Reflection on Learning Four Academic Writing Styles

Part One:

What are key academic writing styles? why are they important?

There are mainly four types of academic writing such as descriptive, expository, persuasive and narrative. In this section, I am going to reflect on what I have learned about four academic writing. Although all the four academic writing styles are used in my class, in most of the times I used descriptive and narrative writing styles as they assist me to make comprehensive discussion of the topic. Descriptive writing styles assisted me to understand how to describe different aspects in a topic such as experiences, situation, objects, emotion, place and person. As mentioned by Sinaga (2017), descriptive writing styles is not just making comprehensive discussion of given topic rather it is associated with making deeper analysis of information and theories to present the clear viewpoint to describe underlying aspects of the topic. On the other hand, persuasive writing is another important writing style that improves my analysing and judgemental skills. By using this style, I have learned that how argumentative writing can be formed by using relevant contradictory resources. As mentioned by Schulze (2016), persuasive writing assists writer to make critical discussion of the topic with using conflict opinion. By using this writing style, I have gained proper understanding of critical writing by using conflict opinion. Through analysing as well as comparing one evidence with the other I was not only able to grab knowledge on making argumentative discussion but also, I have gathered in-depth knowledge on each topic with understanding the drawback and usefulness of writing process. In addition to this, persuasive writing styles also assist me to learn about reviewing and critically analysing research paper in terms of discussing overall literature-gap, limitation and usefulness of article.

Narrative writing is another academic writing style that assisted me to learn about how to write the academic project by making clear points and real-life example. Through using narrative writing process, I have learned about how to use the writing process to make a clear report, in which I can use clear structure and points to draw the transparent picture of the topic criteria. Expository writing is also highly important in my academic career that assaulted me to learn how to investigate the resources to collect proper evidences and use them accordingly to describe the topic in effective manner. The witting styles assisted me to understand how to make clear thesis statement while writing any project and how to discuss the entire project by using clear structure such as introduction, body and conclusion.

Part One:

What are key academic writing styles? why are they important?

There are many criteria that are associated with the ability student to pass the academic test such as developing in-depth knowledge and understanding on an academic topic. As mentioned by student need to have strong knowledge on each topic as well as on different subjects. In addition to this, the student needs to have strung understanding of overall academic writing types such as report, essay, project report, thesis, dissertation, and summative assessment of research articles. There are many sociological theories associated with improving student’s engagement with their studies. One of the most preferred theories is Engagement Theory. The theory is based on the viewpoint that, students can be engaged with their studies intimately with making cognitive, behavioural and emotional involvement with academic framework (Hamari et al. 2016). For passing academic test, the students need to involve their emotional, cognition and behavioural aspects with subjects which will assist them to make clear understanding of topic area and interpret the underlying meaning of each academic aspect. In addition to this, another important theory can also be used in this aspect, the Social Learning Theory. Through using this theory in learning process, it can be stated that student can pass the academic test if they are subjected to proper learning and developmental process, in which they are able to develop their knowledge, behavioural and intellectual development. The Social Learning Theory can be used in describing the needs for passing the academic test by students. By using this theory, the students can develop cognitive intellectual and psychological strength which assist them, to grab an in-depth understanding of each subject. In addition to this, through using Social Learning Theory, student can develop their decision making and problem-solving skill, that assist them to deal with unknown questions in academic test tactfully to grab good marks.

On the contrary Lancaster and Lundberg (2019) argued that sometimes only academic knowledge is not sufficient for students to pass academic test as the pattern and styles of the test have been changes in recent years. In the current academic field, the purpose of conducting academic tests is not just determining the subjective knowledge of student rather the purpose is associated with determining the overall intelligence and cognitive skill of students. Therefore, students need to focus not only on academic writing styles and subjective knowledge but also, they need to focus on developing verbal combination, interaction skill, analysing skills, time management skill, problem-solving skill and decision making skill.

Reference list:

Part one:

Schulze, J.M., 2016. Understanding the developing persuasive writing practices of an adolescent emergent bilingual through systemic functional linguistics: A case study. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 15(10), pp.163-179.

Sinaga, M., 2017. The Effect of Roundtable and Clustering Teaching Techniques and Students' Personal Traits on Students' Achievement in Descriptive Writing. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 8(6), pp.69-75.

Hamari, J., Shernoff, D.J., Rowe, E., Coller, B., Asbell-Clarke, J. and Edwards, T., 2016. Challenging games help students learn: An empirical study on engagement, flow and immersion in game-based learning. Computers in human behaviour, 54, pp.170-179.

Lancaster, J.R. and Lundberg, C.A., 2019. The influence of classroom engagement on community college student learning: A quantitative analysis of effective faculty practices. Community College Review, 47(2), pp.136-158.