Reflective Journal

蔡逸清

This term, I had Academic Writing as my last English course during my four years college study life. I reviewed what I had learnt and noted in the whole term and now I am trying my best to pen down my reflective journal about the course. Actually, at the beginning, I was hesitated to take this course concerning writing. Afterwards, I found it useful and not so difficult as my imagination therefore I made up my mind to learn it. I viewed it as a challenge to myself.

During the course study, not only did I acquire the knowledge about academic writing, my horizon was also broadened for being exposed to some specific situations. This reflective journal contains my reactions and feelings, including both bad and good aspects of the experience, as well as the conclusion from these experiences. In the end, I am going to come up with my personal action plans such as how to put what I have learnt into practice and what I will do differently in this type of situation next time.

Looking back to the whole term, my deepest impressions of this course is informative. Terminologies like genre, cohesion, coherence, paraphrase that were introduced to me were unacquainted, uncommon and difficult to remember so when the teacher was reviewing what had been taught last week I always felt so unfamiliar and I had to turn over my notes. Although this course focused mainly on theory, it also created a platform for us to practice writing and speaking. I consider it is very important for students to speak out bravely rather than placing stress just upon examinations because English is a language used to communicate with others and express one’s thoughts. So another feeling about the course is useful, pushing me to make a presentation and teaching me a lot of terminologies and rules about academic writing, which I might employ when I write essays in the future. To sum up, even if it’s not so interesting, I still feel it is a worthwhile course to study.

The experience of learning academic writing benefits me a lot. First of all, it makes me understand clearly some key points I need to pay attention to when writing an article. For example, achieving grammatical and lexical cohesion, as well as achieving coherence is crucial for each essay. It helps combining every part of the essay together and finally shaping the essay as a consistent entirety. Then, the second part of this course teaches us how to make a presentation successfully, giving me a chance to prepare, practice and finally present it before the whole class. When designing the PPT of my presentation, I learnt to take the reaction of audience into consideration, so color and size of the words were both selected carefully to make audience see them more clearly. Besides, I also developed the good habit of reflecting regularly owning to the course. Finally, my carefulness was trained in class and now it has been improved a lot. I still remember the class of ‘documenting your sources’ clearly. That day, our group was the last one to write down the correct order of the bibliography. It seemed as an easy work to finish but the truth is that it really tested my carefulness.

Every coin has two sides, and the course is of no exception. Academic writing, just shown like its name, lays stress on contents of academy, far away our daily life. As a result, this course was not so interesting and attractive. Also, the knowledge I acquired in class can hardly be used in other situations. It is limited to the specific situation like writing academic papers. On the other hand, although the course gave us many chances to speak, the students didn’t cherish them. The atmosphere of the class was not lively but a little depressing, so I was worried about speaking in front of others. But now I think the presentation was well-done by me since I had practiced a lot to overcome the fear.

In conclusion, from these experiences I learnt what should be contained in an abstract and how to make a presentation in a formal situation. In addition, my habits also got shaped to some extent.

As a student, the consciousness of reflecting regularly is of great importance. Reflecting can act as a review of the knowledge. Furthermore, it helps me to find the ways of study truly suitable for me. During reflection, I realized that I had not prepared the presentation very well and had stared on the computer for too much time, ignoring the audiences’ feelings. So for me, it is necessary to prepare fully, practice more and be confident when making a presentation.

When it comes to my personal action plans, firstly, I think I should study hard on my major to create chances to write English essays for myself. Until now, I have just written short essays without references and abstract. Therefore, I need to work hard and then I can put what I learnt about academic writing into practice. Before I am capable of writing academic English articles, I plan to employ the knowledge on my Chinese writing, paying attention to the structure, abstract, cohesion, coherence and references.

As for the speaking part, I believe practicing more is pretty meaningful to me. To be honest, I am one-hundred percent confident of my English. So every time before I raised hand to answer the question teacher put forward, I always bring a brainstorm to answer the question. When making a presentation, I hardly felt nervous and can easily chill it out. For this reason, I must be very familiar with what I am going to say next time and look at the audiences rather than staring at the computer screen. To make myself calm down and confident, I should also prepare some little cards with key words. Next time, I believe I can do better to make a presentation in both English and Chinese.

第二篇：Intro to Academic Writing(适合学术英语写作、四六级考试)

Dear students,

A Brief Introduction to the Course of

Academic Writing

Let me begin by informing you that your success in this course will depend a lot on the extent to which you understand this introduction; always keep it in mind, and always apply it in your writing homework assignments and other essays written under the course.

A) Alternative Names for the Course

The following alternative names that we may use for this course may help you get an idea of what this course is all about and the method, style, or approach that we are going to be using in our essays.

i)

ii)

iii)

iv)

v)

vi) Academic Essay Writing Research Project Writing Research Methodology Thesis Writing Position Paper Writing Argumentation

B) Some General Things to Keep in Mind about

Academic Writing

1) Academic Writing is Different from other forms of writing.

The first thing I would like you to keep in mind about Academic Writing is that, as its name suggests, it is DIFFERENT from the other forms of writing such as literature and/or fiction; including prose, poetry, play/drama etc. Unlike the other forms of writing in which the writer may just express his/her emotions and imaginations, and use any style that pleases him/her including description, narration and suspense, Academic Papers, Writings, Works, or Projects are usually based on existing social realities, issues, and facts.

2) Academic Writing is not Creative Writing, and there is no fiction in it.

It is worth reiterating that Academic Writing is “not Creative Writing” like fictions in which the writer can apply his/her imaginative skills and use a lot of imaginary or “made up” information. Virtually all the academic essays that you will ever write will be about and/or base on real social phenomena and issues, and not imagined ones. That is why all your essays would be based on facts, reasoning or logic, and

evidences.

3) In Academic Writing, we use the Research and Writing methods used in the Social Sciences.

Given that virtually all the topics, issues, and phenomena to be written about in Academic Writing are social realities, I will be teaching you (and requiring you to use) the research and writing methods used in the Social Sciences, and not those “free-style” methods used in the in the Arts, including literature, and neither the simple description and narration used in the Natural Sciences. I would advice you to prepare yourselves for thinking or reasoning and writing like Social Science students. They are logical, analytical, convincing (with persuasion and evidence), and coherent in their presentations. And since their information and pieces of evidence are never based on imagination, they always acknowledge their sources through paraphrases and quotations which are further documented in their footnotes or endnotes.

4) The main, if not the only writing style used in Academic Writings is that of Argumentation – It is like debating by way of writing. Having said that Academic Writing is not Creative Writing, and thus the writing style used is not “free-style”, let’s look at the style used in Academic Writing. It is called “Argumentation”. It has been mentioned above (perhaps repeatedly) that virtually all our academic essays will be based on real social topics, phenomena, and/or issues. And, as you know, virtually all social topics are controversial and thus debatable. So, Academic Writing is like Debating, though this time, it is done in writing. Every debater or academic writer must be able to begin by quickly presenting the topic and its “Problematic” or the controversy and then “making a clear or unambiguous and balanced argument” or “taking a clear or unmistakable stance”, or call it “a clear and unequivocal position”, or stating a clear thesis”. With this method of Argumentation, the writer must state his/her argument/thesis/stance/position on the issue as early as possible before using the rest of the essay to explain, substantiate, support, and/or prove that his/her argument is correct and the best. The Thesis (usually stated in the introduction or very early in the essay) is the main argument of the essay. But within the essay, the writer will use many smaller arguments to support the big or main argument. And the writer must conclude by making a summary of all such smaller arguments which he/she has used to support and prove his/her main argument as correct. – see the section on the Structure of an Academic Essay.

5) An academic Writing must be an unbiased or objective and comprehensive or holistic analysis of the topic or issue under discussion.

In addition to being coherent and logical, any Academic Writer that would like to be respected must do his/her best to be a neutral or unbiased and objective analyst. The academic writer must try to keep all personal emotions and sentiments out of his/her analyses. For example, he/she must not support Country X simply because he/she is a citizen or national of the country; he/she must not support the students or the school administrators simply because he/she is one of them; she must not support women simply because she is female, and he must not support the men simply because he is male. He/or she has to be rational, objective, and honest with the facts.

6) The academic writer must demonstrate critical thinking

This is connected to being comprehensive and holistic as mentioned above. But it goes beyond that. The analyses in an academic essay should not only examine all the sides of the issue, but should also critically examine the truthfulness of all assertions and claims. The academic writer must not just assume that some statement or assertion is true. There should be a reason to believe it, and such a reason should be expressed to convince the reader.

7) The Academic Writing Course does not only teach you how to write short essays. It prepares you for the writing of Long Essays or Research Projects and even Social Science books, why not? In fact, the essays we will be writing in class or as homework assignments would be microcosms (or very small versions) of books. The scopes of the topics can be expanded, and the paragraphs can be turned into chapters.

8) Academic writers must acknowledge the sources of any information in their writings, which is not from their personal firsthand observation and interpretation.

Plagiarism or copying/stealing of information from some existing materials without acknowledging the author and source would be allowed.

C) On the Structure of an Academic Essay

I think it is well know to all of your that all essays have three main structural parts, which are the Introduction; the Body; and the Conclusion.

(1) The Introduction of an Academic Essay

I would like remind you that the most important structural part of an essay is the introduction, and it usually contains the two most important statements or sentences of an academic essay – that is, the Topic Statement and the Thesis Statements.

A. The Topic Statement. This should be the very first sentence of your introduction and, therefore, the very first sentence of your whole essay or book. The topic statement should serve as “The Problematic” for your essay (research project or book). The Problematic refers to the problem (or host of problems) about some topic or issue, which urge you to write and provide a solution. The Problematic could also be some worry (or worries), some doubt(s), some confusion, and/or some controversy (or controversies) that you as a thinker and writer would like to clarify, explain, and or settle – hopefully, once and forever. The problematic should serve as the basis, the foundation, the root, the premise, the starting point, the springboard, the watershed, and/or “the reason to be” of your research project or book. After reading through the first sentence of your introduction, the reader should be able to immediately know or guess why you are writing the paper, research project, or book (or what urges you to write it). For you to feel inspired to write (or just to find your writing process interesting and worth enduring), you have to have “the problematic” – you have to have a problem to solve. You have to feel that your research project or book would be useful or helpful to some people out there, and you have to show clearly, through your topic statement, who those beneficiaries are or would be. In fact there would be no need to write an Academic Essay or a Research Project if you can’t feel and show that you have a contribution to make not just to knowledge, but also to providing a solution to some existing academic or social or cultural problem(s).

Talking about social problems, I would like to remind you again, that you

would be using the research methodology used in Social Sciences and not the methodology used in the Natural Sciences. So, I expect you to rely more on the style and skills of argumentation and not simple description and narration. Even though you are students of English Language, a subject that would be classified as belonging to the arts, your research projects would mainly be about socio-cultural issues and topics, virtually all of which are controversial or debatable. This is why you should use the method of argumentation and not simple narration or description.

Your topic statement should be a comprehensive, technical, and encompassing sentence that says as much as possible about the problem(s) that make the research project necessary. So I don’t expect to see a topic sentence that is made of only five words or so. Well, the topic sentence may immediately be followed by a few other sentences that help to show that the problem(s) really exist, are serious or relevant, and really deserve(s) the attention of both the researcher/writer and the readers.

B. The Thesis Statement.

After using the topic statement and a few supporting sentences to show the problems or controversies that form the basis or premise and reason-to-be of your paper or research project, you need to clearly state your thesis – your argument, position, point of view, belief, or opinion about the issue or controversy in question.

Your thesis statement should be followed by a brief statement or mention of the underlying assumptions, reasons, or beliefs that lead you to believe that your argument is the correct and is the best. You may link your Thesis statement and your underlying assumptions or beliefs with such words or phrases like: “because”, “given that”, “considering that” etc.

(2) The Body of an Academic Essay

- The body of an essay is that section (after the introduction) in which the writer uses many paragraphs to make smaller arguments and/or analyze and interpret pieces of evidence in support of the main argument (the thesis) of the essay.

- Each paragraph should begin with a Topic Sentence, which clearly introduces the reader to its content and purpose. The Topic Sentence (the first sentence of the paragraph) or the last sentence of the paragraph should also perform two other functions. The first is to create a sense of coherence by linking the current previous one and showing that the latter is a logical follow-up of the former. The second is to show that the information is the paragraph is relevant to the topic and especially to the main argument or thesis of the essay. The important duty of illustration or demonstrating relevance and coherence may also be performed by the last sentence of the paragraph.

(3) The Conclusion of an Academic Essay

As mentioned earlier, an academic essay must end with a conclusion – a final paragraph which begins with a brief summary that serves as a reminder to the reader of the various points or arguments and main pieces of evidence that have been used to support and/or prove the case or main argument/thesis of the writer. The writer must

then reconfirm his/her thesis (the original argument of the essay) by asserting that the just summarized points naturally and logically lead to such a stance or position on the controversial issue.

- Keep in mind that the conclusion of an essay should only be one paragraph, and no new smaller arguments or claims should be made in the conclusion because there would be no more time and space to defend them. Any new points, arguments, or pieces of evidence should be introduced and discussed in paragraphs before the final and concluding one.

D) The Practical Significance or Importance of

Learning the Skills of Academic Writing

This course will teach the students how to study, examine, and/or analyze all the aspects or sides of a controversial social issue or phenomenon before “taking an informed stance or position”, or “making an informed and well-considered choice or decision”, or “offering a well-informed opinion”. This is very important given that virtually all issues (even the very little ones) in our society and daily lives have many sides or aspects and thus are controversial to certain extents. But the course does not only teach you to take clever or informed stances or positions on issues, or make informed social choices or decisions, it also teaches you to defend your position, stance, or decision and to convince others that such a stance/position or decision is the best. By teaching you to make informed choices and decisions, and to defend your positions and convince others to agree with you, this course prepares you for better leadership in families, enterprises, and the government. Good leaders must be able to study controversial issues, make informed decisions or take clever stances/positions, and convince their co-workers and everyone concerned that his/her decision was the best.

This course will teach you to research a topic, think critically, make an argument, organize your thoughts, and present them in a clear and forceful writing.