Wouldn’t you like to know how to become a bestselling author, today? Most ‘bestselling’ authors incorporate similar techniques that you too can master. The comprehension of the art of writing will further your ability to progress as a writer, disregarding the years of experience. This goes back to the ancient question of, “what is academic writing?” Academic writing can be summarized as “giving life to a pen and paper.” Some first-hand experiences of improved ‘academic’ writing are my own from 2 years ago. Meanwhile, a text by L. Lennie Irvin, “What Is ‘Academic’ Writing?”, states the myths initial writer’s experience. These texts provide examples and explanations of ‘academic’ writing “growing” in behalf of the approach taken to a certain theme. Meanwhile ‘academic’ writing is defined as “giving life” to a 2-dimensional piece of work, it varies in its description when analyzing a journalist work to an ‘academic’ writer’s work. The concept of dry but clever, faceless but also persuasive, coexist and maintain a symbiotic relationship to accomplish the main concept of ‘academic’ writing.
According to L. Lennie Irvin, in “What Is ‘Academic’ Writing?”, writing should be treated as a communication skill. The challenge here is that, how can you treat writing as a communication skill if you cannot physically speak to the audience in person? This is where our effort to maintain a 3-dimensional form of communication, such as speech, is approached on our writing. A written piece of work eliminates many characteristics, such as non-verbal communication skills such as hand movements, the eye contact, that usually guarantees us we are capturing our audience’s attention. One of the main myths Irvin mentions that haunt new or amateur writers is forgetting that a draft isn’t meant to be perfect. A draft, whether it’s written on the subway or in the library, allows the flow of ideas and perspective on behalf of a theme. As Irvin states it, “we put unrealistic expectations on early drafts”, and placing too much to too little effort on a first draft can sabotage our true argument we intend to express. If too much effort is placed to perfect a first draft, we “put a cap on the development of our ideas”, similar as to if too little effort is incorporated. Thus, by emphasizing how we chose to express our ideas on paper, we restrict the true meaning of our words. In other words, how we picture our answer or argument is arranged in our heads, doesn’t correlate to exactly how we end up pronouncing it through dialogue. For example, a written piece of work of mine that started as a draft for the argument of how social norms in two different culture based societies, the U.S. and Italy, affects a lady’s decision to remarry because of not being accepted in her society specified as more drafts came. As stated in my draft, “…metaphor portrays Mrs. Lidcote’s perspective as to how society will react to her past”, leaves the audience with a variety of questions and ambiguous as to what my argument is. Although, as stated by my third draft, “Society creates marital social norms capable of destroying a women’s life… Mrs. Lidcote’s perspective is how belittling society’s judgmental beliefs are on divorced women.” This sentence presents the particular social norms I intend to argue, along with the theme and challenge the protagonist faces. The completion of a sentence that doesn’t incorporate the theme and argument intended, will leave ambiguity not only to the audience but to the writer itself, when revising their writing. Although, constructing separate but continuous sentences, focusing on the particular theme will allowing an opportunity to elaborate them having an idea of how to approach it.
The construction of various sentences can be simple ones, with no literary devices and or existing controversial topics. The simplicity of writing a conversation on paper allows you perceive the text the way you viewed it, and this allows you to return and revise the writing only to find existing literary devices and purposeful punctuation. To consider this as a summary of the text, is to view your comprehension of the text. ‘Academic’ writing comes in later, so not having your ideas and argument all in harmony in the start is perfectly fine. This brings up Irvin’s myth number two, figuring out your argument as your write, not once it’s all align. The purpose of revising your writing is to discover implicit meanings the text provides where it allows you to realize “this reading is like a conversation.” An example is a dash in the middle of a sentence that perceive as pauses in a dialogue. This creates questions such as, “why is there a pause?”, and “what happened during this specific moment?” Sometimes, conflicting themes come into place, and tension is created, but you won’t see it unless you perceive a text’s every detail, every characteristic adding to the purpose of the theme. As stated in my third draft about martial social norms, “Monologue also emphasizes the traumatic experience Mrs. Lidcote was prone to, by upbringing imaginary voices accusing her of her scandal. In the text it states, “…Mrs. Lidcote could hear the whole of New York saying with one voice: “Yes, Leila’s done just what her mother did. With such an example what could you expect?”(292) Monologue here provides a point of view of how society has the power to destroy a women’s life, constantly contradicting one’s self for their past decisions.” The obviousness here is that a woman is neglected by her society, the implicit meaning here is that social norms created in any society can alienate and isolate an individual, allowing the thought of being a mistake compared to everyone else. To be placed in the protagonist’s shoes means to consider how they feel and what’s the internal conflict.
The examples that are seen of writing improving progressively after drafts, are examples of ‘academic’ writing initiating as simple as a summary, resulting to a deeper analytical comprehension of the particular theme a text is based upon. ‘Academic” writing starts by viewing a text not as 2-dimensional, but 3-dimensional. The punctuation that is used, and the location of it within a sentence gives it purpose and realism. To then write or argue the text’s stance, is to acknowledge these implicit details and give them significance. ‘Academic’ writing argues details, as little as punctuations, symbolic to bringing life to writing, just as equivalent a pause is to a dash in the middle of a sentence. The argument here is, how successful am I as an academic writer? The answer is not a bad one, but also not a good one. As an academic writer, there’s always room to elaborate concepts, include ethos/pathos/logos, and a variety of supporting statements from one simple implicit meaning. The endless stance a writer can approach a text results from the amount of knowledge he/she knows about the setting the text took place. If knowing the setting and some history the text took place, this can result in different arguments and themes, compared to not knowing the history but acknowledging the setting. So, how good of an academic writer am I, as goods my exposure to the world’s existing conflicts and comprehension of internal conflicts individuals experience globally.
Reference (MLA format)
- Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1. Parlor Press, 2010.