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Genres and their practice in academic writing - Coggle Diagram
Genres and their practice in academic writing
Surveys
: A means for gathering information about the characteristics, actions, or opinions of a large group of people. Pinsonneault and Kraemer (1993:77)
Purpose and how thtey are used in academic writing?
Asseses needs, evaluate demand and examine impact
Differentiate the surveys from survey research
Obtain information from large samples of the population
Well-suited to gathering demographic data that describe the compositiion of the sample
Require minimal investment to develop and administer and are relatively easy for making generalizations
Elicit information about attitudes that would otherwise be difficult to measure using observational techniques
Surveys only provide estimates and not exact measurements :warning:
Case studies
: Bailey (2009:259), defines case studies as just a detailed example. Naidoo (2021) refer it as real-life/world problem in detail from multi-perspectives/viewpoints.
Purpose of case srudies and how they are used in academic writing?
Uses any of the research procedures e.g. library search or interview data
They are exploratory, descriptive & explanatory
They needed to solve real life problems
Lead the reader through the stages of investigatio
Research reports
：A written document containing key aspects of research project. As a physics and chemistry teacher, one is familiar with lab reports as examples of research reports.
Characteristics of a good report
in academic writing
Comprehensive and organised. Gillet et.al (2009:229) suggests IMRAD: Introduction, Methods,Results, Discussion, Conclusion to effectively organise the reports.
Simplistic language and avoiding jargon and technical words
Accurate, no bias and without personal feelings attachec
Clear and precise to reveal facts in proper language
Selectiveness: Only the necessary content should be included and matters that are known to all must be excluded
Reliable and objective
Abstracts
are consice summaries of scholarly articles, research papers, dissertations and thesis
Types of abstracts
Descriptive (Short, +/_ 100 words)
Informative (longer, key arguments of the research are presented here)
Purpose of writng abstracts
Selecting: Allows for a quick decision as to wether information is relevant or not.
Indexing: Allows for quick retrievals in academic journals data base.
Structural organisation of an abstract. (Gillet et.al 2009:233
Results found
How the study is undertaken
Brief evaluation of those results
Purpose of the study
Introduction: Describing the context of the study
Explanation of what was important and why it was important
Essays
: Andrew (2003), cited in Gillet et.al (2009:8) contends that essays are genres by default because they exist in all discipline. A more concise and academic writing related definition is found in Eunson (2012:225), wherein it is avered that essays are documents that contain a mix of facts and opinions,laid out in a logical sequence.
Purpose and how they are used academic writing?
Descriptive: Describes traits and characteristics of people/objects/events
Expository: Compares, explores and discuss problems
Argumentattive: Validates or falsifies a topic
Narrative: Tells a story from a certain viewpoint and provide reasons
Literature review
: A piece of writing in academic writing demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a specific topic placed in context. It includes the critical evaluation of the material, hence the name; literature review and not literature report. (Yin (1994:5)
Objectives of literature review. (Hurst, 2011:36）
Synthesise and summarise current knowledge
Critically appraise research for validity
Identify controversies and debates in literature
Formulate research questions for future studies
Address a research question or thesis
Steps : steps in writing a literature review . Although these steps are written linearly in this mind map, the writing of a review takes a circuitous path as the research may need to be revisited . (Bolderston， 2008:87). :warning:
Searching and selecting appropriate literature
Analyzing and synthesizing literature
Choosing a review topic
Organiization of writing the review
Attributes of a good review and its purpose. (Steward,2004)
Synthesis of key themes and ideas
Balance between different ideas and opinions
Using appropriate search strategies to find key evidence
Fully referenced: Allow others to follow the path of the author to the conclusion
Comprehensive: Evidence should be gathered from all relevant sources
Analytical: Developing new ideas and understanding from scholarly evidence
Critical in its appraisal of literarure