Jennifer McConkey
English 101-941
What Is an Academic Essay?
Jennifer McConkey
English 101-941
Outline
1. What is an Academic Essay?
-Characteristics of an Academic Essay
2. What is the purpose of Argumentative writing?
3. What is Critical Thinking?
-The process of Analyzing
-What is Evaluatioon?
4. Your Audience is important!
5. The process of writing an essay
6. Using an external source
Jennifer McConkey
English 101-941
What is an Academic Essay?
An academic essay is a written work that attempts to answer or address issues. The author researches the topic and draws upon personal knowledge and experiences and drafts these opinions into a written document. This composition is not expected to solve the issues at hand, but instead to offer the audience or glimpse of the authors personal views and attitudes.
First we will discuss the characteristics of an academic essay. Critical thinking is very important. You must analyze and evaluate the issue at hand in order to have a good perspective. It is also very essential to keep your readers in mind. Be sure to express the meaning of your words and your persona is accurate.
Argumentative writing is based on the authors opinions or beliefs. The purpose of an argumentative piece of writing is to persuade your audience that the author is correct in his/ her opinion. People tend to create an argument based on the worlds outlook on the issue.
Critical thinking is very important in an academic essay. Reading critically is often referred to as reading analytically. Critical thinking is not asking you to question the reading, but to pay close attention to what you are reading. Most academic writing is based on critical thinking. Evaluating and analyzing are the basis of critical thinking. So you can see how everything is tying together to create an academic essay.
Lets talk more about analyzing our reading. It is always a good idea to read actively and most of our analytic readers do so by asking the following questions:
1. What is the writers thesis? (15)
2. How does the writer support the thesis?
3. What is the writers purpose?
4. How do the writers audience and purpose help shape the writing?
5. What is the writers tone?
The definition of analysis means to separate in to parts.
Next we will find out what evaluation consists of. Evaluating is processing and finalizing the thoughts you gathered from critical thinking and come up with your final take on the matter.
It is important to remember you audience when writing. Readers look at what sort of persona and tone your writing conveys. Writers should have a good attitude about themselves and their subject to keep the writer interested.
Here is the process of writing an essay. The writer must write down his/her thoughts on their readings and their personal experiences. Keeping a journal would be a good idea to capture your thoughts on paper. Its always a good plan to go over your text again and ask questions of anything you may not understand or that confuses you. Next you should pick a topic and a title for the essay and write your thesis. It is extremely helpful for our readers to have an outline to refer to. Then you will write a draft, revise the draft and edit the draft. Make sure that the draft has unity, organization, clarity, and polish it up. Rethink your thesis and make sure everything is properly in its place. Finally, write the final version that you will be submitting. You should always analyze and evaluate the essay before submission.
When using an external source you should always be sure that you avoid plagiarism. Quote the phrase directly from the source, use quotations and create a works cited page. Put the works cited page at the end of the essay and include the authors name and the title of the book.
Jennifer McConkey
English 101-941
Works Cited Page
Title: The Little Brown Book
Authors: Marcia Stubbs, Sylvan Barnett, and William E. Cain