Topic 4: Academic Writing

Specific Learning Outcome
By the end of this topic, you will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the academic writing process and key features of academic language.

Introduction
The importance of research dissemination is emphasised by the phrase “Research unpublished is research not done”. This topic provides you with guidelines for academic writing. Although you will gain skills from this topic, it is important to read academic papers and articles to gain more tips on good academic writing.

Guidance
To commence with this topic, watch the video below by Dr Thuli Shandu entitled 'Understanding the fundamentals of academic writing'. Thereafter, watch the video on 'A Guide to Academic Writing' (Open Polytechnic, 2015), read the LSE (2016) Blog on Academic Writing and then watch the video titled ‘What is academic writing?' Lastly, undertake the learning activities for this topic.

Time needed
You'll need approximately 43 minutes to engage with the content in this topic.

Resources

 * Understanding the fundamentals of academic writing (Video – 15m32s) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9yxsDB9tt0
 * A Guide to Academic Writing (Open Polytechnic, 2015) (Video - 4m48s) - https://youtu.be/2sgD7yWJVMc
 * LSE Impact Blog (2016) - Academic Writing
 * What is academic writing? (Video – 14m06s) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn8Ja92b3ZI

Learning Activities
Activity 1.4.1 : Critically review two (2) ODeL-related academic articles. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each and the reasons for such.

Activity 1.4.2 : Draw a flowchart (either by hand, or using an appropriate program, MS Visio, MS Word, etc.) illustrating your understanding of the process of academic writing.

Click here to complete Unit 1's Quiz

Once you have completed the two learning activities and the quiz, kindly move onto Unit 2: The ODeL Research process.