E N T : C H A P E L E T P A U L A
D A T E : 2 1 / 0 5 / 2 0 2 0
Advice on Academic Writing

2. Index
General
Planning an Organizing
Reading an Researching
 Using Sources
Revising
Specific Types of Writing
English Language

3. General
Essay
Have an argument. It should to prove something by reasoning
and evidence (including sources,confirming citations,topics).
Answer a question ( or few related questions).
Should be designed to present your argument clearly and
persuasively.
Successful methods of
composing and essay
*Start writing early even if you are not ready to start,
right exploring and discovery.
*Write a single draft and then edited.
*When you have an organize draft, revise sentences
and paragraph by paragraph.
Planing and
organization
Ask yourself, What type of essay am I going to be
writing?
Avoiding a common
pitfall
The structure of an essay should
not be determined by the structure
of its source material.

4. What does an essay
outline look like
*You should follow certain basic principles: the thesis,
introduction and conclusion.
*Topic outline are more open-ended
What should I begin
puting together a place
The earlier you begin plnning the better. You will be
more efficient in your reading and your research
Planning and Organizing
How much of my time
should I put on a
planning
Be aware of implication of a planning too little or too
much. Planning provides the followin advantages:
*Help you to produce a logical at orderly argument
*Help you to produce an economical paper
*Help to produce a thorough paper by making it easier
for you to notice whether you have left anything out.
*Makes drafting the paper easier by allowing you to
concentrate on issues such as grammar,word,choice and
clearly

5. Over planning *Doesn’t leave you enough time to write and revise.
*Leads you to produce papers that try to cover too much
ground at the expense of analytic depth.
*Does not provide enough opportunity to discover new
ideas in the process of writing.
Thesis statements This thesis statement comes in the first paragraph of
the essay, that indicates a theoretical basis and
promise substantial support.
*A thesis statement must come at the end of the first paragraph
*A thesis statement must be one sentence in length, no matter how many
clauses it contains. Clear writing is more important than rules like these.
*You can’t start writing an essay until you have a perfect thesis
statement.
*A thesis statement must give three points of support. It should indicate
that the essay will explain and give evidence for its assertion.

6. Introductions and conclusions
Introduction: should identify your topic, provide essential concept, and
indicate your particular focus in the essay. It also need to engage your
readers interest.
Conclusion: will provide a sense of closure to the essay while again placing
your concepts in a somewhat wider context.
Paragraph
*It is a series of related sentences developing a central idea called the
topic.
*A paragraph is a sentence or a group of sentences that supports one
central, unified idea.
*Paragraph add one idea at a time to your broader argument.

7. Ilustration: supports a general statement by means of examples,details or relevant
quotations
Definition: defines a term, often by drawing distinctions between the term and
other related ones.
Analysis or classification paragraph: develops a topic by distinguishing its
component parts and discussing each of these parts separately.
Comparison or a contrast paragraph: zeroes in on a key similarity or difference
between, for instance, two sources, positions, or ideas.
Qualification paragraph: acknowledges that what you previously asserted is not
absolutely true or always applicable.
Process paragraph: involves a straightforward step-by-step description. Process
description often follows a chronological sequence.
Paragraph

8. Topic sentences A topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph: It
serves as a mini-thesis for the paragraph.
*A signpost for your readers that alerts them to the most
important.
*Protect your readers from confusion by guiding them
through the arguments.
Reading and Researching
Critical reading towards
Critical Writing
Critical writing depends on critical reading. In order
to write your own analysis of this subject, you will
need to do careful critical reading of sources and to
use them critically to make your own argument.
Critical reading:is making judgments about how a text is argued.
* Don’t read looking only or primarily for information
*Do read looking for ways of thinking about the subject matter

9. How do I Read Looking for Ways of thinking
*Determine the central claims or purpose of the text
*Begin to make some judgments about context.
*Distinguish the kind of reasoning the text employs.
*Examine the evidence the text employs.
*Critical reading may involve education.
How to Get the Most of Reading
*A more important skill is to read with comprehension and memory.
*Taking notes from rasearch reading: If you take notes efficently, you can read
with more understandably and also save time and frustration when you come to
write your paper
Dealing With New Words: don’t need to interrupt your reading to look up
every hard word right away in the dictionary.
*Sound it out. Use simple phonic to attemp saying the word.
*Examine the structure. Look for familiar word parts.
*Look at the context. Guess at the word´s meaning from the way it is used in the
sentences.
*Only then check your dictonary.

10. Research using internet Is a great instrument nowdays, but it must be used
carefully and critically.
*Don´t rely exclusively on net resources.
*Narrow your research topic before logging on.
*Know your subject directories and search engines.
Previewing When reading for academic urposes, It´s preferable to read
with a certain goals in mind.
*Read the title, think about the subject matter,who wrote the
text where/when /was published.
*Read the chapter titles on the headings.
*Why has your professor assigned this text.
Skimming and Scanning
Skimming: You can get a sense of it´s overall logical progression.
*It help you make decisions about where to place your greatest focus when you
have limited time for your reading
*Use some of the previewing techniques.
*Read carefully the introductory pragraph and try to predict the direction of the
coming explanations or arguments.

11. Scanning: Is basically skimming with a more tightly focused porpuse.
* Skimming to locate a particular fact or figure, or to see whether this text
mentions a subject you’re researching.
*Is essential when you may need to look through many articles and books. You can
note what you’d like to return to later when you do have time to read further, and
use scanning to move ahead in your research project.
Summarizing Summarizing a text, or distilling its essential concepts into a
paragraph or two, is a useful study tool as well as good writing
practice.
A summary has two aims:
1. to reproduce the overarching ideas in a text, identifying the general concepts
that run through the entire piece.
2. To express a general ideas using precise specific language.When you
summarize yo cannot use the same language the author used. You must find a
way to express the same points with your own words and deciding about what
concept to leave and wich omit.
Be carefull not to plagiarize the author´s words. If you do use them, they must
appear in quotetions marks

12. Standar documentation format: Different disciplines use their own systems to
set out information about sources.
Traditional Endnotes or Footnotes with Superscript Numbers (humanities):
Some humanities and science disciplines use systems with small raised numbers
matching footnotes or endnotes, followed by a bibliography
Using sources
Using quotations The focus of your essay should be on your understanding
of topic. If you include too much quotation, you will crowd
out your own ideas.
Consider quoting a passage from one of your sources if :
*The language of the passage is particularly elegant or powerful or memorable.
*You wish to confirm the credibility of your argument by enlisting the support of
an authority on your topic.
*The passage is worthy of further analysis.
*You wish to argue with someone else’s position in considerable detail.
Paraphasing: If you wish to convey the points in the passage at roughly the same
level or details as in the original.
Summarizing: The relevant passage if you wish to sketch only the most essential
point.

13. Revising
Revising and Editing:Revising gives you the chance to preview your work on
behalf of the eventual reader. Revision is much more than proofreading, though in
the final editing stage it involves some checking of details. Good revision and
editing can transform a mediocre first draft into an excellent final paper.
In computer: Word processing comes into its own with the hardest work of good
writing—cutting, arranging, rewriting. Get to know what your computer can and
can’t do to support you.
Hit Parade Of Errors In Grammar, Punctuation, and Style
Markers look at four general areas in deciding on a mark for a written assignment:
*How well you’ve handled the topic and followed the assignment
*The quality of your ideas
*The way you’ve organized your paper
*The quality of your writing style and grammar.
Using the Computer to Improve Your Writing
The computer lets you easily type in the text, shift it around, and edit it.
Composing: Though some writers benefit from the tactile experience of writing
notes and drafts by hand, you may be surprised how much power you gain by doing
nearly all your drafting on the computer.

14. Wordiness: Danger Signals and Ways to React
One of the most efficient ways to improve your writing is to edit it for conciousness.
You may have been struggling to think ideas through as you wrote, and piled up
alternative wordings. If you can let your original draft “cool down” a while, you will
find it easy to recognize unnecessary words and edit them out.
Unbiased Language Recent changes in social awareness have made people
think about the ways language tends to downgrade
certain groups.
*Paraphrasing can help show contemporary interpretation of the idea you want to
cite.
*Avoid using adjectives as collective nouns: females, natives, gays, Orientals, the
blind, etc.
*Avoid terms that label people simply on the basis of their sex.

15. Dangling Modifier The terms refers to a word or phrase usually at the
start of a sentence. Dangling modifiers are easy to
miss
The Book Review or Article Critique
An analytic or critical review of a book or article is not primarily a summary;
rather, it comments on and evaluates the work in the light of specific issues and
theoretical concerns in a course. Some reviews summarize the book’s content and
then evaluate it; others integrate these functions, commenting on the book and
using summary only to give examples. Your assignment is primarily to discuss the
book’s treatment of its topic, not the topic itself.
The Literature Review
A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by
acredited scholars and researchers.
Specific Type of Writing

16. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader
what knowledge and ideas have been stablished on a topic, and what their
strengths and weaknesses are.
Writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas
*Information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using
manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books
*Critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify
unbiased and valid studies.

17. The Abstract Are important because they give a first impression of
the document that follows, letting readers decide
whether to continue reading and showing them what to
look for if they do.
*An abstract will nearly always be read along with the title, so do not repeat or
rephrase the title. It will likely be read without the rest of the document,
however, so make it complete enough to stand on its own.
*Your readers expect you to summarize your conclusions as well as your purpose,
methods, and main findings. Emphasize the different points in proportion to the
emphasis they receive in the body of the document.
*Do not refer in the abstract to information that is not in the document.
*Avoid using I or we, but chose active verbs instead of passive when possible (the
study tested rather than it was tested by the study).
*Avoid if possible avoid trade names, acronyms, abbreviations, or symbols. You
would need to explain them, and that takes too much room.
*Use key words from the document. (For published work, the abstract is “mined”
for the words used to index the material—thus making it more likely someone
will cite your article.)

18. Comparative Essay It asks that you compare at least two items. These
items will differ depending on the assignment.
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)
Compare: Means that you will consider both, the similarities an differences.
In other words, compare an construct.

19. Writing About History
When writing a storical research paper, your goal is to choose a topic and write a
paper that:
1. Ask a good historical question
2. Tells how It´s interpretation connects to previous work by other historians.
3. Offer a well-organized and persuasive these of it´s own .
Writing About Literature
•Avoid Plot Summary: The main purpose is to advance an argument.
•Master the art of the analytical thesis: A good thesis is a statement of roughly
one to three sentences that says something intelligent about a literary work.}
•Let the structure of your argument determine the structure of your paper.
• Opt for analysis instead of evaluative judgments.
•Don’t confuse the author with the speaker: Often, particularly when you are
analyzing a poem, it is tempting to assume that the author is also the narrator.
•Integrate quotations fully into your argument.

20. Writing a Philosophy Essay
• Understand such philosophical questions and the concepts, arguments, and
theories that philosophers use to address them
•Think critically about such arguments and theories
•Develop their own answers to philosophical questions
Writing in the Sciences
A science paper should be written in a clear and concise style, its paragraphs should
be coherent, and its ideas should be well organized.
Active Voice in the Sciences:
For the better part of the twentieth century, passive voice held sway in the sciences,
and science journals by and large shunned the first person—singular or plural. But it
was not always thus. “When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,'” Darwin writes at the start
of On the Origin of Species, “I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution
of the inhabitants of South America,” and he continues in this direct manner for
several hundred pages of close observation and argument. Slowly, science journals
are returning to a preference for the active voice, and university science departments
are following suit, though they have lagged behind somewhat. Several influential
science journals—Science, Nature, and the British Medical Journal, among others—
are quite explicit in this preference. Some, such as Physical Review, are more
indirect, stating a preference.

21. Effective Admission Letters
•Be Focused.
•Be coherent.
•Be interpretative.
•Be specific.
•Be personal
Options for Organizing an Admission Letter
Standard Patterns for Prose Exposition:
•Narrative: This has the virtue of being linear, and thus easy to organize.
•Analytic: Discuss your interests in terms of key issues and theories in your
discipline.
•Technical: Show your involvement with a specific issue.
Application Letters and Résumés
Your application letter and résumé may be the most important documents you
write during your time at university.
•Keeps the reader´s interest in mind.
•Balance facts and claims.
•Write concisely.

22. The Academic Proposal
An academic proposal is the first step in producing a thesis or major project.
And is expected to contain…
•A Rationale: for the choice of topic.
•A Review: of existing published work that relates to the topic.
•An Outline: of your intended approach or methodology.
Academic Proposals in Graduate School
The Thesis Proposal: Think of the thesis or grant proposal as a way of raising
your voice to speak out within the academic community.
Lab Report: This document describes a general format for lab reports that you
can adapt as needed.
Tipical Components:
*Title page *Discussion
*Abstract *Conclussion
*Methods and Materials *References
*Experimental Procedure *Appendices
*Results *Futher Reading

23. Oral Presentations Preparation
Practice
*Sign up early.
*It help to know what´s expected of you.
*Choose your topic carefully.
*Define the scope of your research.
*Organize your talk as you would an essay.
*Try to make use of supplementary media to illustrate or illuminate aspects of your
talk.
*Leave time to rehearse your presentation.
*It’s important to feel comfortable about the way you look, and to be relaxed and
confident, during your presentation.
* Treat your presentation like a well-planned performance.
*Handle questions with confidence.
*After your seminar, take time to assess your performance.

24. English Language
Using Articles Are special modifiers that appear before nouns or noun
phrases: the, a/an
Definite Article
To decide if you should use the word the, ask yourself 3 questions:
1.Is the noun indefinite or definite?
2. Is the noun modified?
3.Is the noun generic?
Using gerunds an idefinitives:
Gerunds and infinitives are verb forms that can take the place of a noun in a
sentence. Following an indirect object.Some verbs are followed by a pronoun or
noun referring a person, and then an infinitive. Gerund cannot be used in this
position:
Referring Sources:
You can indicate your attitude to the sources you cite by choosing specific verbs to
refer to them. Don’t just keep repeating “Smith says.”

25. Bibliography
 Prof. CA Silber (n.d.) “Some general advice on Academic Writing
Essay”. Toronto, Canada.: University of Toronto.
Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca
 Jerry Plotnick (n.d.) Organizing an essay. Toronto,Canada.:University
of Toronto. Website: https:advice.writing.utoronto.ca
 Deborah Knott (n.d.) Researching.Toronto,Cadana.:University of
Toronto. Website: https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca
 Margaret Procter (n.d.) Revising and Editing. Toronto,
Canada.:University of Toronto. Website:
https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca
 Picture, Website: multidiomas.com/blog/pros-cons-essay