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Portfolio Entry #7: Writing and Academic Writing

One of the primary things that a teacher should think before giving a writing task is the stages that it involves. The first one is the pre-writing task in which we have to design a task step by step. That implies thinking about the subskills students will need, such as topics, background knowledge, vocabulary, grammar, discourse, etc. For instance, if the focus is on the topic we can ask the students what are they going to write about and,  what notions they want to reflect on the writing. Besides, we can use associograms to help them brainstorm, prompts by including images, music, or interviews which help them to contextualize what they are going to write. All of them are fruitful for generating ideas, topics, or building vocabulary for their writing.

The second stage is during-writing. While students write, the teacher has to give guidance in order to improve their writing, for example, he/she can ask what caused the event they are writing about or help them to describe the main characters in order to make the writing more interesting and engaging for the audience.

The last stage is the post writing task, in which students have the opportunity to edit what they have written by thinking about what is relevant in their writing to eliminate redundant details. Furthermore, they can add linking words, and share their writings with the audience. 


What is academic writing?

Academic writing is:

    Planned and focused: answers the question and demonstrates an understanding of the subject.

·         Structured: is coherent, written in a logical order, and brings together related points and material.

·         Evidenced: demonstrates knowledge of the subject area supports opinions and arguments with evidence, and is referenced accurately.

·         Formal in tone and style: uses appropriate language and tenses, and is clear, concise and balanced.

The first step to writing academically is to clearly define the purpose of the writing and the audience. Once you have a clear idea of what is required for your assignment, you can start planning your research and creating the structure for the writing.

When you start writing you should have a clear idea of what you want to say.

·         Create a list of your main points and think about what the reader needs to know and in what order they will need to know it.

·         Structure your writing with an introduction, main body and conclusion.

·         Select appropriate evidence that you will use to support each main point. Think carefully about which evidence to use, you must evaluate that information as not everything you find will be of high quality. This evidence will add substance to your own ideas, allow the reader to see what has informed your thinking and how your ideas fit in with, and differ from, others' in your field.

·         Use signaling words to help the reader to understand the structure of your work and where you might be taking your argument. For instance, furthermore, similarly, however, consequently, first, second, finally.

·         Be concise, this helps your reader to understand the points you are making, for instance, keep your sentences to a reasonable length, avoid repetition, use formal language and use a blend of active and passive verbs

·         Do not present something as a fact that might not be. You can use language that we often refer to as hedges or boosters to show how confident you are about an argument or claim you are discussing. For instance,“This suggests...” “It is possible that...”   “There is a strong correlation...” “Results indicate...”

·         Correct tense and voice in your written work: Use past tense to speak about your method and present tense to conclude or discuss established knowledge

·         Make an argument

·         Structure your argument in a logical way and presenting both sides of the debate

·         Develop your argument by considering the evidence and drawing your own conclusion.

·         Revise, edit and proofread your work



Made by Carrizo Macarena, González Eliana and Fernández Luz.
The information mentioned in the graphic was taken from The University of Leeds on Academic Writing (Last Visited July 17th, 2020)




Metacognitive Analysis: 

What I find really useful regarding this lesson is the information about how to focus the lesson on writing by providing different tools to our students. Sometimes it is difficult for me to put into practice many of the theories that I learn during our lessons. That is why I consider that revising the steps I should follow to help my students to improve their writings could be helpful. On the one hand, it is important for me as a future teacher, to make sure that my students have all the necessary tools to make a well-written text. On the other hand,  it is beneficial for students to write after being exposed to the whole material. Moreover, taking into account that one of the best forms of learning how to make good writing is showing students that we as teachers know how to do it, it is essential to bear in mind the skills.

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