Advice on Academic Writing

1. UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO
Advice on Academic Writing

2. GENERAL
 An essay should have an ARGUMENT.
 It should try to PROVE something – develop a THESIS.
 Develop a HYPOTHESIS.
 An essay´s ORGANIZATION should be designed to
present your argument clearly and persuasively.

3.  Methods of composing:
 start writing early.
 writers write what seems readiest to be written.
 keep the essay´s overal purpose and organization in
mind.
 revise extensively.
 revise sentences.

4. PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION
 Avoiding a common pitfall by remembering the
principle “the structure of an essay should not be
determined by the structure of its source material”.
 What does an essay outline look like?
 Most essay outlines will never be handed in. They
are meant to serve you and no one else.

5.  Some basic guidelines:
o Ask the following questions:
 What type of essay am I going to write?
 Does it belong to a specific genre?
 When should I begin putting together a plan?
 The earlier you begin planning, the better.
 You will be much more efficient in your reading and your
research if you have some idea of where your argument
is headed.

6.  Some techniques for integrating note taking and
planning:
 Method 1: index cards.
 Method 2: the computer.
 Method 3: the circle method.

7. USING SOURCES
 So what exactly do I have to document?
 Quotation, paraphrases or summaries: if you use the
author´s exact words, enclose them in quotation marks.
Use your own words to paraphrase or summariza the
idea you want to discuss, but be sure to name sources
even when you are not using the exact words.

8.  Specific facts used as evidence for your argument or
interpretation: first consider whether the facts you are
mentioning are “common knowledge”; if so you may not
need to give a reference. In the case of newly published
data establish that they are trustworthy by showing that
you got them from an authoritative source.
 Distinctive or authoritative ideas, whether you agree with
them or not:
 The way you introduce a reference can indicate your
attitude and lead into your own argument.

9. STYLE AND EDITING
 Revision: It often means adding or deleting sentences
and paragraphs, shifting them around and reshaping
them as you go.
1) First check whether you have fulfilled the intention of
the assignment. Look again at the instruction sheet and
revise your work.
2) Look at the overall organization: It´s worthwhile to print
out everything so that you can view the entire
document.

10.  Ask yourself the following questions:
a) Does the introduction make clear where the rest of the
paper is headed?
b) Is each section in the right place to fulfil your purpose?
c) Have you drawn connection between the sections?
d) Would a person reading your conclusion know what
question you had asked and how you had arrived at
your answer?

11. 3) Now polish and edit your style by moving to smaller
matters such a word choice, sentence structure,
grammar, punctuation and spelling.

12. TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS
There are three main kinds of paragraphs in English, and
each kind is organized according to its purpose.
A. Narrative Paragraph: a narrative paragraph tells a story.
B. Descriptive Paragraph: this kind of paragraph is used
when you need to describe what something looks like in
a physical way.

13. C. Expository Paragraphs: In addition to the above, there
are several other purposes for writing academic
paragraphs and essays. Some of these are:
1. To compare two things (buildings, computers, economic
theories, etc)
2. To show the steps in a process (how to increase profits,
how to evaluate a painting, etc).
3. To analize something:
a) dividing something into its parts (different theories of
learning, different kinds of governments, people, etc.)

14. b) Analizing a problem (air pollution, nuclear power, the
wars in the Middle East, etc.)
4. To persuade:
a) To make others do something (vote for someone, sign a
petition, join an organization, etc.)
b) To argue for your personal opinion (freeway traffic,
American cars, the tax laws, grades in school, etc.)
All these purposes lead to what we call EXPOSITORY
writing. They try to explain something to the reader.

15. ORGANIZATION OF PARAGRAPHS
Notice that it consists of three parts in a specific pattern.
A. THE TOPIC SENTENCE
It tells what the paragraph is going to be about, or its main
idea. The topic sentence consists of two parts: the
TOPIC and the CONTROLLING IDEA. The topic is the
subject of your paragraph. It is what you are writing
about. The controlling idea limits your topic to the one
aspect of the topic that you want to write about.

16. B. BODY
It consists of sentences which explain, or support, the topic
sentence. These are called SUPPORTING
SENTENCES.
There are many ways to support a topic sentence:
a) One of the most common is to use facts and/or statics.
b) We could also write a paragraph and support it with
specific examples.
c) The third way of supporting a topic sentence is with the
use of illustration.

17. C. THE CONCLUDING SENTENCE
The concluding sentence of a paragraph is generally of one
of two types. The first type is a restatement of the topic
sentence. You simply say the same thing again, but you
use different words.The second way of concluding a
paragraph is by summarizing the main points that were
made in the paragraph.

18. COHERENCE AND COHESION
The principle of good ordering of supporting sentences is one
of the characteristics that a good paragraph must have.
When a narrative paragraph uses good chronological
ordering, then the coherence of the paragraph is good.
 COHERENCE is the good ordering of sentences in a
paragraph

19.  Another characteristic that a paragraph must have is
COHESION. When a paragraph has cohesion, all of the
supporting sentences “stick together” and are related in
their support of the topic sentence. In other words, they
are connected to each other.

20.  Cohesive Devices
 Linking Words: there are many ways to help a paragraph
have cohesion. One way is to use linking words. The
most common type of linking word is TRANSITIONS.
Transitions are words that help to relate sentences to one
another.
 Pronouns: in addition to linking words, there are other
ways to help a paragraph have good cohesion. One of
them is by using PRONOUNS. Pronouns almost always
have antecedents, or nouns that they stand for, in
previous sentences.

21.  The Definite Article: a third way to connect
sentences is to use the definite article (the). The
definite article is almost always used after an
antecedent. Therefore, a sentence with a definite
article usually relates to a previous sentence.
 Demonstratives Pronouns: another way to connect
sentences in a paragraph, or to give the paragraph
good cohesion, is to use demonstrative pronouns
(this, that, these, those). Demostratives pronouns,
like previous cohesive devices, require
antecedents, so they help connect sentences to
ones that came before.
 Synonyms: the use of synonyms can also be
considered a cohesive device. Like using a
pronoun, using a synonym prevents the frequent
repetition of a word or words while connecting two
sentences.

22. Bibliography
• Boardman, C. and Frydenberg, G. (1990). You´re in
charge!, Writing to communicate. 7-9, 19-24, 27-32.
Addison Wesley Publishing Company.
• Plotnick, J., Procter, M. and Silber, M. A. (n.d). Advice
on Academic Writing. http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/.