{"id":51,"date":"2020-07-02T11:05:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T15:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide2e\/chapter\/common-sub-genres-of-academic-writing-or-what-youll-be-writing\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T14:05:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T18:05:04","slug":"common-sub-genres-of-academic-writing-or-what-youll-be-writing","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide2e\/chapter\/common-sub-genres-of-academic-writing-or-what-youll-be-writing\/","title":{"raw":"2.6 Common Sub-Genres of Academic Writing or What You\u2019ll Be Writing","rendered":"2.6 Common Sub-Genres of Academic Writing or What You\u2019ll Be Writing"},"content":{"raw":"As promised and at long last, here is an overview of the major conventions of common academic sub-genres. You will probably notice similarities and crossovers between the conventions of these sub-genres. Good! If you do, this means you are learning how to navigate genres. As an undergraduate student, much of the writing you do will be academic writing, but it won\u2019t be exactly like the published academic writing (including journal articles, books, or even textbooks) associated with your field of study. It\u2019s helpful to think of academic writing assignments for courses as pieces of, steps toward, or even simplified models of published academic writing. Expect to see more commonalities between your own academic writing and what experts in the field publish as you move into more advanced work in a particular discipline.\r\n\r\nBut before we get to the sub-genres of academic writing, there are conventional components of these sub-genres that you should get to know: summary writing, paraphrasing, and quoting. If you can manage to follow these conventions, you\u2019ll be well on your way to being an effective academic writer.\r\n

<\/a>Convention One: Summary Writing<\/h2>\r\nAlmost every sub-genre of academic writing includes summary writing. The process of summarizing a longer text involves moving \u201cfrom big to small,\u201d as a University of Victoria Centre for Academic Communication<\/a> tutor beautifully puts it. Indeed, a summary is like a movie trailer or sports reel version of a longer work. When crafting summaries, writers distill and explain main ideas themselves, using their own phrasing and sentence structure but always citing the source for these ideas.\r\n

When Will I Summarize?<\/h3>\r\nIn most cases, there are two key goals for a summary:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Inform readers who haven\u2019t previously read the text you are summarizing its main ideas.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Offer an accurate and fair overview of those main ideas.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nEven so, you will see some variation in summary assignments:\r\n\r\nSometimes, you will be asked<\/strong> to summarize the main ideas of a complex article in a long paragraph (or even the main ideas of a book in a few pages).\r\n\r\nSometimes, you will be asked<\/strong> to write a very brief summary of a long text to help readers decide if it\u2019s worth their time. (This is a common type of summary in the context of an annotated bibliography.)\r\n\r\nSometimes, you summarize<\/strong> to set up your own response to an argument by another writer. In this case, you probably want to make your summary as brief as possible without sacrificing accuracy to allow space for your own ideas.\r\n\r\nAnd sometimes you need<\/strong> to summarize your own longer piece of work\u2014that\u2019s how abstracts for journal articles get written.\r\n\r\nSo, once you have a draft summary, make sure you fully understand what type of summary your finished product needs to be\u2014and revise accordingly.\r\n

    What Should I Avoid When Summarizing?<\/h3>\r\nBecause the job of a summary is to put another writer\u2019s ideas into your own words\u2014in the process, translating those ideas to meet the needs of your readers\u2014it\u2019s not appropriate or effective to replicate the original language or even sentence structure and overall organizational plan of the original.\r\n\r\nWhen a writer takes sentences from the original document and substitutes synonyms for some words, changes the order of others, and maybe reworks a few phrases, this person isn\u2019t creating a successful summary. Instead, this way of replicating features of the original text too closely is called patch-writing.<\/strong> Even when the source is cited, patch-writing is usually considered plagiarism because the writer is implying they reworked the original text more than they did. A thorough discussion of patchwriting is featured in this Merriam-Webster post<\/a>.[footnote]\u201cWords We\u2019re Watching: \u2018Patchwriting\u2019,\u201d Merriam-Webster, https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/words-at-play\/words-were-watching-patchwriting<\/a>. [\/footnote]\r\n\r\nThe best way to avoid patch-writing is to follow the how-to instructions (below) while keeping in mind the purpose of your summary. If your aim is to give your reader an understanding of something you read, then you can see why patch-writing won\u2019t get the job done. To avoid patch-writing, perhaps follow the advice given here.\r\n
    \r\n
    When you summarize, you cannot rely on the language the author has used to develop his or her points, and you must find a way to give an overview of these points without your own sentences becoming too general. You must also make decisions about which concepts to leave in and which to omit, taking into consideration your purposes in summarizing and also your view of what is important in this text. Here are some methods for summarizing: First, prior to skimming, use some of the previewing<\/strong> techniques.<\/blockquote>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. \r\n
      Include the title<\/strong> and identify the author<\/strong> in your first sentence.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. \r\n
      The first sentence or two of your summary should contain the author\u2019s thesis<\/strong>, or central concept, stated in your own words. This is the idea that runs through the entire text\u2013the one you\u2019d mention if someone asked you: \u201cWhat is this piece\/article about?\u201d Unlike student essays, the main idea in a primary document or an academic article may not be stated in one location at the beginning. Instead, it may be gradually developed throughout the piece or it may become fully apparent only at the end.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. \r\n
      When summarizing a longer article, try to see how the various stages<\/strong> in the explanation or argument are built up in groups<\/strong> of related paragraphs. Divide<\/strong> the article into sections if it isn\u2019t done in the published form. Then, write a sentence or two to cover the key ideas in each section.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. \r\n
      Omit<\/strong> ideas that are not really central to the text. Don\u2019t feel that you must reproduce the author\u2019s exact progression of thought. (On the other hand, be careful not to misrepresent ideas by omitting important aspects of the author\u2019s discussion).<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    5. \r\n
      In general, omit minor details<\/strong> and specific examples<\/strong>. (In some texts, an extended example may be a key part of the argument, so you would want to mention it).<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    6. \r\n
      Avoid<\/strong> writing opinions<\/strong> or personal responses in your summaries (save these for active reading responses or tutorial discussions).<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
    7. \r\n
      Be careful not to plagiarize the author\u2019s words. If you do use even a few<\/strong> of the author\u2019s words, they must appear in quotation marks<\/strong>. To avoid plagiarism, try writing the first draft of your summary without looking back at the original text.[footnote]Leora Freedman, \u201cSummarizing,\u201d Writing Advice, University of Toronto, 2012, https:\/\/advice.writing.utoronto.ca\/researching\/summarize\/<\/a>.[\/footnote]<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\nWe suggest paying close attention to number seven in the advice given above. This is your best bet not to patch-write, which can be construed as plagiarism.<\/strong> Nobody wants that to happen!\r\n

      Convention Number Two: Paraphrasing<\/h2>\r\nInterestingly, the word \u201cparaphrase\u201d is both a verb and a noun:\r\n\r\nWhen we paraphrase (verb), we explain a concept ourselves.<\/strong> We use our words, our way, to restate an idea. Paraphrasing also occurs when we write a summary. We use our words, our way, moving from big to small, to distill the main points from a longer text to a short text, citing the source.\r\n\r\nWhen we write a paraphrase (noun), we use our words<\/strong>, our way, moving from small to small, to restate an idea from an original sentence\/sentences to our own sentence\/sentences, citing the source.\r\n\r\nTo write a paraphrase, focus on the original short excerpt and take note of key ideas. Look away from the original text.<\/strong> Notice the similarities with summary writing? There, too, you need to use your notes to rewrite the original, changing the sentence structure, reordering ideas, and using your words to explain the idea. As with summary writing, integrate the information into your paragraph by introducing the idea, citing the source<\/strong>, and indicating how the paraphrased information fits with the key idea in your paragraph.\r\n

      Convention Number Three: Quoting<\/h2>\r\nWe suggest using quotations sparingly, selecting to quote only when the original writer\u2019s words are so unique and memorable that they can\u2019t be paraphrased. Placing a relevant (yet brief) quotation in your introduction can pique your reader\u2019s interest in the topic you are writing about. You also may want to include an authority\u2019s words as evidence for your claim. Another reason to quote is to respond to those who may disagree with your ideas (naysayers) by quoting them first. Quotes can be powerful additions to your writing.\r\n\r\nHere are a few grammatical considerations when quoting (that may save your grade):\r\n