Part 9 - Academic writing part 1

This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme.
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Продолжение транскрипта: [bad word] /downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/al_09.pdf

ANNOUNCER:
It’s time for Academic Listening - a series for students at English-speaking universities. Join
Susan Fearn and members of the World Service class of 2001 for this programme that focuses
on academic writing.
Susan: We thought about how to make best use of the university library and how to
gather relevant material quickly and efficiently. Now it’s time to start writing
… a daunting prospect for many students.
CLIP: Students
I really need help, particularly in writing and in grammar. I need to know how can I write a
sentence with the correct form - I think this is very important.
During my masters I will have ten assignments and I need to write a report - ten reports - and
at the end of the masters I have a dissertation to write, so writing is the most important thing
for me. I have a problem to write because I have some topics and I have ideas. I make only one
or two pages where I can make, if it is in my native language, ten or fifteen.
Susan: At most universities, students are judged by a series of written tests. You may
be asked to produce essays, reports, dissertations. You may well be familiar
with the three hour exam paper.
CLIP: Exam begins
Transcript not available
Susan: It makes me shudder to think about it! Well, today and in the next programme,
we’ll be thinking about how you’re expected to write as part of the academic
community, and we’re hoping to make the writing process seem just that little
bit easier.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
There are different elements you could focus on - individual elements which would give you
confidence in some areas - for example, how to write a definition, give examples, how to
compare and contrast, how to describe cause and effect… These are some of the individual
elements that would be very useful.
Susan: Christine Reeves teaches English at Bell Norwich – a language school in the
East of England.
CLIP: Christine Reeves
Then you need to look at the organisation of your writing which is also very important. You
need to know how to select information, how to plan your essay, how to write an introduction
and a conclusion. And some of the quite difficult elements that you would need to study would
be how to give quotations, how to give references - the rules are very very strict in British
universities, and you need to know the format.
Susan: Whether your university is in Britain or elsewhere in the world, in your written
work you will be expected to follow certain stylistic conventions. There are
rules and guidelines that you can learn. Some teachers also suggest that you
can improve your assignments by focusing on the writing process itself.
Tony Lynch is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Applied Language Studies at
the University of Edinburgh.
CLIP: Tony Lynch
By process I have in mind getting used to the cyclical nature of writing, thinking of writing as a
series of loops, planning an outline, drafting, adding ideas at various points, revising and so on.
And all of the parts of the process are important - if you don't give yourself enough time for
any one of them you'll end up with a piece of writing that is less good than it would otherwise
be.
Susan: According to Tony Lynch, it’s helpful to think of the writing process as a series
of stages. The first of these consists of drawing up a preliminary outline for
your assignment. Next comes a period of research before you write your first
draft. Then you can revise and improve your draft, and write the final version
to hand in to your tutor. In fact, within reason, you can go on revising and
redrafting your material as many times as you like until you reach the deadline
for submitting the work.

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