Academic Genres

Academic Genres. 1 General Format Classifications2 Typical Genre Elements3 Classification by Cognitive Style and Demands4 Epistemological ClassificationClassifying academic genres can be complex and difficult due to the variety and complexity of different forms of academic writing A particular form can involve different kinds of genre elements So to begin with academic writing forms can simply be classified by their context purpose and general format such as the following The essay types below are typical for written assignments in college while the others are more typical of graduate student writing and research done by professors 1 Rhetorical persuasive or argumentative essay 2 Analytical essay 3 Problemsolution essay 4 Critical essay 5 Research essay or paper eg in an academic research journal 6 Edited volume or collection a collection of original research papers but published in a onetime book format rather than in an academic journal 7 Review such as an academic book review 8 Thesis a major work involving original research for an advanced university degree namely a master&#39s thesis or doctoral dis 21 Form features Academic writing styles can be distinguished by the following structural or formal features Formal structure Academic papers often follow a formal structure with at least some of these typical elements 1 Abstract 2 Introduction The introduction consists of one or several paragraphs that lead directly to the thesis 21 Specific background information This is not overly familiar to potential readers 22 Formal thesis A specific main argument that is to be argued for or proven 3 Bod 22 Style features Academic writing can be characterized by these stylistic features 1 First person is dispreferred especially in singular 2 Second person forms are never or almost never used 3 Contractions are avoided 4 Modals and other pragmatic markers are used to soften or hedge claims (hedges) or to indicate degree of certainty 5 Citations are used as a basis for the current research for developing the writers&#39 ideas to provide support or evidence for claims or to compare with the research f Academic writing can be classified by the types of cognitive processes expected of the writers ranging from relatively simple to more demanding and cognitively involved The following may describe essay assignments in college or elements of larger form works like those above such as different sections of research papers 1 Descriptive 2 Analytical 3 Persuasive 4 Critical The simplest form is descriptive which entails reporting facts data or information Example include simple article summaries literary précis of literary works and lab reports that report results of experiments Otherwise such forms are not commonly used in college writing Stylistic and grammatical elements typically include simple past and present tense verbs and descriptive verbs like find determine ascertain result identify report record summarize define Paragraphs may be narrative or descriptive style paragraphs Analytical forms may involve some descriptive contents but then one must go The type of support given for the main claims of a paper depend on standard methods of how researchers in the field for finding or discover new ideas which in turn shapes how one proves or supports a point in a paper These methods in turn depend on core assumptions about the view of knowledge in the field—whether one is attempting to find objective truth or get closer to it (as in science) or to find a novel and useful interpretation of something (as in humanities) These approaches to finding new truth or understanding shape the research methods which in turn shape the type of support for ideas in body paragraphs These epistemological approaches and research types pertain to the type of support for main ideas in body paragraphs such as 1 Data such as statistical data 2 Examples 3 Explanation of ideas 4 Contrast and comparison of differing ideas 5 Counterargumentation and rebuttal of opposing viewpoints 6 Empirical evidence Different types of writing in different acad.

Specific Academic Genres UNLV Office of Undergraduate Research Crafting Professional Emails UNLV Libraries Dissertation & Thesis Resources UNLV Libraries Infographics (Note that this is a 5part video series with a link to the first one) UNC Scientific Reports.

Genres in academic writing:essays

# Be Aware of Different Genres# Some Academic Genres# More About Genres – and A Bit About Speech ActsIn other words the texts you read belong to different genres Being conscious of genres will aid your understanding and interpretation of a text Genre is also a useful concept when writing look for inspiration in the texts you have read If you are writing a term paper bachelor’s thesis or home examination the text should be more like an article than a textbook chapter That is the text should consist of arguments and discussion rather than simply present factual knowledge In school one learns about literary genres (poems short stories novels plays etc) and nonfiction genres There are both scholarly and nonscholarly genres within nonfiction Nonscholarly examples are journalistic texts such as editorials and news reports The following section describes some genres of academic writing and outlines their particular characteristics TextbookA textbook is mean to communicate established knowledge to students of a given subject It provides a general introduction to the subject as well as relevant problems concepts and theories A textbook presents knowledge and explains how it has been used and can be used It informs and instructs Even though a textbook can include discussion and argumentation its primary objective is not to argue for or against particular positions but to present the existing views within the subject Scholarly articleThe purpose of a scholarly article is to present new knowledge or to provide new perspectives on an academic or scientific problem or object The target audience is other scholars A scholarly article is primarily argumentative It claims that something is true or probably true and presents arguments to support the claim Hence a scholarly article has to present thorough and consistent reasoning The reasoning must be properly substantiated through references to empirica After reading the brief descriptions of academic genres above consider the following 1 The assignment of genre to a text is a rough classification by characteristics and context The very act of classification however is also a genre and its utility varies with the intended purpose The classification outlined above serves to offer some basic guidelines 2 In practice the above genres are not always completely strict or isolated We often encounter texts that combine genres or breach the conventions of specific genres A biography can have both popular and scholarly elements and should perhaps be referred to as a “scholarly biography” A given article might be more inquisitive argumentative personal and linguistically original than a standard scholarly research paper and is perhaps better described as an essay In this area there are often differences both in terminology and between professional traditions 3 In the summary above we distinguish between genres by purpo.

Academic Genres University of Nevada, Las Vegas

There are many academic writing genres and they all have their own functions That is to say that every genre is meant to achieve specific goals Most scholars outline the following types of academic writing (genres) Report Case study Essay Dissertation Review/Critique Reflective writing Research proposal.