Process of Writing an Academic

Explanatory Process
Academic essay writing is one of the most important practices in the learning process for students. Academic writing basically refers to the writing a student has to complete for his/her high school, college or university courses. While academic writing assignments have different names, they have the same objective in the learning process. The main goal of academic essay writing is for the student to demonstrate what he/she understands and can think critically regarding the specific topic (Whitaker, p.2). In addition, academic writing provides a student with an avenue to develop his/her critical thinking skills, research skills, and ability to evaluate and organize information. This skills are important in the students learning and development and are applicable in the job market. This paper examines the process of writing an academic essay and explains how to enhance the process through application of suggestions from experts.
Process of Writing an Academic Essay
As previously mentioned, academic essay writing is essential for a student’s educational growth and development since it promotes the development of essential skills like research and critical thinking. However, academic essay writing has several steps that the student must take into consideration to achieve the desired goals relating to the topic. The first step in the process of writing an academic essay is choosing a topic, which implies thinking about things relating to the course (Whitaker, p.4). In this regard, a student should brainstorm on things relating to the course content and narrow down to a specific topic through choosing a specific problem to address in the paper. In some cases, instructors give students a list of themes or questions to consider when selecting a topic. Additionally, most instructors give students a specific topic that they should write about. Students should ensure that the topic does not have a simple answer, is worth answering, and it is appropriate for the length of the essay.
The second step in the process of writing an academic essay is brainstorming, which involves writing down all possible answers to the specific question. This helps to identify what is already known about the topic and what else needs to be known. Moreover, writing all possible answers also helps to ensure that great ideas will not be forgotten later on. The next step in this process is conducting research on the topic in line with the ideas generated in the previous step. Students should remember that context is crucial when conducting research in order to avoid making generalizations that may not answer the question comprehensively (Steenbergen & Diner, par, 7). Conducting research is the most important stage in the process of writing an academic essay since it can easily make or break the paper. Therefore, the research should be thorough for the writing process to be much easier.
The research process should be followed by creating a basic outline for the essay as part of planning for the actual writing. The outline helps to choose and order points as well as divide sections into smaller parts. When creating the outline, the student should return to the chosen topic and examine all ideas generated in the other steps of the writing process. Once an outline has been created, an introduction and thesis statement should be written in relation to the collected information. This should be written as part of the draft, which will be revised and enhanced in the later stages of the writing process. The introduction and thesis statement should be followed by the body, which is organized in paragraph structure. Once the body is concluded, a conclusion restating the introduction and summary of the body should be written. The written essay should then be reviewed, edited and improved to ensure it achieves the desired purpose.
Improvement of the Process
As shown in the previous section, the process of writing an academic essay is multifaceted and involves a series of steps. Each of these steps should be carried out comprehensively to enhance the credibility of the essay. However, experts have made several suggestions on how to improve the process of writing an academic essay. These suggestions have been made on the premise that academic essay writing seems like a common sense practice, but is usually complex for many people, especially students. One of the ways for applying suggestions from experts to improve the academic writing process is to develop a strategy or plan. The strategy or plan plays a crucial role in enhancing coherence by ensuring internal and external factors are working in unity (Murray, par, 3). The strategy guides the academic writing process in terms of the topic to be addressed and the time it requires to conduct comprehensive research about it.
Improving the academic writing process based on suggestions from experts would involve using credible sources to conduct the research. Scholarly journals, peer-reviewed articles and government publications are among credible sources that should be utilized for research. Therefore, ensuring access to such sources is vital toward applying the suggestions from experts on how to improve the process of writing an academic essay. Since research is the make or break of an academic writing process, improving access to credible sources enhances the overall writing and final product.
In conclusion, the process of writing an academic essay seems like common sense practice, but it’s complex and challenging to many people, particularly students. Students need to understand each of the steps in this process and carry them out in a comprehensive manner to help enhance their overall writing. Experts have provided various suggestions that would help improve the process of writing an academic essay. Application of these suggestions require creating a strategy or plan before commencing the writing process and increasing access to credible sources of information.
Works Cited
Murray, Rowena. “Writing for an Academic Journal: 10 Tips.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Sept. 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/sep/06/academic-journal-writing-top-tips
Steenbergen, Candis, and Robyn Diner. “A 12-Step Guide to Research and Writing for Students: One Essay at a Time.” Third Space, vol. 4, no. 1, Nov. 2004, https://journals.sfu.ca/thirdspace/index.php/journal/article/view/resources_12stepguide/153.
Whitaker, Anne. “Academic Writing Guide.” City University of Seattle, City University of Seattle, Sept. 2009, https://www.vsm.sk/Curriculum/academicsupport/academicwritingguide.pdf