Advice on academic writing

1. The University of Toronto expects its
students to write well, and it provides
a number of resources to help them.

2. General
In This Section:
Some General Advice on Academic
Essay-Writing
The Transition from High School to
University Writing
Understanding Essay Topics: A
Checklist

3. Some General Advice on Academic
Essay-Writing
 An essay should have an argument. It should answer a question or a few related
questions. It should try to prove something.
 You should formulate as exactly as possible the question(s) you will seek to
answer in your essay. Next, develop a provisional thesis or hypothesis.
 How any particular argument begins, develops, and ends should be designed to
present your argument clearly and persuasively.
 Successful methods of composing an essay are various:
A- Writers start writing early.
B- They try to write what seems readiest to be written.
C- They keep the essay’s overall purpose and organization in mind.
D- They revise extensively.
E- They revise sentences, with special attention to transitions.
Two other important considerations are diction and economy.
Lastly, they proofread the final copy.

4. The Transition from High School to
University Writing
 To meet the expectations of university writing, you will need to unlearn rules
you may have learned in high school:
High School … University …
Provides formulas. Discourages formulas.
Offers you a ready-made structure
to work with.
Provides freedom for you to come
up with your own way of
structuring your argument.
Teaches just one model for an
essay that you then apply in all of
your courses.
Offers discipline-specific
guidelines for approaching written
work.
Encourages repetition. Discourages repetition.
Provides rules. Encourages critical thinking.
Rewards you for demonstrating
your knowledge of the material.
Rewards you for engaging in
analysis.

5. Understanding Essay Topics: A
Checklist
Before you plunge into research or writing, think through the
specific topic you are dealing with.
 Note the key terms.
 Note which concepts or methods the topic asks you to use.
 Ask yourself questions about the specific topic in terms of
the concepts or methods that seem applicable.
 For an essay of argument, formulate a tentative thesis
statement at a fairly early stage.

6. Planning and Organizing
In This Section:
Organizing an Essay
Using Thesis Statements
Introductions and Conclusions
Paragraphs
Using Topic Sentences

7. Organizing an Essay
The best time to think about how to organize your paper is
during the pre-writing stage, not the writing or revising
stage.
Knowing the patterns of reasoning associated with a genre
can help you to structure your essay. Be aware that genres
are not fixed.
You must be flexible, and you must rely on your wits.

8. Using Thesis Statements
When you are asked to write an essay that creates an argument, your reader will
probably expect a clear statement of your position. Typically, this summary
statement comes in the first paragraph of the essay, though there is no rigid rule
about position.
Thesis Statements
 Essays of literary interpretation often want you to be aware of many.
 thesis statement can be stated in the opening sentences of an essay; others need a
paragraph or two of introduction; others can’t be fully formulated until the end.
 A thesis statement must be one sentence in length, but use two or three sentences if
you need them. A complex argument may require a whole tightly-knit paragraph to
make its initial statement of position.
 It may be advisable to draft a hypothesis or tentative thesis statement near the start
of a big project, but changing and refining a thesis is a main task of thinking your
way through your ideas as you write a paper.

9. Introductions and Conclusions
 Introductions and conclusions play a special role in the academic essay.
 A good introduction should identify your topic, provide essential context,
and indicate your particular focus in the essay.
 A strong conclusion will provide a sense of closure to the essay while again
placing your concepts in a somewhat wider context.
How does genre affect my introduction or conclusion?
 Be aware that different genres have their own special expectations about
beginnings and endings.
 Some academic genres may not even require an introduction or conclusion.
 An annotated bibliography, for example, typically provides neither.
 A book review may begin with a summary of the book and conclude with
an overall assessment of it.
 A policy briefing usually includes an introduction but may conclude with a
series of recommendations.

10. Paragraphs
 A paragraph is a series of related sentences developing a central idea, called
the topic.
 It is a sentence or a group of sentences that supports one central, unified idea.
 Paragraphs add one idea at a time to your broader argument.
How do I develop my ideas in a paragraph?
 Often, the body paragraph demonstrates and develops your topic sentence through
an ordered, logical progression of ideas.
 The analysis or classification paragraph develops a topic by distinguishing its
component parts and discussing each of these parts separately.
 A comparison or a contrast paragraph decides whether to deal only with similarities
or only with differences, or to cover both.
 A qualification paragraph acknowledges that what you previously asserted is not
absolutely true or always applicable.
 The process paragraph involves a straightforward step-by-step description. Process
description often follows a chronological sequence.
 Paragraphs vary in length depending on the needs of the paragraph. Usually,
paragraphs are between one-third and two-thirds of a page double spaced.

11. Using Topic Sentences
 A topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph: it serves as
a mini-thesis for the paragraph.
 Topic sentences usually appear at the very beginning of
paragraphs. In essays, the connection is usually between the last
paragraph and the current one.
 Relating your topic sentences to your thesis can help strengthen
the coherence of your essay.
 Use a topic sentence to show how your paragraph contributes to
the development of your argument by moving it that one extra
step forward.
 Sometimes a paragraph helps to develop the same point as in the
previous paragraph, and so a new topic sentence would be
redundant. And sometimes the evidence in your paragraph
makes your point so effectively that your topic sentence can
remain implicit.

12. Reading and Researching
In This Section:
 Critical Reading Towards Critical Writing
 How to Get the Most Out of Reading
 Taking Notes from Research Reading
 Dealing with New Words
 Research Using the Internet
 Previewing
 Skimming and Scanning
 Summarizing

13.  Critical Reading Towards Critical Writing:
1. Critical writing depends on critical reading.
2. 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.
3. The judgments and interpretations you make of the texts you read are the first
steps towards formulating your own approach.
4. To read critically is to make judgments about how a text is argued. This is a
highly reflective skill requiring you to “stand back” and gain some distance
from the text you are reading.
 How to Get the Most Out of Reading:
1. An important skill is to read with comprehension and memory. There’s no
point in reading and not understanding or remembering what you’ve seen.
2. Be aware of the structure of the text as you read: the chapter titles, headings
and subheadings will name the main concepts to be covered.
3. Mark only key passages in the text. Use symbols to show different kinds of
points. It’s worthwhile to make brief summarizing notes in your own words.

14.  Taking Notes from Research Reading:
1. If you take notes efficiently, you can read with more understanding and also save
time and frustration when you come to write your paper.
2. Focus your approach to the topic before you start detailed research.
3. Then you will read with a purpose in mind, and you will be able to sort out relevant
ideas.
4. Plan therefore to invest your research time in understanding your sources and
integrating them into your own thinking.
 Dealing with New Words:
1. A key point is that you don’t need to interrupt your reading to look up every hard
word right away in the dictionary.
2. When you have learned a new word, take steps to make it part of your active store
of words.
1. SOUND the new word out.
2. Examine the STRUCTURE.
3. Look at the CONTEXT.
4. Check the DICTIONARY.
5. Reinforce your understanding by WRITING a usable brief
definition or synonym in the margin of your reading.

15.  Research Using the Internet:
More and more students are turning to the Internet when doing research for their
assignments, and more and more instructors are requiring such research when
setting topics. However, the Net is a tremendous resource, but it must be used
carefully and critically. Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites
you use. Double-check all URLs that you put in your paper.
Previewing:
When reading for academic purposes, it is preferable to read with certain goals in
mind:
1. Spend a few minutes previewing a text before starting to read, in order to
orient yourself toward what is important for you in this reading.
2. Read the title. Think about the subject matter.
3. Read the chapter titles or the headings that break up the chapter or article.

16.  Skimming and Scanning:
One of the most effective methods for beginning the reading necessary for academic
work is to get a general overview of the text before beginning to read it in detail:
Skimming can help you make decisions about where to place your greatest focus when
you have limited time for your reading.
1. First use some of the previewing techniques.
2. Keep your eyes moving and try to avoid looking up unfamiliar words or
terminology.
3. Read carefully the concluding paragraph.
4. Finally, return to the beginning and read through the text carefully and look up the
terms you need to know, or unfamiliar words that appear several times.
Scanning is basically skimming with a more tightly focused purpose:
1. skimming to locate a particular fact or figure, or to see whether this text
mentions a subject you’re researching.
2. Keep a specific set of goals in mind as you scan the text, and avoid becoming
distracted by other material.
3. You can note what you’d like to return to later.

17.  Summarizing:
Summarizing a text 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, and
(2) to express these overarching ideas using precise, specific language.
You must also make decisions about which concepts to leave in and which to omit,
taking into consideration your purposes in.
1. Include the title and identify the author in your first sentence.
2. The first sentence or two of your summary should contain the author’s thesis
stated in your own words.
3. Try to see how the explanations or arguments are built up in groups of related
paragraphs. Then, write a sentence or two to cover the key ideas in each
section.
4. Omit ideas that are not really central to the text.
5. Avoid writing opinions or personal responses in your summaries.
6. Be careful not to plagiarize the author’s words.

18. Specific Types of Writing
In This Section:
 The Book Review or Article Critique
 Writing an Annotated Bibliography
 The Comparative Essay
 Writing about History
 Writing about Literature
 Writing in the Sciences
 Effective Admission Letters

19.  The Book Review or Article Critique:
An analytic or critical review of a book or article comments on and evaluates the work in the
light of specific issues and theoretical concerns in a course.
1. What is the specific topic of the book or article?
2. Does the author state an explicit thesis?
3. What kinds of material does the work present?
4. How is this material used to demonstrate and argue the thesis?
5. Are there alternative ways of arguing from the same material?
6. What theoretical issues and topics for further discussion does the work raise?
7. What are your own reactions and considered opinions regarding the work?
 Writing an Annotated Bibliography:
An annotated bibliography gives an account of the research that has been done on a given
topic.
1. It provides a concise summary of each source and some assessment of its value or
relevance.
2. An annotation briefly restates the main argument of a source.
3. An annotation of an academic source identifies its thesis, its major methods of
investigation, and its main conclusions.
In your own bibliography identify how you intend to use the source and why.

20. The Comparative Essay:
A comparative essay asks that you compare at least two (possibly more) items. You
might be asked to compare
 positions on an issue
 theories
 figures
 texts
 events
You will consider both the similarities and differences, compare and contrast.
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.
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.

21. Writing about History:
 Primary Sources and Secondary Sources
A primary source is a document that was created at the time of the event or subject
you’ve chosen to study or by people who were observers of or participants in that
event or topic.
The medium of the primary source can be anything, including written texts, objects,
buildings, films, paintings, cartoons, etc. Primary sources would not include books
written by historians about this topic, because books written by historians are
called “secondary” sources.
 Questions to Consider When Reading Primary
Historical Documents
1. When and by whom was this particular document written?
2. Who is the author, and why did he or she create the document?
3. Who is the intended audience for the text?
4. How does the text reflect or mask such factors as the class, race, gender, ethnicity,
or regional background of its creator/narrator?
5. How does the author describe, grapple with, or ignore contemporaneous historical
events?
6. From a literary perspective, does the writer employ any generic conventions?
7. With what aspects of the text can you most readily identify?

22. Writing about Literature
The English paper requires critical thought and strong argumentation. The main purpose of
an English paper is to advance an argument.
 As a general rule, mention only plot details that are relevant to your argument.
 A thesis must be complex, but it must be simple enough that it can be stated in a
relatively short amount of space.
 Consider:
1. How does the author’s or narrator’s perspective shift as the text develops?
2. Are there any apparent tensions or contradictions within the text?
3. How does the text engage with the major political or cultural ideas of the era in which it
was written?
4. How does the text challenge or undermine the dominant conventions of its?
 Let the structure of your argument determine the structure of your paper.
 Opt for analysis instead of evaluative judgments.
 Focus on the ideas the text conveys and the ways it goes about conveying the readers.
 Integrate quotations fully into your argument. .
 A quotation should never speak for itself: you must do the necessary work to
demonstrate what the quotation means in the context of your argument.

23. 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. Science writers need to be particularly
aware of the readers of science-related writing can have very different levels of
knowledge.
 In science papers titles can be either fragments or full sentences, though usually they are
fragments.
 Headings emphasize the systematic nature of scientific enquiry. For example, scientific
studies are typically divided into:
1. Abstract,
2. Introduction,
3. Methods,
4. Results,
5. Discussion.
 The word jargon generally refers to language that is unrecognizable to most people,
because it forms part of the technical terminology common to a discipline. Jargon should
be avoided. In the sciences, and sometimes in other disciplines as well, this technical
language can be indispensable.
 In humanities and many social science papers, students should try to use active voice
whenever possible. But historically the sciences have often encouraged the use of passive
voice. This is because passive voice helps emphasize the objectivity of the sciences.

24. Effective Admission Letters
Some of the qualities to aim when you write a letter or personal statement as part of applying
for graduate or professional school:
1. Be focussed.
2. Be coherent.
3. Be interpretive.
4. Be specific.
5. Be personal.
Judge by the clues on the application form and by the nature of the profession or discipline
what kind of logical structure you could use to tie your points together into a coherent
whole.
1. Narrative: It progresses from a beginning to an end, and is linear, and thus easy to
organize.
2. Analytic: It gives an overall answer about yourself and then discuss the elements that
contribute to your engagement with the disciplines.
3. Technical: It shows your involvement with a specific issue. It doesn’t just outline the
topics you want to work on; it writes about your research jobs or independent-study
projects, or your volunteer experiences.

25. Bibliography:
 “Writing at the University of Toronto”, [Online]. Available at:
http://writing.utoronto.ca/
 Prof. C. A. Silber, Department of English. “Some General Advice on
Academic Essay-Writing”, [Online]. Available at:
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/general/general-advice/
 Becky Vogan and Jerry Plotnick, University College Writing Centre. “The
Transition from High School to University Writing”, [Online]. Available
at: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/general/transition-to-university/
 Margaret Procter, Writing Support. “Understanding Essay Topics: A
Checklist”, [Online]. Available at:
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/general/essay-topics/
 Jerry Plotnick, University College Writing Centre. “Organizing an Essay”,
[Online]. Available at:
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/organizing/
 Margaret Procter, Writing Support. “Using Thesis Statements”, [Online].
Available at: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/thesis-statements/
 “Planning and Organizing”, [Online]. Available at:
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/planning/
 “Reading and Researching”, [Online]. Available at:
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/
 “Specific Types of Writing”, [Online]. Available at:
http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/