Academic writing is clear, concise, focused, structured and backed up by evidence. It has a formal tone and style. Each subject discipline will have certain writing conventions, vocabulary and types of discourse; however, there are some general characteristics of academic writing that are relevant across all disciplines. Having the kind of critical thinking and writing skills is extremely important not only for university degrees but even for jobs securing. As academic writing teaches a person to write according to rules, it is impossible to produce academic work if you do not strictly follow academic style directions.

This writing workshop is designed to reinforce essay composition skills and introduce participants to the practice of writing for academic purposes. It will prepare students for work in high-level English courses in which research writing is a requirement. It introduces basic research writing skills including conducting research, note-taking, paraphrase, summary, direct quotation, positioning, and Modern Language Association (MLA) style citation. The course will place equal emphasis on macro-level composition skills such as essay structure, paragraph structure, coherence, unity; and micro-level skills such as sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and mechanics. With these as the foundation, it also provides intensive objective analysis and evaluation of issues to strengthen personal judgment.