Academic writing. Just those two words were enough to run shivers down my back when a professor exclaimed this daunting task to the class. And this opinion is coming from someone who craves to write and read! Academic writing felt as if an art form was regulated into a narrow box with twisting tricks and rules that must be abided by or face certain failure. However, I feel that my personal bias may have construed the idea of academic writing and thus I have determined to explore the “true meaning” of academic writing through Lennie Irvin’s paper, What is “Academic” Writing? and use my new tools to analyze my writing through this context.
Well through my over engaged confidence of stereotyping academic writing, I now come to a realization that I am still unfamiliar with the definition of it. According to Irvin, academic writing is not just an essay or piece of paper, but a process of multiple skills: “Academic writing is always a form of evaluation that asks you to demonstrate knowledge and show proficiency with certain disciplinary skills of thinking, interpreting, and presenting” (Irvin 8). First, let’s address thinking, or understanding of the material. What I find unique about the thinking aspect of a paper is that this is where your personal ideas and touch will separate your piece from countless others addressing the same topic. For an example, for my paper analyzing Who’s Irish? I used a direct quotation from the text: “All my Chinese friends had babies, I never saw one of them act wild like that” (Jen 8-9). This sentence may appear innocent and simple however by understanding the context and character, I was able to connect it to the idea of the grandmother justifying her abusive controlling parenting style to reach the goal of making her granddaughter a good Chinese girl.
Let’s move onto interpreting, which could be the most useful part of the essay. Academic writing is not simply your own ideas, but uses other interpretations to connect them to your own. This increases not only the reputability of your work, but by having the ability to weave connections among various authors, your thesis is advanced further too. Personally, I am still a student, therefore I constantly refer to scholars as support for my essays. As Irvin states, “The point (“claim” or “thesis”) of a critical essay is interpretive in nature. That means the point is debatable and open to interpretation, not a statement of the obvious” (Irvin 15). As opposed to other styles of writing, academic writing contains an argument to convince the reader and thus must use other works to fulfill its’ goal. Therefore, interpreting to me is an analysis process where the writer evaluates a source and applies it to their own work through writing techniques. In my own work of the Day of Locust, I found Hollister’s explanation of the nature scene as inner turmoil of Tod’s fantasy. This progresses my argument that Tod succumbs to the burning of Los Angeles by connecting the two ideas: “ This symbolism is actually quite an interesting revelation because in this text, there are three worlds: Hollywood, educational life, and Nature (since it clearly does not belong to the other two)” (Kade 3). Without properly interpreting Hollister’s original ideas about the nature scene, my own argument would be weaker and lacking of evidence.
Finally, the last part is presenting, which combines thinking and intreptreting into a professional manner. You could have the greatest ideas on the planet, but if you are unable to properly and clearly present these ideas to the target audience, their purpose is clearly not met. Irvin’s best explained presenting in the subsection, “The Three Characteristics of Academic Writing” which states: “1. Clear evidence in writing that the writer(s) have been persistent, open-minded, and disciplined in study. (5) 2. The dominance of reason over emotions or sensual perception. (5) 3. An imagined reader who is coolly rational, reading for information, and intending to formulate a reasoned response. (7)” (Irvin 14). Unlike other writing forms, academic writing can hold significant purpose in arguments and thus require substantial evidence in essays. In my case, I would use 5-7 sources and quote 15-20 times in the paper to support my ideas. Irvin also explains that emotional opinions should not be incorporated in academic writing. It is a formal writing style with no use of the first person, and must stick to facts rather than unsupported rumors. For example, in my essay, I connect The Bacchae to the Burning of Los Angeles in a serious respectable manner: “In the play itself, there are many scenes that are similar to Tod’s visions where there is a huge mob/crowd of people who are evil and cause chaos while on the opposite spectrum, there is a group of pure souls living in harmony” (Kade 4). Academic writing holds a specific purpose of informing/convincing an audience of your topic and thus must abide by the thinking, interpreting, and presenting structure.
As an academic writer, I feel that I am quite successful, especially since exploring this topic in Baruch College in freshman year. The fears of this task has been replaced by unrelenting excitement. I feel that this is the style I often revert to when analyzing texts without realizing it! In this technology driven world, informal writing populates most aspects of writing from magazines to blogs to social media; which makes academic writing even more unique. Regarding my own academic writing, I found that if I am passionate about a topic, I can sit down and write pages about a few pages of the book. However, I need to work on proper transitions, and staying focused to my central thesis. As interesting as it is to connect a book to ancient Greek myths, does it contribute to the argument or is it a cool fun fact? After reading Irvin’s essay of how to be a successful academic writer through thinking, presenting, and presentation; I realize that my passion lies within developing ideas and extending them with scholar’s works to develop my paper. With more experience, I am confident that my presenting skills will improve!
As if I were a mad scientist reaching a lifelong realization, I recognize that it is I to blame for those self imposed chains placed on my writing. In reality, academic writing allows a plethora of information to flow to the reader in a vibrant and clear style. Academic writing should not be regarded with dread, but welcomed with open arms! And so here today, I confess: “I love you, academic writing!”
Work Cited
Irvin, Lennie L. “What Is ‘Academic’ Writing?” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, 2010.