Advanced Academic Writing With Dr. Matt Barton. What is academic writing?

Advanced Academic Writing

With Dr. Matt Barton

What is academic writing?

Academic Writing

• Written by professionals for professionals (discourse communities)

• “Double blind” peer-reviewed for relevance, accuracy, and quality

• Considers all relevant prior research on the topic

• Contributes original research

What isn’t academic writing?

• Anything written for a general rather than a specific professional audience (Scientific American, National Geographic)

• Any writing that hasn’t undergone a formal, double blind peer review process

• Any writing that does not reference other published research

• Most writing you can understand without special training or vocabulary.

Academic or Not Academic?

• Webster’s Dictionary• Time magazine• Studies in Popular Culture journal• The New York Times• Basic Geometry textbook• The Wikipedia• Nature scientific journal

Read Selection

• (Sample readings from journals)

What are the characteristics of an academic writing style?

ACADEMIC PEER-REVIEW

Peer Review

• Acts as a filter• Improves quality of research

Elsevier’s Peer Review Criteria

• Originality • Structure• Previous Research• Ethical Issues

Academic Publishing

• Scholarly Journals– College English, PMLA, CCC, RSQ

• University Book Presses• Academic Conferences– CCCC, NCTE, MLA, RSA

Top Myths about Academic Writing

1. It must be dry and boring at all times.2. It must use lots of jargon and the longest

words you can find in a thesaurus.3. It must be printed on paper.4. It is only written by well-established

professors with decades of experience.5. Only content matters; style and elegance are

irrelevant.

About Me

• Received PhD from University of South Florida in 2005 in Rhetoric & Composition

• 13 years of college teaching experience• Author of Dungeons & Desktops, Vintage

Games, Honoring the Code, co-editor of Wiki Writing as well as eight journal articles

• Presented over a dozen times at international, national, and regional academic conferences

Why this course?

• Read, analyze, and better understand academic writing in your chosen field.

• Find, understand, evaluate, and integrate academic publications into your own work.

• Learn to write good academic prose.• Learn how to put together and perform a good

conference presentation.• Prepare to “join the conversation” of your

chosen discipline or major.