English Communication: an introduction of Academic English Writing

By Muhammad Jauhari Sofi*

Academic English writing in is understood as essays that are written in college or university classes. These essays are somewhat formal in nature and very direct. Academic writing is linear in structure; that is, it has beginning, middle, and an end, and it continues directly from one part to the next.

Some common questions often arise when talking about English writing skill, and more importantly learning it as foreign language (EFL). The first question must be why we need to learn English writing. One of the reasons is because writing skill is one of the most basic skills to communicate with English. It can be a ticket to better academic achievement because it reflects our intellectual flexibility and maturity.

However, accomplishing writing skill cannot be rushed. It takes time and patience. The most important thing we need at the beginning is a good vocabulary. Using words correctly and effectively can be a passport to worlds of interesting and exciting information (Mahmud 1997:1). Without words, we have nothing to work with. Furthermore, we have to start with the strong foundation of writing and slowly build our sentences day by day.

Writing in English

Different languages use different writing systems. Different languages also use different writing styles of organization. English writing is different from Arabic or Indonesian style of writing. English organization, for example, is simple. English uses a straight line from beginning to end as described in the organization below:

The diagram shows us that when English speakers read an article, they expect the article to have a beginning, middle, and an end. The beginning should say what the article is going to be about, the middle should talk about the topic of the article, and the end should say what the article was about (Boardman and Jia F. 2008: XV).

However, it is important to understand that one style of writing is not better than another, just as one language is not better than another. The styles are just different. To be a successful writer in any language, we need to learn the writing style in addition to words and grammar rules. In other word, we also need to know the criteria of good writing.

Criteria of Good Writing

There are many criteria of good writing mentioned by the experts worldwide. The consideration of how good writing is, however, not completely different from one to other experts. There are always remaining common elements of good composition.

Aristotle maintains that a good writing should have unity, coherence, and focus of attention. He continues that coherence among sentences or paragraphs is not simply build by putting transitional conjunctions such as moreover, furthermore, nevertheless, in addition, etc., and using them frequently (Flesch 2006: 46). Langan joins Aristotle in providing four bases to evaluate writing, namely unity, support, coherence, and sentence skill. More specifically, unity is understood as advancing a single point and stick to that point, while support involves using specific evidence to support the point. Coherence, on the other hand, requires organizing and connecting the specific evidence, and lastly, sentence skill refers to clear and error-free sentences that involve grammar, mechanics (capital letters, punctuation, etc.), and word use (Langan 1997: 95).

In this sense, we consider that all mentioned criteria are clear and thorough. Therefore, bearing in mind some criteria of good writing, to some extent, is the important factor that helps us in improving our writing skill.

Steps of Writing Process

Learning writing is often considered as more complicated than learning other language skills. It is not simply encouraging people to take a pen in hand and expect words to flow perfectly onto paper. Moreover, it employs strategies to manage the composing process. Learning writing requires people to involve various activities such as generating ideas, drafting, editing, etc. in writing process. Below is a consideration involved in learning writing.

Richards suggests that most of the writing tasks can be completed by a sequence of activities that focus on the writing process as follows:

-       Pre-writing phase. It includes discussion of the topic, model of compositions, brainstorming on the topic, etc. to generate students’ ideas and collect information related to the topic.

-       Free writing. Students use their ideas, information, and notes to plan their compositions. During this phase, students write freely on the topic. The focus here is organizing ideas – not perfecting grammar and spelling.

-       Drafting. Students now write a first complete draft in sentence and paragraph form, but again without worrying about grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

-       Revising. This is in pair or group feedback sessions. Here students ask questions for clarification or suggestions. After this, they work alone to reorganize, revise, and rewrite their draft.

-       Editing. Students check their second draft for accuracy. This time, they concentrate on checking that their ideas are clearly organized and have included enough details. When content and organization seem fine, students then focus on grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

-       Final phase. Students write a clean third (final) draft to hand it for comments. They may submit their writing to the teacher or put up on classroom bulletin (Richards 1998: X).

To learn English writing well means to strive hard to complete the above-mentioned activities. Daily practice is very important. We do not need to worry about the mistakes. The more mistakes we make, the more we will learn from them.

Now is the time to try. Good luck,

   The writer is the chairman of WEC 2009 and alumnus of IELSP in The University of Arkansas, USA.