ACADEMIC WRITING

K. Gondo
0712308689
gondok@zou.ac.zw
 What is academic writing?
 Formal style of writing used in universities and scholarly
publications.
 Clear, concise, focused, structured and supported by scholarly
evidence.
 Academic writing uses a formal and professional tone.
 It is not complex, does not require use of long sentences and
complicated vocabulary.
 Academic writing is not testimony giving or a confession of faith.
Do not say, “The writer was humbled…” etc.
 Academic writing should present the reader with an informed
argument.
 Academic Writing: What it really is ….
 Academic writing follows a particular ‘tone’ and adheres to
traditional conventions of punctuation, grammar, and spelling.
 Despite its formal tone and style, it is not complex.
 Avoid the use of long, winding sentences – this is not a court.
 Do not be repetitive – this is academic writing, not an oral
presentation.
 Desist from being verbose.
 As much as possible, avoid the repetition of a word in the same
sentence.
 Plagiarism
 Avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone
else's work or ideas and passing them off as your own ideas.
 To avoid plagiarism in academic writing, acknowledge sources.
Quote or paraphrase.
 Show evidence of research in your presentation. More marks are
awarded to assignments with ideas that are supported by
research evidence. Assignments not supported by authorities
usually do not score more than 50%.
 Acceptable sources for academic writing
 Academic writing uses credible sources.
 Citing Wikipedia and many other non authentic sources highly discouraged.
Newspapers are also discouraged and social media usually questionable.
 Avoid copying and pasting from the internet.
 Use the following sources:
Peer reviewed journal articles
Edited academic books
Articles in professional journals
Dissertations and theses
Statistical data from government websites
Website material from professional organisations and associations (use
sparingly and carefully).
 Rules of academic writing
 An academic text is not a narrative - it is an argument.
 Use formal, logical, cautious & unemotional language.
 No slang, jargon, personal anecdotes, colloquialisms, exclamation marks & contractions
(‘e.g. can’t’).
 Use words that are specific to your discipline.
 Clear, succinct writing.
 Make your claims tentative rather than definite - it’s unlikely that you’ve reached the
only possible conclusion.
 Words which signal tentativeness include: may; might; possibly; in some instances;
often; in many cases 3rd person is recommended for example, ‘this writer’ believes
that’… , ‘this student’s experience has been’… It is believed…, the research suggests…,
 Punctuation, grammar and spellings
 These are critical.
• It makes the written work to flow.
• Poorly punctuated work littered with poor grammatical constructions
and spellings is not only boring but risks failing because it is
communicating badly.
 Proper use of the following punctuation marks is essential.
• the colon and semi colon
• the full stop and coma
• the hyphen and apostrophe
• brackets
 It is disturbing to note that some students do not know where and
 Paragraphing
 One paragraph per point or idea. Do not put too many ideas in one paragraph
 A paragraph should be of reasonable length. 6 to 7 lines are appropriate. A
paragraph should not be a page long or just a single sentence.
 Godwin (2009) explains that academic assignment writing should employ the
‘WEED’ paragraphing:
What? The sentence should make it clear what you are presenting in the
paragraph. It should make it clear what idea for the paragraph is about.
Evidence. Reinforce the knowledge of an idea with quality research evidence.
Support your idea with an authority.
Example. Reinforce the knowledge of the idea with the support of a relevant
example. The example clarifies or clearly illustrate the idea.
Do a sum up. Each paragraph should have an overall point or sentence to sum
up the issues.
 Coherence
 Each paragraph has to have a topic sentence.
 A topic sentence is the most central sentence in a paragraph.
 Sometimes referred to as a focus sentence.
 You should spend time rearranging the main points until they are in logical
order.
 Writing an academic paper or thesis is not only a matter of gathering and
presenting information, it is an exercise in comprehension and critical
analysis.
 Paragraphs interlock in a logical way through the use of words and
phrases that bring out the inter-linkages between them paragraphs and
remain in sync with what is presented.
 Critical words and phrases that are important in these interlocking acts
include; in spite of this, …yet again…, however…, secondly…., contrary to
the above etc.
 Referencing
 You must cite sources, that is acknowledging in text your essay or
answer, another author’s ideas you have used to help answer the
question.
 Academic writing uses sources to support ideas or points (scholarly
evidence).
 Read and use various scholarly articles related to the concept under
discussion, consolidate ideas and express in own way or
understanding. Do not rely on the module only. Research widely.
 Use at least three authorities to support ideas in your write up. Using
the module as the only referencing book earns you not more than
50% since it shows the student did not make much effort to research
widely.
 In-text referencing

 All academic writings require that references to sources used be

acknowledged.
 Zimbabwe Open University use the APA style
 In-text citations give brief details of the source that you are quoting from
or referring to.
 Author's surname and year of publication are inserted in the text
wherever a source is cited.
 Vary your citation styles; for example Gondo and Nashu (2020), argue
that…, echoes the same sentiments that…., asserts that…., postulate…,
reiterate…., supports…., explains that…etc.
 Do not only use according to…., throughout your presentation.
 Citations
 Citations should always include the following elements:
(i) Author(s) or editor(s) surname,
(ii) Year of publication,
(iii) Page number(s) where necessary,
 If you have used a direct quote or an idea from a specific page, or
set of pages. The abbreviation for page is p. or pp. for multiple
pages.
According to Siziba (2018, p. 17), no nation has ever developed
using a foreign language
Another example; it is maintained that homosexuality has no roots
 If two or more works are cited at one point in the text

 If two or more works by different authors or authoring

bodies are cited at one point in the text, use a semi-
colon to separate them:
 For example: (Chiparaushe, 2010; Matando, 2007). The
authors should be listed in alphabetical order.
 Two or three authors

 If the work has two or three authors, include all names

in your citation. For example; E.g. Recent research
shows that it is evident that both sanctions and
corruption have contributed to the collapse of the
Zimbabwean economy (Tsuro, Mupurwa & Gudo, 2016).
 When citing four or more authors
(Chimhanda et al.,1999) contend that……..
Block quotations
 If you are quoting a text of more than 33 words the actual
quote should be in slightly smaller font and indented from
the left hand margin to distinguish it from the surrounding
text. For example – It is noted that:
Management buyouts are also known as management leverage buyout. These usually occur when a
conglomerate decides to rationalise its operations and concentrate resources on a narrower range of
products. The unwanted products maybe successful on the market, but no longer fit the overall plan of
the business. The resources allocated to these products are offered for sale. If the managers wish to buy
them and continue producing, they can negotiate loans (Gondo, 2018, p. 28).

NB: Some may require you to indent and italicize on

 Works published by the same author(s) in the same year

 Works published by the same author(s) in the same

year are assigned the letters of the alphabet in
ascending order.
E.g. Manyoni et al. (2004a, 2004b) argued that…
 Presentation Format for Essay Questions
1. Introduction
 Include introduction which is always the first paragraph of the write up.
 Introduction should provide focus to the write up.
 Introduction interprets the requirements of the question and show how
the answer is to be organised and presented.
 Relate your introduction to the requirements of the question.
 Introduce the topic or concept you are discussing in your essay and
briefly summarize the points you will make in the paragraphs that
follow.
 Introduction should end by indicating the general issues to be addressed
in the write up; e. g. This write up examines the ……………...
 2. Definition of key terms

 Define key terms in the context of the write up. Key terms
are defined in paragraph two of the answer.
 Do not define the DIRECTION words e. g. Assess, Justify,
Discuss, Compare, Contrast etc.
 Key terms are defined in paragraph two of the answer.
 3. Brief description of the concept
 Identify the concept to be discussed.
 Briefly describe the concept in paragraph three.
 4. Main Body
 Your essay’s body paragraphs are where you provide the answers
to satisfy the requirements of the question.
 Support your ideas or points with facts and evidence.
 Each body paragraph should focus on one idea or supporting
argument for your answer by discussing related issues to the
question.
 Use subheadings for your specific ideas for clarity and
chronological flow of ideas
 5. Conclusion

 In your essay’s conclusion paragraph, you summarize the

points you mentioned in the essay and bring your argument
or answers to the question to logical conclusion.
 Conclusion should be the last paragraph of your write up.
 Your conclusion should tie the loose ends together by
summarising the most important points in the main body.
 Just one paragraph for conclusion to tie up the key points
discussed in the essay.
 Relate your conclusion to the requirements of the question.
 Presentation Format for Structured Questions
 Also called part questions
 These have parts already described for essay questions.
 If the concepts being answered are related then go by the
procedure above. They thus have a common introduction and a
common conclusion. However, you should have the part
questions as subheadings.
 Those concepts that do not have a relationship do not have an
introduction and a conclusion. Just treat them as the question
asks you to do. However, for these, do not use subheadings.
 The length of each answer is guided by the mark allocation.
 References

 You should have a reference list on a separate page at

the end of your assignment answer
 Use the American Psychological Association (APA) house
style referencing.
 For referencing, start with Author surname, initial (year
in brackets), title in bold or italics, edition, publisher and
town/city
 NB. Your reference list should be in alphabetical order. Do
not number.
 Assignment Guidelines
 All assignments must be typed using New Times Roman font size 12, 1.5
line spaced, referenced using 6th Edition APA Guidelines, justified both
sides.
 Include a standardized ZOU assignment cover page and upload on Myvista
as a SINGLE PDF file.
 It is the responsibility of the students to upload their assignments in time
to avoid inconveniences due to internet failure, system failure, power
outages or any other unforeseen circumstances.
 NO submission extensions will be granted by the Department after the
deadline.
 NB: The assignment should not exceed 10 typed pages including the