Academic Writing Workshop (Part 1)
To provide VDMI family’s scientific and academic writing skills, VDMI held an Academic Writing Workshop, facilitated by Endah Setya Ningsih (VDMI Alumni – Tanjungpura University/ Fullbright Awardee 2020 – University of Central Florida/ Program Coordinator American Corner, Tanjungpura University). This workshop consists of three separate parts. Part one was held on Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 10 pm up to 12 pm by Zoom meeting. With the topic “Writing a Good Thesis Statement”, this meeting was attended by thirty participants (fourteen grantees and sixteen alumni).
Writing a good thesis statement started with the understanding of academic writing definition, types and features. Academic writing is the result of scientific thinking about a particular scientific discipline. It’s compiled systematically, logically and uses the correct language. Academic writing is clear, concise, focused, structured writing and backed up by scientific evidence. The purpose of academic writing is to aid the reader’s understanding about the specific scientific topic. There are seven types of academic writing: 1). Essay; 2). Research paper; 3). Thesis or dissertation; 4). Research proposal; 5). Literature review; 6). Lab report; and 7). Annotated bibliography. Essay is a fairly short writing, self-contained argument, often using sources from a class in response to a question provided by instructor/ lecturer. Research paper is a more in-depth investigation based on independent research, often in response to a question chosen by the student. Thesis or dissertation is the large final research project undertaken at the end of the degree, usually on a topic of the student’s choice. Research proposal is an outline of a potential topic and plan for a future dissertation or research project. Literature review is a critical synthesis of existing research on a topic, usually written in order to inform the approach of a new piece of research. Lab report is a write-up of the aims, methods, results and conclusions of a lab experiment. Annotated bibliography is a list of source references with a short description or evaluation of each source.
A good academic writing must contain five features: 1). Structure; 2). Formal; 3). Evidence-based; 4). Critical; and 5). Discipline-specific. Structure of academic writing can be seen in the paragraph organization. A paragraph has three basic parts namely the topic sentence, the supporting sentences and the concluding sentence. The topic sentence is the main idea of the paragraph. It is usually the first sentence of the paragraph, and is the most general sentence of the paragraph. The supporting sentences explain more detailed ideas about the topic sentence. The paragraph enclosed with the concluding sentence. This can be found as the last sentence or paragraph. It can finish a paragraph by repeating the main idea or just giving a final comment about the topic. As a formal writing, an academic writing requires the formality of language, diction and writing technique. Acronyms are not allowed to use in the academic writing, such as: etc, i.e, or e.g. The use of sophisticated language was asked by Ardiansyah (alumnus of Surabaya Institute of Technology). Academic writing does not require a sophisticated language. It focused more on word variation used in the writing. Find the synonyms and the writing will be more diverse in terms of language. Opinions and arguments in academic writing should be supported by evidence. It could be reference from previous research or citation from handbooks. A good academic writing is a writing which analyzes and evaluates information, usually from multiple sources, in order to develop an argument. To write critically we can use a range of sources to develop our argument, understand what others have written about the same topic, using more than just a single source to support our arguments. Pay attention to all sides of the issue to minimize biased arguments. Academic writing also required discipline- specific. Different types of texts are used in different disciplines. For example: in the finance or accounting area we will find business reports; in the psychology area we will find case studies reports; and in the medicine area we will find laboratory reports. Therefore, read texts based on our discipline area accordingly.
At the Q&A session, Endah Kurnia (grantee Islamic Indonesian University) shared her difficulties in understanding the English research journal. Abstract in a research journal is the first key to understanding the whole content. Abstract describes the research background, research purposes, research question, methodology, subject, and limitation. Next, go to the literature review that included the factors related to the variables or other significant conditions that related to the variables. At the end, pay attention to the discussion and conclusion part. It will inform the research result and the limitations as well.
