Academic Writing the Importance of Purpose Academic

Academic Writing

The Importance of Purpose

Academic Writing is writing on a certain topic at an academic level and its major components include: purpose, audience, tone and content. Purpose is like the guiding light for any piece of writing, be it writing for pleasure or for academic purposes. Purposeful writing tends to be focused on a specific area making it easier for the audience of readers to make sense of what is being said.

A well defined purpose is what lends specificity to writing and is especially needed in academic writing where the reader, generally the instructor, is hurried for time. Ramblings and digressions from the topic can be controlled when a piece defines its purpose well and tries to follow it as closely as possible. Additionally, it tends to be more coherent and impactful when it has a defined scope in which thoughts are expressed in writing.

Therefore the importance of purpose is as important as the writing itself. It sets the stage for the rest of the piece, helping it be more meaningful both for the reader as well as the writer.

The Importance of Audience

Audience are the intended readers of the piece of writing, and an author essentially should try and understand the interests of the target audience which will help it gain more readership and will be able to attract their attention. In case of academic writing, as mentioned previously, the reader is the instructor and every care should be taken to keep the writing simple yet comprehensive as well as properly presented so that they don't have to take extra pains to try and decipher it.

For academic writing purposes, students should bear in mind that impressing the audience is crucial and it can only be done by demonstrating that the concepts discussed in the paper are well understood. Moreover, extra effort should be put in to make the instructor realize that the student has done further research into the topic being discussed in order to retain the audience's attention, by giving him or her some new and different perspective to read. (Quesada, 2007)

The Importance of Content

The importance of attracting audience attention by adding in a different perspective does not in any way imply that students should neglect content and digress from the topic at end only for the sake of being interesting. Content probably is the most important of these four elements discussed, as the general purpose of any academic writing is for the instructor to understand how well students have understood the content of the course.

As the main objective of any piece of academic writing is generally to secure a good grade, and in order to achieve it the piece of writing should have content and substance that can demonstrate good understanding of concepts discussed and taught. Along with the substance in the paper, the content should be taken from diverse sources, cited properly and should be relevant to the topic. It will not only help in evaluation, it will add greatly to the writer's knowledge base and enhance the student's analytical, communication and organization skills.

The Importance of Tone

Academic writing generally uses a formal tone, unless specified by the instructor. It should be ensured that the tone of the writing is formal, and yet not very unfriendly. Students generally tend to try and demonstrate their know-how by using difficult vocabulary, that they might not use properly making their final product sound complex and meaningless. Care should be taken to simplify explanations as much as possible using simple but powerful words to create meaning.