What Is “Academic” Writing by L. Lennie Irvin
L. Lennie Irvin. “What Is ‘Academic’ Writing“, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Lowe, Charles, and Pavel Zemliansky, Volume 1, Parlor Press, 2011. http://www.parlorpress.com/pdf/irvin–what-is-academic-writing.pdf. Accessed 20 September 2017.
Summary:
Irvin identifies Academic writing as a form of evaluation which asks that ” you demonstrate knowledge and show proficiency with certain disciplinary skills of thinking, interpreting, and presenting.” A turned “literacy task” that involves the ability to fulfill the elements required to achieve an academically written piece; components that include the capacity to conduct a thorough research on the topic, the ability to read complex artifacts and draw conclusions from them as well as to implement key concepts of the subject area for which the academic piece is being written for. At the core of his argument, he maintain’s that ones’ success in writing academically depends solely on how well one is able to understand what they’re doing and how one approaches the writing task. He emphasizes this and reminds us to develop our “writer’s sense” not forgetting who our possible audience would be. He concludes by providing examples of three different types of writing assignments one might encounter and his advice on how to answer them.
Evaluation:
This particular piece stands out to me because it serves as a guide as well as one that I can relate to in great part, mainly because I am an undergraduate student myself, where most of my future work will greatly revolve around writing academic pieces. It served as an analysis to what I perceived about writing and provided me with a better insight to correct those misconceptions. It not only gives me a better understanding of what Academic writing is in an explicit manner but also provides me with a form of guide to look back to and make sure I am fulfilling. In this way, it becomes an essential tool for my topic because I can use it as a sort of measure, in which I can compare my past work to that of the present; asking myself how many of these elements was I missing and how many have I learned to implement. I am also very inclined to using a favorite analogy of Irvin, the courtroom analogy, in which the overall highlight is the importance of being able to lay out a good argument by presenting a good “case” and supplementing it with compelling evidence. I think it is a very clear way of getting an idea of how must the structure of an academically written piece must be formulated.
Why Is Academic Writing So Academic? by Joshua Rothman
Rothman, Joshua. “Why Is Academic Writing So Academic?” The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2014, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-is-academic-writing-so-academic, Accessed 20 September 2017.
Summary: Rothman starts off by describing his experience with a particular piece and not really being considered as a piece of academic material by some of his colleagues. He conveys the “ambiguity” that is academic writing and focuses attention on the audience, which is of specific importance for this type of writing. He relates a debate brought about Kristof a journalist on the Times, claiming that the academic world is ruled by exclusive academics without regarding anybody outside their range. Rothman sympathizes and instead clarifies that the reason for academic writing seeming so restricted is because of a constant change in the system it is part of. Thus provoking academia to be aimed at a specific audience.
Evaluation: This piece becomes particularly important in my topic because it puts a lot f emphasis on the importance of my audience. The who am I aiming my paper at when writing and why am I doing so becomes a big and important part to focus on when writing. I wish it to serve as my example when I discuss past pieces and provide an explanation as to why certain details weren’t getting across a specific audience. I also found a connection between this and my past reading”What Is Academic Writing?” inclining me to explore and provide an analysis of audience in general, for academic pieces and their impact. I plan to use some of Rothman’s points if they will be good enough to support any findings.
Why I Write by George Orwell
Orwell, George. “Why I Write.” www.resort.com/%7Eprime8/Orwell/whywrite.html. Accessed 20 September 2017.
Summary: George Orwell writes a personal essay in which he shares the reasons why he writes. He takes us on his journey in discovering the kind of writing that he’d always wanted to do. He starts off by providing a context in which he retells his beginnings as a child, the fact that he was inclined to do so mainly because he felt lonely, and how absurd he felt about his early pieces. He describes himself as a person with great attention to detail and someone who’d often lose himself in dreams about his pieces, ideal worlds that he longed to share with others. Orwell also outlines four motives that every writer goes through at different degrees in their life and vary in proportion from time to time. He finally develops one of these motives in a way that outweighs the other three, the political purpose, and implements it into his writing pieces, which he’s become to appreciate even though they may not be merely perfect.
Evaluation: This essay is one that I have found so much more appeal to than any other reading so far because it appeals at a personal level. I found it very useful and now otherwise important to understand the background f Orwell. His description of often feeling lonely, isolated and undervalued as a young person drew emotion in me. I have in some way felt like that and thus have been inclined to make up scenes in my head, in which I imagine myself able to prosper from the situation I find myself going through. I think that I have a lot to extract from this reading and implement in my own experience by relating to this specific example as well as my appeal to his motives for writing. It makes me feel that those mentioned, as is sheer egoism, provide a backbone for those special needs I can say I certainly have sometimes in terms of the work I do.