Analysing academic writing issues

By analysing vocabulary, grammar, construction of sentences, paragraphs, and identifying formal elements such as proficiency in language use, style, register and genre persons will be part of an academic discourse community. Pintos and Crimi (2010) explain that “[a]cademic 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.12).

Based on  the article by Johanne Myles (2002), the following analysis was carried out. The article discusses the nature of errors produced in writing. It is about the connections between the learner’s language skills and strategies in first language (L1) as a based for the development of writing in second language (L2). Myles’s (2002) purpose is to discuss the nature of errors in writing in L2. The article is addressed to teachers of English who are interested in teaching L2.

The article was analysed in aspects such as use of quotations, omissions, and insertion of words/letters, introductory phrases: their structure, in-text citations: most common structures and the use of reporting verbs. All the mentioned aspects were analysed based on the American Psychological Association (APA, 2006) rules.

As regards in-text citations, Myles (2002) includes many paraphrased in-text citations and direct quotes following APA style. An example of an in-text citation is the one which only includes the author’s last name and the year of publication  because it is used in a signal phrase. An example of this is  “Silva (1993) observes that learners revise at a superficial level” (as cited in Myles, 2002, p. 4). But the most common structures of in-text citations used by the author are short quotations. They allude to a study and both the author`s last name and the year of publication are listed in the same parentheses, (cited in APA, 2006). An example of this is “Likewise, learners' negative attitudes may be strengthened by lack of success or by failure (McGroarty, 1996)” (as cited in Myles, 2002, p. 4). She also includes many direct quotes such as “Additionally, with native speakers, "writing ability is more closely linked to fluency in and familiarity with the conventions of expository discourse" (Kogen 1986, p. 25).” (as cited in Myles, 2002, p. 4). Myles (2002) uses only a few block quotations.

According to Pintos and Crimi (2010), to indicate that a part of the original text has been omitted within a quoted passage, the author uses ellipsis. In the analyzed article there are only a few examples of them. An ellipsis from the article is "to follow their spontaneous interests and impulses . . . and assume responsibility for what becomes of their minds" (Bereiter and Scardamaliap,1987, as cited in Myles, 2002, p.3). Something similar happens with insertions, which are used to include a word or letter into the original quotation (Pintos & Crimi, 2010). The author does not make use of them but just a few. An insertion of a letter from the article is “As Yau (1991) points out: [A]lthough we should not cripple our students' interest in writing through undue stress or grammatical correctness, the influence” (as cited in Myles, 2002, p. 12).

As regards introductory phrases, which are a type of in-text citations too, many signal phrases are included in the article. Introductory phrases such as according to X, X (year of publication) observes, X and X (year of publication) also propose, X and her colleagues (year of publication) analyze, are employed as well as reporting verbs to cite the material by the author (cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010).

Taking all the aspects above described into consideration, the article seems to follow APA style and academic requirements. Myles (2002) makes her writing academic as a result of the wide use of formal language, the reporting verbs, the techniques to quote and acknowledge the sources consulted.

References

Center for writing university of Minnesota. APA documentation style: In-text citations. Student writing support. University of Minnesota. Retrieved September 2010, from http://writing.umn.edu/docs/sws/quicktips/APA_in-text.pdf

Myles, J. (2002). Second language writing and research: The writing process and error analysis in student texts. TESEL-EJ, 6, (2). Queen’s University. Retrieved October 2010 from

http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESl-EJ/ej22/a1.html

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 2: Personal narratives in teaching. Retrieved September 2010, from

http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 3: Academic writing. Retrieved September 2010, from

http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7392