English 101S The Art Assignment Answers

• How does academic writing differ from the kind of writing you have done before taking this class? Reference your readings and give specific examples to illustrate the points you make.

• Anaya ("Rosie Anaya on Writing") comments on her struggle to integrate her sources into her paper, to get beyond the “patchwork of summaries and quotations.” How did she overcome that problem with her essay? How do you avoid “patchwriting”?

A.

Academic writing is very different from other kinds of writing in the respect that it is much more formal and professional than other styles of writing. Casual vocabulary is not used unlike during conversation, and informal language and contractions are avoided. For instance, do not is more formal than don’t, and very large is preferred over huge when writing in a formal or academic style. The style of writing is essentially impersonal, and avoids a direct reference to people or things or feelings by being objective in nature (King 2016). The writing is technical in its form, and the writer needs to have a thorough knowledge as well as a large vocabulary of his or her subject of specialization. Additionally, the writers should always cite the sources from where they have drawn the information.

B.

Patchwriting is essentially a form of paraphrasing but in a careless manner, where the writer phrases together direct quotes or information in a manner similar to how they were at their source. Rosie Anaya describes how she had struggled with patchwriting while trying to incorporate all of her sources and journals into her paper. She says that she used extensive research before writing on any topic and evaluated the sources, while also documenting them to avoid plagiarism. She stresses on how reading had helped her refine and expand her own ideas. To avoid patchwriting, one can maintain a catalogue of his or her own ideas and sources, and devote the required amount of time to produce a good quality article (Kaput 2017). Reading before writing and focusing entirely during both helps as well, and it is always better to have the piece of writing proofread by somebody else, especially someone who is familiar with the topic in hand.

References

Kaput, M. (2017). 6 Bulletproof Ways to Prevent Patchwriting. [online] Pr2020.com. Available at: https://www.pr2020.com/blog/6-bulletproof-ways-to-prevent-patchwriting [Accessed 12 Jul. 2017].

King, K.R., 2016. The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities.