Introduction to Academic Writing - helsinki.fi to Academic... · 1. Think and discuss… • What have you learned about academic writing in your earlier studies? • What kind of

Introduction toAcademicWritingJohanna Väyrynen& Heikki J. Koskinen

Structure of this lecture

1. Discussing about:”I as Acdemic Writer in Faculty of Theology”

2. Basics of Academic Writing

3. How to write an essay / master’s thesisin practice?

I as Academic Writerin Faculty of Theology

1. Multidisciplinarity• Your earlier studies are richness!

2. Having your own personal faith/world viewwhile studying religions/world views

• Challenge or chance?

1. Think and discuss…• What have you learned about academic writing in your earlier studies?

• What kind of texts have I written?• How has it felt to write? What is easy/difficult?

• What is typical research subjects in my major?• What kind of methods are used in my major?

• What makes writing academic ?

2. Think and discuss…

• How does my own personal faith/world view affect me as researcherof religions?

• What kind of topics get me excited? What is easy to accept? What I want to defend?• What kind of topics makes me angry? What is difficult to accept? What I want to

oppose?• Is there something holy and untouchable to me?

• Teaching in Faculty of Theology is secular and secularity is something youshould try to achieve on your texts.

How to write an essay /master’s thesis in practice?

1. Thinking, planning and pondering process2. Writing process

It is as easy and fun as posting a picture to social media!

1. Find something interesting and take a photo= Get excited, search for material and read, read and readto piece together the overall picture of the topic.

2. Crop= Choose a one thing which is interesting/problematic/worth to highlight in your material.= Think which material/literature is relevant whileresearching this one thing.= Make one question you want to answer to.

3. Add a filter= Choose a method.= The basic method at systematic theology is systematicanalysis. It means reading a lot, thinking hard andpresenting your notions of what you read in systematicorder.

4. Edit the brightness= Think about the reader and how much you should tell about the overallpicture to him/her.= What are the facts you need to bring to ligth?= Remember that telling too much might lead reader away fromthe main question.

5. Edit the contrast= Look for contradictions and conflicts from yourmaterial. Make it more simple.

6… and saturation= Categorize the pieces of material and think how theyrelate to each other.= In academic writing strong colors are better thanplain black and white.

7. What about the warmth?= Be gentle and compassionate to the material/problem.= Aim to understanding and not only to coldcriticizing and judging.

8. Fade out and highlight= Cropping again and again!= Return to the main question time after time!= Tell to the reader

how does the main question relate to the overall picture?and why it is important and interesting to ask that question?

Title: structure of an essay1. IntroductionThis essay is about a good essay. In this paper I ask, how to construct an essay well. It is important to find answer to the question of a good structure of an essay becausenew students need that information.

The researching method used in this essay is systematic analysis. It means that I will present my thoughts in systematic order. First I’m going to tell aboutthe overall picture. Second I will write about my material. Third I will tell how my material answers to question about how to construct my essay well. Finally I makeconclusions.

Question of a constructing an essay well is part of the discussion we had here today. Discussion was about academic writing in Faculty of Theology.Heikki said about academic writing this¹ and Anne said that². But to really show what academic writing is in practice the example here is needed.

The main material used in this research are what I have learned during my studies. I have took part to two master’s thesis seminar and to course ofargumentation skills. I also got the best possible grade from my master’s thesis so I assume that I have learned how to write academic and how to construct an essay.

2. AnalysisWhat I have learned in my studies may be categorized to three parts. First part is the basic things you need to have in essay. Second part is about the important questionsyou need to make while constructing an essay. Third part is about how to lead the reader.

Basic three parts of an essay are introduction, analysis and conclusions. In master’s thesis the basic parts are introduction, presenting the literature,presenting the material, analysis of the material and conclusions.

While writing ask yourself: What is the one question I want to answer to? What steps do I need to take to find the answer? What is important from theview of the main question? How I validate my arguments?

Lead the reader by telling: What are you going to do and why? What did you just do and why? Why is it important to tell this thing / ask this questionnow?

3. Conclusions

This essay was about the structure of an essay. I asked how to construct an essay well. I approached the question by using my own academic writing experience asresearching material. To answer to the question in a systematic way I categorized what I’ve learned to three parts. Answer to the question of how to construct an essaywell may be compacted to one sentence: Have the basic parts in your essay and ask lot of questions while writing.

¹2015 Heikki, 3.²2015 Anne.