Writing academically

Writing academically

The concept of summary writing will be explained, specifically in academic contexts. Moreover, a student’s summary in reference to one of Reid’s books (1994) will be analyzed (Pintos, 2008). The summary’s introduction, body and conclusion will be taken into account, too. Above all, the readers will be able to reflect upon the summary, and they will also be able to consider other summaries.
The introductory phrase of the student’s summary is “Reid (1994) describes the main characteristics of a summary” (Pintos, 2008, p. 20). The body is “However, summary writing is not an easy task. In order to write an accurate summary, you not only have to extract the main ideas but you also have to be capable of expressing these main ideas, trying to avoid repeating the exact phrases of the original material. Moreover, good summaries are clear and balanced” (Pintos, 2008, p. 20). The conclusion of the summary is “That is to say, the reader should not find difficulties in understanding the main ideas of the material” (Pintos, 2008, p. 20).
As regards the body of the summary, it is brief, precise and quite balanced. Nonetheless, the characteristics clear and balanced would have to be explained in detail. In reference to the conclusion, the author could have separated it from the body of the summary in order to make it more effective, and he could also have restated the main ideas of the material so as to mention them in a briefer way.
The second phrase “The author claims that the general purpose of a summary is to give a limited amount of information to a specific audience” states the purpose of academic writing (Pintos, 2008, p. 20). The audience should always be taken into account. In order to connect the different, similar or just leading ideas in the summary, the author has used a certain number of connectors, such as however, in order to, not only….but also, moreover, and that is to say. As regards the body of the paper, it would have been better if the author had clarified what he meant by clear and balanced, or he could have informed what way people could produce a summary which is clear and balanced.

In order to present some examples of summarizing, three paragraphs have been taken into account (Pintos, 2008). According to Pintos (2008), “Academic writing is identified with a number of awkward specific formal elements such as proficiency in language use, style, register, and genre(s) (…)” (p. 6). In order to write in academic contexts, we should achieve proficiency in language use and produce engaging pieces of writing.
Furthermore, Pintos (2008) describes academic writing as “one of the big steps towards advanced literacy; writing in academic settings can be an excellent tool to sharpen thinking skills and to discover new ideas” (p. 7). In order to achieve advanced literacy, learners should be taught to write academically.
Finally, Pintos (2008) concludes that “Academic writing, critical consciousness, and the skills beyond them are not acquired naturally but need to be gained through exemplification, instruction, practice, experience and purpose (…)” (p. 9). Academic writing is acquired naturally, but through learning to write in a meaningful manner.
As a conclusion, it is important to emphasize the use of summaries while writing in academic or non academic contexts. Summarizing is a useful tool because it persuades the readers to read the original source, informs the audience, or just makes the main ideas of a paper more precise and briefer.





Reference

Pintos, V. (2008). Unit 3: Academic writing. Universidad CAECE: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved September 2009, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=2725