Academic Writing - 1

THE PROCESS USED FOR ACADEMIC WRITING

By Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.
Minnesota State University, Mankato
andrew.johnson@mnsu.edu

This is an excerpt from my book, Academic Writing: Process and Product published by
Rowman and Littlefield

Academic writing is easy as long as you understand and trust the process. This chapter
starts with an overview of academic writing. It ends with a description of the super-secret
process used for academic writing.

Big Picture
Academic writing is different in form and function than creative writing. The purpose of
academic writing is to move ideas and information from point A (your head) to point B (your
readers’ heads) as efficiently and economically as possible. Like technical writing and most
forms of writing used in professional settings, its basic purpose is to present information.
Academic writing is used to write academic reports, inquiries, and essays in academic settings.
A variation of this form is also valued in most business and professional settings.
Creative writing is used to tell a story or to evoke an emotional or aesthetic response. Its
purpose is to entertain or inspire. Here the writer is able to inject his or her insights and emotion
all over the page and to use words and language like colors on a pallet to paint a picture.
Academic writing is more formal, uses structure to carry ideas, seldom contains dialogue, and is
purposefully objective. Good academic writers take themselves out of the paper to the greatest
extent possible and let the ideas and data carry their paper. Note the differences below.
Not academic writing. As I walked into the gymnasium I couldn’t
believe my eyes. The gym was packed with wild and crazy students all
shouting their lungs out, cheering on their beloved basketball team.
The team seemed to absorb their energy and was playing grit and
determination, giving everything they had to beat the visiting foe from
Shelbyville.

Academic writing. The home basketball team played Shelbyville in front

of a large crowd of enthusiastic fans.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Academic Writing - 2

Types of Writing
There are three basic types of writing used in most academic and professional settings.
Each of these will be described in more detail in the upcoming chapters.
• Expository writing. The purpose of this type of writing is to explain, describe, or to
provide information in order to communicate knowledge.
• Persuasive writing. The purpose of this type of writing is to make a case for or against
an issue using concise, objective language and sound reasoning.
• Inquiry writing. Inquiry is the process of asking a question, gathering data, and then
using that data to answer the question. Data can be gathered using primary sources through
direct observation, survey, interviews or other means; or data can be collected using secondary
sources such peer-reviewed research, scholarly articles and books. The purpose of this type of
writing is to describe all phases of the inquiry process.

The Super-Secret Writing Process for Academic Writing

Academic writing is not an event that occurs in one setting but a process that occurs over
time. And this process is necessarily messy. All writers think, plan, struggle, revise, re-write,
and mess about in order to discover exactly what it they want to say and how they want to say it.
This is all part of the process (see Figure 1.1). Each step of this process is revealed below.

Figure 1.1. An overview of the super-secret writing process.

1. Research to gather data. Usually this means reading and taking careful notes.
However, data can also be collected other ways.
2. Pre-writing. As the name implies, this is what is done before writing. This involves
things such as planning, creating outlines, generating ideas, or finding structure.
3. First-draft. This is the first attempt to get ideas on the page.
4. Revise. This is the heart of the writing process. Here the writer re-reads, reshapes,
gets feedback, and revises many times.
5. Editing. Editing should occur only after a piece has been revised several times.
Here the writer looks for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.
6. Share. This is the very last step. This is where the paper is sent out into the world.

Step 1: Research to Gather Data.

You cannot write unless you have something to write about. Thus, the first step is to
research to gather data. This is usually done by reading and taking careful notes. However, data
can also be collected through interviews, observations, inquiries, or surveys. This provides the
information necessary to write. Skipping or minimizing effort here makes writing much more
difficult in all subsequent phases. Whether you are doing expository writing, persuasive writing,
or inquiry, having a cohesive body of information in front of you makes the process of writing
much easier and greatly enhances the quality of your final product.
Step 2: Pre-Writing
Once you have gathered data and taken notes, the next step is to generate ideas and find a
basic yet flexible initial structure. Below are described five strategies for this. Note that there is
no single strategy that is best for every person or every writing situation. Find the one that works
best for you. Adopt and adapt.
• Brainstorm and list. Use a yellow legal pad or sheet of note paper and start listing
ideas as quickly as you can. After you have a paper filled with scratches and messy sentences,
then look for patterns and groups. Use these to create a very flexible, beginning and then begin
to outline.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Academic Writing - 3

• Brainstorm and group. Start with your writing topic. Then generate as many ideas as
quickly as you can related to your topic without regard to evaluation. That is, whenever you
brainstorm you should include the silly, far-fetched ideas along with the more pragmatic ones.
These ideas that may be consider conceptual outliers serve to stretch the boundaries of your
thinking enabling you to think more broadly. Next, look for groups or patterns. Then organize
the ideas into groups to create sections and paragraphs.
• Semantic webs. The semantic web allows you to generate ideas at the same time as
you create structure. It tends to create a more visual structure. First, draw a circle in the middle
of your paper and write your topic in the circle. Then, think of three or four ideas related to your
topic. Each of these will become a node (see Figure 1.2). Next, list as many ideas as you can
related to each node. Finally, use this flexible structure to begin writing. Each node of your web
will become sections or paragraphs.

Figure 1.2. Semantic web.

Landing is No doctor if you
difficult get sick or hurt

No food,
water,
or air on dangerous
Mars Space suits

No food, water,
or air in space
Going to Humans have
not been there
yet
Mars Things to eat
Will need
to stay on
planet for takes 2 need new Fuel
awhile years inventions
House
Need lots of fuel to live
Mars is far away in on
New types of rocket
Mars
or space ship

• Talking. Talking through your writing project or explaining it to a friend or colleague

helps to organize the ideas in your head and detect any missing parts. Encourage friends and
colleagues to ask questions or add ideas.
• Power writing. Power writing helps you get in touch with your unconscious. Starting
with your writing topic, write as many things as quickly as you can for one to three minutes. Do
not overly think here. The goal is to create an abundance of ideas, both good and bad. Do not
let your pen stop moving. Use free association to catch the first thing that pops into your mind.
Let your mind travel. It does not matter if you jump from one idea to the next or if your ideas
are jumbled. You will get it straightened out later.
Step 3: First Draft - Sloppy Copy
The first draft is your initial attempt to get ideas on paper. The first draft becomes an
external version of your working memory used to hold all your thoughts and ideas as you
generate and organize them and look for associations and supporting ideas. The first draft should
be a poorly written, unorganized pile of garbage. Only then can you start to pull things away and
begin to see some of the good ideas emerging. You have to throw that first blob of clay on the
potter’s wheel before you begin shaping it.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Academic Writing - 4

Andy aside. You cannot create good writing if you are not first
willing to create bad writing. The first draft of this chapter was
horrible. Things were all higgily-piggily on the page. There were
far too many words, many of which made no sense at all. But having
all the ideas on the page enabled me to see which were the good ones
and which were the bad ones. And as I started pulling out the bad
ideas I began to see a new structure emerging. I began to get a
better sense of how one thing related to another. I could see which
ideas need more explaining.

You must get your initial ideas on the page without evaluating them.
Strive for quantity vs. quality at this stage. Celebrate really bad
writing. It is the first step toward really good writing.

Step 4: Revision
Revision (re-vision) means to see again or in this case, see again and again and again.
Revision is at the heart of the super-secret writing process. The first draft is like a potter
throwing the first glob of clay on the wheel. Revision is where the potter begins to shape the
clay. A potter would not spin the wheel once or twice and consider the pot to be finished.
There is always a great deal of shaping and reshaping. New clay is added and taken away. The
same applies to academic writing. Expect to revise a minimum of four times, but usually ten to
fifteen times. Do not worry about spelling and punctuation here; rather, try to find a logical
organization and listen to see if your sentences and paragraphs make sense.
Step 5: Editing
Editing is the fifth step. Here, you run your writing through a spell check program and
concentrate on correct grammar, punctuation, word usage, and citations. It is also helpful at this
stage to have others read your work and in order to provide feedback. This will give you a sense
of how the ideas are playing inside the readers’ head. This feedback also enables you to identify
those parts of your paper that may be unclear or confusing. This may bring you back to an
earlier step. The super-secret writing process is recursive. Very rarely will you move through
the steps in a nice, orderly linear fashion. Most often you will need to repeat steps several times.
Step 6: Sharing or Publishing
The last step is to share your writing with the world.

How to Avoid Writers’ Block

Sometimes when attempting to write the words and ideas just do not come out. And the
harder you try, the fewer words and ideas appear on the page. This is commonly known as
writers’ block. This usually means that you are trying to get it just right the first time. You are
trying to edit and generate ideas at the same time.
Writing involves two opposite mental operations: Generating and evaluating. You need
to generate in order to get an abundance of words and ideas, but you also need to evaluate in
order to throw out words and reshape the ideas you have generated. But you cannot do both of
these operations at the same time. You cannot generate and evaluate simultaneously and expect
to create anything but warm mush. The reason for this has to do with the way our brains work.
While our long term memory (LTM) can hold a great deal of information for an almost infinite
duration, our short term memory (STM) or working memory can hold only about seven chunks
of information for approximately 15 seconds. This is not much room for a great deal of
information. If you try to edit and organize your ideas at the same time as you are generating
ideas, STM becomes overloaded and many of the ideas seem to slip away or become scattered.

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.

 Academic Writing - 5

One of the best cures for writers’ block is to use a pencil and a legal pad and write as
quickly and as badly as possible (see power writing above). This technique allows you to bypass
the little editor in your head so that you can get your initial ideas on paper. As described above,
editing is the last step in the writing process.

Final Word
Academic writing is easy; however, this does not meant that it is quick.

Mini-Lectures Related to Academic Writing

Overview of Academic Writing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vq_QW3WZZ4

Objective and Subjective Writing: Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wggrlEs8g0

Objective and Subjective Writing: Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGc5alecYeQ

Headings and Subheadings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgG4n3Dbaao

* This is an excerpt from my book, Academic Writing: Process and Product, published by
Rowman and Littlefield (2017)

© Andrew P. Johnson, Ph.D.