Importance Of Academic Writing In University: Should Essay Be Compulsory?

What is academic writing and why is it important?

Discuss whether academic writing should be a compulsory subject at University.

Academic writing refers to a specific style of writing which one need to make use of while writing formal essays or reports or any other assessments that are related to his or her course. It is all about accuracy. It covers a variety of writing types and considerations inclusive of the ones that depends on the necessities and requirement of the present assignments or study level. They include essay planning, dissertations, presentations, signposting, literature review, reflective writing, signposting and spelling and grammar. This paper is going to elaborate on the importance of academic writing with a major focus on whether it should be made mandatory in the universities for the students.

The act of writing usually clarifies the thoughts of a person and writing in his or her own words is considered to be an act of creation. Arend, Sarooghi and Burkemper (2015) in this context have described his thoughts by stating that originality in psychology is usually regarded as devising new and innovative theories and designing a new empirical study. Whenever a person describe something in his or her own words, they display a small scale of originality as well as critical evaluation. The main purpose of academic writing is to communicate. A clearly written paper lets the thoughts of the students to show their ideas and thoughts through (Catalano, 2013). Non-academic style of writing obscures these thinking and thoughts and leaves an impression that the thought-processes are copied and are accurate.

The art of academic writing generally needs the students to look at the works and ideas of somebody else’s; acquire knowledge from them and then make an informed opinion of themselves on it. It is not about just describing the works of others, it in fact involves the thinking of the students regarding why such work has been carried out and how the findings of those worked could be used in the future. Such writings makes the university going students take in what they have read and decide how much importance it holds for their subject. Furthermore, Hermann and Felfe (2014) have been stated that academic writing has a very powerful focus on the styles and techniques. Unlike some of the less formal styles of writing, the process of academic writing sheds light and concentrates on the techniques or methods of how the writing of the others could be used to best convey the individual ideas of the students. When the students learns about the styles, types and ways to write the essays as early as possible, they would successfully find it much more convenient and easier to write their papers throughout the university course.

The benefits of teaching academic writing in universities

Furthermore, it is also to state that the skill of academic writing teaches the students to think objectively and critically. Although Denzin and Giardina (2016) in this context have described his view that it is in the school life when students need to practise the art of academic writing so that they could not find it difficult to write their assessments in academic style. In contrast to this Asendorpf et al., (2013) has stated that it is in the university level, when students are strictly marked on the basis of the quality of their papers. Hence, academic writing must be made mandatory in the universities for all the students. He argued that the art of academic writing forces the students to look into the research and ideas from a different perspective as because of the fact that they would need it in order to attain good grades. It is an extremely useful skill as in universities students are compelled to write their papers with their own view-point and no just copy the works and opinions of others and this in fact, could hamper their careers as well. It is an extremely useful skill for the people for learning early in their life and is considered to be the ability to look at things in an objective manner is something which would benefit them in the real life.

Also, it has been stated by Lea and Street (2014) that the practise of academic writing encourages the ability of the students to develop arguments. In this way the logical thinking skills could be developed in the brain of the student which would assist them in fostering their writing, thinking and analysing skills to a great extent. Furthermore, when a person starts writing down his thinking, a series of related thoughts could be clearly arranged, assembled and could be communicated fairly to the others. The skill of communication that the academic writing encourages is very important in the environment of work. It has the ability to display a man to be both professional and intelligent.

University is all about making the candidates skilful and potential enough to get good jobs after their studies. Hence, when a person is tested for the employment aspect, his aptitude is tested at the very first and academic writing skills contributes to great extent to the development of such aptitude. It is also to mention that the art of academic writing makes a person capable enough to determine a particular issue, identify the questions that surround the issue as well as the importance of the issue to acknowledge. When a paper is written in a compelled and powerful voice, the conviction of the writers could be displayed and the purpose of the writing is then easily achieved and this could only be done through a writer trained in academic writing.

The argument for making academic writing compulsory

In contrast to the positive aspects of academic writing, there are certain complexities too that it holds and the one among them is that the complexities of the writing process leads to dissatisfaction among the leaners, particularly following a dull routine and doing a tedious revision. In order to accomplish the production of a good or quality academic paper, there is a need for skills for the crafting process. The nature of higher education is dynamic and it is hence nurturing a vital hitch in the development and support of the academic writing. Commending in the increasing number of students, the higher education system has transformed to a crowd from a slim team. There has also been a proven failure in the funding agencies in order to keep alongside with the bulging or increasing need for the resources. The government in many countries including U.S.A and Australia have planned to increase the number of higher education students considerably in the coming years (Wilkins, Shams & Huisman, 2013). Such an expansion has led to the phenomenon of proliferation of diversity of the student who are with higher education institutions sustaining entrants with diverse academic standing and varied cultural backgrounds.  This problem is affecting the sphere of academic writing in both practical implications as well as teaching processes.

Despite this fact, academic writing still plays a very vital role in the higher education. It remains a primary player in course retention as well as consequent assessment of learner knowledge. Therefore, its importance can never be underscored. According to the recent study, about 90% of the total staffs agrees with this fact that academic writing must be taught to every students in the university level. This is because of the fact that academic writing encourages the learner’s ability to express their thinking and opinions and most importantly, to express themselves in a way through the understanding of the considered language and the communication abilities. Academic writing is considered to be the essence of education and an important requirement for serving in the area of discipline. The viewpoints of the teachers stands that when a paper is well written and the written arguments are displayed precisely and concisely, the marking and the grading of the assignments becomes much easier. Hence, there is no presence of gainsaying the progress of the effective academic writing support is beneficial to both the staffs and the students.

Hence, from the above discussion it can be said that academic writing that academic writings bears a great importance and therefore it needs much support and attention from the fraternity of academic. Through means of influencing several practical approaches in order to foster a quality practical writing skill, the academic institutions or the universities have the opportunities to tackle effective framework for assisting the learners in the academic advancements. Intrinsic in every theory of writing is the potential to upgrade the writing finesse of all the learners through applying practical initiatives. Hence, it is very important to evaluate and implement practical writing procedures at every levels within the complete institutions for capturing a wide range of resources.

References:

Arend, R. J., Sarooghi, H., & Burkemper, A. (2015). Effectuation as ineffectual? Applying the 3E theory-assessment framework to a proposed new theory of entrepreneurship. Academy of management Review, 40(4), 630-651.

Asendorpf, J. B., Conner, M., De Fruyt, F., De Houwer, J., Denissen, J. J., Fiedler, K., ... & Perugini, M. (2013). Recommendations for increasing replicability in psychology. European Journal of Personality, 27(2), 108-119.

Catalano, A. (2013). Patterns of graduate students' information seeking behavior: A meta-synthesis of the literature. Journal of documentation, 69(2), 243-274.

Denzin, N. K., & Giardina, M. D. (2016). Introduction. In Qualitative Inquiry—Past, Present, and Future (pp. 9-38).

Herrmann, D., & Felfe, J. (2014). Effects of leadership style, creativity technique and personal initiative on employee creativity. British Journal of Management, 25(2), 209-227.

Lea, M. R., & Street, B. (2014). understanding textual practices ‘in higher education. Writing: Texts, processes and practices, 62.

Wilkins, S., Shams, F., & Huisman, J. (2013). The decision-making and changing behavioural dynamics of potential higher education students: the impacts of increasing tuition fees in England. Educational Studies, 39(2), 125-141.