Academic Writing 1 Slide 1

Academic Writing

Session 1 – Nature Of Academic Writing

Session Overview
This session will introduce you to the new environment you find yourself in.
OBJECTIVES
Upon the completion of this session you should be able to
•identify what the ‘academic discourse community’ means
•note the purpose of Academic Writing
•note the nature of Academic Essays

Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
•The Academic Discourse Community
•Language of the University
•Other Discourse Communities within the Academic Community
•Advantages of Diversity to Writing

Reading List
Read
a)Chapter Eighty-Three of Reclaiming Human Sciences Through African Perspectives Vol. 2., Adika, Gordon S. K. pp. 1493-1502
b)Chapter One Of Academic Writing: A Handbook For International Students- Bailey, Stephen pp. 3-10

Topic One
THE ACADEMIC DISCOURSE COMMUNITY

WHAT IS AN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE COMMUNITY?
•A discourse community is a group of people bound by specialized use of language, and membership of such a community is by special qualification rather than by birth. For example, the community of lawyers, the community of physicists, the community of engineers etc.
•The university community constitutes an academic discourse community with several sub-communities. You will find in this community experts in various disciplines who interact through the specialized language of the discipline and who train others to also become experts.

Sample Question
1.Identify a discourse community and show why it is different from the Academic discourse community.
2.Identify two sub-types of academic discourse communities found in the University of Ghana.
3.Write down ten terminologies used within one of these communities.
4.Explain any five of these terminologies.

Topic Two
LANGUAGE OF THE UNIVERSITY

•In the Ghanaian Primary or Junior High Schools, the instructors are referred to as teachers but this term changes in the Senior High School where it is more appropriate to use the terms Master or Mistress when addressing the subject teachers. The name of instructors change in the university as well. They are generally referred to as Lecturers. Titles like Doctor and Professor are also used.
•The space within which teaching takes place which are called classrooms from the Primary School right up to the Senior Secondary School, changes to Lecture Halls.
•Many freshmen (new entrants into the university) have problems getting to know, and use these new terminologies but no one takes time to explain these new terms to them! This is because the people who are already in the community assume that everyone knows the terms. They may even forget about their own struggle to learn these terms when they first entered the university.

Activity
•Think of any discourse community and write the name down.
•Write five words that will be used in the discourse community you have identified.

Topic Three
DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY
DISCOURSE COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY
•The University is a large discourse community. Within it, we have smaller discourse communities which are marked by separate disciplines, departments and majors.
•The School of Arts of the University of Ghana, for instance, is made up of academic departments that deal with subjects like Study of Religions, Philosophy, Classics, and Heritage Studies. The School is marked separately from the University Of Ghana Business School for instance which deals with subjects like Marketing, Human Resource Development and Finance.

A discourse community may be further divided into sub communities. For example, in the School of Languages, we have the sub-community of linguists, and those interested in English literary studies.

The sub-community of linguists for instance will use such terms like ‘phonology’. ‘assimilation’ and ‘honorifics’ etc while the community of literary experts will use such terms as ‘paradox’, ‘analepsis’, ‘synecdoche’ and ‘iambic pentameter’.

Therefore, the larger Academic Discourse Community and its sub communities need some form of introduction to the new entrant else, the new entrant (freshman) spends a greater part of his time trying to learn about the language of this new environment.

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Thank You!