Welcome to this summer edition of ERS. In just 4 weeks, we will spend everyday together fine tuning our writing skills to prepare you for your majors in MUIC and for your academic life overall. When we think of academic writing, it tends to be a serious subject. It is something that we approach with a high level of formality and focus. This is true and correct.
However, this should not be confused with boredom and void of creativity. The best academic writing is formal and focused and important... and fun and interesting and inspiring. We often forget these latter parts. The ultimate objective is to inform and persuade our reading with well organized and thoughtful ideas, but hopefully along the way we as writer give them as reader an enjoyable and even memorable experience.
In this first journal blog for the summer term, share what you find the most difficult challenge is for you when you approach writing for an academic purpose.
Make sure that you include your ID# in your post. Aj. M
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ReplyDeleteID:5680944
ReplyDeleteTwo things that I think it make academic essay so difficult are that the pattern and the idea. We have to remember the pattern of the essay, and the thing that everyone usually forget is that the main idea of the essay. And sometimes we did not write it very clear so that we can get confuse with our own essay. Another thing is our ideas to the topics because sometimes we do not have much idea for those topics, so when we do not have enough things to talk about in those topics we usually find the redundant paragraph in our essay.
This is a thoughtful comment. Redundancy is an issue because when you repeat yourself, it makes it look like you don't know what you're talking about.
DeleteID : 5780247
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, academic writing is hard because of brainstorm and supporting ideas. If I do not have enough general knowledge about topics, I will write irrelevantly or circular argument. The second is grammar and vocabulary. Incorrect sentences may cause misunderstanding or readers do not understand. Some synonyms are used in different ways such as "for" and "in order to". It makes me confuse how to write correctly in grammar. There are a lot of words that I do not know meanings, and how to use words correctly. The last is that it is difficult to make writing flow, and how to make readers understand and interest in my essay.
Grammar and usage will be a life long learning process. But now, as you're starting your academic life, the best thing you can do is read and pay attention while you're reading. Pay attention to how writers use words and follow their examples.
DeleteJimmy 5681037
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, there are two thing those make academic writing difficult. The first one is the grammar. This means the differences between Thai and English sentence structure. It seems to be impossible for Thais to cope with whole grammatical error on English academic writing. The second thing is the lexical. The lexical means the variety of vocabulary. In academic writing, some texts need their specific words, which is hard for me to think or know them. These are the reason why academic writing is hard.
This is a significant challenge and it is the next step in your development as a language learner. Grammar and vocabulary is something you get used to over time, so pay attention to the examples we read.
DeleteID : 5780216
ReplyDeleteThe most difficult things for me in academic writing are grammar and sentence structure. These two things make me struggle when I write an essay whether it is referenced essay or unreferenced essay. I usually didn't notice that I make the reader confuse because of the sentence structure in the essay. Grammatical error in academic writing also make it very hard for me to explain what I really think and want the reader understand.
One thing that people misunderstand about academic writing is that they think it has to be highly formal and even complicated. Hopefully, we can see in this course that keeping it simple can also be academic.
DeleteBall 5780204
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the most difficult in academic writing is vocabulary because sometimes I get confused between my native language,Thai, and English like other students do. To illustrate, sometimes I think that this word definitely suits to a sentence because when I translate the sentence to Thai, it really makes sense. However, a reader who is not Thai may be confused. This is why academic writing is tough for me.
Yes. And this is because words don't only have meanings. They also have contexts and emotions and special significance. You need to be aware of all of these things.
Delete5780196 Pure
ReplyDeleteFrom my view point and experience, there are a few things that make academic writing challenging. The first one is how to express the ideas in my mine to the readers without confusing. I mean sometimes what I have written makes the readers, especially the native English speakers, confused. The another thing is analysing the ideas. Sometimes, I answered the essay question not directly, and I failed. Those are why I academic writing is hard for me.
Good comment. This is exactly why writing is the hardest skill because you need to communicate a message to a reader, and you can't be there to clarify when he or she doesn't get it. You only get one chance in writing.
DeleteID : 5780240 Mark
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, there are three main factors that make academic writing difficult. The first thing is the english vocabulary. To upgrade my standard of writing, I have to learn a lot of vocabulary but this is a tough challenge to remember those academic words. The next factor is the english sentence structure. With a variety of sentence structure used in writing, it is hard to get 100% correct. When I re-read my essay, it confused me because it is unclear and hard for the reader to understand. The last thing which is the most difficult in writing is grammar. I always make minor error and confusion in some sentences without any notice, and it is hard to go back and change those error. And that is why academic writing is a big challenge for me.
You're doing well to think about your reader. If you don't understand what you're writing, you can be sure that your reader won't get it. Grammar and vocabulary will always be a challenge, but don't forget that communication is the most important thing.
DeletePim 5780228
ReplyDeleteFor me, the most difficult part of academic writing is vocabulary because I do not know enough academic vocabulary. I always use simple vocabulary which is I'm well-known with ,and this will affect to my academic writing. Another part of academic writing that I'm not familiar with is grammar. I always use simple sentences because I do not know how to fit the conjunctions in the complex sentences, actually I'm not confident to use it.
Sometimes the best word is a simple one. Don't feel pressure to use complicated vocabulary. If a simple word will make the point, use it.
DeleteNinG :) 5780198
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, grammar and vocabulary are the most difficulty to write a good essay. This is because grammar in English is totally different from my mother-tongue language, which is Thai. So, it takes time to go through all of them and be understood 100%. Another element that makes academic writting complicated is vocabulary, I do not know much about academic words because I usually forget them. Also, I always use simple words in my essay, and that make my score goes down.
I like simple words. Academic words are good too. So try to learn them, but simple words make understanding simple... That's a good thing.
DeleteKim 5780226
ReplyDeleteAcademic writing is complex. There are many challenges to create a perfect academic writing. One of the most difficult things for me about academic writing is that it needs to be formal everything including structure and vocabulary. In other word, every word needs to arrange appropriately. Another crucial thing is grammar. I always fail to use it correctly. There are many errors that I am not understand clearly, so I cannot fix them. The final essential thing about academic writing is that it is hard to make readers understand what I wrote. Writing language is not similar to speaking language. Therefore, academic writing is difficult to expain ideas and purpose.
What you describe sounds like a very difficult experience. I hope that this term can show that academic writing can also be a creative (fun?) experience as well. It doesn't always have to be so serious.
DeleteTee 5780194
ReplyDeleteIn my perspective, there are 2 challengeable things that make academic writing become harder for me which are brainstorm and grammar. Since i have difficult time with brainstorming, I usually write ideas that might be confusing for readers. Moreover, I also have a problem with grammar because sometimes I do not know what tense I should write in the essays. Therefore, some native speakers can misunderstand what I want to mention. These are the reasons why academic writing is difficult for me.
This is a key point. Your ideas have to be good and clear before your writing can be good and clear... We will practice this a lot in these next weeks.
Delete5780195
ReplyDeleteFor me, academic writing is very hard because I have to understand clearly about the topic and ideas or the support details that I want to write. There are a lot of formal sentence structures that I can brainstorm and write an essay. I should decide the most appropriate structure to match with the topic, and find the most important key detail that can support the essay effectively. Moreover, I really difficult to choose vocabulary carefully for writing.
Your point about knowing the topic is an important one. It is absolutely key that you have a narrow topic and become at least somewhat, an expert on that topic. If you don't, your reader will know very quickly that you're faking it.
Delete5681022
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the two components that make academic writing hard for me are grammar and spelling. I usually make mistake in easy grammar because I forgot to check and re-read my writing. I also have a hard time spelling some word which I know the meaning and want to use in the easy.
Forgetting to check is probably not true. Lazy to check is probably more true. But the checking and editing process is crucial to the success of academic writing.
DeleteThis journal blog is now closed. Thank you for your participation. Aj. M
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